safety blanket feelings?

what things / experiences / sights / sensations give you safety blanket feelings? they sooth you. if you were a cat they would be a box you climb into.

i've been wanting to describe this somewhere for a while and finally found a thread idea that makes some sense. outside of the window on my side of the bed is a very leafy aspen tree and an overgrown currant bush, and behind that about 100 feet is the neighbors' porch from the side. said neighbor almost always has their porch light on. so at night i open the window and there is a thick blanket of dark, almost-black green through which a couple of spots of yellow light shine through. i think it reminds me of sleeping outside as a kid and seeing porch lights shine through trees. instant feeling of being 'outside' and 'away from the house' while still within reach of warmth and safety.

SMB3

A purring cat snuggled on me.

a dark, quiet room and a door I can close, two doors is better, failing that a cave out in the middle of nowhere is really nice

also the song "The Warmth of a Tomb" by Superdrag lol

The Simpsons theme.

I watched a Halloween special one year (maybe the only year it actually aired on the 31st), when I was feverish and had to miss trick-or-treating. My mom didn't normally let me watch the show on account of I was only (quick googling....) wait 1991?? I was 4 years old in 1991, watching Homer's brain get cut out of his head!! Jesus, Mom, way to cave to the sick kid pressure.

Also the Spoon album Kill the Moonlight. Can't explain why, but the soundscape is me-shaped. (insert Junji Ito "This is my hole!" meme)

When you get out of the shower into a bed with clean sheets and linens, window open, slight breeze. Just the sound of leaves rustling. That’s the best. Every time I go home I have this because my parents live on the edge of town, it’s genuinely like unplugging my brain. I sleep incredibly well there too.

Obvious one, but the other day I had a hot shower after having been out exercising in the fresh air and rain all day and it honestly felt like I was being hugged by my mother as a small child

Also the Spoon album Kill the Moonlight. Can't explain why, but the soundscape is me-shaped. (insert Junji Ito "This is my hole!" meme)

― The king of the demo (bernard snowy), Tuesday, August 8, 2023 11:00 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

'Everything Hits At Once' does peculiar things to me in this way. Obvs there are going to be loads of music examples, but if I had to pick one it's 'O Superman' by Laurie Anderson which I always hear as incredibly amniotic and soothing, despite the sometimes distressing lyrical references

Another: the Chrono Trigger soundtrack. If I'm feeling distressed or panicky, I just listen to 'Wind Scene' and it calms me down

Maybe this is too literal but the lead blanket they put over you at the dentist when you are getting x-rays is super calming.

Going to Wave Hill, a park in the Bronx overlooking the Hudson River, with galleries, gardens, and a few nature trails. I've been going there since I was a child. My sister and I would let the goldfish in the pool nibble our fingers. It is my Strawberry Fields Forever. I proposed to my wife there.

The sound of a washing machine churning away is instant domestic relaxation for me.

my cat chilli had the softest fur and the loudest purr and she loved to lie down next to me for cuddles

she died in april and i miss her every day but i can still bring to mind vivid memories of her presence and they're very soothing when i'm stressed

not really a specific location or sensory input, just being in that space where I've got on top of everything and have earned a nap. like got up very early took the dog for a walk, put some spice paste and meat the crockpot, done loads of housework and laundry and have now earned a guilt free nap. That point where I'm drifting off into a short slumber with mind not focused on anything worrisome, with the dog curled up asleep on the other armchair. That moment is like a drug, it's the most comfortable least angst ridden part of my day. It's almost worth staying up ridiculously late then getting up early just for that perfect late morn or early aft nap recharge.

pizza tbh

being outdoors with a beer and surrounded by friends

safety blanket feelings I know, I know, they're serious

sitting at kitchen table at my parents house in the early morning, looking out at the garden & hearing the magpies

the sound of magpies in general

early John Coltrane (56-57)

Sort of inexplicably, the first line of Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday." I'm not a fan of Jimmy Buffett and can't think of another song of his I like, but his voice singing "Heading out to San Francisco, for the Labor Day weekend show" makes me feel deeply comforted in a way that's almost too much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwx-MlbAyJ0

The sound of a washing machine churning away is instant domestic relaxation for me.

