And sometimes TLC is as close as your kitchen. Now I would never recommend food as the solution to everyone's problems, but since we all have to eat anyway, why not eat something that conjures up happy memories and pleasant thoughts? Potatoes and bread are a couple of my comfort foods; you may crave macaroni and cheese, chicken soup or spaghetti.
The point is that your comfort food is as unique as you are, and may relate to the foods you enjoyed as a child. One thing all comfort foods seem to have in common is that they are generally pretty cheap to make, and don't require ingredients that are hard to find.
In your surroundings you can also incorporate a few things that may lighten your heart by soothing your senses. Color is often thought to influence on our moods, although Science Net Questions and Answers notes that there has been no definitive research on the subject. Maybe, like comfort food, the personal preferences and variations are just too unique to be quantified in a scientifically meaningful way.
(My own experience seems to suggest that there is a link between color and mood: when my father passed away rather suddenly 15 years ago, I found myself seeking out the color yellow, in everything from clothes to Kleenex (R). And I have to say that yellow was not a color I had given much thought to, or even particularly liked, prior to my dad's passing.)
Many people say they have also found soothing results in aromatherapy and music. Neither of those things need to cost a lot of money. You can try aromatherapy yourself by simply lighting a scented candle or simmering some spices in a pot of water. And your local library can be a good free source of different types of music. Again, your scent and sound preferences may or may not be the same as for everyone else; it really doesn't matter, as long as it works for you.
Sometimes one of the easiest ways to get some TLC for ourselves is to give a little TLC to someone else. I think it may help us remember that even if we're feeling a little needy ourselves, we still have something worthwhile to contribute to others.
When looking for some online TLC, I came across Lenny Zeltser's Homepage, and his list of Natural Highs. He and his readers offer page after page of those simple joys we so often take for granted but which nonetheless serve to lighten our hearts. They're not expensive and they're not particularly time-consuming, but they do remind us of happy times we've had already, and happy times yet to come.
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