#255 I Went To A Dog Park For Neuroscience, Not For A Dog

We explore how bonding with animals can reduce loneliness, calm the nervous system, and sharpen focus. From dog parks to aquariums, we share research‑backed ways to build mindful pauses and find community without needing to own a pet.

• hormones like oxytocin and serotonin rising during animal contact
• loneliness trends in US and Canada and why animals help
• dog parks, horse sanctuaries, and spontaneous community
• birdsong for mood and attention benefits
• mindfulness with pets and calming the default mode network
• the power of the pause for focus and energy
• classroom pets supporting behaviour and learning
• aquariums aiding elders and building children’s self‑care
• service dogs in PTSD, hospitals, and cardiovascular care
• fostering, volunteering, and accessible options to engage

Tune in weekly to Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand on The Universal Radio Network, 97.9 FM in Edmonton, or globally at www.theuniversalradio.com

IG: @theuniversalradio

Transcript

Hormones, Oxytocin, And Stress

Loneliness Trends In US And Canada

Community And Connection At Dog Parks

Nature Access And Birdsong Benefits

Mindfulness With Pets And The Brain

The Power Of The Pause

Animals In Classrooms And Learning

Aquariums, Fish, And Elder Care

Service Dogs, Hospitals, And PTSD

Birds, Ancestry, And Nature’s Role

Fostering, Volunteering, And Access

Neuroscience Recap: Oxytocin To HPA

Calming The Amygdala With Animals

Always Online And Why We Need Pauses

Animals As Teachers Of Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Universal Radio Networks Podcast. This is Sogand. In today's episode, we're talking about the mental health impacts of bonding with animals. Hi listeners, this is Sogand. Welcome back to another segment of Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand. I hope you're doing well. I hope that your first month of your new year went well. And if not, hopefully you have some tools with today's segment to incorporate to make your days and your months better. Today we're going to get into a topic that's really, really dear to my soul, and that is animals. I'd love to share with you the impact that animals have on our collective mental health, how they benefit us individually, their healing powers, how spending time with them can enhance our mental wellness from, of course, you know me, a neuroscience perspective, along with cognitive science, and how we can incorporate these research findings to enhance our lives. So whether you have pets at home or you would like to, or you'd like to incorporate more time with animals, this segment is sure to be of benefit to you. So get comfy and we're gonna dive right in. Okay, so today we're gonna dive into some wicked research on the impact of animals on us. And some of this research was even impactful for me, and you know I do research for fun, so I think that some of this is gonna be really interesting to all of you listeners. Did you know that petting and interacting with animals actually stimulates bonding hormones? Yeah. The release of oxytocin, serotonin, and prolactin are amongst the hormones that are released. These hormones, you might have heard of them, but they're responsible for relaxation and positive mood, and they reduce the cortisol in our bodies. The Human Animal Bond Research Institute has a lot of information on this. Should you want to nerd out and explore more research, explore projects that they're working on, and even if you want to get involved in doing this kind of research, I'm absolutely going to contact them and get more involved because this is so cool to me. Per the work of Stephen Fieldman, who's actually the president of the Human Animal Bond Research Institute, one in five pet owners surveyed in America stated that they were recommended to have a pet by their doctor or their therapist. Some people are considering this a pet revolution, and I'm so here for it. So it seems like while a lot of people are getting recommendations of diet changes or more movements or seeking counseling and some kind of mental health support, doctors and therapists are also recommending pets and spending time with animals. And as a mental health professional, I totally think I'm gonna start doing this too because this is so important. Post-pandemic findings suggest that animals are extremely good companions for those who find social interactions difficult and tend to withdraw or isolate. Actually, one in five Americans state that they feel a lack of deep connection and understanding to others. I know we all remember the lockdown times and you know, even post-lockdown, I do think that human interaction has changed over the years. I do think that things aren't completely back to normal. I think that a lot of us, you know, a lot of parts of our lives have turned back to normal, but it's not 100% normal. And one of the findings is that people still say that they are feeling really isolated, feeling really withdrawn, feeling like they don't have social interactions. And the science tells us that animals can help with that. As I was conducting this uh research, I became interested in how American findings, you know, can compare to us here in Canada. And sadly, we're not doing much better, according to Theralysts. Under an article called The Hidden Health Crisis, Understanding Loneliness in Canada from 2025, so pretty recent, one in 10 people age 15 and above said they always or often feel lonely. That's a lot of people. Three in 10 said they sometimes feel lonely, and that means that's 40% of the population. However, those with animals tend to turn to their pets in times of loneliness. Over half of the people studied in one study by Haberry and Mars Pet Care stated that