Just came here to post "In the house I lived in up through age 7, lying in bed listening to the dishwasher"

the aroma of onions, peppers and garlic being sautéed in olive oil

the sound of a train moving in the distance

light filtering through tall redwood trees early in the morning

yo la tengo’s fakebook

standing on the christopher street pier in NYC, looking across the hudson at the hoboken/jersey city skyline

pizza tbh

The continuity of live radio broadcasts. I think it's the idea of a "remote presence", someone sitting alone in a cozy booth far away in the quiet of night.

Along similar lines, distant beacons on Lighthouses, Coast guard bases and manned weather stations.

Abandoned office spaces and basement storage rooms, where there was privacy enough to daydream.

All of these things that suggest little cocoons.

A big one: Seeing into other people's houses from a passing train or a neighboring window, a stolen glimpse but not the whole picture, just a narrow slice with lots of missing information for the mind to fill in.

the sea

ooh yes ^^^ cosign

The sound of light aircraft droning overhead, Cessnas and the like, especially if its also a calm and sunny mid seasonal day. Something about that reminds me of being a kid I think? I lived under a flightpath then and I (kinda) do now, so I started to notice it recently.

Oh and codiene, but I guess that is cheating.

haha. whenever i shoot up i feel like a living vince guaraldi soundtrack

cicadas during the day, crickets at night, resting in sleeping bags in haylofts. also this:

yo la tengo’s fakebook

― donna rouge, Tuesday, August 8, 2023

we’ve had a lot of funerals lately, helps me remember one of my big safety blankets is hanging out with my parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, extended family etc

the sound of a train moving in the distance

Train sounds are a good one. I live in a train town, four blocks from the tracks and a small switchyard, and I love the booms of cars coupling up and trains going through, sometimes creeping and sometimes going around 50mph. From 1987 to 1993 we lived one block from some tracks where trains came through at top speed -- I loved the roar.

A warm bed in a very cold room is hard to beat. We keep the central heat off in our house unless it gets close to freezing outside because there's no better night of sleep than when you can see your breath but it's toasty under the blankets.

Yeah I lived in one house that was just a few houses from the tracks, and even up close the noise was soothing once I was used to it. The 4 a.m. run would wake me up sometimes, but I never minded, I'd fall right back asleep listening to it.

And here's another one I'm indulging right now — candles. I love a room with the lights off and a bunch of candles lit.

It took a trip to Japan to realise that they got something very right with traditional house design, specifically the ones with a courtyard garden, boxed in on all sides and with corridors and screens opening inward.

I can think of a few places we visited where I could have stayed all day, staring into space. Particularly these two museum spaces that were old merchant's buildings built from cypress timbers next door to each other in Takayama.

The gardens and downstairs spaces were amazing and after a few days I'd never felt more unhappy at having to leave a place in my life before, I could have stayed in that town forever. My thoughts often return there and have I screensaver photos to remind me.

I’ve talked about this before but the Faroe Islands is the place that gives me these feelings . We have a good relationship with a local who has an Airbnb so we’ve stayed there 4 times, which is part of the feeling. It rains a lot, gets really windy, doesn’t get much colder than 35 in winter or much warmer than 55 in summer, and all that is my idea of cozyness. Sitting in the cottage, watching weather roll in and out over the water, feeling cocooned in a structure that has withstood wild weather for over a 100yrs - that’s the best feeling of contentment.

being snuggled under a blanket while it's raining outside and someone is running a vacuum cleaner

"snuggled" means just being under the blanket, not being snuggled by someone else which is kind of stress-inducing for me

A couple days ago we made a picnic and took the kids to a park with a rose garden by the river. Sandwiches, fruit, a blanket, lemon cookies. Just perfect. Last night I went out to the nearest bar and I played a Bruce Springsteen song on the mandolin. Today my wife and I went for oysters and bread at lunchtime. Sun, shade, mignonette, wine.

