by MIA FREEDMAN
“Happy place. Happy place. Think of your happy place.” Someone put their hand on my arm and said this to me half-jokingly the other day when I was particularly riled up about something.
It’s a bit like that pukey phrase “turn your frown upside down!” except less likely to make you want to punch the person saying it. The idea is to shift your mood and escape your reality by imagining yourself in a familiar place that lifts your spirits and settles your soul.
Your happy place can be highly revealing, as I discovered when I asked some 20-somethings about theirs. “My happy place is with my family at our holiday house,” said one wistfully. “It’s with my parents and sister playing boardgames around the kitchen table,” replied another with a faraway look in her eye. And from a bloke: “In the shower at my parents’ house. I can think back to escaping there on every stressful occasion in my life – exams, girls, fights with mates… Loud music and good water pressure. Bingo.”
Interestingly, all three of these people were living far from home and their families held a powerful happiness pull.
Then there was the 28-year-old, newly engaged who said, “Lying with my head on my boyfriend’s chest. It’s where I feel safest and it always calms me.” Sweet.
Next, I asked some mothers. No mentions of chests, children, husbands or in fact, anyone at all. Their happy place was most often a bath (frequently with wine) and they were always always alone. “For me it’s in the bath at night when everyone’s been fed, the house is clean and the kids are asleep,” replied one. “Those supporting details are crucial or else it doesn’t have the same effect.” She thought for a moment and a guilty look flashed across her face. “I’d like to think my happy place is around the dinner table catching up with my family but that’s only in my imagination where everyone is cheerful and wolfs down my delicious food as we exchange witty anecdotes from our day. In reality, dinner time is usually a shit fight.”
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I have several - here are three that immediately come to mind in random order:
* Mt Field National Park
* Piccolo in North Hobart - with a bowl of pasta and a glass of Milton (pref. Pinot Rose) before me
* On a boat on the azure blue Aegean in the sun
* Any place with my dog there
Mine changes depending on where my latest realestate.com stalking adventure has taken me. I'm revisiting one from this time last year in Palm Beach. I've renovated and extended it including an upstairs parents retreat with my own balcony and comfy outdoor chairs. In real life someone bought it in the middle of the year. Love to know what they have done to it.