Self-Soothing

 

 

“It is so funny that we women question our stress-relief strategies and feel shame around them: “Am I doing this right?  Am I doing this wrong?”  There’s no right or wrong way to live life or relieve pressure.  It is taking a break…the only measure that matters I, “Does this bring me joy?  Does this calm me down?” – Susie Moore, life coach and author.

Why do women feel guilty when they nurture self by taking time for ourselves?  Sometimes we need to self-soothe.  Look at all the extra stress that is put on us, in life, for these last few years. 

Sometimes, watching a series, sometimes right from beginning to end in one sitting, can afford us the opportunity to just be, to just allow the calming slow spread of the series to envelop us for a time.  One of my favorite series is Ricky Gervais, “Derek!”   It is such a sweet series.  It touches right to the furthest reaches of the heart.  It might bring a tear or two, but that too, is stress relief. 

And NAPS.  Once napping was such a guilty pleasure for me and I had little time to do it.  But, after being retired, I have learned how absolutely wonderful it is to rejuvenate early afternoon.  Even a twenty-minute power nap makes a huge difference in my health, my thinking, my emotions and my spirit.  Three quarters of my life, I could have used a real nap.  Had I known the benefits, I would have found time, somewhere, somehow, to have a nap. 

Arting is my best way of soothing self.  My little garden and its twinkling lights, soothe me.  Having a place, my own special sacred space in my gazebo is the place I go to self-soothe.  Not everything we do means life or death to anyone or anything.  We do not need to do it all all of the time.  We need to be able to decompress.  And, it is NOT a guilty pleasure.  Self-care is learning to decompress.  Decompressing is self-care.  If we do not decompress, we are creating pressure cooker and building up negative reactions.  When we blow, and it can be over the tiniest of things, we do something that we should feel guilty about.

Creativity through arting, in any genre, is a way to decompress.  I am addicted to creativity and know , absolutely, that this is a way to decompress.  For a time, in the creative process, the world goes away.

That is what self-soothing is to me – a time and space to have the world go away.  What does it mean to you and how do you get it?

©Carol Desjarlais 9.22.23