Latest / Voices for Voices® / Anxiety Relief Nobody Expected | A First-Time Pet Owner's Story | Episode 452

Transcript

Anxiety Relief Nobody Expected | A First-Time Pet Owner's Story | Episode 452 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Hi everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices.
• 0:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 0:07
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• 0:18
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• 0:36
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• 0:44
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• 1:00
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• 1:01
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• 1:05
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• 1:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We're well uh over 450 episodes uh by now, uh, the time this show will be airing uh for the first time.
• 1:16
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• 1:18
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• 1:26
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• 1:32
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• 1:33
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• 1:38
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• 1:47
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• 1:50
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• 2:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So we'll go ahead and get started.
• 2:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh so companion pets, I think might be the the term.
• 2:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh that's the term I'm gonna use.
• 2:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh companion pets.
• 2:36
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh so yeah, we we have dogs and we have cats predominantly here in the United States as pets.
• 2:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yeah, we also have gerbils and and uh potentially rabbits and hamsters and and and the like.
• 2:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But I'm I'm gonna be referring and talking about having a companion pet uh that is a dog.
• 3:03
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And um so this is uh this is a first for me, first for our family, really.
• 3:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh growing up, we had my mom, my dad, my sister, and myself um for a short period of time.
• 3:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I I don't even know how old I I was when when he passed.
• 3:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We had an outdoor dog and uh Springer Sprint.
• 3:39
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Springer Spaniel, I'll say that five times real fast.
• 3:44
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We had a Springer Sprint, oh my goodness, Springer Spaniel, and as an outside dog, and and so uh that's what I remember uh with uh you know a big pen that that he was able to run back and forth.
• 4:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: His name was Brutus, and once he'd passed uh passed on uh to to Doggy Heaven, uh we didn't have we didn't have uh other pets.
• 4:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I mean we had goldfish and and that, so okay, we call that a pet.
• 4:27
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But I'm talking about something you could uh uh a pet that you can maybe you know hold and uh pet and call it a pet, right?
• 4:39
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And and so we didn't have we didn't have uh well one of those aft after Brutus uh our our dog pass and now with there's a there's some research to show you know fast forward to today from probably 39 years ago.
• 5:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So fast forward to today and you know the what I call the companion pets, whether you have a mental illness or you don't doesn't really matter.
• 5:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um but a companion pet, a pet in in general, so I'm talking about dog, uh having not had one, right?
• 5:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So there's things you gotta think of, right?
• 5:42
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You gotta think of taking outside to go potty, you gotta you know make sure there's food uh in and there we'll make sure there's uh clean drinking water uh for for the for the the the dog and in my case.
• 6:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And uh and when you head out somewhere, if if you know dogs aren't not that dogs aren't welcome, but you know, m a lot of restaurants uh you're not able to bring bring a dog or even a cat for that matter, too.
• 6:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So learning all the different things, are they hard to do?
• 6:31
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: No, they're not hard to do, they're just something new.
• 6:37
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And and so we got uh we have a pet, you probably have seen on a couple couple previous episodes, uh she's uh made an appearance or two.
• 6:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: She's she's currently uh resting right next to me.
• 6:58
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so when we talk about companion pets or just a pet in general, and we talk about anxiety when at least for me, so this again, this is the first time I've had a pet, an indoor pet, like like like like the the the puppy that we have now.
• 7:24
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um so we're going through the you know the stages of figuring out if we're gonna keep her, we'd like we really would like to keep her.
• 7:34
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I I know my child would love to keep her.
• 7:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um but in the short time that we've cared for her, I've noticed a little bit of a stress reduction, if that's that's something.
• 7:56
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um it might be because uh you know, I get to hold a pet, I get the pet, pet the pet.
• 8:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um and I know this is this is a little bit uh show's a little bit different in in this respect, but it's the same because having mental illnesses, I I do have anxiety, and it spikes it spikes from time to time.
• 8:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And since we've had our pet, I've I don't I've noticed it, I guess would be the way to put it, that the stress level, at least for me, for the most part, not all the time, but for the most part, it has lowered, doesn't disappear, hasn't disappeared at all.
• 9:03
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But I don't know.
• 9:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You know, being in my 40s, the far my first pet, you know, you you pet lovers out there, what do you what do you think?
• 9:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Do you think that your pet has helped reduce stress and at any level or anxiety?
• 9:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh it has for me.
• 9:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Again, I I don't have a number, I can't put a number on it saying a hundred is my usual stress level when it spikes, and having a pet takes the number down, I think I think the best way to explain it, I think, is the way I talk about bringing a portfolio and a resume to a job interview.
• 10:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So the less time the people interviewing you or me are looking at us, right?
• 10:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And we're going, oh my gosh, did I tie my tie right?
• 10:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Did I, you know, that did I button one button or two buttons on my jacket?
• 10:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And uh, how do I look?
• 10:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And am I thirsty?
• 10:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Am I nervous?
