My happy place…

Do you have a ‘happy place’ or ‘happy thing’ that boosts your mood and makes you feel good? For me I have a couple that stand out. I love to do things for other people that put a smile on their face. Even when I was still quite early in my journey after my knee operation, the thing I missed the most was cooking meals for my husband and baking. One thing I did enjoy though is sitting on a bar stool in my kitchen guiding my husband to make a meal while I was unable to do so. We might put on some music or just chat over a beer or wine and then sit down to a meal that my husband made and I supervised.

My kitchen is definitely my happy place. Whenever I am feeling a bit low, or bored or not wanting to do housework – that happens a bit – I will take myself off to the kitchen and do some baking. I love making things that people enjoy, it really gives me a boost. Often, if my husband is working on a Sunday I will do ‘bored baking’ to take into work. Our Ward Clerk has come to know that if he is working on a Sunday that it is likely to mean that I bring in baking on Monday! She often says to me as I leave for the weekend ‘hope you have a boring Sunday!’ It is good for me to do something positive for others and I do enjoy baking. So, I will bake on my boring Sundays and bring most of it into work to take temptation away from my husband and myself. I always try to leave him at least some, so he doesn’t miss out completely.

My other happy place is writing poetry. I haven’t written much since I’ve been off work, but hopefully the mood will take me soon and I will be able to create some new poetry. I especially like writing poetry for people. I have written love poems for my husband and poems for my grandchildren. I have written poems for people I work with for special occasions. They are usually fun poems and I love to make people laugh when I read them.

For me the best therapy I can have to raise my mood is baking, cooking and poetry. I will keep doing those three things as long as I can. Losing any of the three would be very difficult for me. I have been making up a clear file with recipes for my grandchildren and the granddaughters seem to really enjoy baking with their Nanna. We laugh and chat and then enjoy the fruits of our labours. They are very competitive though, so always want to know whose is best! I try to be fair to all, but my husband will pick placings when judging, he says they need to learn that you can’t always win. I’m too soft! I say they all did great!

I haven’t done any baking with my three grandsons because they live in Wellington, but with the nearly 7 year old coming to stay for Easter, I’m going to try to make pizzas with him and also do some baking. Baking and cooking is already my happy place, but doing it with any of my grandies makes it extra special.

I am fortunate that I am still able to do these things that make me happy, because when I bake and cook for others I make them happy too!

What’s your happy place?