You had a brutal day of classes punctuated by the world’s most grueling workout.

上了一整天課，又在健身房挑戰了人體極限 。

Your muscles feel like jello and your brain feels like mush.

全身肌肉像果凍一樣軟趴趴，腦袋全糊成一團。

Uhh! On a day like this, nothing can make you feel better.

任何事都沒辦法挽救這糟糕的一天。

Or can it?

還是，其實有辦法？

Actually, there’s something that can.

有樣東西能治癒你的心靈。

It’s fluffy and playful and it has four legs.

毛茸茸、活潑愛玩，還有四隻腳的生物。

Or maybe it’s feathery with two legs.

或是有羽毛跟兩隻腳。

That’s right! You guess it!

沒錯！你猜對了！

On today’s Wellcast, we’ll (be) talking about pets and how they can actually improve your mood and your health.

今天我們要來聊聊寵物，看牠們如何治癒心靈、促進人類健康。

Hey, we are not telling you to just go out and buy a pet.

嘿！不是叫你去買寵物啦！

Instead, we’re gonna teach you why spending time with cute little fuzzy animals will actually improve your mental and physical health.

我們要告訴你，為何與毛茸茸小動物玩耍可以促進身心健康。

We’ll also help you figure out how to spend time with animals even if you can’t have a pet of your own.

還有就算沒有養寵物，也能與小動物玩耍的方式。

So, what can spending time with a pet do for you?

跟寵物相處有什麼好處呢？

A study published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in Jolly Old, England,

英國皇家藥學會研究指出，

found that dog owners, cat owners, and owners of fluffy little hamsters, generally found that minor ailments improved when they spend time with their pets!

養貓、狗，甚至毛絨絨小倉鼠的人們在跟寵物玩耍時，身上小病痛竟然有所改善！

Furthermore, a study by the American Heart Association, found that people’s blood pressure drops significantly by merely petting animals.

美國心臟病協會研究也發現，跟動物玩時人的血壓會明顯下降。

These could be any animals not just their own beloved pets.

這不只限於自己的寵物。

How do we know?

我們如何知道的呢？

Well, researchers with the AMA gave 48 volunteers a series of difficult math problems while measuring their blood pressure and other stress indicators.

美國醫學會給了 48 名受試者一份困難的數學題，並同時測量他們血壓及其他壓力指數。

Half of them were given a temporary pet to spend time with.

而後給了其中一半人臨時寵物。

So, when the volunteers came back to do more incredibly difficult Math problem six weeks later,

六個禮拜後，受試者們回到實驗室做了一份更困難的數學題，

those who spend time with pets over the course of six weeks didn’t show the kind of stress reactions that the pet free folks had.

相較於沒有寵物的人，那些與寵物相處了六星期的人並沒有表現出壓力反應。

They were more mellow, more calm, better able to think rationally about the problem than those who didn’t have any quality pet time.

他們顯得更加柔和、冷靜，且更能理性思考題目。

Clearly, animals are awesome!

看來寵物立了大功！

But, if you’re not one of the 62% of American households who have a pet, what should you do?

但如果你與美國 62% 家庭不同，沒有寵物怎麼辦呢？

Well, we Wellcast have got a couple suggestions for you.

接下來，我們有些建議供你參考。

Pause and print out our PDF at watchwellcast.com.

先按暫停，去網站上印講義吧！

Got it?

好了嗎？

Awesome!

很好！

This worksheet will teach you our four-legged method to get you spending time with animals.

講義上有四個小撇步，教你如何找到動物相伴。

Now, leg one of our worksheet: brainstorm.

來看看第一步，腦力激盪。

This is pretty straightforward.

字面意思相當明顯。

Think of all the friends in your circle and think of all the pets that they have.

想想你生活圈中所有朋友以及他們的寵物。

Next, make a list of your top five favorite pets.

接下來，列出五隻你最愛的寵物。

It sounds silly but don’t worry.

聽起來有點蠢，不過別擔心。

We have another leg for this.

接下來還有其他撇步。

Leg two, reach out.

二，聯繫朋友。

Call up your friends and ask how you could get involved with their pet life.

打給朋友，詢問能不能幫忙照顧寵物。

Don’t forget! Pets are a big responsibility and everybody needs help time to time.

別忘了！養寵物是很大的責任，每個飼主都有需要幫忙的時候。

So if you ask them if you could walk a dog once a week,

問問他們能不能每週幫忙帶寵物散步一次，

or maybe be the first person that they call when they go on vacation, it won’t be that weird.

或者他們去度假時，自願幫忙照顧。這其實沒那麼怪！

Leg three, volunteer!

三，擔任志工！

Another great way to get quality animal time in is to volunteer at your local animal shelter.

另一個能與動物相處的方法是擔任附近動物收容所的志工。

Not only are you going to be connecting with your community, but you’ll be connecting with a wonderful little puppy or kitten or something else that needs some TLC.

這樣不僅能與社區產生互動，也能與可愛的小貓、小狗，或其它只能在 TLC 上看到的動物互動。

And on top of all of that, you’ll be lowering your blood pressure, and stress as well.

更棒的是，還能幫助降血壓、減輕壓力。

Not sure how to start?

不知道該怎麼著手嗎？

Check out this National Registry of Animal Shelters or look up a shelter on Google.

去看看動物收容所官網或谷歌搜尋收容所。

Write down their contact information on our worksheet and then give them a call.

把收容所的聯絡方式抄在講義上，等等撥電話給他們。

Leg four, schedule.

第四步，規劃行程。

Once you’ve arranged the time to volunteer at a shelter, schedule your quality pet dates around that.

跟收容所約好志工時間後，排定你的寵物時間吧！

So, call a buster’s person, soft person, and fluffy person and schedule some quality pet time.

打給那些毛茸茸、軟綿綿寵物的飼主，安排去找寵物玩的日子。

Try for an hour a week just to start.

剛開始可以先試試一週一小時。

To recap, today on Wellcast, we taught you why spending some time with your favorite non-human cuddly friend was actually beneficial to your health.

複習時間！今天的節目我們了解到為什麼跟毛小孩相處能促進健康。

We also taught you a four-legged method to get you to spend some animal quality time of your own, even if you don’t have a pet at home.

還學了四個即使沒養寵物，也能與小動物相處的小撇步。

After spending some time with pets, how do you feel?

跟寵物相處後感覺如何？

Tweet us @watchWellCast.

上推特 ＠watchWellCast 推文。

E-mail us at watchwellcast@gmail.com or leave a comment down below.

寄信到 [email protected] 或在下方留言。

We’ll see you next time!

我們下次見！