their pets help them foster a sense of belonging and connection in community. And honestly, I can say that I've experienced this firsthand. I often visit dog parks to connect with dogs, and I don't have a dog. And I do do a lot of, you know, observation when I'm there. I notice that dog owners meet up for group walks. I see that the dogs approach each other and that prompts their owners to talk to each other. I've even made friends at dog parts. We've exchanged contact and business cards. And you know what's so cool? Two years ago, I was reading a book at a dog park that I had just randomly found, and a couple was walking their dog and they took interest in what I was doing. And I let them know, you know, I don't have a dog, I'm just here reading a book. I was also recording content, and I was just being in the energy of these dogs. Because if you've ever been in a dog park, they're just so happy and there's just so much positivity, and they're just so pure and so innocent. They're just like exploring, they're happy, they're not judgy, they're just they're just living in their element and they're living their best life. So, anyways, the couple asked me about what I do and what brought me to the park that day, and I actually ended up collaborating with them for a mental health project later on. So that was a connection that I created at a dog park, and I don't have a dog. I've also witnessed this at horse sanctuaries. We have a couple of them in the city that I have been to, and I've seen that people meet there, they share their love for horses, they take classes there, they volunteer their time there. And you know, if you're like me and you haven't done any of those, you could just literally go there and park if you're driving or walk or take transit, but just observing these horses again, the energy of horses is very calming, it's very majestic. They're very big and beautiful, and they just they're powerful, but there's a very calming nature that they have. It's a little bit of a different energy, in my opinion, than dog parks. And so when I want a boost of energy, I will often go to a dog park. But when I want more grounding and more calming energy, I will go to a horse sanctuary. I've made friends with some of the horses, so when I go there, they come to me and they let me pet them. And with the dogs, sometimes they recognize me because they've seen me, and sometimes they just come and they sniff and they become my friend. But as I'm doing this research, I'm telling you that I practice what I preach. So I hope you're already beginning to think about some ways that you can incorporate this kind of animal human bonding experience into your life. It's free, it's available, it's accessible, and I really think that you should consider it. Have you ever noticed that in neighborhoods, especially where there might be ponds or a body of water, you see people walking around, but you see them also gathering to have conversations about animals. Whether it's pets that they're observing over fences because a dog is barking, because they're like, Who are you in my territory? Or you see even wild animals. So, you know, you come across animals that are domesticated, like dogs or cats, or wild animals like ducks and geese and frogs, you can hear them. And this is really true if you frequent these bodies of water like ponds and lakes. And I I've lived in different parts of the world, and I will say that there have been many areas that I've lived in that I didn't have access to nature. We have so much nature, we have so many free parks, so much invitations to be one with nature, whether it's that you want to go for a hike, or you want to just sit in your car and observe, pull down the window and observe, or you want to sit on the grass, or even when it's winter right now, there are many parks that you could just go to watch the sunset. It's beautiful. And you know, this is actually a privilege because there are many cities in the world that don't have access hours to get to the mountains, for example. There are people that have to drive hours to get to a body of water, or they have to, you know, really travel to get to a place where there's parks and they have access to this. So sometimes we get habituated and we forget the beauty around us. And I think it's important to remind ourselves that we have access to this and we should take it into consideration. Moreover, neuroscience actually tells us that listening to the sound of birds can help improve our mental health for hours after exposure. So please don't discount the random birds that are singing away when you're out and about, or if you're working from home or an office space and your windows open and you find yourself hearing the birds. If this is not something that you experience, there's so much bird sounds and songs on YouTube that you can access for free. That has a profound impact on your mental health as well. This also brings me to another important mental health influence. If you allow, animals can encourage you to be present and engage in mindfulness. What do I mean by this? We've spoken about mindfulness in depth in previous episodes of Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogan. Those episodes are on our Spotify. And if you don't have an account, you can still listen to it online. But yeah, animals remind us to be present. Like when I observe dogs rolling in the snow as I did two days ago, or fetching a ball, they're just so focused. And it's a really good reminder for those of us who experience anticipation anxiety or anticipation grief, which is something hasn't happened, but you're anticipating that it will. If that is something that you've experienced, being around animals can encourage you to slow down and just be in the moment, you know? For