Why is it we all need to know our happy place?

Prior to going in for a medical procedure, the nurse at the hospital informed me that I will be receiving conscious anesthesia where I will feel sleepy but will not be completely knocked out. She then told me to think and visualize of a happy place such as a beach or a vacation spot or any other thing that makes me happy. I scrambled fast to think of my happy place and the only image that crossed my mind was a picture of all my loved ones in a group hug. Before I could think of anything more, I entered upon a peaceful state of drowsiness that was punctuated only by the floating image of this snapshot of “loving”. When I woke up, this snapshot stayed with me and made me realize that what brings me the most happiness is not a specific location but a location where my loved ones are.

A simple question “What’s your happy place?” has now made me more aware and deliberate in every small decision I make in my day to day life, every activity that I choose to spend my time in and any endeavor where I chose to devote my energy and focus on. Every so often while going through my normal day to day routine, the image that had crossed my mind at the hospital flashes through my mind. It inspires me and jolts me back into action to do the things that I believe will assist in maintaining that “loving” image as is without it getting splintered by the ups and downs of life.

It has also made me realize the value of knowing this “happy place”. Many years ago a friend of mine was working for AMWAY, a business that specializes in multi-level marketing. On her kitchen backsplash, there were taped pictures of beautiful houses and eye-catching destinations. Looking at those pictures motivated her to do her sales job more effectively. She, in essence, had identified her happy place to be what was depicted in those pictures.

Identifying our happy place is important as it will make us consciously aware of what is paramount for our happiness. It will make us reprioritize our time and energy away from the priorities of others to that of our own or from our state of business on doing things that are non-essential, to those that actually make us productive and bring us happiness. Often times, we give precedence to the priorities of others thinking that we will get to ours when we are done with the other tasks. Unfortunately, by the time we are done with other tasks, we are too exhausted to do anything about our own. Same applies to us doing errands day in and day out that do not bring us value commensurate with the effort we put in them. This needs to stop. Our most important responsibility is to ourselves. We need to intentionally bring our actions back to those that will add joy to our life.

Knowing our happy place and working towards it will not only bring us pleasure and a sense of purpose, but it will also pay dividends in our health. Our immune system is most healthy when we are happy and stress-free. Chronic stress can severely compromise our immune system resulting in common ailments like cold and flu to life-threatening diseases such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer, and diabetes. Visualizing our happy place will help us in retracting to it when we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed by the world outside. It can be our safe haven during our stressful time.

Do you have a happy place? Do you know what it is? If not, why don’t you take a minute and think of your happy place? I am not asking you to think about the exotic destinations you have been wanting to go to, even though for some people that might be their happy place. I am asking you to think spontaneously about what makes you happy. It could be some people in your life, it could be your craft, your work or such.

knowing your happy place is magic!! It will help you sleep at night peacefully and wake up with gusto in the morning, determined to bring happiness to you And/Or to those in your happy place!

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