Post 59: Re-learning to self-soothe as adults

Post 59: Re-learning to self-soothe as adults

Have you ever had the pleasure of watching a baby self-soothe? Mia, who is now almost 2, loves to hunker down in my arms, suckle on her pacifier, and soothe herself to sleep while playing with her own hair. As a parent, we get great joy out of soothing our babies. But when our babies learn to self-soothe, we know that it’s now a whole different ballgame. And if they don’t learn, then our jobs get much more difficult and our babies aren’t as happy as often as they could be.

As adults, just as children, we also need to learn to self-soothe. When a child gets sick and needs her mommy more than usual, after she is well again the child has to re-learn to self-soothe. As adults, when we go through a stressful situation or a crisis, we need to lean on each other more than usual. But once the storm has passed, we have to re-learn how to self-soothe amongst residual emotion that can make it fairly difficult.

It’s nice to have  friends to lean on, but they can only be there for so long until they have to go to work or home and we again find ourselves having to face our own ability or inability to self-soothe.

But if we do learn healthy ways to self-soothe then we open ourselves up to the experience of heaven. Because it is in these moments, in these quiet moments when we are seemingly alone and facing hardship, that we experience the arms of God around us. This is when we realize that we are not alone, and within that solitude and amongst sometimes an extreme emotional catharsis, we find deep peace that can only be described as heavenly.

If you are in need of self-soothing right now, then practice yoga, and experience a little piece of heaven. If you’d like to get started on your self-soothing right this very moment, then practice the breath work video below. Allow yourself the time to “self-soothe” and give yourself the gift of a glimpse of heaven. 

As always, namaste, the light in me is the light in you. We are all connected.