A Happy Place

Guided imagery exercises frequently utilize the concept of a "happy place".  For those unfamiliar with this term, a guided imagery is a therapeutic tool.  In the process of administering this technique the leader guides the participant on an imaginary journey by using verbal, musical, and other sensory prompts.  Occasionally the imagery process requires the participant visualize a place they associate with happiness, safety, and positive emotions. 

An actual place is preferred, but an imaginary happy place can be substituted if the person has no history of experiencing such a phenomenon in their life.  For those in need of a happy place to escape to for a quickie mental vacation, or those wishing to add one to their itinerary, follow along.

Imagine a cold, snowy February day in the Northeastern United States.  It has snowed, again.  You have shoveled the driveway for the umpteenth time this winter.  Something is different now, you're opening a passageway for an escape.  You slog through the slush, pitch your shovel to the side, scrape the windshield of your car, climb in and depart.  The evening is dark, the seats are cold, your breath fogs the windshield, you shiver until the heater finally begins blowing warm air.  You drive carefully over the slippery patches of frozen goo.  Glop clings to the car's fenders like a mud flavored icee. 

Following familiar local streets at first, your path leads to busier roads, eventually to the interstate.  You turn on the entrance ramp, you're heading south.  A press of the button sets the cruise control, a twist of the knob sets the radio.  You drive through the night, marking progress as you pass the "Welcome To" signs of  southern states.  Fuel stops and restroom brakes are required, but you make them as brief as possible, there's an increasing urgency to get there.  It is getting closer, the happy place. 

The trip is becoming tedious.  At their outer edges, bright headlights evaporate into the night.  Through the din you recognize a change in the vegetation.  Leafless, white-painted hardwoods have become spiked tropical brush.  This realization energizes you.  You're almost there.  When you think you can't go on, caffeine no longer works, eyes are burning and the music is irritating, the plaque announcing your special location appears.  "Welcome to Florida!"

Leaving the highway, you enter the welcome station.  It's the wee hours of the morning, the place is virtually deserted.  You have your choice of parking spots.  Selecting a spot at the back of the lot, near the edge of the manicured lawn, now dimly lit by the overhead lights, you stop and turn the engine off.  As the lever is pulled to open the door, you instinctively, reflexively brace for the blast of frigid early morning air.  The shock never comes.

Instead of cold biting your skin, you are brushed by a warm breeze.  The gentle whoosh mildly strokes your cheeks like the warm hand of a loved one.  It has been months since you've felt weather this friendly, but it takes no time to adjust.  Immediately your spirit is lifted.  For the first time since October you inhale a breath that doesn't sting your nostrils or tense your lungs.

 
As your inner being thaws, warms, flows, other senses awaken.  Your ears are massaged by the chirping of birds and the low rustle of the vegetation as it dances in the Atlantic breeze.  Your eyes fixate on the strange texture of a palm tree, following it to the sandy soil and sparse sawgrass at the base.  Yet the most welcome sensation is the temperature of the air. 

The warmth permeates your being, through your skin deep into your soul.  There are no elements to fight, no pains to endure.  In this moment life is not a struggle, rather a blessing.  At this instant, you can imagine no happier place.