Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Self-Soothing

Having a baby nephew at home one can’t help to wonder if Robert DeNiro’s character in “Meet the Fockers” was correct in training the baby to self-soothe. One of the reasons why we train babies to self-sooth is to supposedly toughen them up for the real world, yet in a world of cellphones and instant messages is self-soothing still as inevitable?

One of my closest friends, Anj, has been mothering me for the past few months, enduring endless “cries for help.” Well, she doesn’t normally reply, she knows that I just want to vent my frustrations. When I feel exceptionally down, one mass text to gather the group is all I need. Everyone is so accessible nowadays that you need not be alone when you are in fact alone.

What is self-soothing then? Absence of physical contact or absence of even that of a mere emotional contact to help you get through one of those days (or months for that matter)? I personally think it's the latter, just knowing that someone's there is enough of a comfort to me.

No comments: