This article appeared in the May 2006 Cat Fancy. Written by Julia Jubb luretig

Stress. Most of us are all too familiar with it. Deadlines at work, rushing to get the kids ready in the morning, the constant ring of the cell phone-those are just a few examples of the strain we feel in our lives today. But what about our cats? Hmmm, they don't seem very stressed-out. In fact they appear rather calm, cool and collected. Perhaps we humans can learn some lessons from our serene felines.

YOUR FELINE EXAMPLE
"There are many things cats repeatedly teach us," says Hazel C. Carney, a board-certified veterinarian at WestVet Emergency & Specialty Center in Garden City, Idaho, and at Four Rivers Veterinary Clinic in Ontario, OR. Carney lectures on feline behavior and is an author of the American Association of Feline Practitioners' Feline Behavior Guidelines. "Cats ignore minor irritants during mealtime. They take the time to fully enjoy their meal, and their digestions is much better than ours. It is uncommon to see a cat with a stress-based stomach ulcer." Next time the phone rings during dinner, do you digestion system a favor and let the machine pick up. If cats had phones, they would never interrupt their eating to answer them!

"Cats do not live by the clock," says Bonnie V. Beaver, an award-winning veterinarian, board-certified behaviorist and professor in the Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. "They eat then they need to. They sleep when they want to." We humans would be far better off if we ate only when hungry, stopped when we are full and slept an adequate amount each night.

Stretching in another relaxation technique we can study in our cats. "Stretching maintains cats' muscle tone and increases their ability to handle a fight-or-flight situation," Carney says. Yoga is a popular form of gentle stretching that helps people manage the tensions of everyday life.

"When people go into stress response, their muscles are tense," says Peg Baim, a nurse practitioner and clinical director of training for the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chesnut Hill, MA. "Stretching yoga is excellent for releasing the body memory of stress." One yoga position is actually called "the cat pose." That should tell us something.

LEARN TO DEAL
In examining a cat's purr, we find another way to deal with daily pressures. "Besides intense pleasure purring," Carney says, "there is pain/anxiety-associated purring, which is like transcendental meditation-mind over matter, separating the body from the mind. Cats are trying to disassociate themselves from pain and anxiety, and there are neurological changes that help them to cope with the pain."

Meditation and other breathing exercises are common doctor recommendations for soothing our minds. Dharmacharini Amala, director of the Aryaloka Buddhist Center in Newmarket, N.H., describes the calming effect that samatha meditations has: "Doing this type of breathing can be very helpful in time of pain and stress. It redirects the attention away from compounding the anxiety."

Karen K. Campbell, a counselor for cat and dog behavior problems in Portland, Maine, offers this simple suggestion: "Be aware of cats' life patterns and revel in the moment with them. Watch you kitties, watch the rhythms and watch how they go about relaxing. Take a few minutes and join them in it."

When your cats are lounging on the sofa, Campbell recommends that you lounge with them. If you cannot sit and lounge, get some chores done at the same time. Open the mail or do the mending while you relax on the sofa next to your cats.

"Having supportive people to talk with can be a great stress relief," says Stephen Kirsch, MD, of Scarborough Family Physicians in Scarborough, Maine.

Make time for our friends and family and try not to let work come first. My cat Gilley clearly showed this to me one evening. I was seated at the kitchen island paying bills when Gilley jumped up on my paperwork and "kissed" me., bumping his head into mine. Anxious to finish my bills, I gave him a quick pet and nudged him aside. Gilley persistently moved in and head bumped me. I tried to dissuade him, retrieved my papers and continued my work, but he did not give up. He circled back, and his third head bump nearly knocked me off my stool. I finally got it. I stopped to give Gilley the love he deserves and reflected once again on what your cats have to teach us if we'll just slow down long enough to listen.