“Hey, Bill, whenever I experience major depressive disorder or panic attack symptoms, all I want to do is head for my comfort place – and that’s H-O-M-E. Don’t much feel safe anywhere else.”
Well, that was pretty straight-forward, huh?! And if I had a buck for every time I heard a client say it, I’d be a wealthy man. Heck, add another buck for the number of times I’ve said it over the many years and I’d be right there with Warren Buffett.
So what about you? Does returning to your comfort place – home (maybe even that bed of yours) – loom large in your thinking throughout any given day? Okay, so maybe that place of comfort and safety is your car or your office. Could well be with a person. But I’m thinkin’ you know what I mean. Right?
Actually, the deep meaning and need of home to we human-types is very real and incredibly important. Here’s Maya Angelou’s take, from All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes…
The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Yeah, but this home/comfort/safety biz can become a confounding dilemma for those dealing with emotional/mental woes. I mean, here we are “grown-ups,” and we feel icky and out-of-sorts when we’re out and about – and can’t get the notion of racing for home out of our minds.
So just what are we going to do about that?
Hmmm, well I suppose we can approach the issue from a couple of angles. First consideration would be to explore what it is that makes us feel so uncomfy and unsafe out thar’, and through cognitive (behavioral) work learn it’s grounded in misinterpretation and overreaction. And I’ll guarantee that’s double-true. Hey, if you’re working with a counselor, I encourage you to (continue to) go there. Even if you’re flying solo, you can still soar with it.
But what about other options? And that brings us to the point of the piece (peace?)…
Let’s take our time and reason this out a bit (LOL, right?). If accessibility to home – comfort and safety – is such a huge issue for us, what would be the ultimate fix? That’s right, make it mobile – portable – so we can take it with us where’er we go. Just like the R.V. in our featured image. By the way, is it cool, or what? Have always wanted to take a trip cross-country in one of those sons-a-guns. You?
So, how do we set-up mobile “home?” Pretty simple. Take-up roots – establish home – within. Think about it. If our sense of home/comfort/safety thrives in the deepest reaches of our being, wouldn’t that mean we’d have access to it wherev’, whenev’? And if that’s the case, would we ever need to be overly concerned about what might happen when we’re out and about?
Sounds downright sensible to me. And here are the thoughts of a few folks of note who agree…
I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.
Maya Angelou, from Letter to My DaughterHome isn’t a place, its a feeling.
Cecelia Ahern, from Love, RosieHome. That wonderful place I was lucky enough to revisit no matter how short a time finally realizing it’s not relegated to just one single place its wherever you make it.
Alyson Noel, from Blue MoonEvery day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
Japanese poet Matsuo BashōYour true home is in the here and the now.
Thích Nhất Hạnh, from Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thích Nhất Hạnh: 365 days of practical, powerful teachings from the beloved Zen teacher
(Notice I didn’t insult you with “Home is where the heart is.”)
Plenty of wisdom floating about, I’d say.
But what do you say? This mobile “home” concept – is it making sense? More importantly, are you motivated to make it work for you?
Here, how ’bout this thought? K, you’re dealing with major depressive disorder or panic attacks symptoms – or, say, adult separation anxiety. If you could handle all of your life business from your home – which would mean taking it with you no matter where you go – what would become of your suffering? I dunno’, I’m thinkin’ it would exponentially decrease.
If you agree, that rather proves the point, doesn’t it?
So the challenge now becomes facilitation. How might you establish “home,” with its comfort and safety, within – being able to have access to it wherev’, whenev’? Think it over, won’t you? And please take the time to record what you come up with in a comment. After all, Chipur is a sharing, learning, and healing kind of thing.
No doubt about it, “home” is a life essential in soooo many ways. It’s just a matter of how it’s defined and experienced.
Right?
image credit | experiencelife.lamesarv.com
Maybe it’s time to grab some comfort and safety by perusing some 600 Chipur titles?