What's Your Happy Place?

Do you have a happy place?

Can you picture it right now?

When you’re in a stressful situation or environment, does it help to think about transporting to your happy place?

How long do you think you’d need to reside there before it no longer felt ‘happy?’

With limited options for entertainment on our dish-powered hotel TV over the weekend, an old favorite popped on one of the channels…

Yeah, that’s what happens when you’re ‘happy place’ turns into a nightmare… 🤣 🏌️‍♂️ 👵

It may have worked for some, but for me, just visualizing myself on the beach or trying to smell the salty air only went so far…

“There has to be a more effective way to control anger,” I thought…

Well I’ve been practicing meditation for around 5 years now, and more recently I’ve dived into the practice of non-dual awareness (If you’d like to know more, I recommend checking out the Waking Up app with Sam Harris).

Central to non-dual awareness is the idea that there isn’t a ‘self’ or an objective observer watching over you or viewing your life from some other perspective… Instead, there’s just consciousness. You’re it, It’s you.

I’ve been particularly fascinated with the realization that thoughts simply arise and disperse. When I try to grasp onto one or, hell, try to trace its source, it often seems to simply… disappear. How crazy is that?

Practicing mediation, specifically non-dual, more consistently has allowed me to pay more attention to my thoughts and feelings in the moment. It’s taught me that I don’t have to react (often, like a jerk). I can simply observe my thoughts and feelings in the moment, as they arise, and then choose how I want to proceed.

This has proved especially helpful in stressful situations at home, with coworkers, and even when I feel frustrated with myself.

I’m not perfect—after all, I’m still human.

But I have noticed and appreciated the growth in recognizing and acknowledging emotions first, then choosing to act second.

With endless distractions, opinions, and, let’s be honest, hate in our daily world, I find it more productive to work on the things I can control, and for me, managing my emotions and emotional response has the greatest leverage.

Maybe this ‘space between’ is my happy place after all…

‘Til tomorrow,

Bagel

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