This is an All Ears English podcast. Find your happy place in this episode.
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What is the place where you feel the most peace?
How can naming this bring you closer to people?
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hey there michelle how are you today good lindsay i'm good how are you happy to be recording with you again you too you too i'm back from my vacation to europe i was in london belgium and back and ready to get back into podcasting michelle but i have a question for you today are you ready yes i'm ready so michelle what is your happy place oh what is my happy place so So I don't know.
I was thinking about this.
I would say I have a couple happy places.
Like one would be, this sounds funny, but the Upper West Side is a happy place of mine.
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.
And then I would say also when I hear the term happy place, it also makes me think not necessarily of a place that I go to a lot, but maybe like I think of my friend's house, my friend Allie's house from when we had sleepovers as a kid.
and whenever her parents still live in I mean they're still part of the year in that house and so I went back over Thanksgiving and it just when you have those kind of nostalgic feelings about a place you realize how warm it makes you feel just being there so I would say I would say those are kind of two of my happy places but I wouldn't say my happy place is like the beach like I feel like it is for most people what about you what's your happy yeah well probably so it sounds like for you michelle just to extend my question here is it's the the memory of spending time at your friend's house as
a kid is that kind of because now like you're an adult and you're not doing the sleepovers anymore maybe you are i don't know no no no right but so the happy place now when you think of that it's the thought of that in a way so it's kind of a physical place and it's also the memory of something that's kind of cool yeah for me it's really being outside uh especially in in the mountains.
And if I, I love visiting small towns, even in Colorado or when I'm traveling abroad.
Um, so anytime I'm traveling have very few kind of possessions with me, right?
So just having a backpack, I love that.
That is totally my happy place, Michelle.
So, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna agree with you on that part.
Yeah. I'm going to mention, you know, I was just telling Lindsay off the mic that, um, I recently did sort of a staycation, even though I don't live in maryland now i was in maryland and we went to some places that i usually don't go when i'm there and i realized that they were all very similar places that we're going to you know the small like georgetown on alexandria virginia annapolis these cute towns where you can walk around but you know so yeah i also in that vein lindsey what you said just that walking around and experiencing a new a new place so i mean but lindsay what what is a happy
place yeah good question so a happy place is really either a physical place or potentially a mindset a thought a zone of thinking that makes you happy right it's really that simple but it's so common in native english right now Yeah, exactly.
You probably feel at peace or just good about life.
Or like in my instance, it could be that it brings you back to something, a memory, your childhood makes you feel nostalgic, whatever it is.
And Lindsay, I mean, I feel like in the times where I have done meditation, you know, you hear this.
I don't know if you go to your happy place or try and feel less anxious, right?
Do you hear that? Not exactly.
It depends on who's teaching and what kind of school of teaching they're using.
Usually the meditation I follow is more just be, not anywhere, just be and drop thought in a sense or come back to your breath.
So you could literally be anywhere.
I mean, you could achieve happiness through meditation, being in any circumstance.
That's the ideal ultimately, right?
So yeah, it just depends on who's teaching, All right.
Awesome. Well, guys, we hope that we are at your happy place.
So if All Ears English is a happy place for you, then make sure you hit the follow button so that you never miss any of our episodes.
Yes, I love that. I think we are a happy place, a happy place for some of our listeners.
So guys, make sure you tell your friends about the show as well.
Let them know about All Ears English and our motto of connection, not perfection, so they can come to All Ears English for their happy place.
I love it. So good.
All right, Michelle, what do we need to know here when it comes to happy place?
Yeah. So, I mean, this is just a really great expression to use in English conversations.
I mean, you know, someone might use this.
I mean, meditation was one I thought of, like maybe they don't say it outright, but maybe you kind of try and visualize that you're in a different place or sometimes for relaxation or you try and go to your happy place.
So I'm on the beach, I have my feet up.
So maybe more so relaxation or relaxation to calm down and meditation.
Or sometimes when I can't sleep, I'll put on rain noises or ocean noises.
Do you ever do that when you have a hard time sleeping?
