Finding your Comfort Zone

[dr_christian_troy]

In the midst of - well, everything these days - I was wondering what your general approach is in terms of relaxing, being comfortable, feeling okay, alleviating anxiety.

Is there an album, a film, a television series, a book, and / or a meal that you revisit in times of crisis? Something that perhaps generates a safe sense of nostalgia? Is there a way in which you have found it easier to relax better, sleep better?

I was recommended a weighted blanket which I received for Christmas, and I must admit I have had the best sleep ever since. I go into a deep sleep and actually remember dreams when I wake up. I've also been making an effort to have a few variations of tea before bed, like chamomile and honey for example.

I've always associated a Comfort Zone with the idea of being situated in a log cabin. The idea of it being cold outside while you're warm and cosy indoors is probably the appeal I guess.

Any recommendations, suggestions or inspirations for finding comfort are welcome.

_{Edit: Cynical responses are not.}

[bgmnts]

Nope.

[PlanktonSideburns]

this album, for both chilling out and relaxing during plane takeoff and landing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06HcFuiHWZ4&t=5s

[Dex Sawash]

this album, for both chilling out and relaxing during plane takeoff and landing

https://youtu.be/-1673PTAEfY

link fixed

[salr]

I've always associated a Comfort Zone with the idea of being situated in a log cabin. The idea of it being cold outside while you're warm and cosy indoors is probably the appeal I guess.

I get this feeling sometimes while lying in bed a night, especially in the recent storms. My bed runs along an exterior wall, so when I can hear the rain lashing the window and the wind howling, I think that just a foot or so to my left, it is cold and windy and raining, but I am safe and secure and dry in bed under the duvet.

In terms of music, I sometimes listen to the beatles - let it be when I am hungover and have the fear, to try to help me put aside the bad feelings in my mind.

A different kind of comfort zone is just putting on a film I have seen dozens of times before, so many times that I know what will happen next, and what the characters will say next. Something like Terminator 2: Judgement Day works for me.

[Icehaven]

I have great difficulty concentrating on one thing at a time, so while it's not exactly a useful or particularly valuable use of my limited of time on earth, if I'm trying to watch a film or TV show I find certain very simple, repetitive games on my phone help enormously as they don't affect my ability to take in what I'm watching but occupy enough brain space to stop my mind wandering completely. Stupid things like Angry Birds, Tetris, word puzzle games, that kind of thing. I find it far more relaxing doing both activities at the same time than trying to just do one, similarly when I'm cooking I can't just cook, I have to have something on Netflix (usually something I've seen before so it doesn't matter if I miss bits while I'm pottering round the kitchen) or a podcast on or something. And that sort of is my comfort zone, doing two things at once half-arsedly rather than trying no-arsedly to focus on one.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

this album, for both chilling out and relaxing during plane takeoff and landing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06HcFuiHWZ4&t=5s

It's this one for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcBLucliLVI

[Thomas]

I love Jarvis Cocker's Wireless Nights. Walking around at night - in a quiet, pleasant, low-risk-of-mugging area - listening to that. Desert Island Discs, too. Then back to the log cabin for hot chocolate.

During a particularly Bad Time some years ago, rife with physically debilitating anxiety, I would lie in bed for hours listening to Mark Kermode film reviews. I don't know why I found them so calming, and I haven't listened to any since. Not interested.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Walking the coast of west Cornwall listening to early 90s shoegaze does it for me. Or recording music

[checkoutgirl]

In my bedroom watching some old film from my childhood in my bed. Lovely. Add some wine or spirits and that's nice.

Rooibos tea every morning in work tricks my mind into thinking I'm consuming healthy things.

Football game on Playstation 2.

[PlanktonSideburns]

It's this one for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcBLucliLVI

those two lads look like theyve been faceswapped

[Mr_Simnock]

When I have been through anxious times in the past I've found playing runescape has helped. Something a bit mindless like woodcutting for an hour or trying to top an hour kill count of something really took my mind of the everyday rubbish very well. There are so many avenues of achievements and tasks in that game you can be at it for a decade and still not get through it all.

[TrenterPercenter]

In the midst of - well, everything these days - I was wondering what your general approach is in terms of relaxing, being comfortable, feeling okay, alleviating anxiety.

Is there an album, a film, a television series, a book, and / or a meal that you revisit in times of crisis? Something that perhaps generates a safe sense of nostalgia? Is there a way in which you have found it easier to relax better, sleep better?

Any recommendations, suggestions or inspirations for finding comfort are welcome.

_{Edit: Cynical responses are not.}

I tend to immerse myself in things that require quite a bit of thought, there are a series of interesting lectures on the Youtubes by the Royal Institution at the moment.  Cooking is also a great comforting exercise and you get to stuff your face at the end.  Another thing I do is go on youtube music binges finding genres of music or bands i've not considered and find out if i'm interested in them or not.  I also now have a nice wood fire in my new gaff so a cup of tea, slippers and good read is very cosy (obviously having a fire indoors isn't possible for everyone but you could find a nice pub that has one and curl up there for a bit).

