It just occurred to me that the archaic word “sooth” and the modern word “soothe” probably come from the same old English word. Indeed, this appears to be true.

In meditation class the other week, my teacher suggested that it can be helpful that when you catch yourself unconsciously thinking “why is this happening to me?”, instead thinking “what is happening to me?”. It’s a better line of inquiry because it doesn’t imply that whatever is happening to you is bad, out of your control, or should-be-otherwise. And it encourages you to clarify what actually is going on, and points you down a path of inquiry, examination, and hopefully insight. (Explication mine; he was pretty brief about it).

I notice that besides the effect on the content of thought and the act of thinking, that shift also tends to calm me down physically and quiets a lot of nervous mental noise.

So it feels pretty natural that “soothe” and “sooth” have that connection. I’m surprised that more hasn’t been made of this.