So very many things suck right now but those experiences were a nice temporary antidote.

I get warm fuzzy safety blanket feelings from black and white film and TV. I'm old enough to have grown up with black and white television until 1968, so I'm sure it's just childhood nostalgia, but even modern recreations like The Man Who Wasn't There trigger the same feelings.

I grew with a black and white tv until 1986! But old b/w movies yes, but not modern ones or remakes - and also for example Satantango or Turin Horse don't have that effect for me.

black & white episodes of “Gunsmoke”
also movie Westerns, old technicolor or black & white, they all have that “Saturday TV matinee” afternoons at grandma’s house vibe for me

The sound of a hairdryer has done it for me since I was a newborn

various John Wayne westerns, Hobson's Choice, The Shop Around the Corner - too many to mention but some of these old movies are comfort food to me.

Not sure I have anything to offer aside from my weighted blanket? I don’t associate nostalgia with safety for the most part.

My mum made me sit and watch Hobson's Choice with her one weekend when I was about 12 or something and I loved it, definitely good memories there.

It is interesting that a lot of these are prob associated with childhood memories. So it'd go without saying not everyone would have that to pull from.

If anything adult-life moments of comfort are even more potent, for maybe being a little unexpected or hard to come by.

opening theme from Twilight Zone

That central coast of california anise smell in the morning or evening

Yes speaking of adult-life ones:
The Roost Island theme from Zelda Wind Waker. It makes me feel both happy comfort, and cry. A good time long gone, I guess?

for the record pretty much all of my childhood memories are fucking awful, rain/vacuum cleaner is, like, the single pleasant childhood memory i have

i have a surprising amount of comforting childhood memories, considering my abusive family. they couldn't keep me from feeling the magic of certain sights / sounds / smells of nature. it was almost like i attached to those things the feeling of endless possibility, magic and comfort out of defiance! or out of survival in a way - desperately putting these things in the bank for when i would need them the most (adulthood). it's become more important to me to reconnect with the full measure of those feelings and memories when i can. i think that through my 20s and 30s i took them for granted.

I’ve talked about this before but the Faroe Islands is the place that gives me these feelings . We have a good relationship with a local who has an Airbnb so we’ve stayed there 4 times, which is part of the feeling. It rains a lot, gets really windy, doesn’t get much colder than 35 in winter or much warmer than 55 in summer, and all that is my idea of cozyness. Sitting in the cottage, watching weather roll in and out over the water, feeling cocooned in a structure that has withstood wild weather for over a 100yrs - that’s the best feeling of contentment.

― just1n3, Wednesday, August 9, 2023 4:59 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i just want to say i hadn't read this before, and it's very beautiful.

libraries or museums at night, especially if it's hot outside and cold in the public spaces

a warm night in late spring, when a wind rises up and brings you the scent of trees in blossom

and mourning dove calls

and distant trains

and sunlight baking pine trees and sand

Damn, that's poetic!

~𝒻𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓈~

I thought of something! My iPod shuffle. I’ve always been a walker and it’s perfect company on my long walks. I have it loaded with a handful of choice super long tracks and a variety of other stuff that I weirdly never get sick of. Last time I changed the music was like 3+ years ago and i know every song in there like the back of my hand. That’s safety blanket comfort for me.

I’m much more practical than I am poetic.

My wife wants to know which Airbnb on the Faroe Islands. That’s on her short list of dream vacation spots.

Ilx-mail me and I’ll send you the link!

west of ireland ticks all of those boxes and i feel i should yknow point that out

west of ireland, you say, hmmm

i have a friend with a place in drim, and a semi-standing invite to visit -- does drim share this comforting dreariness? (i mean drear in the best sense, frickin' love drear, currently becalmed in colorado where the sun only shuts up long enough for us to get buried in snow) & when might be the best or worst times to visit? upon entering a public establishment, can one brandish one's ar-15 openly or is it considered more polite to hang it up by the coats?

dmac would be the expert, but I spent a couple days not that far from there and hiked the Burren National Park, which was incredible in the fog and rain. Stayed in a country inn that burned peat in the fireplace and would absolutely couch for how comforting it is.

ive no idea where drim is?!

anyway

anywhere west coast works i promise

oh, I had to google it.

