Feelings of comfort
come from one or more of our five senses. Whether it is a song we
hear, the taste of a favorite food, the feeling of our favorite
clothes, the sight of a loved one, or the smell of garden after a
spring rain, comfort stirs our hearts and emotions into a sense of
safety and security. We
run to special moments in our lives when we encounter any of our 5
senses of comfort memories. This is our hearts safety net for
difficult times.
Comfort is defined
by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary,
2005) a feeling of relief or
encouragement, contented well-being, or a satisfying or
enjoyable experience.
So how can we begin to experience feelings of comfort in our
hectic and stressful day.
As a personal and
business coach, I teach my clients to begin to recreate their experiences on paper to have
an opportunity to relive them during hectic moments. Some would call this
journaling but I like to keep it simple with a few sentences known
as memory joggers.
Start by listing all five of the senses and begin writing quick
notes as you experience comfort in each sense. As an example, the smell of
someone smoking a pipe reminds me of my father who passed away. The sound of a clothes dryer
running at night (no this is not odd) reminds me of safety and
security in my childhood home.
The feeling of clean sheets on a bed just gives me an overall
comfort of well being.
See its simple. Now you
try it.
How can we use the
comfort list when our life get hectic? We can pull out the list and
remind ourselves that what we are going through will pass. In our past were moments of
quite, safety, security and good times. As we go through difficult
periods, these memory joggers become our safety net to see us
through. Stress is a part of the daily life of every living
creature. Fortunately,
we as humans have ways to manage this stress level as we can control
our response, actions and behaviors.
Here
are three ways to help reduce your stress and help you manage around
your critical life moments.
Keep in check your
expectation level. You
may be surprised at what you think is important to other people. Make sure you are not
masking your own level of expectation onto another person or
situation.
Christmas is
a time where we want to give our families a "Martha Stewart" kind of
experience with all the trimmings, gourmet food choices and
decorations beyond our wildest dreams. This can come with a price
as our stress level is heightened to prepare everything to
perfection. If you sat down with your family, is this what really
matters to them or would they be satisfied with little more than a
perfect Christmas but being able to enjoy the entire holiday season
with you.
