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💭 Have you tried this easy solution for better sleep?

Wednesday, 1/08/2025 Sponsored by Beam - benefits snuggling with pet; simplify pet care; pet yoga

January 08, 2025

Wednesday

"I am proud of how far I've come."

Welcome to Wednesday! Today, we're chatting about:

Did You Know?

Interacting with animals has been shown to lower stress and lower blood pressure.

Scroll for the answer!

The Mental Health Benefits of Snuggling With Your Pet

The familiar feeling of your pet coming up to you to snuggle warms your heart. But that’s not all — it also has powerful benefits for our mental health!

  • Intentional time to unwind: Taking time to snuggle is a great way to unplug, practice mindfulness, and enjoy some quiet time together.

  • “Rewards”: Animals love us unconditionally! As we connect with them, it boosts our dopamine pathways, making us feel good.

  • Ease Stress: One study found that petting, cuddling, and simply being in the presence of dogs stimulates the parts of our brains that reduce stress!

  • Touch: Studies have found that touch calms stress and can boost the feel-good hormone, oxytocin!

  • Bonding: Cuddling with your fur baby is the perfect way to spend some quality bonding time together and strengthen your relationship!

Whether it’s post-playtime, while you’re watching a show, or while you’re sleeping, get in those cuddles and enjoy the mental health benefits as you spend time with your pet!

Simplify Your Pet Care By Scheduling Activities Together

When you enter a busy season of life, you may feel stressed that you don’t have enough time to dedicate to your own self-care and caring for a pet. However, there are many activities you can schedule to do that accomplish both at the same time!

  1. Movement: From walks to playtime and full-on yoga, there is no shortage of activities you can enjoy to get some fun movement in for you and your pet!

  2. Relaxation and downtime: Dedicate time to snuggle on the couch, listen to music together, or watch the scenes outside the window.

  3. Cooking and meal times: This can help you keep a regular schedule and ensure you’re staying nourished!

  4. Morning and nighttime routines: Syncing your routine with your pet’s — from breakfast to your evening walk — helps ensure you accomplish everything you need for the day.

  5. Social self-care and hang time with friends and family: Schedule a pet playdate, invite a friend to the dog park, and find activities you can do with your furry friends together! It’s a great way to socialize your pets while enjoying some connection with loved ones.

  6. Automate - lean on automatic technology: There is zero shame in leaning on technology if it helps you care for your pet — and yourself! Automatic feeders (coffee machines in your case), cleaners, and the like can help simplify things!

  7. Enrichment Activities: Find a puzzle feeder, snuffle mat, or other toys to create some stimulation for your pet, and give yourself some mental space to do other self-care activities for yourself.

Better Sleep Made Easy

Are you struggling to get a good night’s sleep? It’s more than just feeling tired—restless nights can take a toll on your immunity, focus, and overall well-being. Sleep is essential to feeling your best, and now there’s an easy way to improve it: Beam Dream.

Beam Dream’s nighttime drink is designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, so you can feel your best every day. Here’s how Beam Dream supports better sleep and better health:

  • Fits into your routine: Sip Beam Dream just 30 minutes before bed—it’s easy to add to your nightly wind-down.

  • Clinically backed results: A study found that 93% of users reported better sleep and woke up feeling refreshed.

  • Boosts overall health: Better sleep strengthens immunity, improves focus, and enhances your mood and energy.

  • Promotes restful sleep: With natural ingredients like CBD, reishi, magnesium, L-theanine, and melatonin, it helps you relax and stay asleep longer.

Even better, their fan-favorite Brownie Batter flavor is back—turn your bedtime into a treat while improving your health.

Take the guesswork out of better sleep. Use code NOTETOSELF at checkout to get up to 40% off and start feeling the difference today!

Thank you to Beam for sponsoring Note To Self. 

How to Do Yoga With Your Pet

Yoga is a powerful practice that encourages mindfulness, mind-body connection, relaxation, and more. It can also be a fun way to incorporate our pets in our daily routine!

Keep it simple: Keep things relaxed. Don’t force your pet to get into any uncomfortable or unnatural poses. Lay out a mat and let them do their thing! They may try to shadow you or climb on your back — be sure it’s safe for you both and embrace the moment!

Lean on pet-inspired poses: Think downward dog, cobra, and other poses that would be simple for them to mimic!

Don’t take things too seriously: Pets are their own people — so remember to keep things lighthearted! It may take some practice — and some pets may be more interested in trying some poses than others. Keep it fun and simply enjoy time spent together!

Try your own poses, and see how they join in: Our pets love to be around us, so even if they’re not doing a pose alongside us, it can be fun for them to run, jump, and play while you’re engaged in the activity!

Search for a class in your area: Yoga studios may offer a pet yoga class where you can bring your furry friend along and learn some tips!

Embrace the moment, and enjoy pet yoga however it looks for you and your fur baby!

A Note From Us

Take the guesswork out of better sleep. Use code NOTETOSELF at checkout to get up to 40% off Beam Dream’s nighttime drink and start feeling the difference today!

Parting Thoughts

  • ✅ Did You Know: True! In a study of adults over the age of 50, the presence of a pet dog or cat had a significant impact on blood pressure.

  • 🙋🏼‍♀️ Snapshot Of The Day: We'd love to see moments from our readers lives that they are proud of! If you recently accomplished an achievement, experienced a joyful moment, or are proud of a picture you have taken, be sure to capture it on camera and send it to us for a chance to be featured next week! 

  • 💭 Final Self-Care Thoughts for Today: Finding small yet simple ways to align your self-care activities with your pet's can help make things feel much less daunting!

Enjoying Note to Self?

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Know of a great self-care tip or article you'd love to share with the community? Want to send us pictures of you completing one of your self-care rituals? Email us at [email protected]!