• 10:34
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so all these things are going on in our heads.
• 10:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And when we have our portfolio, which is just a compilation of the work that we've done, you know, the highlights, I guess we call it, so we can show, like, okay, here's the resume, here's me, and then here's some of the work I've done, and here's what I can bring to your company, and have tangible information to show uh different projects.
• 11:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: If you're in school, you work on projects all the time, so you have plenty of work to choose from for your portfolio.
• 11:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: That's one thing I get asked often about with my students is well, I'm just a student.
• 11:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: How am I supposed to have all this information?
• 11:31
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And then I re I revert back and say, what project do we have coming up that's due?
• 11:37
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: What what project did we just finish?
• 11:40
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And then it starts to click that wow, I actually do.
• 11:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So whether you're a student or whether you're not, you can put a portfolio together.
• 11:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: It doesn't have to be expensive.
• 11:56
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You can go to your you know your your local office supply store and and find a inexpensive portfolio that you can insert your highlights.
• 12:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So what's this have to do with a dog, right?
• 12:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Okay, so in an interview, let's just say we're at a hundred of the time.
• 12:26
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So let's say the time is one hour.
• 12:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So we're one hour.
• 12:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And what's a portfolio on a dog have to do with with this?
• 12:36
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So hear me out.
• 12:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So we have an hour, we have people looking at us, asking us questions, and they're just person one, person two, person one, person two, back and forth, question, question, question, question.
• 12:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We're answering, and then we put the portfolio on the table and we open that up.
• 12:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We're able to take at least the eye attention, like the eyes, um from looking at us and having the interviewer's eyes and attention put on our portfolios.
• 13:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Let's say it's one minute.
• 13:25
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Well, that's one less minute that you have to worry about what am I wearing?
• 13:34
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You know, the variety of all the things that we think about.
• 13:39
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so what does the dog have to do with this?
• 13:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Is let's say, right, we have we have a hundred.
• 13:49
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So let's say in a day we have a number that is 100.
• 13:55
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Well, if I'm usually stressed or I notice that I'm stressed or anxious, I don't know.
• 14:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm I'm this this is hypothetical.
• 14:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I don't know exact numbers, I've never been given an exact number, but let's say my anxiety really flares up for 20% of the day.
• 14:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So having a dog, a companion pet, a dog for me in this case, my family, let's say that out of that 20, that number 20% of the time, that my stress flares up and my anxiety flares up.
• 14:47
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Let's say I'm sitting next to a dog and I'm petting my dog, taking the dog out to go potty.
• 14:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so I'm concentrating my time and my mind on something other than myself.
• 15:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And this is about companion pets.
• 15:12
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So I've talked extensively about taking the attention off of myself and wanting to help over three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond.
• 15:26
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So let's just say having a companion pet, some pet that's able to take a little bit of my anxiety away.
• 15:39
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Let's say it takes two away.
• 15:42
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So then that takes the anxiety, which is no which hype I'm giving this hypothetical example, is twenty out of a hundred.
• 15:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And having a companion pet takes two away from that twenty of anxiety my anxiety spiking.
• 16:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So then that means my anxiety spiking has eighteen, the number eighteen, instead of twenty.
• 16:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So that's how we get from what a portfolio for a job interview has to do with having a companion pet.
• 16:34
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Because we're uh generally happy with the can our companion pet.
• 16:43
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Right?
• 16:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We're we're playing with the we're just hanging out.
• 16:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so that's what a companion pet, in my case a dog, for my family, me, how that relates to a portfolio in a job interview.
• 17:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So whether you have mental illness or not, I would think we all get anxious and stressed at certain times of the day, some days more, some days less.
• 17:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And by having a companion pet to help reduce that by any number is a good thing.
• 17:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: For anybody to have a a pet if if you're able to, right?
• 17:58
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Because pets aren't inexpensive.
• 18:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Right?
• 18:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So you gotta you have to you have to get the pet, you gotta adopt it.
• 18:12
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yeah, so you have to somehow, some way obtain a pet, and then you have to get a bowl for food, a bowl for water.
• 18:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Again, that I'm not saying these things are hard to do, I'm just saying these are things that come with having a pet.
• 18:37
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh buying the food, the food is pretty expensive nowadays.
• 18:43
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um, it's very expensive, actually.
• 18:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Then depending, right?
• 18:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So there's different there's different shots that they need at certain times.
• 18:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um spade and neuter, that's another fee.
• 19:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so there's these costs of having and keeping a pet safely, right?
• 19:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Unfortunately, there's there's some not nice people in the world, and they they abuse pets.
• 19:25
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm not talking about the like we we can't change other people.
• 19:31
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm talking about you and I and our viewers and listeners to take care of a pet properly.
• 19:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so I just wanted to share.
• 19:52
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I just wanted to share what it's like for me to have a companion pet for a very, very short, short amount of time.
• 20:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And let me see if I can.
