Do you have a happy place? A place you imagine when the yoga teacher tells you to close your eyes and empty your mind of all thoughts? I know, that’s breaking the rules. You’re supposed to empty your mind, not fill it with an image, but it helps me to imagine my happy place as a palate cleanser. It’s a bridge between the junk of the day that’s cluttering my mind, and the empty echo chamber that I’m supposed to have when practicing yoga.
Then again, you’re not supposed to judge yourself during yoga, so I can do what I want. So there.
A happy place is one that you imagine when you are stressed out, or you can’t fall asleep, or you are waiting in a very long line at the bank and you’re getting really annoyed because your lunch break is over soon. Not that anyone really pays attention to what time you left and what time you get bank. You’re a professional, after all, and your coworkers and leaders trust you to get your work done well and efficiently. But still.
A happy place is also a popular selfie location in Los Angeles, apparently.
So what does your happy place look like?
My happy place is the small stretch of coastline pictured above, a section of Playa Conchal in Costa Rica. The specific time is late afternoon. The warm breeze ruffles the leaves of the tropical plants and trees that cast dappled shadows over the white sand. I lay in a comfy lounge chair with a cold gin and tonic sweating on the table next to me, a good book placed face down next to it. I’m not reading at the moment, but I have been, and I will continue in a bit. I can get up off this chair and stroll casually to the water which is the same temperature as my body and clear blue so that I can see all the way down to my toes and beyond them to the sandy bottom of the ocean. Or I can hop up off the chair and run at the water like a child, jumping or diving in at full speed.
I can do whatever I want to, because it’s my happy place. And just like in yoga, there’s no judging.
Thank you for this lovely post Kim
The secret of happiness is to broaden our horizons and to welcome people and their beliefs into our world with love and understanding. A happy person is not one in a certain circumstances, but rather one with certain attitudes. The foolish man seeks happiness far away whereas the wise finds it under his feet. Money, resources, and hopes are not essential to be happy. Yet one can be the happiest person alive. He is the happiest man irrespective of being king or peasant, who finds peace at home. Laughter is important for happiness. It melts fog from man’s face. For ages all the religions, preachers and Masters have talked about happiness and how to achieve it. Religions have focused on renunciation and elimination of desire. However, one can find happiness in this life in this world. Desire is an engine of material progress. If suppressed or removed it becomes sorrow. If sublimated it reveals happiness.
Best wishes
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