example, this is one of my favorite things to do. When I nap with my cat, I use her body temperature to regulate mind. I slow down my breathing to match her purring. It's a skill I've perfected over the years. It's by no means something that randomly developed. The more I started learning about mindfulness, the more I started learning about animals and mindfulness, the more I've been incorporating this. And I've really trained myself to be still and let go of future thoughts or past regrets. So for those moments, and I know people think, but so again, it's only a few moments. That's not gonna take away my big problems in life, it's not gonna fix my issues, and it's not, you're right. But what it does do is it gives your brain a pause and it lets you slow down and give your brain a little bit of a break, and then you can go more clear-headed into whatever issue you're dealing with or whatever your problem you were solving. So it doesn't necessarily solve the problem itself, but what it does is it resets your system similar to remember back in the day when we had like PCs and when they would, you know, um glitch, we would control alt delete. My millennial people probably remember that. And if you're not a millennial, um imagine restarting your phone, similar thing. You would restart, and that would be a way for the system to reboot again. This is similar to what you do when you are giving your brain a pause. And you know, for those few moments that I spend with my cat or when I'm observing animals, it's a shared moment, it's a shared space, and for those few moments, everything seems okay. The world seems less chaotic, less loud, it just seems okay. I've really taken the teachings away from animals and how to be present and how to be mindful. Of course, you will find, especially if this is a new practice for you, that your mind is gonna wander, you're gonna think about a lot of different things. And so let me tell you what the science behind that is, right? So there's something in our brains called the default mode network. And so when your mind is wandering, that's where it's going to. And the default mode network, if you don't challenge it, it's gonna take you to a place of what-ifs, it's gonna take you to a place of regret, it's gonna take you to a place of negative self-talk. But the more you challenge it by putting your system in a state of rest and digest, similar to listening to bird sounds, actively listening to bird sounds that is, or petting an animal or interacting with animals, or looking at nature and just observing how birds fly and how they're in synchronicity with each other. That is challenging your default mode network and allowing your brain to just pause for a second. And like I said, in a world where things are so loud, so noisy, these little moments of pause and reflection are really significant to our mental health. Dr. Jeff Carp, he's a biomedical engineer, and he has a very interesting segment on the power of the pause on YouTube with Mel Robbins. And Dr. Carp argues that one of the reasons that we as adults are drained and feel like we are in an endless loop of deadlines and responsibilities, is because we have lost our childlike awe. We're too busy to pause and just notice. I totally agree. His invitation for those of you who'd like to bring back that childlike wonder in a world that feels so fast-paced and way overstimulating, is to take five to ten minutes to pause from what you're doing. So, what this means is, for example, you have a coffee break at work, take that to pause. Or if you're working from home and you're self-employed, you're working on something, take those five to ten minutes to pause. That means actively and intentionally stepping away from what you're doing and I don't know, turning on some bird songs, hanging out with your dog, if you have an aquarium looking at fish. I have some studies on that too, super cool. But stepping away and really allowing yourself to just pause. Dr. Karp calls this the startle effect. Beyond its influence on our brains, he says that it can help us lock in what we were engaging in before the pause. So instead of just being on autopilot and work, work, work, work, work, this allows our body to pause, but also really tank in what we were working on, which obviously is gonna impact our efficiency and it's gonna make us better at whatever we're working on. Have you noticed that there's an emergence of schools and classrooms, including animals, into their curriculum? I don't know about you, but when I think about when I was in school, we didn't really have guinea pigs or little animals in our classrooms. But now when I have worked with students and with teachers, or when I've done research, especially in social media, there's animals everywhere. And this is not at all a coincidence. This is because of all of these findings. Those animals, similar to what Dr. Carp says, are giving us a chance to pause and interact with the animals, and then these students are able to go back to the activity that they were working on and focus more. Animal connections with children are impactful for socio, emotional, and cognitive development. This is reached by Edenberg and Van 2011 and others. Additionally, there are studies that have found that classroom pets instill respect for others, encourage interest in science and language arts, motivate active engagements in schools, manage problem behaviors, and teach about the importance of life events. This is based on an open article that I encourage you all to read from 2021 called Measuring the Social, Behavioral, and Academic Effects of Classroom Pets on Third and Fourth Grade Students. Further than this, University of Maryland's research shows that pets can improve health by lowering our stress and blood pressure. And the