• 20:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Well, I know I can't, so I'm gonna pull up a picture so you'll be able to see her.
• 20:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: She made an appearance.
• 20:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Whoa.
• 20:23
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Can we see there?
• 20:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yeah.
• 20:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So that's uh that's our pet, Lucy.
• 20:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And again, what whatever it may be that helps you lower stress that is legal, not illegal.
• 20:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So something that is legal, like owning a owning a pet, caring for a pet, giving the pet a hug, petting the pet.
• 21:10
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But regardless of m mental illness or not, uh having had again, having had this this pet for a short period of time has kind of taught me how to be a little bit less stressed when there could be high stress.
• 21:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So let us know what what helps you lower your stress?
• 21:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Is it a pet, an animal?
• 21:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Is it uh going to the gym?
• 22:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Is it I don't know.
• 22:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You tell us, tell us what let us know what helps you lower stress because right uh the ideal place to be when we're lowering stress is to be at zero, to have zero stress, which I I pretty sure we we we can't get we can't quite get there it'd be nice to but I don't think I don't I don't think we can get there to have zero stress So just like I've talked about with yoga the answer of what our goal of yoga is isn't to become a more perfectly stretched and uh you know because that's the goal that's one you know you're you're basically stretching the body and so we know there's no perfection we know there's no perfection we're looking for balance in yoga we know there's gonna be pros and cons throughout the day, throughout the weeks, the months, the years.
• 23:44
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But can we come in more balanced come in more balanced just like with the portfolio with a job interview lowering the amount of time and as a as a part of that that actually lowers stress too because you don't feel like the eyes just staring like um I've been there done that lots lots lots lots of times and so having a pet, an animal that we can take care of and have a dog that recently's coming to her home and I think it's or she, not it.
• 24:52
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So she has a name.
• 24:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I think that uh Lucy has helped bring some of my anxiety and some of my stress down.
• 25:03
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Again, do I have a number for that?
• 25:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: No, I gave it hypotheticals earlier in the episode.
• 25:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But again, the more time we can be less stressed, the better, the more we can use that energy on something positive, something that we want to do.
• 25:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Maybe that's additional self-care.
• 25:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So that's the flip side is not only the stress gets lowered, then it's well, what do we do with that?
• 25:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: What do we do with that two out of 20 anxiety, which is out of the total of a hundred for a day?
• 25:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So if our again, if our anxiety, if my anxiety just trying to put numbers around it, make it a little easier to understand, hopefully.
• 26:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: If if a full day is a hundred of emotions and everything, and anxiety and stress peaks for the number twenty, having a companion animal lowers that twenty to an eighteen.
• 26:26
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Twenty minus eighteen is two, so then we have some time to do something else, something we like.
• 26:39
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Maybe we I don't know, maybe we start the process on our dreams.
• 26:49
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Maybe we have something we've always wanted to do, and we've thought we never had the time to do it, and so the more that we can lower stress, lower anxiety, and our pet has done that, and you might see her here in a second, because she just woke up, didn't you?
• 27:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Didn't you just wake up?
• 27:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Yes, so you did, yes, you did, Lucy.
• 27:19
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You just woke up, yeah.
• 27:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Ah, big yon.
• 27:25
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh see what I mean?
• 27:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: That it's it it's helped, it's helped me.
• 27:35
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So uh, and I know it's helped my daughter, my wife.
• 27:40
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um, it's she's just so so so calm, and some some parts of the day she'll just be running around with like all this energy, is like, hey, can I have some of that energy?
• 27:58
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh but you right on cue, she woke up, she was snoozing, um, and then she she woke up and said, I can see myself on camera, I'm on TV.
• 28:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So if you haven't, uh if you're not watching you know this particular episode, you're listening to it, maybe this is one of the episodes that you uh you head on over to Rumble or or YouTube or uh and and watch uh watch this episode towards the end, and you'll be able to see me smiling from ear to ear with uh with Lucy or a pet that just woke up.
• 28:48
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So whether you have a mental illness or not, voices for voices is for you.
• 28:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We're with you, we're praying for you, we're sending good vibes your way.
• 28:58
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Whether you're a believer or not, I am, and there you can never have enough good vibes and good positive energy.
• 29:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um, thank you for joining us on this episode, the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast.
• 29:14
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm your host, Justin Alan Hayes.
• 29:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh, we're so grateful if you can give us the big thumbs up, like, follow, share, subscribe.
• 29:24
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: If you can reach out to 25 or 50 or 100 of your contacts and your phone, uh, let them know about the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 29:34
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I promise you we'll have at least 50 episodes that uh you and they uh you know who you reach out to will find to be uh helpful, interesting.
• 29:52
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And uh we just want to say thank you for joining us.
• 29:56
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so we'll see you on the next episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 30:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Let's celebrate all the voices of the world, and let's also be a voice for ourselves and for those that we may know that aren't able to share their voice.
• 30:16
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Have a great day.
• 30:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Bye bye.