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As I participated in Laura’s 12-week Body Image Mastery course there were times when some unpleasant feelings came up for me. Stories that I have about my past came back and brought up sadness, feelings of unfairness, some anger and lots of pain. This pain is very real to me, so real that at times I can feel it in my physical body.
This pain came up for me today. I felt it near my heart. It was very unpleasant and at the same time made me feel completely alive. Laura suggested that it is ok to feel this pain, with the next step being ready to do something about it. For many years I ate food to cover this pain, I was a doer who was constantly doing in order to avoid my feelings of not being enough. I was afraid of this pain and still to this day am afraid of it. Yet I felt it today and it was ok. This is the place I am going to start. Feel the pain and be ok with it.
Since food is no longer an option for my self-soothing, I have come up with other ideas. I make myself a special cup of tea, wrap myself with a warm blanket, and watch an inspirational or funny movie. Sometimes I color in a coloring book or waterpaint. I may even go outside and be with nature. Most recently I have taken to photography. Most importantly I am gentle with myself and avoid judgements about the pain.
How about you Pinkies? Do you have any favorite self-sooth activities?
May there be peace within.
Love,
Gina
i love the idea of wrapping myself up and crawling onto the couch to watch something funny!
love that.
I like to read magazines that are not heavy at all to self sooth.
makes me not have to think very much and there is something comforting in it especially when they are self mags, like health or yoga journal or something nurturing to my soul.
sometimes people mag does the trick too. ha ha.
yes it is true. I do not subscribe and every once and a while I will pick one up.
you go gal.
xolaura
Hi Gina,
I love the blanket in front of the TV and watching a movie, as it’s summer here at the moment I do turn the air conditioner to lower temps and have a cotton rug folded and ready on the lounge for such times. I also love reading a light novel, especially while laying in bed or curled up on the lounge.
Leah
x
Great post, Gina. It’s a really terrific mental exercise to think about how one self-soothes, and I hadn’t ever thought about it quite that way. For me, it would be a nice cup of herbal tea, a yoga asana (even if it’s just a standing forward fold, it helps me feel grounded), or even better yet, a full yoga class. I also like to take walks through my neighborhood; it has gotten to where my walks feel like a guilty pleasure, LOL!
Blessings,
Florrie