Managing Social Distancing When Your Love Language is Touch
What do you do when your main love language is touch and you are currently single and/or quarantined by yourself? Are you finding that keeping your distance from others is creating a deep sadness and inner hardship for you?
It’s essential that you have compassion for who you are and create sacred time for yourself! This season might be challenging, but it can also be a beautiful lesson in cultivating self love and internal self sufficiency. Remember, you are always enough, everything you need comes from within, you have all that you need.
Try this exercise!
Set up a bit of intentional physical space for yourself. This can be getting comfy on your bed, arranging pillows around you on your couch, or even seated comfortably on the floor. Sit with yourself placing your hands on your heart. Clothes your eyes if you feel comfortable. Take some deep breaths and repeat these words:
“I am enough, I have everything I need within me, I have all that I need.”
Repeat these affirmations for several breath cycles. Take note of how your body is feeling. If you notice anywhere in particular where you’re struggling to find ease or stillness, send your breath and these affirmations to these spots directly.
Some other activities to help ground and center yourself and create a space of self-care and self-love:
Play some music and dance! Be sensual with yourself! Send love to your body through embrace, touch, and movement!
Light some candles and take a bath! Play music that helps you access gratitude for the ways your body keeps you strong, well, and healthy!
Love each piece of your body starting with your feet and working your way up to your head! This can be through deep intentional breathing or even self-massage. Pause to focus on each body part and what it does to help you function throughout your day. Notice your body’s softness, send kind thoughts, gentle touch, even appreciative kisses to your knees, hands, shoulders, etc.
What do you miss? Give yourself the touch you need to feel!
Along with meeting our needs for touch in this time of social distancing, these activities can also help us release shame as we connect to our body through love and appreciation of how it functions! This is a time to connect with yourself through love and compassion not judgment. If you find any of these touch exercises and or viewing your body naked to be difficult, you can also practice them with your clothes on, in your bed, or wherever you feel most comfortable.
If you are in a relationship but are unable to physically connect with your partner then doing those things with your partner via video chat can be a beautiful expression of love without touch. Pick a song with your partner to play and dance to, make a date to take a bath at the same time, cook together! Set intentional space to be connected and playful with one another.
Even less direct activities like finding a hobby you enjoy can be helpful in nurturing self-love and inner connection! Do you like painting, cooking, reading, crafting, gardening or building? When do you feel the calmest and most able to surrender to being fully present with yourself? These are the best activities to engage in! Find what works for you.
Lastly, I want to encourage you to reach out for support as you need it, video chat with your friends and family, reach out to a mental health professional, honor yourself by pursuing what you need and don’t be afraid to make it fun. Know you are not alone in this and find the love that IS you. You are enough, You have everything you need!
Love & Blessings,
Mindy
