I know a “happy place” sounds corny. How many times have you seen a character on a sitcom close his eyes and say, “I’m going to my happy place. I’m almost there. Up, I can’t find any parking. Hold on, I think I have a handicap sticker I can use….”

But there’s some legitimate wisdom here. In the bestselling “Home Coming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child” John Bradshaw explains a technique for swapping traumatic scenes from our childhood with happy ones from our adulthood. He says that our lives are filled with old anchors, the result of neurologically imprinted experience, that keep replaying when a situation resembles our childhood. However with some meditation and what he calls anchoring, “we can change the painful memories from childhood by putting them together with actual experiences of strength acquired in our adult lives.”

The first step to do this is to create a happy place, where you re-experience those moments in your life when you were accepted, welcomed, and loved, and you swap them for the bad memories. Most of my happy places are outside because I can better access the good stuff when I’m in creation. But I did designate one corner of my home as my happy place. There I greet my inner child and try to let go of some of the fear of my past so that I can be a loving adult.

To view my YouTube video, click here.

To read more Beyond Blue, go to www.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.