suggestion here is that folks have had a better chance of recovering from heart attacks if they had a pet versus those who did not. Isn't that wonderful? Like, there's so many studies. Of course, with our segment today, I wasn't able to cover all of them, but these are just ones that really reached out to me, and I was like, wow, if only we knew. And there's so many ways of incorporating this into our everyday lives. So if you're a parent and you know you've always wondered why your children have pets in the classroom, this is possibly why. Or if you are a parent and you take your children to the library, I went to the library last week and they have a big aquarium full of different kinds of fish. And I was actually working on this segment doing research, and I stopped for pause and I went and I observed the fish, and it was so beautiful to see. I was looking at the different colors, I was looking at how they were interacting with each other, and then I totally noticed when I was going back to doing this research just how much more alive I felt. And so, yeah, if you're wondering why there's fish and aquariums and libraries, this is why. So now we're gonna talk about fish. So if you're like me, fish have never really been super exciting for me. I think it's because I can't pick them up and hold them and I can't cuddle with them. And they've taught me boundaries on like observing them from afar and observing them in their natural state instead of making it my natural state. And so as I've gotten older, but also as I've incorporated this type of research, I have found myself more interested in fish to the point that I would really like to one day invest in a big aquarium in my house. Now I've had family members who've had aquariums and they say it's a lot of work, but I think it's so beautiful to just observe them. But until I get to that place where I can, you know, have that kind of time to take care of an aquarium. Best believe I'm going to go to fish stores and just observe all the different kinds of fish. I am also going to go to the libraries and watch the fish. And I'm not the only one that's interested in this. I found a study that said. Says, caring for fish, especially when it comes to children, helps encourage the children to link their own self-care to the health of the animals. Feeding the fish serves as a reminder to check on your own blood sugar levels or take medications. And this is based on a study by Louise Miranda and others in 2015. In another study looking at fish, we see that individuals with dementia actually say that their life quality enhances when they have an aquarium in their room or they have an aquarium that they can go observe. So these patients with Alzheimer's were less likely to eat when the aquariums weren't there because they were probably going to forget it. But if the aquarium was there, or if they were eating in a room where there was an aquarium there, they were more likely to eat, they were more likely to interact, and they were less likely to require supplemental nutrition where there were rooms with fish tanks. So if you are caring for elderly patients, or if you have elderly aging parents, or if you work with people who are aging or who have memory loss, this is something that you can consider. Having animals in the room. It will encourage in very beautiful ways the people that you're caring for, the people that you live with, to interact with these fish, but also to take their self-care more seriously because they recognize that okay, if these fish are not taken care of, they're not gonna make it. So similar to me. I thought that was really cool. Veterans with PTSD also benefit from psychiatric services, in particular, psychiatric service dogs. These dogs provide them with environmental awareness, emotional calming, and interventions during panic attacks and nightmares. This is based on an article in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Have you noticed that there's a rise in dogs in nursing homes and hospitals? This is because these dogs visit the older adults particularly, and this has demonstrated improved anxiety and mood. This is based on a pilot study by Nancy R. Green and others 2025. Another similar study finds that visits to hospitals by dogs has been linked to lower anxiety and stress in people with cardiovascular conditions. And this is by Karen Thudberg, 2014. So I just think this is incredible that dogs are able to not only put us in a more calming state, but they can help you if you have cardiovascular conditions or if you have post-traumatic stress disorder. That is beautiful to me. There's also so many videos that I have seen of dogs helping with people with diabetes because they can smell the changes in that are happening with people with diabetes. Dogs are incredibly smart, and you can definitely teach them. And so there's so many certification programs for this. A lot of people, you know, I've met dog parents in dog parks that once they find out that I work in mental health, they tell me that they are considering putting their dog as a therapy dog, and um, they volunteer with their dogs in schools or in hospitals or even prisons. And I just think that is so beautiful because it furthers what we're talking about here that these animals have a profound impact on our mental health, and I just think that's really cool. So, as you know, psychiatric homes, including those with patients with schizophrenia, also hang out with animals. I say as you know, because we were talking about the different kinds of mental health concerns that can be addressed or improved with animals. But this one is, of course, a little bit more dear to me because it's about Iranians, and you know I'm Iranian. So this is a fascinating study in the book of BMC Psychiatry, and