Comfort Behavior

Something struck me yesterday, and it seems appropriate to talk about it here. My comfort behavior in the car for many years was to stop and get something sweet when I was traumatized, frightened, angry, anxious, sad, bored...you get the picture. Every trip almost, however short the journey, at least once. Yesterday I left a tense situation at work to hurry to a meeting where I had a role and hurried to get back to more of the tense situation. I didn't stop anywhere, didn't eat the pile of candy sitting before me when I sat down at the meeting, shoved it in front of somebody else instead. I did engage in comfort behavior, but it was healthy behavior. And probably weird, but it was what I needed, and good for me. 

 

When my dad died on Christmas Eve, we played unusual music at the funeral with the efforts of my older son to make it happen. It was music very closely tied to both of them. After the funeral, son asked who to give the disk to, and I took it, put it in my purse, and when I got to the car, in the CD player. It's one instrumental piece, and it's less than three minutes long. It's still in the CD player in the car, and when I am fed up with the world, I push the CD button to play it, and turn up the volume to what we played at the funeral, "Loud enough!" And it comforts WAY more than an apple fritter would. I think I'll start being aware of the comfortable things in my life and keeping them in mind when I need the warm cuddlies.