Odd thoughts that are strangely comforting

[Swoopy]

When I can't sleep at 4am, I find it oddly comforting to imagine a woman thousands of years ago- Paleolithic era, say- who also couldn't sleep and lay awake worrying about similar sorts of things- how to get her DS to get up and go on the mammoth hunt rather than sleeping in or what to feed everyone in the morning when her family had eaten all the nuts last night that were supposed to be for today (possibly giving away my lack of knowledge of the Paleolithic here).

Does anyone else take comfort in odd things like this?

I think of all the houses I've lived in and try to picture them as they were when they were first built.

Floating on a cloud.
Horse riding.
Shopping in a beautiful department store for gorgeous things.

or sometimes i think about paint colours for the kitchen.

What a lovely thread @Swoopy . I've had a lot of stress the last few years and sleep often evades me, I can't shut out the negative thoughts. Tonight I shall try one of these comforting ideas and see if it helps.

Sometimes I like to think about how deep the sea is. For some reason that's more fathomable (hurhur) than space. The Mariana Trench. Ahhhhh.

I also have a specific thought when something bad happens, which is: if we're all allocated a number of bad things that happen to us in life, that's another of them that's bitten the dust. On to the good stuff. It helps sometimes. Not with health stuff though, I've never been able to make myself feel better when I'm ill. I wonder whether anyone else has a nugget for that.

I don't know if this helps but when I'm ill or injured and feeling sorry for myself, I think 'in medieval times, would I have died of this?'. The answer is always no (so far!) and while it isn't necessarily that comforting, it does give me a bit of perspective.

Very much both of these.

Also the mentally wandering through homes I have lived in. Particularly my dgps flats, which seem so large in my recollections, yet I know for 100% sure they were small.

I have a Welsh dresser that is over 200 years old, I like to think of all the homes it has been in, the people who have loved it and polished it and displayed their treasured items on it.

I am only the current custodian and care for it and love it, touching it with my hands and thinking of all the hands that have cared for it and those that will care for it when I am gone.

I feel the same about the moon, as a pp has said.

Such a calming presence to me. Love our moon.

I often imagine floating upwards seeing my house, my road, my town, my county etc etc. With all the thousands of houses and people. All with their own issues and worries.

@lifesabitchandthenyoudie I do the same, I go for a ride in my head. It's lovely. I read that when Linda McCartney was dying, Paul told her to imagine riding her favourite pony through the bluebells. Not sure if that's true but it's a beautiful thought.

Really interesting thread. Not to be a Debbie downer but I find thinking about my childhood/past too painful because it just reminds me of what is lost and can't be recreated, and thinking about lineage also a bit distressing because I worry about the kind of lives my children and (if they're lucky) my grandchildren will have to face.

I quite like the whale idea but maybe all the whales will die etc... thinking of all the mothers round the world is nice, and the thoughts of a woman hundreds of years ago also quite nice. Will follow for more ideas

I honestly take comfort in the fact that one day I won’t be here. Not in a depressing way, but more an existential way in the sense that life is simultaneously everything and nothing. Sorry I hope that’s not depressing it wasn’t meant to be ❤️

I sometimes like to think that there are lots of different versions of me, all alive and kicking in their own parallel worlds, sliding doors style. So somewhere there’s another me living a very different life, and I think of what that’s like. It’s strange but comforting.

I have a mental house and I just spend time in it. It’s only mine and very quiet. I wander about doing things in it. Tidying, running a bath, lighting lamps. It’s all imagined, but sometimes I catch a glimpse of someone’s kitchen worktop or armchair. There’s no electricity and that seems important. It’s my happy calm place.

When I'm in bed struggling to sleep I imagine someone from the olden days was out on some kind of cold, arduous journey and they rock up to a log cabin with a roaring fire in the bedroom and they are SO COSY! Except the bed is from modern times and not something stuffed full of hay and straw.

Anytime I see anyone getting into to bed on TV I have to get my pyjamas on and follow suit!

This is just beautiful and gave me flashes of a very similar memory, almost like deja vu

I have an entire other life in my head that I play out when I go to sleep. Everything about my flat and job and what I buy. I know all of it like its real. Which is weird I guess. Nothing like my real life

When I was at uni we went to a old massive estate where a mansion had burnt down, but the vista was still there, and you could stand by a wall and see just woods and hills to the horizon. I imagine I'm back living in the mansion with an enormous period style dress.

When I was a child I used to wonder what Joan Collins was doing at that very moment. It was always Joan Collins. She epitomised absolute glamour. And, I liked her.

I also have a recurring dream that I'm in an old house that is very big but it was loads of nooks and crannies, little alcoves and raised areas, hidden areas, secret doors, mezzanines etc and I'm thinking 'that could be a mini library', or ''that could be a reading area' or 'this could be an office or a make up room'. The place is full of potential and I'm always planning lots of ways to siphon off these little areas so they each have a purpose. It feels so fulfilling and full of promise. I try to get into the zone and imagine these places but I can't. The dream ones are far better.

What a lovely thread.

I often think about my grandmother. Her and her dad were sent to the Siberian Gulag when she was 10 years old. As the train was passing through the village, her dad took an opportunity to lower her off the train, so that she could run off. She survived by going from house to house, offering to babysit & do housekeeping until she was old enough to work in a factory. She had 5 children (all uni educated) and a great adulthood.

I imagine her DNA in me and that if she could survive that, then I can f**king survive anything.

When I can't sleep I sometimes think about all the other people in my town who might be awake and why - eg mums with new babies etc - and then extend that out as far as i can- so, the motorway service station down the road from my town will be staffed and have customers; doctors will be on shift at the hospital in the nearest big town, Etc etc. I find it comforting to know I'm not the only one awake.

I don’t know why but sometimes when I can’t sleep I think of sinkholes and what would happen if there is one under my house. Not very comforting 😂

I do listen to podcasts too when I can’t sleep, I like ones can teach me about things, might be how bridges are built, or all about the industrial evolution. Never finish them, but sometimes the odd nugget sticks in my mind, or I’ll remember something the next day and go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Takes my mind of things

I like to imagine I'm on my own, on a magical bed in the middle of a choppy ocean. The waves are crazy, heaving around me, and it is so cold. However, I am protected in my magical bed, with my warm duvet wrapped around me.

Ah this is lovely!

I mentally walk through the schools I’ve been to, from the front door, to the hall, turn left into the dining hall. It’s never made it all the way round before I’m asleep

Another horsewoman here . I’ve had horses since I was 13 , but my first pony , bought by subterfuge on my parents part was my best friend and partner in crime for over 30 years. When I was 14 until about 22 , we would be out riding for hours and hours , long before mobile phones existed. Such a simple life then. Whenever I’m stressed now , I ride those same routes , and even though I now live in another part of the country , I could still describe every path . Clears my mind every time.

When I'm agonising over some political issue or aspect of modern life, I sometimes take a moment to remember that I would never actually choose to live at any time in the past. Now is better.

And I sometimes put myself mentally on a sunny grass slope on the Ridgeway, with cloud shadows passing overhead, lark songs all around and the ancient chalk underneath. I've been there many times, had happy holidays there with my late dh, and dp and I had our first date there.