New doggie, no name yet.
Having a new dog in the house has helped me to remember some important tips for keeping healthy this time of year. Our dog, we still haven’t come up with a name yet, came from an apartment in New York City where he was living with close to 20 other Yorkshire Terriers. While he appears to be well taken care of, the little guy is in shock here in his new surroundings. He’s never been outdoors. When I take him for a little walk around the yard, he clings to my feet and shakes with fear. Noises will set him quivering too.
He’s not eating. That’s because the “fight & flight” mode of his nervous system is in full gear. We are doing everything we can to get him into a calmer state. Once he calms down, and the “rest & digest” mode sets in, he’ll eat.
Many of us are in full blown “fight & flight” mode during the holidaze, we have too much to do and too little time. To make matters worse, when stress hormones such as cortisol kick in, our perception of time is altered. This makes us feel as though there is even less time and that feeling kicks in even more stress. A nasty cycle. Unlike my little doggie, when we are in fight flight mode, we reach for food in an attempt to calm ourselves down. To make matters worse, we really aren’t capable of experiencing pleasure when we are in fight & flight mode, so whatever sweet or cookie we just inhaled didn’t give us any real satisfaction. Most likely, it gave us a nudge of guilt. That guilt acts as a stressor putting us further into “fight & flight” mode.
What to do? Perhaps we all need to do more of what makes my new little doggie calm down. Take a break, sit down, take a few deep breaths. Maybe even take a nap.
