Soft Healing Through Self-Therapy 🌻(healing traumas all alone).

Hello deer, this is Seri 💕

There are moments when the world feels too loud, too fast, too heavy and in those moments, I learned to become my own quiet place.

Self-therapy became my way of whispering to my heart: “I’m still here. I'm resilient. You can do it”

My journey began not from peace, but from pain, from trauma.

From emotions that were too big to hold and moments that left invisible marks. For a long time, I didn’t know what to do with what I was carrying.

I didn’t have a map, only the need to feel a little lighter, a little safer.

So I started creating gentle rituals to take care of myself.

Not perfect ones ; just soft spaces where I could breathe, feel, and slowly begin to heal. This is what self-therapy is for me: a blooming path back to myself. Through music, light, clay, colors, and quiet reflections, I found ways to care for the parts of me that hurt the most.

This post is a little window into that world. I hope it feels like a hand reaching out, soft and steady, for anyone else learning how to love themselves through the storm.

🌻What if self-therapy?

Self-therapy is when you care for your emotional, mental, or even spiritual well-being by guiding yourself through therapeutic practices without necessarily involving a professional therapist.

It means:

🌻Observing your emotions with objectivity.

🌻Creating little rituals that help you process feelings.

🌻Using tools like writing, music, meditation, or art to connect with your inner self.

🌻Taking care of your mental health in small, consistent ways.

It’s rooted in self-awareness, self-respect, and the desire to feel more grounded.

Self-therapy can feel like creating a quiet space just for you, where you get to breathe, listen, and heal a little at your own rhythm.

It doesn’t replace therapy with a professional. It's a gentle, personal way to support yourself.

Types of Self-Therapy🌻

Expressive Self-Therapy

Using creativity to express feelings and process inner states.

Examples:

💕Art journaling or drawing your mood

💕Writing poetry or letters to your past/future self

💕Creating mood boards, playlists, or soft collages

Music-Based Self-Therapy

Letting music hold you, move through you, and support your emotions.

Examples:

💕Listening to piano or indie folk to match your mood

💕Singing alone, softly releasing emotions

💕Playing an instrument to soothe your thoughts

Somatic Self-Therapy (Body-Based)

Using the body to release stress or emotions gently.

Examples:

💕Stretching while breathing, or yoga

💕Dancing slowly to music

💕Grounding exercises

Ritual-Based Self-Therapy

Creating healing rituals to feel safe and in harmony.

Examples:

💕Lighting a candle while reflecting on the day

💕Drinking tea while journaling your feelings

💕Doing a weekly self-love bath or “soft evening” routine

Nature & Light Self-Therapy

Finding softness and balance through natural elements.

Examples:

💕Walking in a garden or sitting with a tree

💕Letting sun or light therapy embrace you in winter

💕Collecting small seasonal treasures like petals or leaves

Reading & Learning Self-Therapy

Nourishing your mind and heart with gentle knowledge.

Examples:

💕Reading books about mental health or self-discovery

💕Exploring philosophy or spiritual texts that calm your soul

💕Keeping a notebook of quotes or affirmations that help

Meditation or Spiritual Self-Therapy

Connecting to the breath, to silence, or something sacred.

Examples:

💕Breath meditation (conscious breathing

💕Sensory meditation

💕Nature meditation

Pottery or Hands-On Self-Therapy

Using your hands to shape, feel, and create slowly.

Examples:

💕Making soft, imperfect pottery pieces

💕Playing with clay as a grounding and calming act

💕Feeling textures to reconnect to the present moment

Art Therapy

It is not about the final product; it is about healing through the process of making art.

Examples:

🌻Mandala Drawing

🌻Painting to Music

🌻Nature-Inspired Art

🌻Color Your Mood

🌻Photography Walks

🌻Gratitude Banners

🌻Emotions Wheel

The Ways I Care for Myself🌻

Over time, I found a few gentle therapies that work well for me.

