In times of extreme stress and anxiety do you have a happy place?

I am learning that when I’m not in a good place I need to take it to my journal and write and write and write until I start connecting with my true feelings…then I need to accept and nurture how I feel, without judgement. Just being with myself without aggression directed at myself helps me immensely and can be incredibly healing. I do sometimes meditate as well, asking myself where are my inner children? What are they doing? Do they need my attention? “You are only ever as happy as your saddest child” So powerful.

I (almost) second @nebule – I do not write in a journal, but I do type out an email typing out my feelings… and I write and rewrite it over and over again until I finally tell myself that it doesn’t really matter. Actions speak louder than words and by not sending the email to the other person(s) I make myself the better man and I put it behind me.

My happy place is the inside of a bottle of Merlot. That’s a really bad happy place, isn’t it? I wouldn’t encourage that, of course not. No, really, my happy place is a placid pond and/or lake in a heavily forested area in upstate New York where I skip stones and meditate, really, that’s where my happy place is, of course. :-)

@lillycoyote lol! :-)

My recliner watching a great old movie or a great ballgame.

Yeah I have a happy place -not only one, actually.
The first one is a place I’ve made up and I go there when I feel stressed or I feel bad about something that has happened. Anyway there’s only music, and I like to imagine that I’m with my favorite band and they’re my friends and then everything’s fine because they really understand me and they tell me what to do each time I’m in trouble.

My other happy place is a place that really exists: a very beautiful beach I went to last summer. It’s awesome and even though I can’t go there now because it’s a bit cold, I like to think that I’m on the beach, sleeping on the sand as the sun sets. Or maybe just swimming. I like going to that happy place mentally when I’m afraid or when I need to calm down. It’s awesome and I want to really go there next summer.

When I’m stressed and anxious, I usually click my heels together 3 times and recite “There’s no place like Fluther” and I’m magically transported to my laptop where I can engage in friendly banter with my fellow Jellies and take my mind off my troubles. Works every time.

My laptop. Specifically, my YouTube channel.

I have two. When things get real nutso….I go outside….just get out and go for a walk. No matter what the weather, fresh air and open space takes the pressure of whatever it off your shoulders and gives me time to think or not think of what ever it is that’s pushing me down.

Ultimately, full on strenuous exercise helps exorcise the pressure-cooker daemon and a good ½ hour of rippin on my guitar puts the finishing touch of getting my groove back.

@lillycoyote Where about in upstate NY? Merlot’s OK, but try a good Pinot Noir. :)

My happy place? The Happiest Place On Earth
No, not Vegas, silly.

My happy place is within. So if I happen to encounter stress or anxiety, just leave me alone with as @lillycoyote says some glasses of wine and some quiet time. It also helps me to listen to music and more music.

The happy place was wherever the punching bag was hanging.I also get out and go for long walks or exercise until I drop.It works every time :)

My car. i have sat in my car and calmed myself down many times. my car is like my second home. i can smoke in my car and run the heat or air conditioning and listen to some soothing music. you might say my car is my “think tank”. i have made more major decision, while sitting in the drivers seat.

Works for me.

On top of Alex.

Warmth.

A hot bath, being wrapped in warm blankets or lying by the fireplace.

I went through a hard time a few years ago, and for 4 nights, I slept directly beside the fireplace on the carpet. That was the only way that I could sleep.

For some reason, heat soothes me.

Home or my bedroom. It’s the place I can be myself and let my feelings out completely!
And also eating candy and watching Mean Girls or some other chickflicks always makes me feel better.

No. I usually just deal with it. Sometimes music calms me down, or reading a book. Does that count?

The Pub up the road!! :-/
several Guinness’s later I’m happy….........

I have two happy places. If I’m really needing alone time to sort things out and just de-stress, I go outside to my patio with a book and the Marlboro man. Sometimes I really need a good, happy ending, fiction novel (escape literature) to help me either clear my mind or just completely forget everything around me. And the routine of lighting and sucking in the stupid damn cigarettes calms my nerves.

My second happy place is when I just need “chill time” with fuzzy feelings. I like sitting back in my recliner, with my 4 yr old snuggled in my lap. She’s still young enough to like to snuggle and she gives excellent “aww Mommy don’t be sad” kisses. When I sit with her in the chair and we watch a movie together or I just sit and sing to her, it really helps me to feel at peace again.

This one’s kind of crazy but behind the wheel of a car and throwing it about as deep into corners as possible. It’s best with a car like my old Z28, but the rush takes my mind as far away as I can go.

@WillWorkForChocolate Awwww….the second choice seem like a good place to me. However, I am missing the main ingredient so, I guess that is why I never discovered it. ;-)

I have no happy place—at least, none that can be gotten to voluntarily.

I don’t have a happy place inside my head but in the real world whenever I get the chance I have the woods to escape to, but even that isn’t that happy because foster grants dumped chemicals there. I prefer to stay in the real world not some fantasy land made up inside my head.

Yeah – it’s called sleeping – typically induced by alcoholic beverages!

In my bed with a good book.

sometimes i have a happy place, and sometimes i don’t. right now it’s xam, but only because it takes me back to a time when i was actually happy in life.

This question reminds me of an exercise that we did in psychology class. Our assignment was to “build the star ship Enterprise” out of folded paper specifications. We broke into groups to present our models to the instructor. The instructor judged the folded designs and would arbitrarily destroy them. This put pressure because of the failure and time constraints place on the groups of competitors. It also showed us how we react in a crisis. Some gave up, some cried, and some, like me, took control over the group. The point of the exercise was to show what happens under crisis conditions. To this day, more than thirty years have passed, I still have bad feelings about what happened that day. Some people in the group were truly devastated, especially the lady that was supposed to be the CEO of our group because I jumped in and did her job, I still feel guilty about it.

The point is that some of us don’t have a “happy place” we see the problem and work to fix it. Lack of control is the most disturbing aspect to me. I can and do handle failure, I cannot tolerate failure when I neglected to do the best I possibly can.

I so need to hit the journal at the moment… just came back across this question and so glad because it’s given me the advice I need!