the authors suggest that folks in psychiatric care, you know, don't get as much visitors typically as others, and they have little purpose for living. However, through animal assisted therapy, they have had improvements. And since I'm Iranian, this study was really interesting to me because it's based in Tehran, which is where I was born. I just had to share it with you. So it looked at 70 men with chronic psychiatric disorders who were in residential psychiatric care in 2016. They received animal therapy with a bird for eight weeks. And the findings stated that the quality of life enhanced for them and so did their happiness. And this is now about birds. So thus far, we've talked about horses, we've talked about cats, dogs, fish, and now birds. As you may recall earlier in the segment, I said that bird sounds can be so impactful. Now you might wonder, where's all this coming from? Well, according to Dr. Tara Swart, who is a neuroscientist, she says that nature has been our palate since forever, right? That is the one thing that has been consistent throughout all human years, right? And so, because so many of us are busy, because the world is so loud, so much going on all the time, we have really forgotten the essence of nature. And through nature, there's animals, right? And so the more that we can connect with these animals, the more that we can connect with nature, the more that we're kind of taking it back to perhaps what our ancestors did when they were around animals. Something to think about. And I share these findings and research material with you so that you know also that loneliness is a common phenomenon out there right now, but there's just so much help. There's so much help. So, yeah, as we talked about earlier, there is a loneliness phenomenon. Some people call this a loneliness epidemic, where a lot of people, particularly men, are saying that they feel like they're more lonely. And you know, that study that I just mentioned about animals, that was about 70 men. And so if you're a man listening to this or you identify as a man, maybe this is something you can consider is that you know, spending more time with animals, maybe that can help you. And I recognize not everybody listening to this is gonna be a pet owner, but you could be a pet foster. So basically, that is when you know there's a lot of animals that are in need of homes, but for whatever reason you might not be able to adopt them. So there are partnerships that you can have with shelters in which you take care of the animal and they provide the food and the toys and everything that you would need, and basically it's just so that the animal doesn't have to spend its life in a shelter until it gets adopted. And sometimes there's something called a failed foster, which is when you just end up adopting the animal that you were fostering. So that is also something that you could look into. There's also volunteering, there's always volunteers needed to transport animals from shelter to other shelters to doctors. There are volunteers needed to hang out with animals. You could just play with them, you can hang out with them. There are volunteers needed to, you know, drop things off for the animals or just take the animals for walks, just hanging out with these animals so that they aren't lonely. So if you have some loneliness in your life, don't ignore that. Animals can really help you, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. But being, you know, in a shared space with animals can really help you. All of this can help you. Okay, let's recap the neuroscience behind hanging out with animals then. That was a lot of information, so let's recap all that we talked about. As stated earlier, interacting with animals gives us an increase in oxytocin. This is present for both the animal and us. Oxytocin is produced by the hypothalamus and then released into the brain and breathstream. It's responsible for emotional safety, social connection, and feelings of trust and bonding, all of which are typically absent when one feels lonely. So, again, if you're feeling lonely, you want an uptake in your oxytocin, hanging out with animals can help you with that. Nagasawa and others in 2015 showed that even eye contact with dogs and owners can increase oxytocin similar to mother-infant bonding. And this is really interesting to me because when I go to dog parks or hang out with my friends who have dogs, I love looking into the eyes of dogs. They totally understand what you're saying to them, they totally can pick up your tone and your energy. And when I pet them and I give them affirmations, I love looking at their eyes, and now I know why, because they get it, and not only do they get it, but it's giving me more oxytocin and it's giving them more oxytocin. So, yeah, that's really cool. Also, it goes without saying that animals regulate our stress systems, so you know if you're stressed out, maybe something that you can consider doing is hanging out with animals. We have cat cafes, we also have uh puppy yoga, we have goat yoga, we have petting zoos that you can go. They're typically either free or super free of charge. There's a lot of farms that allow you to interact with animals. You can also volunteer with those animals if you're interested in farm animals. I'm very interested in farm animals, particularly goats. I think goats are so cute. And so that's another thing that you can consider. I always see that there's even on marketplace, I've seen that people will say, like, you know, there's a residence open, you don't have to pay rent, but the expectation is if you live here, you help out with the animals and taking care of the farm. So if that's your calling and you work remote, for example, maybe you could do that. Not have to worry about rent, but