Each one speaks to a different part of who I am:

💕Music Therapy

Music has always been an emotional mirror for me. When words fail, music expresses what my heart is too quiet to say. I use it to release tension, comfort myself, or even just exist without pressure.

Soft piano is my safe space. Especially the music from Jurrivh. It opens a quiet door inside me where emotions can breathe. Sometimes it brings tears, healing ones. Sometimes just silence and peace. Indie folk holds my hand while I read or create. It has a warmth that keeps me grounded, even when I’m floating through soft sadness or gentle joy.

💕Luminotherapy (Light Therapy)

During the colder months, especially in winter, the lack of sunlight affects my mood deeply. I use a soft, full-spectrum light, often in the morning, to gently wake up my senses.

It helps regulate my inner clock, lifting the sleepy sadness that sometimes comes with grey skies.

luminotherapy (light therapy) is considered effective, especially for people who experience:

👉 Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

👉Mild to moderate depression, especially when linked to lack of sunlight

👉Sleep disorders or irregular sleep-wake cycles

👉Low energy or difficulty concentrating during darker months

💕Meditation Through Shinto

I don’t follow a religion strictly, but I find peace in Shinto-inspired Mindfulness, especially when it comes to nature. Sitting under a tree, watching water move, or just breathing with the wind... it’s meditation that brings me back to the present.

💕Pottery

Pottery feels like shaping my feelings with clay. It’s slow, intentional, and grounding. I don’t need perfection, just the rhythm of hands and earth working together. I can’t rush pottery. It teaches me patience, presence, and listening to the moment. There’s healing in the process.

A Soft Ritual I Follow 🌻

Here’s an example of a self-therapy session I like to follow. It changes depending on how I feel, but this is one of my favorites:

Step 1: I begin with a check-in — how is my heart today?

Before anything else, I open my journal and let my thoughts spill gently onto the page. I don’t try to sound wise or put-together. I simply write what’s there: sadness, tension, hope, confusion whatever is sitting quietly inside me.

This step isn’t about solving anything. It’s about meeting myself honestly, without judgment. Just saying, “I’m here, and this is where I am.”

Step 2: I play soft piano music.

Gentle melodies fill the space. They open a quiet door inside me. Sometimes tears come, or a deep breath rises. The music makes room for everything I’ve been holding, it softens the weight. I love listening to Jurrivh.

Step 3: I choose a calm, comforting activity.

Often, I’ll read a soothing book, something about healing or understanding the soul. Sometimes, I also take out my soft-colored pencils and do a little coloring. Other days, I shape clay in silence. I play indie folk in the background, it’s cozy and grounding. Indie folk music is gentle and grounding, making it perfect for self-therapy. Its mellow melodies and soft vocals help calm the mind, creating a peaceful atmosphere that encourages reflection and emotional release. The simplicity of the music allows for focus and mindfulness, making it easier to stay present during your healing process without feeling overwhelmed.

Step 4: I close with a song that lifts me, and a whisper of gratitude.

Something soft but brighter. A melody that feels like sunlight after rain. It’s my way of saying, “You’re safe now. You made it through. Let’s continue, softly.”

At the end of my self-therapy sessions, I take a moment to acknowledge three things I'm grateful for.

Expressing gratitude helps shift my focus from any negativity to the positive aspects of my life, bringing me back to a place of balance and appreciation.

Healing, Softly: 3 Books That Helped Me Grow From the Inside Out 🌻

In my self-therapy journey, there are books that found me at just the right time, like whispered guidance, like warm hands during a storm. They didn’t promise quick fixes. Instead, they offered space, softness, and little keys to unlock parts of myself I had hidden or hurt.

Here are three of those books, and how they helped me feel seen, understood, and gently guided.

💕The Empath’s Survival Guide by Judith Orloff.

This book feels like a safe place for those of us who feel everything. It helped me understand that being highly sensitive is not a weakness, but a form of deep perception, a beautiful way of relating to the world.

It offers tools to set boundaries, protect your energy, and navigate emotional overwhelm while still staying open-hearted. For me, it made a difference in how I approach people, social spaces, and even silence.