I sleep with white noise.
It definitely helps me.
It's not rain or ocean, but I think it's the one that's called calm.
And it's just kind of like...
Probably makes you feel like you're in the womb.
I don't know. Interesting.
that might be the idea behind it yeah so that for some people that would be going to your happy place you do envision being in like a rainforest or on the beach or in the womb i guess but yeah this is good for talking about de -stressing or i i think it's also to good for connecting with somebody over a cool place so maybe you share the same happy place and it can lead to a greater conversation right um yes oh my gosh i i used to live on the upper west side oh my gosh i love the upper west side that is so my happy place right yeah oh yeah major connection skill here and michelle do you agree do
you think that a happy place could also be like a time of the week like a friday afternoon in place right yes i don't know that i hear people using it it as like, I think, you know, I don't know if I would say it's Friday.
It's my happy place.
Right. But, um, I do believe that it can't, that, you know, maybe, maybe there's something else that we say for that, but, um, but yeah, I do definitely believe that it can be a time of year.
I mean, people love the holiday season or summertime.
Right. So a happy place, it doesn't have to just be, I believe that it can be a time of the year.
What do you think? I love it.
So true. Good stuff.
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right a little bit more wordy maybe so for example where i feel at peace right where i feel at peace how does that look michelle yeah so you could say something like the beach is where i feel most at peace I love putting my feet in the sand and reading and just reading a good book yes yeah you feel at peace at the beach Lindsay well I was gonna say another example of a happy place for me is not exactly the beach but it's where my parents used to live on the harbor in situ at Massachusetts they don't live there anymore so that was a happy place for me because when I went there I could smell the ocean and I
was going to spend time with family so often it's not just just a physical location.
Sometimes it's about who is there, right?
Like you said with your friend, with the sleepovers, who's there?
Right. It's not just the house, right?
It's not because these four walls of the house were my happy places because of what was happening, who was there.
Just, yeah, definitely the nostalgia and just the general feeling.
I'm there right now.
Now I'm thinking about it.
Oh, it wasn't nice.
Yeah, it's so true, Michelle.
What about this expression zone out what about that yeah this is kind of a related expression i mean it can be zone out can be a negative thing sorry i was zoning out i'm not paying attention right um but sometimes we'll use it just when we need some time to just get lost in our head right so for example sometimes i just need a few minutes to zone out and take a break from work then i can actually work better when i start up again lindsay we talk about that a lot just going on a walk just yeah going on a walk doing something else yeah i i feel like i've become a less good at this so when i was in high school and college
well in college i used to fly home right to see my family from virginia and i used to just sit on the plane and zone out for a couple of hours now that is unthinkable for me i need a movie i need a podcast i need something to be occupying my brain it's It's crazy.
Interesting. Well, there's that episode of Seinfeld where one of my favorite, one of the funniest things was Elaine was on the plane with her boyfriend and she's reading a book and they're on a long flight and he's just staring off into space, which is another good expression.
Stare off into space.
And he's not doing anything.
He's not reading anything.
And she said, don't you want something to read?
And he said, no. And she said, are you going to go to sleep?
And he said, no. No. And she got so irritated with him because she couldn't imagine why somebody would just sit there.
It was so funny. I love that.
Talk about different personalities.
Yeah. Yes, exactly.
And then also, yeah.
So with happy place, you know, we often say with it, find your happy place or go to your happy place.
And we don't necessarily mean actually physically go there per se, right?
It might just mean that we're in our minds going there, right?
Yes, exactly. You need to find the mental balance, that sense of peace, right?
Inner peace. That's what we're trying to find when we say I need to go to my happy place or find my happy place, right?
Yeah, yes, exactly.
So I just feel so off lately.
I need to find my happy place and start fresh.
What does that mean to feel off?
Yeah. Michelle, this could be another episode.
Great idea. Right. Good one.
To feel off is to feel not right.
Like something's not right.
Maybe you don't feel happy or just you feel irritated or something is abnormal for your mind state.
At that. Okay, guys.
