Self soothing

How much of the things that you do that you know you shouldn’t do are due to self-soothing? Backing up a bit, what is self-soothing? Because this is a blog that no-one reads, I’m not going to look it up, but will assume that it is a behaviour that exists less for the apparent goal or activity outcome, but more for the indirect effect it has on the state or mood. Some example I can think of would be the obvious one that are akin to self-medication, such as drinking, or eating, but other things like endless media consumption, or seeking out the dankest memes or whatever it takes to get a little shot of endorphines.

How much of what we do is for this indirect effect, and not for the stated or apparent goal?

Does this matter?

The phrase ‘mindfulness’ has swum into my mind here, but has more to do (I think) with being intentional in the understanding of your current thoughts, as apposed to looking for underlying themes or patterns. Or perhaps I’ve got that wrong. Again, the positives of a zero readership blog is these questions can remain unanswered.

I was wondering about this self-soothing by reading through one of my earlier posts. I seem to have this idea that no matter how under the pump I feel, there are always some tiny little steps that I can take to get things done, or improved. I have realsied that I tend to apply this approach to building self-soothing activities, when I “know” that these activities are more likely that not being done to keep on top of some lurking mood, or some task I don’t feel happy about.

Why don’t I apply this incremental process to the actual commitments I have, instead of the opera of self-soothing?

Is it that I think if I get into the ‘right mode’ I’ll more likely be able to tackle the Big Bad Things? Maybe. But I also know that in the act of starting one of these Big Bad Tasks, I get a very similar boost.

Something to ponder.

Love,

Zinner