Comfort

Getting Personal on Changing Comfort(s)

Stress and Familiar Comforts

My year has been woven with grief and its associated emotions, debilitating flu, the annoying presence of shingles, and agent query rejections. When stress hovered like a Charles M. Schultz’s Pig Pen dust storm, I reached for favorite comforts in the name of self-care. I binged-watched primarily home improvement shows―against the frustration of being unable to act on them―and mysteries. I read books of nearly every flavor with heavy helpings of Brit and Aussie cozy mysteries. Several pounds later, I know for a fact how if some potato chips are good, the whole bag is not necessarily better.

Old Comfort

I Question My Good Ol’ Familiars

I agree  we need our go-to comforts, but do they really need to come from a bag of chips or bowl of macaroni and vegan (¬＿¬) cheese?  So far this year I:

• Incorporated stress-reduction solutions like herbal teas and binging Netflix or Prime to my existing regimens of yoga stretching and meditation.
• Researched go-to remedies (papaya, wild blueberries, lemon balm tea) and supplements (B, B-12, L-lysine).
• Started Book 2.
• Spoke with a close personal friend who happens to be a spiritual grief expert.

Hmm. Some of these could easily become my new first-line comforts.

Comfort Change Challenge

I challenge myself to step up my game and change my comforts. Join me, if you choose, to be ready when stress hits. We’ll trade some old comforts in for new ones. We’ll ditch the unhealthy and not-so-functional for healthy habits that work. I envision grabbing for the organic apple, celery with hummus, or glass of lemon water with a frozen strawberry (or three). There can be more walking and less couching.

Cool Lemon Water & Frozen Strawberries

Stress and Comfort Are Real

Stress happens. We’re human. We trip into Life. Life bumps into us. There may be days with full-on tears and snot and lots of wadded up tissues. People and circumstances will likely frustrate and/or annoy us. Yet, we’re the ones who choose what we do in response. Call a friend? Take a walk? Reach for clean, cool water? Relax and do nothing?

What Will You Do?

What changes will give you real, better, healthy comfort? I look forward to reading your ideas and solutions in the comments. Thanks for sharing your experience and wisdom!

Fiction writer and author, Tanya D. Dawson, has written a story for the young adult in all of us. Her pending novel, Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel [working title], is an atypical tale set in our everyday reality alongside an unknown world of extraordinary others. This becoming-who-you-are adventure breathes fresh air and light into the often dark and apocalyptic world of YA fiction, without giving up the angst or the weird. While Andersen Light is primarily set the fictional town of Mystic Creek, Oregon, Tanya lives and works in the American Southwest.