It reminded me: you can care deeply and protect yourself. You can be soft and strong at the same time.

💕Das Kind in dir muss Heimat finden by Stefanie Stahl. In German and French but not in English.

This one is like a tender conversation with your younger self.

It invites you to reconnect with the part of you that still feels fragile, dreamy, or hurt. The book explains how our “inner child” carries unmet needs and how, with love and patience, we can soothe those needs ourselves.

Some exercises gently guided me to remember moments of joy, but also moments where I felt unseen or too much. Healing, here, was not about forgetting, it was about listening.

It reminded me: I don’t need to wait for someone else to nurture me. I can be the safe space I once needed.

💕Good Vibes, Good Life – by Vex King

This book is a soft introduction to self-worth and manifestation. It helped me shift the way I talk to myself.

Instead of saying “I’m broken,” I began saying, “I’m growing.”

It shares how self-love isn’t a perfect state but a practice, a way of choosing kindness, gratitude, and healthy boundaries every day.

It reminded me: I don’t have to feel good all the time. But I can make small choices that guide me back to myself.

These books don’t fix you. They find you.

Each one gave me something to hold onto:

A perspective.

A practice.

A little more softness toward myself.

If you’re on a self-healing path too, maybe one of them will feel like a friend in the pages.

Aromatherapy — the scent of softness 🌻

Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils to support emotional and physical well-being. Certain scents can soothe anxiety, uplift mood, or bring clarity.

I gravitate towards bright and tender scents like grapefruit, orange, lemon, and cherry blossom. But petit grain is my favorite.

A note about plant-based remedies 🌻🌿

I’ve explored some natural plant supports in the past. Griffonia simplicifolia helped me the most, especially during deep emotional fogs. But I’ve learned that not everything can or should be self-treated with plants. Some mental health challenges like extreme insomnia in my case needed more than that.

Self-medication can be risky without guidance, and some conditions require professional support.

Healing is delicate. Healing should be safe, not improvised.

And choosing the right path means honoring your limits with gentleness and care

Why Self Therapy Matters🌻

These small rituals might seem delicate, but they’re powerful. They taught me that healing isn’t always dramatic or loud. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it’s slow. And that’s okay.

If you’re someone who often puts others first, or forgets to check in with your own heart, maybe self-therapy could be a gentle beginning for you too.

You don’t need to do it all. You just need to start. With music. With breath. With kindness.

You’re allowed to be your own safe space.

Is Self therapy important? 🌻

Self-therapy is important because it empowers us to take control of our emotional well-being. It allows us to process our feelings, reflect on our experiences, and develop coping strategies in a personal and private way. By engaging in self-therapy, we can better understand our emotional patterns, recognize what triggers stress or anxiety, and find ways to manage those feelings without relying solely on external sources of support.

It works because it encourages self-awareness and emotional intelligence. When we actively listen to our inner thoughts and feelings, we create a space for healing and growth. Techniques like journaling, meditation, creative activities, and music therapy help regulate emotions, reduce stress, and improve mental health.

Self-therapy can be especially effective when complemented by other therapeutic practices or professional support, but even on its own, it provides valuable tools for self-care and emotional resilience. It’s not a quick fix, but a gradual process of nurturing yourself over time.

Traumas are too underestimated🌻

Trauma is a deep emotional wound caused by an overwhelming or distressing experience that the mind and body struggle to process. It can affect a person’s sense of safety, trust, and ability to cope with daily life. Trauma is not just what happens to you, it’s also how your body and mind respond to what happened.

What can cause trauma 🌻

Trauma can come from many types of experiences, including:

- 🌿Acute events: such as an accident, loss, natural disaster, assault, or a single frightening experience.

- 🌿Chronic situations: such as ongoing abuse, neglect, bullying, or living in unstable or unsafe environments.

- 🌿Developmental trauma: happens in childhood when emotional needs are not met or when children face repeated stress without support.

