⬆️: [[🕯️ Self-Regulation]], [[🛠 Pendulation Toolkit]] ###### Self-Soothing To Self-Soothe is to support our ourselves in [[🕯️ Tending to feelings|🦮 feeling our feelings]], letting them take all the time they need. We treat ourselves with calm, warmth, acceptance, encouragement, or tenderness and create a space that feels stable, warm, cozy, safe, or loving. It’s similar to offering to hold someone while they cry, to be there for and with them rather than just trying to make the tears stop. Self-Soothing helps us feel safe to let our feelings flow, not to feel better but *to get better at feeling*. We’re not trying to get away from our feelings, but to set the conditions that help us to safely stay with them. This is an aspect of [[⭐️ Self-Care]] — supporting ourselves by offering care and contact to these feelings while creating a safe, soft, and nurturing place for ourselves to land and to be allowed and watched over exactly as we are. This is a support for going through rather than a strategy for [[🛡️ Emotional Foreclosure|:🛡️ getting around or shortcutting]]. ###### Keys - [[🔑 We aren’t supposed to feel our feelings all the time]]. - [[🔑 Try not to make decisions or problem-solve from a place of fear]] - [[🔑 We need each other]] ![[On Tools, Skills, and Practices...]] - [[🛠️ One Point Better]] - Get to a [[🛠 Sacred Space]] - [[🕯️ Loving Touch]] - [[🛠 Bilateral Stimulation]] - [[🛠 Butterfly Hug]] - [[🛠 Heart-Hug]] - Get under a [[🛠 Weighted Blanket]] - Wrap in a blanket and rock in a chair. - Wrap in a heated blanket or put your clothes/blanket in the dryer to warm them up and relax. - Take warm shower or luxurious bath. - Hold an [[Animal Companions|pet]] or stuffed animal or pillow - Go out in the warm sun for 15-30 minutes. - Get outside and into nature, hug some trees - Giving ourselves reassurance - (to the [[💡 Parts|Part]]) "It's okay to feel this." [[You belong]] - [[🕯️ Breathwork 💨]] that feels good to us - [[🕯️ Journaling]] - [[🕯️ Being With]] - [[🛠 Music]] can help us feel into and through our emotions - [[🛠 Anchors]] - [[🛠 Progressive Muscle Relaxation]] - [[🛠 Safe Place Visualization]] - [[🧘 The Pathway Home]] - [[🕯️ Movement Practices 👟]] can help the energies flow. - [[👟 Asana Practice]] - [[👟 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga]] - [[👟 Running]] - [[👟 Walking]] - [[🕯️ Qigong]] - [[🕯️ Tai Chi]] - [[🛠 Dance]] - Scented candles or essential oils in a diffuser. - Apply a cool washcloth to your face with lavender essential oil. - [[🧘 Loving-Kindness (Metta) Meditation]] - Think of things you're looking forward to. - Think about people you care about, who care about you. Look at photos of them. Hold them in your heart. - [[⬆️ Tapping]] - [[🛠 Hands Over Eyes]] - [[Animal Companions]] - [[🛠 Fidget Toys]] - [[🛠️ Cold Exposure]] - [[🛠 Mindful Walking]] - [[🕯️ Gratitude]] %% - [[🧘 Yoga Nidra]] - [[🛠 Autogenic Training]] - [[🛠 Biofeedback]] - [[🧘 Body Scan]] - [[🛠 Containment]] - [[🛡️ Self-Distraction]] - [[🛠 Fears & Resentments]] - [[🛠 Heart Rate Variability Training]] - [[🛠 Hypnotically Enhanced Guided Imagery]] - [[🛠 Neurofeedback]] - [[🧘 Transcendental Meditation]] - [[Walking Meditation]] - [[🛠 Naming and Counting]] %% ###### See Also - [[🕯️ Pendulation]] and [[🕯️ Titration]]