One of the first steps to cultivating a healthy emotional life is to learn what it is that soothes, calms, and nurtures your mind, body, heart, and soul.
In the course of our lives, we go through numerous learning stages. In our first two years of life, we learn to the basics of action and reaction. In the following few years, language adds a new dimension to continued motor-development. By age 11, we are able to organize thoughts, problem-solve, and perform multiple tasks. During the teenage years, concrete thought blossoms into abstract contemplation. By adulthood, we have developed a beautiful array of physical and cognitive capacities.
But, how many of us learn our emotional selves? How many have developed a keen sense of intuition and deference for emotional self-care?
Begin with knowing how to comfort yourself.
The one mainstream conversation about self-comfort tends to revolve around the topic of babies. Teaching your child to sooth himself or herself is a primary subject in parenting classes, books, and magazines. The conversation should not be limited to babies. As babies grow into toddlers, toddlers into children, children into teens, and teens into adults, the ability to comfort oneself should not be lost along the way.
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A great way to begin is to make a self-nurture list. It is essential to know how to find your center when you’ve been thrown off balance by the various stressors of daily life. Over time, your list may grow, shrink, or altogether change. That’s ok—you can only begin where you are.
I will share with you part of my list in hopes that it may help you begin your own:
1. Standing in a hot shower, allowing the water to fall on the back of my neck
2. Taking a walk around the neighborhood to see the beautiful flowers that color the world
3. Talking for hours with my mother about everything and nothing
4. Curling up with my husband and feeling his heartbeat on my skin
5. Napping in the afternoon with an oversized down blanket and countless pillows
2. Taking a walk around the neighborhood to see the beautiful flowers that color the world
3. Talking for hours with my mother about everything and nothing
4. Curling up with my husband and feeling his heartbeat on my skin
5. Napping in the afternoon with an oversized down blanket and countless pillows
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