Blanket Fort Therapy: Why this childhood game is returning as an emotional stress-buster?

Remember as children whenever it was a bright Sunday or a gloomy rainy day, a bunch of umbrellas were taken out, opened and placed side by side, covering the whole structure with blankets? Once the structure was ready, in you went swiftly with your favorite stuff toy, reading light and book? At times there was just enough space for an adult to squeeze in with you to read you a book. Well, what was a childhood game, is now coming back as a metaphorical blanket fort therapy, a way to shield oneself emotionally from all the stresses of the world.

Blanket Fort Therapy and what it means in the stressful adult world today

Blanket fort therapy involves a back and forth of childhood nostalgia and adult-life problems. But creating a blanket fort means building a safe space for oneself, where you can retreat from the world, spend time with yourself, learn and unlearn things about yourself. With ambiance, complete with essential oils, lights, food, and even a laptop to binge watch your favourite shows or a music system to listen to your much-loved songs, it becomes easier to leave your baggages behind and enjoy a time you have created only for yourself. Moreover, with the space being made cosy with blankets and warmth, it is also a way of getting enough sleep, especially for those who have turned into insomniacs.

Although not in clinical terms, but blanket fort acts as a therapy in many ways. While it brings out your creative side as you decorate the space, it also serves as a step by step build-up traversing between nostalgia and the present, making you relive your carefree childhood days easing off your stress to some extent. Moreover, you are assured that you can spend time with yourself undisturbed, not judged, within that boundary you have created for yourself and you take time out to do activities you like to do and take your time in doing it. For instance, reading a book, journaling, listening to music, solving cryptic puzzles, binge watching your favourite movies/ shows, painting and more.

Why is blanket fort therapy making a comeback?

There are several reasons why blanket fort therapy may be returning in your adult life. First, is to de-stress and take care of your burnout and mental health needs. It takes you back to a time when the word worry wasn’t even in your dictionary and perhaps in the fast –paced world, it is time to slow down and reflect on who you are and what you want, once in a while. Second, it fills your mind with memories of yourself or with your friends and cousins that you had once spent under such blanket forts. This helps you re-connect emotionally with those who have drifted apart with time and distance. Third, many people prefer to build a blanket fort around themselves to cut off all the noise – verbal and digital. Thus, it can be a method of digital detox. Fourth, with time, therapy is constantly evolving and newer ones are developing. Blanket fort, is nothing but a new branch of mental health detox that can be tried in today’s world.

Interestingly, along with a lot of pros there are a few cons associated too. Sometimes, adult feel it to be too childish and refrain from undertaking the experience. This isn’t a real therapy recognised in clinical terms and if the condition aggravates, seeking professional help is always the right thing to do. More often than not, most people do not have the space to create a blanket fort to help themselves.

Nevertheless, it is being tried out increasingly by the youth and maybe the emotional grounding and memories it has, serve as a therapy in itself, even though the practice isn’t recognised.  

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