Autonomy - One Needs to be Embraced
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"It was all so physical … and somebody should just have been holding us" (Andersen et al., 2022). Andersen et al. (2022) discusses that in childhood, things like teddy bears serve as "transitional objects" that children use to comfort themselves and gain autonomy away from their parents. As we age, transitional objects are no longer teddy bears but instead become things like art, religion, creative work, and other experiences that connect our inner human experience to the external world (Andersen et al., 2022). Concerning health, this also means acknowledging our feelings, not just our physical condition. As adults, we can receive complex and hard information more easily than children, and we understand our own actions in executing health plans. However, this does not mean we no longer need comfort like that from a teddy bear.