This has been a horrid winter, that has taken a lot of managing on the psychological front for me but we are nearly there now and the sun is starting to come out : )

As other posters have suggesting it is all about not focusing on what makes you anxious or the feeling of anxiety, it gives you body time to recoup and deal with everything better.  Best of health to ye!

[Ferris]

2 tins of beer, Ferris family in eyesight (preferably asleep so I can see they're ok), headphones on with nice podcast or music, stupid EA sports game on (switched to absurdly easy) so I can trounce the Oilers/Yankees/Birmingham city with minimal effort (and no requirement for sound so I can focus on the podcast).

Bliss.

[Blue Jam]

My comfort TV used to be Peep Show but I've watched it far too much now.

Now my comfort TV is Suits. It's like another old favourite of mine, House, in that it's a bit daft and a nice bit of background noise I can't take too seriously. I'm just hoping it doesn't go crap at the end of season 6.

[Big Mclargehuge]

I have quite a few things going on in my life which makes stress kind of unavoidable but depending on what I've been doing I have a few different ways to get comfortable. Films and boxsets are my main fall back. Im more than happy to sink a night into either 2-3 films and a few beers or a few episodes of a good comedy boxset.

Next up from that would be gaming. I have quite a few games consoles (Switch, SNES, PS3, PS4, PSP, Gameboy etc...) and if Im not feeling particularly inspired by what movies I've got I'll happily pick one of the dozens of games I've not been able to start off the shelf and blast through a few hours to chill out.

To a lesser extent in the summer I'll also drive out. I find driving (As long as it's not on busy Motorways or Duel Carriageways) quite calming and I'll often go and head out to landmarks for an afternoon out.

In certain circumstances video editing can chill me out as well...

Most of these all depend on what kind of stress im dealing with...if im irritable only the driving one seems to completely calm me down...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

1) A decent pub, preferably shady candlelit and a bit clandestine. Extra points if you can't see the outside world.

2) A long train journey, scenery rolling past. Warm and calm, the carriage maybe half filled at most.

3) Cricket. The perfect sport if you're looking to absorb vast periods of time

4) Snooker. Falling asleep on a Sunday to the clack of snooker balls interspersed by long periods of recorded hush.

5) A calm, snowy field far from home. Robert Frost's poem captures the mood better than I could.

6) Evening by the sea on a warm day somewhere on the Med. The golden hour when the day dies but the nighttime buzz hasn't kicked off

7) Inside during a rainstorm. The rain on the window. You're inside and dry and safe.

8) CaB

[Dr Syntax Head]

Ditto a long train journey. Just music, movement and scenery. Magic.

[Emma Raducanu]

Put me on a train carriage half filled. Do they exist in this country?

[Ferris]

Upper bleaches at the skydome in June, preferably section 527 row one, early evening. Impossible to be stressed.

Ditto on the train journey though, just a lovely way to spend time.

[Bazooka]

Cook a beef wellington and eat it, surrounded by dreamcatchers.

[Butchers Blind]

4) Snooker. Falling asleep on a Sunday to the clack of snooker balls interspersed by long periods of recorded hush.

Yeah, this.  Especially after the roast and a hearty ale.

[Thomas]

I've really got to re-calibrate my feelings about Sundays. There's a wealth of cosy relaxation to be mined, but I always shrink from the foreboding approach of Monday morning. And I like my job!

[alan nagsworth]

I've been travelling on the London underground so frequently for nearly a decade now that on the occasions where I'm working far from home and can get one tube all the way (Turnpike Lane to Acton, for example, is 45 mins on the Piccadilly line) and manage to get a seat, I find that extremely comforting. Shut my eyes, listen to something otherworldly like SHXCXCHCXSH or "Rifts" by Oneohtrix Point Never, and hurtle down those tubes below the city streets with my coat zipped up to my chin in a crowded little carriage. Other people need to get on and off before me but I'm safe and sound there. Often there's people going further than me, to Heathrow airport, on their holidays. And there's me snug in the midst of all of it.

Since I've cut down drastically on my drinking, the claustrophobic anxiety and dread that used to come with those journeys has completely dissipated, and I absolutely fucking love trains, so those journeys are great (albeit rare).

In fact fuck it, trains are my comfort zone, period.

[imitationleather]

Lying in bed watching Sue Cook-era episodes of Crimewatch UK with two cats on my chest.

[Grendle]

I pick up a pencil and draw.

[TrenterPercenter]

I've really got to re-calibrate my feelings about Sundays. There's a wealth of cosy relaxation to be mined, but I always shrink from the foreboding approach of Monday morning. And I like my job!

Very natural.  This is what Sunday night baths are for!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Put me on a train carriage half filled. Do they exist in this country?

Not too many, you have to take unpopular journeys or travel at unpopular times.

Early afternoon on a weekday isn't bad for long journeys, or the first thing in the morning train (5am) to London or Newcastle tends to be alright. Or taking the slow train from Sheffield to Leeds.

I am of course mainly referring to non UK train travel.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I pick up a pencil and draw.

Bzzt incorrect. Do sign up for the Jacobs Crackers 2021 Whistling Contest though.

[Grendle]

Are you Ben Fogol, 'leading explorer, presenter and friend to royalty '
I want to start a fan club in your honour.