Do you have a happy place? You know, the place where you feel safe and connected to yourself. The place where smiles come easily, gratitude overflows, and your best friend is you.

If you don’t know your happy place, you need to find it, feel it, and go there often. We all need a place where the conversations we have with ourselves are truthful, loving, and personal. It’s in our happy place where we discover answers to our questions of how, why, and why not.

In the book “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse, a 1922  novel about a man’s spiritual journey of self-discovery, Siddhartha’s happy place was by the river, where he sat, listened, and received answers.

It’s one of my favorite books.

In my counseling career, I often helped clients identify their happy place—a place to go, if only in their thoughts, when experiencing anxiety attacks, abuse of any kind, and when feeling fear, frustration, hurt, or unfairness. Remembering your happy place and visualizing it in your mind can help slow your heart rate, calm the noise, relax your arms and stomach, activate your logical thinking, and aid in coping with whatever stress
you’re experiencing.

We could call it a magic place. Whatever we call it, we all need one. Walt Disney built an empire providing a “Happy Place” for everyone. We don’t need to fly across the country to an amusement park; we have the best happy place right behind our eyes. We need to find it, describe it, and know how it looks, feels, smells, tastes, and what noises we hear. Help it come alive.

Once you know where it is and can identify how your senses are activated, you can visit it at any time of the day or night. You can go there when you’re around other people or when you’re alone.

It could be a place you remember from your childhood, a scene in a photo or movie, or a make-believe place you imagine.

My happy place is running on country roads with my dog, Buster (RIP), and watching the cows watching us. I feel the freedom of the wind at my back and miles of nothing to do but stay upright and put one foot in front of the other. It’s been a good ten years since I ran six days a week, but it’s still my happy place. It seems a lifetime ago, but it continues to provide solace, possibilities, and clarity of thought.

Try it. Sit with yourself and let your mind take you to a place that allows you to feel—really feel peaceful and safe. Describe it in detail and visit often. It’s free and never wears out.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.

Powered by WPeMatico