Waking up on a cold morning, warm under heavy quilts, and being 100% awake but not having to get out of bed yet, is a fantastic feeling. Just lying there warm for like 10-15 minutes before the day starts.

A purring cat snuggled on me.

Yes, this. We have two cats, at least one of them sleeps on my feet every night. Even better when they both do.

I have a literal safety blanket feeling: when I was home sick as a kid, my mom would take the covers and fluff them up. That feeling of them drifting back down on me is still something I draw comfort from thinking about.

yea, google seems pretty light on #drimfacts & i just want to be sure i'm not being lured into a wicker man situation (tho i don't suppose i'd really mind too much)

burren park looks exquisitely bleak! they should call it... barren national park!!!!!! but for real, it sounds dope as hell

that general sense of being cozily cocooned against the harsher elements is damn near narcotic. gazing out a window at thickly falling snow while cuddled up in a soft warm blanket with a mug of hot tea and a happy animal snuggled against you, it's basically the pinnacle of existence imo

at first i didn't have a response for this. then it occurred to me that my answer is watching old episodes of dr. katz on youtube!

definitely for me this is UK television with VT interior scenes - exteriors are allowed to be film or videotape, both are acceptable - i remember when I was a kid equating the electric light bulb in my parents’ living room with the cosy, safe feeling that was evoked by the studio interiors - if made approx. 1965-1987 i can watch the boringest drama or unfunniest comedy quite happily for vibe

and riffing off some earlier posts, love being in a solid brick or concrete structure next to the ocean - for bonus points said structure can have an electric bar heater mounted on the wall

during the pandemic: McLeod's Daughters. One Piece. Youtube. Youtube videos of crazy roads and crazy train trips and tunnels and climbing and extreme running. endless jazz interviews i found online via some library of congress link? anyway, i dove into those and didn't come up for air for months. also: stuffed animals. for real. i covered my bed in my kids old stuffed animals. it worked!

Andrew Hickey's History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast. I've been listening from the beginning, and there's something about the slow, steady, reliable pace of it that's incredibly comforting. I hear the theme music and it has the same effect on me that the theme music of a Pertwee Doctor Who did when I was a kid. (Pertwee wasn't my favorite - Tom Baker was - but there was something more reliable and calming about the slight boringness of a Pertwee episode.)

stuffed animals. for real. i covered my bed in my kids old stuffed animals. it worked!

i love this

That reminds me of a really obvious safety blanket I didn’t even think of:

A few years ago I bought my husband this stuffed seal as an inside-joke gift and now I sleep cuddled up with it every night.

https://imgur.com/a/y0h81d2

I’m a side sleeper, and it’s the perfect size and shape to support my arm and shoulder. But it’s also covered in this incredible velvet-like fabric that I sometimes pet to self soothe (as a kid, I didn’t have a special toy or blanket but I was obsessed with rubbing nylon between my fingers - petticoats etc), and the shape allows me to kind of smother my face in it while I hold it (idk why but I like my mouth covered while I sleep).

I was obsessed with rubbing nylon between my fingers

My brother did this, too, with a blanket--while sucking his thumb, a la Linus. He called that part of the blanket the "silkies."

Apparently I upskirted a lot of women in doctor waiting rooms as toddler, looking for petticoats to rub. Of course, instead of just giving me an old petticoat to have as my own, my mum just punished me out of the behavior.

The first thing this thread makes me think of is this thread: pot of coffee on a rainy day house (don't know if it's telling or a coincidence that thread was started by the same poster as this). There's something extremely appealing about the image of spending a weekend afternoon at cafe on a drizzly summer day, when it's warm enough to wear shorts and feel the fresh air on your calves, but cool enough to drink hot coffee, when you don't need to do work, but don't have any pressure to do anything else, and you can just sit and be there. Also good if they're playing good music, including (but not limited to) "pot of coffee on a rainy day day house"