instead hang out with animals. There's so many different ways of incorporating this information into your everyday. You just have to figure out which one works for you. Back to more neuroscience. It's the HPA axis, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal access. See, even I, as a nerd, have a hard time with some of these science terms. But basically, this HPA axis is that there's a reduction in cortisol levels, lower heart rate and blood pressure, and safety to the nervous system when you are hanging out with animals. And as I mentioned earlier, I've actively been working on this myself with syncing my body to my cats when we cuddle. And this is also backed up by science because of the vagus nerve. Hence, you're, you know, finding that you're slowing your breathing, you're experiencing more feelings of grounding, improved emotional regulation, and reduced muscle tension. Animals also have positive effects on our mood and our reward circuits in the brain. So they engage these three areas called the ventral stratum, prefrontal cortex, and limbic system, and they then influence our dopamine and serotonin levels, which a lot of us are often seeking more dopamine and serotonin. So, yeah, hanging out with them lifts your mood, reduces depressive symptoms, and increases engagement with daily life. So if you're saying experiencing loneliness, that's something that you can consider. So, continuing with the neuroscience of how beneficial hanging out with animals can be, I want to talk about the amygdala again. Remember, we've talked about this in previous segments. Again, our segments are on our Spotify. We've talked about the amygdala in depth. And so the amygdala is basically the alarm system in your brain. It's this almond structure that's in your brain and it's responsible for letting your body know that there's a threat. Basically, hanging out with animals can calm down this amygdala. It can, you know, regulate your systems, and it's correlated with a reduction in amygdala reactivity. So that means you're gonna experience lower anxiety and more emotional safety. Why is that, you may ask? Because animals provide non-judgmental, prick predictable social contact, and the brain sees this and secretes all kinds of feel-good safety vibes. Oftentimes, when you're interacting with humans, you might not know what you're walking into, right? Especially if these humans are there's like a power dynamic where they're your boss, or they're a caregiver, or they're an older sibling, or they're a community member that is super valued. You may not think that you're going into a non-judgmental space, right? But when you're with animals, they don't see it that way, right? Animals don't see it as there's judgment, they look at you and your energy and what you're bringing. It they're less concerned about what you've done in the past, mistakes you may have made, anxieties about the future. They don't think about that stuff, they're just meeting you where you are, and I think that is so beautiful because it is such a contrast to what humans may see. A lot of humans in interactions, you may think that it's very one-sided or it's very transactional. With animals, it's not that. They show you that they value you, they show you they respect you, they show you that they honor you. And this is really good for your amygdala because, again, the amygdala is consistently scanning for threats, it's consistently looking around to see if there's threats present, and you can see in a person's body posture, in their tone of voice, in the way they're interacting with you, if they are judging you or if they are looking at you with ulterior motives. But with animals, you don't really see that. Of course, there are some animals that you may not have good interactions with, you might even be listening to this and have had some trauma with animals, which is totally valid. So there is a level of unpredictability with animals too. But if you keep your distance or if you read their body cues and you don't bother them, it's less likely that you'll have those experiences. Whereas with humans, we can be manipulative, right? We can have ulterior motives, we can think about things and try to psychologically manipulate others. Animals, not so much, and the brain lacks predictability, the brain likes patterns, and so especially if you've developed some kind of close bond with an animal, your body's really gonna like that. And so that's why the amygdala can be in a more calm state instead of being like an alarm that's going off. For example, when I go see the horses, I've already developed a bond with some of the horses, so it's a very predictable environment. When I go to my friends who have dogs, I've already bonded with these dogs, it's again a predictable environment. When I go to libraries that have aquariums, I'm not really interacting with the fish because you know my hand's not in there, despite how much my internal thoughts want that. Um, but you know, it's a predictable environment. However, the people I might come across during the path to get from location A to B may not be predictable. Do you see what I mean? So the amygdala, the brain likes predictability, likes patterns of behavior, and likes to be in a calm state. The brain is always scanning to see where threats are, but it likes it when there's no threat around. It likes not having to go against the gate, the grain. And so that's another reason. If you're looking for reasons to hang out with animals, because they can make you feel good and they can put your body in that rest and digest space. Being with animals combines touch, emotional responsiveness, and predictable behavior, and it can help those of us who have those lack of social interactions and belonging without the extra stuff that