Where is your happy place?

[tvod2244]

When the going gets tough, where do you go to and what do you think about to escape from it all a little bit?

Work (NHS) is busy and stressful right now. The news is doom and gloom. Not to mention the cost of living and how much that is playing on my mind. I've therefore made a conscious effort recently to go for walks outside in the fresh air, headphones on listening to feel-good music.
Mentally, I'm starting to think about the lead up to Christmas (my favorite time of year), not necessarily the expense but getting excited to be reunited with friends and family again who I don't see very often, excited for all the pretty lights and the smell of cinnamon and spiced apples. So those are the things which are keeping me going right now!

Everyone is different and it got me thinking; where is your happy place? Where do you go to (mentally or physically) as escapism from the current world?

On my own and crocheting

Paddleboarding anywhere.

In our local country park. I love just sitting there and watching the water and strolling around.

If I cant get out, watching clips of Greg Davies on Graham Norton helps.

The stables... always the stables - it's my place to just be me, not Mum, or a wife or Mrs Manders the teacher - just me. I've been through some tough times there - losing my beautiful one in a million mare last summer was the toughest but it is still very much my calming place - 10 mins there and all is good with the world.

Not sure about happy, safe is bed.

Outdoors, preferably seas, lakes and mountains but unfortunately they're in short supply locally.

I can get by on the local hills and some open water swimming.

When I was younger I'd take a wander down the Kings Rd in Chelsea. We lived just off it when I was small and it has lots of lovely associations, even though it doesn't resemble the funky neighbourhood it was in the 60s. But the memory is there and I used to feel good just walking down it, looking at the people. Always buzzy and everyone looked good.
I suppose now my house is my escape. When I'm here I feel protected. I own it outright and am just finishing renovating it. It's not my ideal location (that would be Chelsea of course) but as I'm missing the odd £2-3m I'll have to make do!
Or Spain. I've been going to the same village since I was a child, going with my family at first then with friends as I got older, then twice a year with my husband and kids. So many lovely memories. My parents and my husband are now dead, and covid means we haven't been since 2019, but we hope to go next year. In the meantime I daydream about it and it always makes me happy.

The physical place is the garden - just pulling weeds or pruning. Mentally, I read poetry or recite it in my head when I need to calm down.

Ideally mountains or woodlands, but if neither is possible I will go, in my head, to a Pretenders gig a few years ago that was the closest to the pefect evening out I've ever had, or to one particular spot in an underground passage at Carn Euny ancient village in Cornwall, which gave me an overwhelming sense of perfect peace.

A few. Twice a year, the Alps. Once in snow and once in sun. The light and fresh air is just better up there. I also love vanishing alone in Marylebone high street a couple of times a year. It’s so far from my ( rural) real life. And at home, trudging through a field with my dog, at our kitchen table with my family, or in my room with a candle and a good book.

Having all day to be alone in a place where no-one at all knows where I am. I am in such demand all the time every which way I turn, that I just want to float free mentally and not have that constant feeling of someone wanting my attention any minute now.
Preferably in a city so I can mooch about, browse shops - any that catch my eye, walking past lots of people who don't know me, don't care and don't notice me. I can look at anything I fancy without being conscious of anyone else's disapproval or preferences. I love the street stalls in Manchester selling exotic foreign fruit and veg and second hand books, pop into the buddhist cafe for food no-one in my family would enjoy so I can only go when I'm alone. I can buy something I fancy and waste time. aahhhh. Bliss
Can't remember the last time I did this sadly. Which is probably why I am on here trying to 'steal' some Me Time when I should be busy instead.