I have a small microwavable heating pad that I call my security blanket. I highly recommend it as a First Most Always practice.
I heat it and lay it across my chest. The warmth seeps into my body and soothes my heart and spirit.
The truth about FMA practice #1 – putting your hand on your heart and telling yourself you love yourself – is that part of the amazingness is telling yourself you love yourself, and part is just the hand on your heart.
Comforting warmth and pressure on our heart brings us back into our bodies. It lowers our cortisol. It calms us down.
Sometimes my hand on my heart is enough, or it’s all I have. But the splurge of the heated heating pad is even beyond.
I was in an author’s panel for a writing symposium for cult survivors recently. As we prepared, the facilitator questioned how she should handle the fact that now is hard for nearly everyone, if not everyone, but that said, now can be even harder for cult survivors as much of what’ s happening mirrors and echoes what happened in our cults.
I laughed when she said this, because true to form, whilst I spend much of my time helping other people manage how hard now is, it never dawned on me that now is probably wreaking havoc with my nervous system because of my cultic childhood.
The warm, herbal smelling heated pad on my chest calms my triggered nervous system. It relaxes me before bed. It comforts me like a security blanket.
I highly recommend it (as much as I hate microwaves). For that matter, I also highly recommend a weighted blanket, which I just got. It feels like a night-long comforting hug. Again, a beautiful thing to ease my childhood hyper-vigilance even more, and a beautiful thing because I was certainly hug-starved.
Find your soothers and love yourself First Most Always™️.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, and please share this post with others if it resonates with you. Let’s start a movement of loving ourselves First Most Always™️!
Photo by @dimexphotography on nappy