sometimes comes with humans. Okay, so I want to touch one more time on Dr. Jeff Carp's work. Remember the person that was talking about how important it is to pause? I want to extend this just a little bit more because unfortunately, it seems like there is not really a pause, right? You know, there's some predictability in that, you know, around 9 or 10 p.m., if you're out and about, there's less activity happening on the roads, it's more quiet, right? There's a little bit of predictability there. However, in our personal lives, it seems like we're always online, hence being on social media or you know, just being accessible, right? There was a time where if you wanted to go online, you had to have Wi-Fi. And with the Wi-Fi, you had to use dial up internet or very slow Wi-Fi. That meant that everybody else in the house had to do other things to give you privacy of using the internet. Now we have everything on our phones accessible as soon as we want it, as long as we want it. And this is a blessing, of course, because we have so much knowledge, so many resources, so many tools, so much information, right, at our disposal. However, it's not great because then people can access us at all times. That's why somebody will be like, Well, you always have your phone on you. How did you not see my missed call or how did you not see my message? And it's because there is this now expectation that if you have this device with you, it's like a mini computer, right? You have this with you, you're consistently accessible. And so that has really stopped us from engaging in a pause, and that has really stopped us from being able to pause and take a break because we're always expected to be on, and this is having tremendous impacts on our mental health because we're not meant to be on all the time, right? Like, think about it. If a car is on all the time, it's gonna run out of gas, it's gonna need to be filled up, right? If your phone is on all the time, it's gonna need to be recharged. However, we have forgotten that when it comes to ourselves, right? We have forgotten that if we are consistently giving of our emotions and of our resources, of our finances, of our time, it's gonna run out, right? We have forgotten that we also need a rest button. We also need to be plugged in and charged. And so this information about the pause is really important because the more we incorporate pauses into our everyday, the more we will notice that we are allowing our bodies to act like everything else that's around us, be it technology, be it the cars, even nature has pauses, right? Like right now in the studio, I'm looking at our trees that still don't have leaves, right? The leaves have fallen off. That is a pause. Nature has taken off the leaves so that the trees can reserve and preserve their energy, and then when spring comes back, the leaves will come back. That is a pause, right? Or the sun isn't there 24 7, right? It's up for a few hours and then it goes away, and then it's nighttime. That is a pause. So when you look at like nature and when you look at even animals, they have pauses, right? You might find with cats, for example, there Are times where they want to be alone? There are times where they don't want to be around you. Same thing with dogs. There are times where they want to be by themselves. Or even if you observe, like fish, for example, there are times where they will hide. They don't want to be around. But when it comes to ourselves as humans, we are expected to always be on, always be seen, always be available, always be accessible. And that is messing with us. It's messing with us in more than one way. And I think this is gonna be research that we're gonna continue to find out. And a lot of people are actually finding ways to be off-grid, finding ways to use their phone less, finding ways to develop boundaries, and we will talk more about this in segments to come about finding ways to not be so accessible and on. But one profound way, and which is often a very cheap way, is through animals. Because even if you forget to pause, they will remind you, right? Birds will remind you because when they're done doing what they have to do, they will fly away. Cats will remind you because when they are overstimulated, they will hide. Horses will remind you that when it's time to be fed, like the horses that I go see, as much as we care for each other and they come to me when I'm there, when it's time for them to be fed, they will walk away from me. That is their way of saying that that was fun, I need to go eat now. And it doesn't matter if I'm doing backflips, it doesn't matter how much I try to get their attention when they're eating, they don't care because they're putting a pause and they're focused on their food. And so hanging out with animals beyond everything that I spoke about today, when it comes to the science, when it comes to the psychology, they teach us by example of how to put pauses on our everyday. And so I hope that is something that you take with you. So I hope this segment invites you to the world of bonding with animals. They truly are a gift to us, and I think that the positive impact that animals have on us is gonna be something that we're gonna continue to study for years to come. I hope that my research that I presented to you was of interest. I hope that you are able to take this and accept the invitation here to pause and to remind yourself that you're not expected to be on all the time and that you, like everything else in nature, like everything else in technology, are also worthy of pausing and refilling your cup. Thank you for staying with us. Thank you for listening to this. And this is Sogand with Wellbeing Wednesdays with Sogand, about to sign off, and I'm gonna catch you next time. Have a good night.