So hit follow because, yeah, that's going to be a future episode that we could definitely go into that more.
I love it. All right.
Let's do a role play.
We're not going to use all of these but we're gonna we're gonna use a bunch so here we are strangers and we sit next to each other on the beach all right here we go michelle all right this is gorgeous isn't it yes definitely my happy place oh for sure mine too nowhere better it's where i feel most at peace i get that i just zone out and watch the waves nice yeah yeah a lot of people do find the beach to be their happy place right yes they do and i'm not one of those people whole i think if i had to choose between beach and mountains i actually probably think it would i don't know i really like
how raw the beach is like there's just raw nature you know it's so wild and i love that it's just i don't know it's very impressive i think yeah listen i don't hate the beach i don't but i i would like to take a nice walk through it and then go to the boardwalk right you know i like i like to take a walk on the beach and then go do something else i I'm not the person that can sit there for four hours.
Oh, no, yeah. No, for sure.
For sure. Yeah, baking in the sun, right?
No, me neither. No, that is not me.
All right, let's talk to see what we said here, Michelle.
You said, this is gorgeous, isn't it?
And I said, yes, definitely my happy place.
And I said, oh, sorry, go ahead.
No, I was going to say my intonation there was kind of interesting, right?
I said, definitely my happy place.
So I kind of emphasized my, didn't I?
Yeah, you did. I mean, here we're strangers, right?
So we're just kind of sitting down next to each other.
And yeah, so you emphasizing my really shows, you know, that you want to, you know, explain that this is special to you, right?
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
And then what did you say, Michelle?
And then I said, Oh, for sure.
Mine, too. Nowhere better.
And then I said, it's where I feel most at peace.
Yes, it's where I feel most at peace.
and then I said, I get that.
I just zone out and watch the waves.
Yeah. I like this context that we're strangers because sometimes we do have conversations with strangers, you know, especially when we're traveling, maybe on a train and they're these short conversations, but you can connect around certain things, certain values, right?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Um, and that's, yeah, how you do build these connections.
I mean, yeah, it's not that we're necessarily going to be best friends forever.
We're just two strangers on the beach, but you can have a nice conversation and feel that, you know, yeah, that's the interesting thing about vacations.
Did you ever as a kid make vacation friends or, you know, yeah, that's a, that's a fun thing growing up to make those vacation friends.
Sure. Yeah. Maybe you were renting a house with your family and another kid was renting a house next door.
Right. That kind of thing.
Um, it's fun. Or even like at conferences, you might meet someone at a happy hour the first night and then you, you see them all over the conference and you just kind of check in how's it going are you making good contacts that sort of things these are like temporary friendships it's interesting yeah yeah dan and i we have a thing like because when we were first um like our first trip together was a cruise and we you know we met this like older couple and i remember we were calling them our cruise mom and dad yeah yeah yeah yeah that's a good example right yeah it doesn't mean you're going to
be friends later doesn't mean you're gonna keep up with them um you might but you're just friends in that moment and it's really cool because it kind of fills a need at that moment yeah yeah so all right um well guys check out episode 2433 that was communicate your boundaries in english um so that was another good episode what's the takeaway michelle what does this mean for connection here?
I do think that this is a really strong expression and we don't want to, you know, yeah, you can think of it just as an individual.
I'm sitting by myself.
I'm in my happy place, but we can also think about how we can use this to actually connect with someone over a special circumstance in a special setting.
Really, you know, even just talking to a stranger, Right.
So connecting over this feeling, this special feeling really is strong for everyone.
I think it's a feeling everyone can relate to.
What do you think? Yeah, it's great.
It's a chance for you to show people what you what you love, what you believe in, what you strongly about.
So, guys, use this expression, experiment with it and see how you can get to know someone, whether whether it's a stranger or someone, you know, well, it works equally well in both contexts.
Okay. Definitely. Love it.
All right. Good stuff, Michelle.
Well, guys, hit the follow button so you don't miss a single episode of All Ears English.
And I'll see you back here very soon, Michelle.
All right. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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