Whenever your sad, frustrated, or angry your always told to go to your happy place. Everybody has different happy places in our mind. For one person it could be to completely empty it and close their eyes. For others it is standing on a beautiful white sandy beach. With the sand in between their toes and the sound of the waves hitting the shore.
I finally found my happy place last year at a summer camp. We were in the Boundary Waters between the border of Canada and Minnesota. There you have a series of great lakes and beautiful scenery all around you. All you can hear is nature. No motor boats. No construction. No honking or sirens. You are able to relax and just let your mind think.
One day when we we're on the lakes we we're supposed to do a solo expedition where we would be split up along this one lake. I was put on the middle of a small island with a cliff of about 15 feet to one edge. When you sat down and closed your eyes you would just be taken away. The sounds and smells that you experience were par to none that I had ever experienced before. There we're wild blueberry bushes where I was which tasted amazing.
So whenever someone tells me to go to my happy place I will think about the Boundary Waters and just remember the beauty of it all.
I really enjoyed reading your piece on "happy places". It made me reflect on why we have happy places. In order to get away from the stress or to overcome obstacles that require bravery. Your happy place at Boundary Waters sounds very calming and unstressfull. My happy place involves me just having no communication with anyone, and just allowing myself to listen to good sounding music, like thematic music or calming nature sounds.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you go specifically?!?! I've been to the boundary waters many times to canoeing as well!! I love it out there. Even though the mosquitoes completely suck, at evening, when the sun is setting and you're out on a canoe literally in the middle of nowhere on a random lake, I think that's a time when you can really feel the calming effect nature can have on someone. Growing up as a child, I loved soccer and played travel soccer starting from a very young age. Before each game, my coach told us to visualize a place where we could rest and relax in order to prepare for the match. For me, it was an empty soccer field, early on in the morning so that mist envelopes the turf and captures the beauty of a truly green field, complete with two bold soccer goals where I would visualize myself scoring and/or tackling some random girl until I stole the ball from her. This is my happy place. I hope this wasn't too long; but I felt like I could connect to this post a lot! :)
ReplyDelete-Helen