A wise physician friend once told me, “Find your happy. Then go there. Often.”
In other words, find something that makes you happy, energizes you, or maybe relaxes you, removes you from reality - if only for a little while - and then do it. Intentionally. Seek it out. Today is January 1, 2017 - Happy New Year's! - and my happy place is a bowl of clean chili and FOOTBALL! #gofalcons
Being happy is part of being healthy. Studies show that happy people have better health outcomes. Rest and de-stressing is imperative for all of us. And CDPs (chronic disease people/patients) must have a few moments here and there to escape the reality of their pain. The life that they come to know as “normal” is full of pain, daily struggles and overwhelming fatigue. We CDPs have to have an escape, even if only for a short time.
Your "Happy place" might be reading. Hiking. Sleeping in. ANYthing that gets you pumped and happy, or maybe slows life down and relaxes you. My happy place is camping. (Today it's football!) I love it. We didn't have any kids home this weekend, so I re-discovered my happy place. Chris was so sweet to take me camping! Here are some pics and an encouragement to find your happy. God's creation is breath-taking.My BP was solid as a rock this past weekend. Coincidence??? I think not.
Here are a few pictures from our trip:
The pop-up camper here is the one we rented for the weekend. I'll admit... I didn't love the pop-up style. It was a bit more roughing-it than I was used to. And oh man, how I miss our camping days. Many people don't know we lived in our camper for 9 months when we first moved to Tennessee. Everyone looked at us sort of crazy, but we loved it! When we decided upon a church home, the leaders came to visit us in our camper. We grilled hot dogs and brats (with jelly!) for them. It was such a fun visit, and we have fond, fond memories of these sweet people.
Our camper had a queen-sized bed, a full slide, four bunks, a full bath, a kitchen, two TV's...you know, roughing it! I mean, it was only a 13-inch TV... it was the best 9 months we ever spent as a family. Hands down.
The name of the church we saw on our recent getaway was "Calvary Independent Baptist" and reminded
me of where I played my very first song in church ever, Calvary Baptist Church in Moultrie. The other views are just beautiful views from our ride through part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. A really, really relaxing couple of days. Camping is a very happy place for me.
Find your happy place. Then go there - often. Plan this time in your schedule. Make it a requirement in your week. Explain its importance to your family and friends. They will thank you. You will thank you, too.
Share your tips with our readers! What is your happy place and how often do you go there? Does it make a difference in your overall health? Can you tell when you've omitted it from your routine for too long?
Here are some other pictures from our trip. Camp Happy Place 🙂
