What does it mean to feel soothed? We might think of it as merely having our troubles eased, so that we have a sense of comfort and peace.
Deeper down, we find that to be soothed requires a fundamental shift in one’s sense of reality.
The origins of the word soothe are the same as those of the word sooth, an old-fashioned term for truth. These are both derived from Old English soðian, a verb that meant to show to be true. Certainty, we don’t think of soothing as something that necessarily involves telling the truth. Indeed, a person can be placated with soothing lies. Cold hard facts can disturb us, rather than making us feel better.
At the foundation of the matter, a person who needs soothing is a person whose sense of truth has been shaken by some kind of jarring event. To be soothed, then, is to encounter a sooth-sayer who shows us new truth, a story of enduring worth that restores our comfort.
When we are soothed, we feel comforted by having found a new truth around which to orient ourselves. That new truth might be as simple as the tale told by a hand stroking our tense shoulders, telling us the implicit tale: I am here, and everything is going to be all right.
