You can create your own happy place. I know, you are telling me that after watching “Fight Club” you think that this is not the best idea ever. Well let me tell you that going to your imaginary happy place is an incredibly powerful technique, no matter what Tyler Durden says.

The mind, and focused visualization in particular, is a very powerful thing. The Body is not able to tell the difference between a vividly visualized thing and the real life concrete thing. You can recreate the workings of your brain, increasing the number of nerve ending and junctions in certain areas, and you can even increase the brains ability to shape itself and how it function. More importantly as it relates to this article, your vivid visualizations can stimulate the release of certain hormones and impulses. This means that your vivid visualizations can make you happier and more productive.

In order to have this kind of mental ability, you need to be able to visualize very well. The best way to get good at this, like anything else, is to practice. The good thing is that visualizing can always be a fun thing and only becomes a chore if you are not being creative enough. The trick is to visualize things that you find fun and entertaining. The easiest way to do this is to practice visualizing your desires.

For example let’s say that you would really love to go to the beach. Instead of trying to visualize a static room, or a cube or something, visualize yourself at the most beautiful beach ever. Try to see yourself at the beach, as if you have magically teleported to some gorgeous sandy, sunny beach on a tropical island. First work on an image, you could get an image from a magazine or the internet. Close your eyes and see if you can visualize the image that you just saw. It won’t be perfect unless you have photographic memory so no worries, just add on as you see fit or open your eyes and keep trying until you can close your eyes and have a good image in your mind’s eye of the picture that you were looking at.

Next try and add detail to this visualization. Try to hear the surf, feel the warm breeze, and feel the sand between your toes. Try even to smell the salt water and the ocean around you. Try to involve all your senses in your visualization if you can. Finally try to feel your way into the scene, create the feeling that you are there and that wherever you look you see the beauty of the beach. Do this exercise for a good 15 to 20 minutes.

When you get a chance again, try to visualize another fun desire. As above try to use all your senses to make the visualization as real as possible. And again try to do this for a good 15 to 20 minutes. For best results, try and practice your visualizations at least once a day.

Now you have the option of either sticking to one happy place, a place that you can go to when you need an escape or you have the option of picking a new place that you might desire to go to, whenever you want to. If you stick to one place, you can really develop a detailed place that has the potential of becoming as real as any place that you might experience during regular time. If you choose to change the place, it might not be as specific and as concrete but it will be exciting all the time because it will be new, because it will be your latest desire. It is up to you to choose what you like best, experiment.

You can create this happy place when you have time or when you need to take a break. With practice you will be able to go to your special place just about any time that you want and it will be so real that it will truly allow you to escape your current conditions. This kind of vivid visualization can restore your spirit, allow you time to rest, let you escape from a difficult places or situations, get happier, and relieve depression. It can literally alter your brain and its functions. Create your own happy place and find anything that you desire