Things you find oddly comforting

[HappybutsometimesGrouchy]

Thought this would be an interesting thread. Things you find comforting but you don't know why. For me it's thinking about the 90s and looking back on all the fads, music, fashion of that era (pokemon, Spice Girls etc). Makes me feel really calm and happy. This can also go the opposite way and depending on my mood, it can also make me feel a sad longing for the past! So weird and I have no idea why I have such strong emotions linked to this particular decade! I also find the sound of the tumble dryer soothing and have been know to watch the laundry spinning round in the washer

Does anyone know how to request Alexa to play the shipping forecast? Whenever I ask I get the wrong thing!

Ask for the BBC Radio 4 Shipping bulletin?

Not sure, but it might be that you need to be more specific to get the right thing.

I love this thread. I love watching a tealight in a lovely holder as I listen to ghost stories on podcasts with purring cats ..and drifting to sleep ... I also listen to nature sounds sometimes. The app I use has everything from various rain scenarios to crackling fires ( although that one makes me panic that something's on fire)!

And when you come out of the tent first thing and you haven't had enough sleep and it's cold and damp and grassy and you go to the manky shower block for a wee and come back and there's no coffee - somehow , that!

Oh and like a PP I hang my arm up on the air when I'm in bed too!

Such a beautiful thread!

The internet says you have to enable the service (free), then say Alexa, play the shipping forecast'.

The sound of Radio 4. I don't even really have to be listening to it. Just a murmur in the background. Makes me feel safe for some reason.

I used to revise for O and A levels with Radio 3 playing quietly in the background - always remember the way the presenters would pause before speaking once the piece of music had ended, and they spoke so softly (as parodied on Dead Ringers).

On the recommendation of the thread I’ve listened to the shipping forecast today.

why am I bothering with headspace when this is a million times more relaxing and meditational (is that a word?)

Watching Grey's Anatomy. I get to season 14 turn start season 1 all over, I've seen them so many times I don't usually watch them much, just have them on in the background, it's like friends in the room.

White noise. I have tinnitus and white noise keeps me sane.

The glugging sound wine makes when poured into a glass.

This one is morbid so I apologise. I live with a few horrible chronic conditions and it sometimes gets the better of me. I find it comforting thinking of how I could always take my life if it gets too much. I very much doubt I would. But it feels like my escape hatch.

I love driving past houses late at night and looking in their windows with the lights on. I imagine the families that live there and their life.

All of you saying rain need the Rain Rain app, an assortment of different rain noises to send you to sleep. My personal favourite being rain on a tent.

My DH reading aloud to me in bed, it is just lovely. Doesn't matter what it is, it instantly puts me in the sleepy mode.

The feeling of DCat lying in the quilt hammock she makes when she lies right between us in bed, or snuggling right into my back.

The smell of laundry done by my lovely DM. I am holding onto a t'shirt that she washed for me last time I stayed with her before she died. The smell is fading - perhaps I've sniffed it all up. I can't bear the thought of that.

Looking in other people's windows while driving past at twilight. The busyness of a home, the glimpses of lives being lived, all warm and glowing.

A cuddle off my DD’s, my dressingown,the smell of coffee, rain on the window at night, cars driving late at night and a fluffy blanket that if I’m worried or upset I rub on my face when I’m in bed to calm me down

Beans and sausages on toast

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlELxiNHMl/?utmmsource=igshareesheet&igshid=ygnxzxpq8k2j

Hearing church bellls on a Sunday morning. Hearing noises coming from the local pub late on a Saturday night. Being cosy in the house when its raining ( not that weird I suppose). Pretty little villages. Having all my housework done. Getting into a Fresh bed after a bath. Certain smells.

The opening sequences of late 80s / early 90s movies: Sleepless in Seattle, 3 Men and a Little Lady, Born Yesterday.... that special, wholesome, twangy, synthy soundtrack and the montages... I feel like everything's going to be OK :)

hotstepper4 I'm exactly the same with Greys Anatomy. I just watched every episode and I've started back at the beginning.

Friends used to be the one I had on in the background, now it's Greys. I went through a dry spell where I didn't watch 12-14 so I just binge watched and started all over again!

Plucking my chin hairs
Slippers
My kids all fresh from the bath in clean pj’s

Also Oasis Don't look in back anger. Can't work out of life was more or less complicated then.

I love the feeling of bedsheets between my toes. I’ll find a little fold in the bedsheets and just run it between my big toe and the toe next to it. Bliss!
I also do it under my fingernails. Make a little crease and run it under my fingernails. I just find it really soothing!

Now I’ve written this I feel like quite a freak!

Oh I love this thread

I pull on my ears when I'm anxious or stressed. It soothes me.

I'm most comforted and secure when I was in my old caravan and it's the middle of night and everyone is asleep except me and it's still and pitch black, even better if it's raining or thunderstorm. Or late evening in the caravan with the lamps on and the gas fire and a thunderstorm and either the radio or one of my playlists playing and a good book and a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate. Or late evening with the fire and lamps on snuggling with a friend or family member while watching tv preferably something like CSI or Bones, Criminal minds or Vera with tea and biscuits while they read or do a puzzle book.

Oh taking my socks off while I'm in a nice cold freshly made bed and having it warm up around me.