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Can helping animals make you healthier? Yep!

08•02•13

What is the difference between a meaningful life and a happy life?

Turns out, quite a bit… at least, at the biological level.

Animal_rescue_and_healthIn a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researches worked with a large group of people over a month to determine how people saw their lives: happy or not, purposeful or not. They “found that happiness is associated with selfish “taking” behavior and that having a sense of meaning in life is associated with selfless “giving” behavior.”

When they examined the genetic level of the study participants, they found “that people who are happy but have little to no sense of meaning in their lives — proverbially, simply here for the party — have the same gene expression patterns as people who are responding to and enduring chronic adversity.”

Yikes.

“That is, the bodies of these happy people are preparing them for bacterial threats by activating the pro-inflammatory response. Chronic inflammation is, of course, associated with major illnesses like heart disease and various cancers.”

So being happy without a sense of purpose can make you sick…

Of course, in many instances, happiness and purpose go hand in hand. You have something in your life that gives you meaning, and it makes you happy.  (People who are avid knitters spring to mind.) That isn’t always the case, though.

The study found that a subset – about a quarter of the participants – had a great sense of meaning but not of happiness.

My first thought: Huh?

Then I realized that those people probably work or volunteer in animal welfare.

Whether you’re sharing adoptable dogs on Facebook, volunteering at a low-cost clinic, participating in hands-on rescue, or donating to the rehabilitation of deserving dogs, you see the worst of the worst.

It may not make you happy to see animals in distress, cases of abuse and neglect, desperate dogs on death row… but when you can step in and play a role in saving these animals, it sure does give you a sense of purpose.

Which, according to this study, makes you healthier!

Yes, there are happy moments, too. Just look at Rex.

But, we’ve been talking a lot on Facebook and a bit here about how easy it is to feel numb, angry, sad, and more. It’s easy to feel compassion fatigue.

The silver lining?

All that dedication, that compassion, that purpose is making you healthier!

From the evidence of this study, it seems that feeling good is not enough. People need meaning to thrive. In the words of Carl Jung, “The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.” Jung’s wisdom certainly seems to apply to our bodies, if not also to our hearts and our minds.

What do you think? What gives your life meaning? Do you feel happy and purposeful? Is one stronger for you than the other?

7 Comments
Filed Under: Animal Welfare, OMD! Tagged With: animal welfare, rescue, resources

The transformative power of pit bull rescue

07•31•13

This is Rex.

rex shelter

Or, I should say, this was Rex.

Rex was starved, covered in fleas, and stuffed in a dropbox on a hot day. The Baldwin County Animal Control Center in Summerdale, Alabama, brought him in… and he weighed only 46 pounds.

This is Rex now.

Rex Smile

Last week, he left the shelter to go to his forever home! He weighed 56 pounds!

Look at that smile!

I love that the county shelter gave Rex a chance. They found him a family who will love him to pieces and ensure he enjoys his golden years. Every single dog deserves that chance.

I was copied on an email update from his forever family reporting on what Rex has been up to his first week at home. Apparently the dear boy decided to jump up and help himself to the treat buffet during his first trip to a pet store. Hilarious! (Emmett is giving him a fist bump for that move!)

Rex4

Ah, the good life!

We’re inundated with horror stories about animals being abused, about the plight of pit bulls across the world, about neglect, about pit bulls who need to be pulled out of county shelters immediately, and on and on.

So, I think it’s incredibly important that when a story like this comes along, we share it and we celebrate it!

Because this is the transformative power of pit bull rescue: Not only was Rex transformed, but the people who shared his story and participated in his recovery are all transformed, too.

I’m so grateful for the work of the Baldwin County Animal Control Center in saving Rex.

I love stories like this. It helps to restore a little faith and spread hope.

Plus, we all need a happy ending now and again, right? And it looks like Rex is getting his!

8 Comments
Filed Under: Animal Welfare, OMD! Tagged With: animal welfare, pit bulls, rescue

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