Random Happy Places · Rawalpindi / Islamabad

We are on a lookout to find that cosy fun bright place, that changes our mood. Hits us at just the right place. Makes us productive. That puts us into our creative zone. Below are some places you can look at and evade feelings of sadness, worries, stressfulness.

The Bed · 2300 hrs

Photo taken from Unsplash · by Morgan Lane

The nearest yet the most effective of all is our bed. We feel tired after a long day’s work, family commitments, guests and all the world — here you can unplug yourself and feel the real relief.

Find that book that moves you. That is hard to stop. Makes you feel relatable. Immerse yourself deep into the fantasy. Visualise yourself slowly walking away from today’s worries. Enter into your dreams, a caravan, some woods, a wide water stream in the middle and slowly cracking wood of burning fire in the stone pit.

Things feel hard to do. Like it is hard to complete tomorrow’s work routine. It is hard to prepare the meal for guests. It is hard to clean the house, make laundry, order a thing. Things feel hard (no doubt we feel stressed and bent at times). We feel confused, messed, broken. We need a glimpse, a spark, a light.

Our brain is a powerful, beautiful, little machine. It needs small tiny instructions to keep us on track to our happy destinations.

In fact —

We only control 50% of our thoughts, that control the remaining 50%.

Here, lying in bed, think of the 50 % actions in your reach to reach your dream. Slowly you will find yourself walking the steps. The flow will start coming back. You will see, things were so easy to achieve, yet you waited so long. Do not wait no more, and walk the dream, starting tonight.

Morning Walk • 0530 hrs ( Local Mosque )

Our town’s center mosque.

Wake up, miss fajr, wear your track suit, go out, slowly breathe and walk. On way if find a mosque, say your missed prayer.

Sitting here, on the floor, with the cracks, the bricks, the slowly building sun and the walk into a troublesome day — feels quiet. The silence is a music to your ears. You feel the emptiness and discover there is more.

You spend few minutes in the vast emptiness, you discover there is an infinite amount of presence. Small gaps that felt silent, are filled with natural sounds (white noise). Distant birds chirp, some buzzing, few horns, a door creek, an insect findings its place. You find these strange, unique yet soothing. An assurance, you made it to the beginning hours — it is a victorious experience.

Your body is a clean place, that needs continuous cleansing. You give it more silence, you get more happy. You give it more nature, you get more calm. You give it more air, you get more cheerful. You put into it a piece, you get a reward. Ugly things makes it ugly, heavy, broken. Pure and calm things make it productive, powerful, and sane.

Morning Drive • Murree Road • 0535 Hrs

Murree road is one of the oldest roads in Rawalpindi. It used to be impossible to make a cross city crossing, recently the bridge above widened it enough to become useful once again.

Call a friend, plan a hike / a picnic, and just leave. Not lengthly hard plans. Just go, roam, cheer and feel the freedom you have.

This place, where we are at right now, is one crazy stupid busy place in Rawalpindi. It is chaotic in the day. Honking horns and angry people. Now it is opposite; fun and easy.

Driving away from the busy week behind. Hoping you get rid of noise and fuss. Thinking after the drive, life gets back to normal. You are about to sweat, climb a trail, hear the nature, and charge yourself for the week ahead.

Walk on Trail 5 • 0632 hrs

Out of 6 trails, the longest / most beautiful is trail 5 (public opinion). It is 5.5 Km long with 1 all seasons water stream.

Drive to the woods, take a water bottle, a friend and find yourself lost in the nature. You still can find ways to connect to the world; a music player in your pocket, some twitter, youtube, or a phone plug. But remember you came here to detach yourself. Make an effort to go silent for some time ahead.

Margalla trail is a start to a world of adventures. North from here you meet some of the highest peaks of the world, heavenly border crossings, longest hill climbs, rarest forests, highest desert and few of the most dangerous tracks. When you go in to the trail — feel the sacredness. Breathe, for you are about to go into a world of our ancestors. A real pure ride is coming up ahead.

You find a water stream in the way, zig zag hill climbs, burnt brown slopes, barren stones with tall cracky trees. In the way, while you walk, you forget the world. You forget your worries. You feel your soul is finding its strength again. You feel brave and powerful again. In just few minutes ahead, you feel your doubts will never cross your ways. You will make it to the top. And nothing will feel bad again.

Nature does it to us. It makes us happy. Try to find the nearest untouched water stream, a lake corner, a place not explored much, and exhale your worries. You will find yourself with nothing but a strong will, a desire, a kick to your passion. You will move again.

Evening drive to Cafe • 1755 hrs

Chaye Junction is located in Bahria Town Phase 4, near Mei Kong. It is among the series of cafes located adjacent to sheesha bars.

Feeling down? Get up. Wear your shoes. Grab your keys. And drive to a good neat clean place. Try to put a commute of nearly 30 minutes. Find a mosque in there somewhere, plan and say your prayer. Don’t go to a dirty place, a dirty mosque, a dirty side walk, or a dirty crowded shop. Avoid all things noisy until you reach your fun corner.

Order a roll paratha, some fries, lemon malt, sit next to the fan and watch people laugh. None here feel sad, or broken, or at loss. As you look at people, you find here, in the colors, it is not poverty, or a broken budget, or a bad drafted letter. Here it is only ludo, matka chaye, and a soothing background music.

We can write the longest article, take the best photo, think the best business plan, and explore the freedom right in our reach. We can chose to live happy, whenever, wherever, we want. We can be bigger than what we think of ourselves, and ride this road of self discovery. We can know we have unlimited potential — and take the jump — whenever we want. We delay it, the freedom, and it becomes scarce.

McDonald Food Deck • 1904 hrs

McDonald Fatima Jinnah Park, located adjacent to Katchehri Chowk, Rawalpindi.

Although it’s an international brand and we might pour our money into foreigners pockets. But you get a lot in return. A nice cosy place, good food, smiling faces, and a ton of ideas. If compared to outside places, this place has the most family centred happiness.

Do not act rich, or feel shy. Neither do you show off or be rude. Just be here, in the moment - order a small coffee cup - and under your budget turn the ideas bulb 💡 on.

Our brain is on the look out for things. We are almost always stealing ideas. Looking for ways to find the next argument, the next exciting thing to do, the next business idea to dive into — something that makes us feel bigger than we are right now. Here, do not intrude, let your brain do its magic.

Slowly, when you opt happy places over noisy places, you find the ideas become your second nature. You walk, talk, breathe, live what you think. Slowly, your passion transforms into a business. Here, you find yourself free, young and alive again.

Conclusion

Imagine standing in front of a train. What can you control standing there? Your posture, your body, your physique. But you can not control what happens when the train hits you. You can only control the initiative, but can’t control the consequences.

Now think, you are standing in front of a success train. Like when you take action, to write a bad article, sing a bad song, capture a bad photo, make a bad proposal — but once this success train hits you — all your consequences are going to be good. Once you share or publish your work, you only get a good outcome. You will still grow into a better artist, a confident presenter, a happy investor. Even when the initial losses feel bigger you still will become better at what you do.

We can stand in front of our success train right now, take an initiative, be proactive, and control the present. And we can be sure — that circumstances / the consequences are going to make us a bigger and happier person.