Yes, that's a cheesy phrase, but stick with us here. What is your happy place? What's the first place that comes to mind when asked that question? The reason it's good to ask it in a cheesy way is that sometimes the answer itself is cheesy. Of course, your ideal happy place might be a beautiful island worthy of a magazine spread. But it's just as likely that it's something much humbler. It might be sitting on your couch in your oldest pair of pajamas with your cat at your feet. It might be an imaginary place that you've never told anyone about. It's your happy place and it will give you joy if you let it so don't let anyone else's vision of happiness crowd yours out of your mind.

Once you've got your happy place in mind, it's time to go there. And just as before, your aim is to experience it in great detail. Use your five senses to guide you. If the place is a real place, remember some of the smells you noticed when you were there. If the place is made-up, daydream long enough for those smells to come into your mind. When you inhale deeply, what do you feel on the tip of your nose just before the smell reaches you? What sounds exist in this place that you don't hear in your everyday life? Where do the sounds come from? Are there any tastes associated with this place? When you're there, in reality or in your mind, what textures, forms, and colors do you see? How does the air or your clothing feeling on your skin there?

Your idea of paradise is yours and yours alone. It gets to be whatever you want it to be.

If you want to share it with someone, you can. But sometimes it's nice to keep things pristine, just for yourself. It's up to you. Going there in your mind gives you the opportunity to focus, and connect with, only those things that are meaningful to you about a particular place. When you make that connection to those values, preferences, and wishes, you stir up feelings of joy.

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