Finding Our “Happy Place“

The pandemic is winding down – hopefully no variants will eclipse our progress back to normalcy.
 
It’s time to once again get energized and empowered. 
To take control of our own remote. To be the boss of “ME”
How do we do this?  We need to embrace, honor and hold sacred our individual need for space. I call this finding our “happy place.” 
 
Our happy place is a place where we can create, step away from the mundane and re-fuel and re-energize. 
 
Personally, my happy place is anywhere I can knit –for knitting keeps me from unraveling.
 

 
My mother – of blessed memory – jumped in the car and popped a frank Sinatra CD into her CD player and drove around listening to him croon song after song. She always said she did her best relaxing and creative thinking in that confined space.
 
My mother-in-law – of blessed memory – made soup from scratch. Chopping, slicing and cutting elevated her to a relaxed and inventive state of mind. 
 
My friend Michele jumps in the shower. “Ah ha moments just happen,” she notes. “My body and my mind have relaxed enough to allow an idea, a possible solution, to formulate and burst forth, always surprising me.”
 
There are many ways to carve out the space. The first that comes to mind for people like me, who are of the Jewish faith is, of course, observing Shabbat every week from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. And the rest of the time – the other six days of the week? We can conjure up mindfulness, create a Zen moment, meditate, journal, walk, do yoga, garden paint at will, stop to smell the flowers – all designed to take us to our “happy place.”

 

 
When we make space to clear our minds, this clearing allows us to observe our experiences and accept life without always reacting to it and judging it. 
 
When we empty our minds of competing thoughts, obligations and to-do lists, we are crafting a “beginner’s mind.” This is a term from Buddhism – I didn’t coin it. A beginner’s mind is simply forgetting what we know and feel and think and look at something through fresh, garden, paint, unblemished eyes. Leaving judgement behind. Leaving defensiveness behand. 
 
Young Children naturally operate like that but as we age, we lose that gift
 
Margrit Irgang author of the book Zen: An Art of Living, says in order to empty our minds, we must forget ourselves. We must forget ourselves. 
 
What does that mean?  Well, for starters, the obvious: temporarily forget about the minutiae of our lives – clearing out the static.
         We forget about the wash that needs folding
         That our skirt lost a button
         That the dry cleaning is ready for pick up
         That we need to come up with a plan for tonight’s dinner
 
And the best part of conjuring up a beginner’s mind and emptying out all the superfluous junk or stuff? It stimulates our creativity. The mind is then open and receptive to discover new things. 
 
Perfect timing for re-entry into a post-pandemic world.
 
Keep Preserving Your Bloom,
 
Iris Ruth Pastor