- 🌿Vicarious trauma: being exposed to others’ suffering (such as through caregiving roles, or witnessing violence) can also deeply affect someone.

Who does trauma affect?🌻

Trauma can happen to anyone, including animals. There’s no “type of person” who becomes traumatized, it depends on:

- 🌿The nature of the event.

- 🌿The person’s age, emotional sensitivity, or support system.

- 🌿Past experiences, like childhood attachment or previous trauma.

- 🌿How safe and supported they felt during and after the event.

Two people can go through the same experience, but only one might be traumatized because trauma is about how the nervous system reacts and whether it gets overwhelmed.

Trauma can affect both the mind and body.

Healing from trauma takes time and care. It often involves rebuilding safety, reconnecting with the body, and finding gentle ways to process the pain like therapy, self-care, or creative expression.

Therapy isn’t mandatory to heal but it can be a beautiful path if it feels right for you.

Healing is deeply personal. Some people find it through therapy, others through self-therapy, creativity, faith, nature, or love.

What matters is not how you heal, but that you listen to yourself, gently, and move at your own rhythm.

Professional therapy offers structure, guidance, and support, but it’s not the only way.

If you’re growing, processing, and finding peace even slowly that’s healing, too.

Trauma is often minimized because it's invisible. Unlike a physical injury, emotional wounds don’t always show. People might say "it wasn’t that bad" or "others have it worse," but trauma isn’t measured by the event itself, it’s about the impact it has on someone’s inner world.

Even small, repeated moments of neglect, invalidation, or fear can shape a person’s self-worth, their nervous system, and their ability to trust.

Some trauma is quiet, like never feeling safe enough to express emotions.

Some is loud, like abuse or sudden loss.

And all of it deserves to be acknowledged with care.

It’s underestimated because many people carry it silently, adapting, surviving, masking. But that doesn't mean they’re not hurting. That’s why soft tools like self-therapy, gentle support, and emotional education matter.

They help validate what’s been pushed aside.

Animals and therapy — Why being a cat lady isn't a bad thing 🐱🐶🐎

Animals can absolutely be considered a part of self-therapy. Interacting with animals whether through pet ownership, volunteering at shelters, or simply spending time with animals in nature can have a profoundly therapeutic effect on mental health. This is often referred to as animal-assisted therapy or pet therapy, but even without a formal therapeutic setting, spending time with animals can help reduce stress, boost mood, and provide emotional comfort.

🌿The benefits include:

🐱🐶1. Stress Reduction: Petting or playing with animals, especially dogs or cats, has been shown to lower cortisol (a stress hormone) levels and increase the production of feel-good hormones like oxytocin and serotonin.

🐎2. Emotional Support: Animals provide a non-judgmental presence, which can help with feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Their unconditional companionship can foster a sense of security and calm.

🐹3. Routine and Responsibility :Caring for an animal creates a sense of responsibility and structure. This can help improve mental clarity, reduce feelings of overwhelm, and provide a sense of purpose.

🏞️ 4.Connection to Nature: Spending time with animals often means spending time outdoors, which can be very grounding and healing. Nature itself has therapeutic qualities, such as reducing anxiety and boosting mood.

Animals, especially those who are gentle and intuitive, can have a significant calming effect, which makes them a valuable part of a personal self-therapy practice. Whether it's cuddling with a pet, walking with a dog, or simply observing animals in a park, their presence can have a profound and soothing impact on our emotional state.

Conclusion 🌻

In the quiet moments I spend with myself, I’ve come to understand that self-therapy is like planting little seeds of care inside my heart. Some days they bloom into calm, other days they simply rest under the soil, but each moment matters.

I’ve learned to hold space for my emotions instead of hiding them. To create softness where there once was pressure. To choose gentle rituals, not because I have to, but because they remind me that I’m allowed to feel, to slow down, and to heal.

Self-therapy isn't a final destination.

And maybe, just maybe, healing doesn’t mean becoming someone new but remembering who I was before the world told me to change.