Have you ever heard of your ‘Alpha Place’? It is a place that you can go in your mind… when you are stressed or need your full concentration on a task, or even when you are trying to listen to a teacher. I should have accessed it today when I was at a county-wide inservice. After lunch, I felt like I was fading. I maybe had too much food and no caffeine and I couldn’t focus 
on actually a subject I’m pretty interested in exceptional children. Instead, I just started doodling ferociously…which was kind of in poor taste, because of the fact that I was sitting up front and there were only four of us in the session. To get to your Alpha Place you have to practice with your eyes open, but it usually helps when you’re learning, to close your eyes. These are the steps.
1. Imagine a place that you love to be. It can be anywhere in the world or somewhere close to home- it can even be your newly remodeled bathroom!
2. Next picture yourself walking into the space.
3. In that place see, feel and even try to smell the things around you.
4. Imagine yourself being completely content and relaxed.
This is my scene: I imagine myself walking out on our pier in Michigan with my coffee and my dog. I sit down at the end of the pier. I see two beautiful swans and a sailboat on the horizon. The sail on the boat is flapping gently. My beagle Allie is warm beside me. She puts her head in my lap. I’m sitting Indian style and I feel a light, but warm breeze blowing on my shoulders. That is my Alpha.
I should be able to access it when I wake up in the middle of the night…stressed out. I should be able to access it when, yet again, a 2nd grader informs me that there just isn’t enough time to read every night at their house. I should have been able to access it today and it is very possible that I would have been more engaged in the ‘conversation’ around me.
Two years and finishing strong... 
I am going to have to try this Alpha place the next time I am not so engaged with the topic at hand. Your place sounds so comforting. I love that your dog’s head rests in your lap. Now I must head to the kitchen and create some kind of a meal. I need an Alpha place!
like your Alpha place. I’ll have to think a little and decide where/what mine is. I wonder if this will help me when I feel my attention flagging in meetings … I worry that it will lull me to sleep, dreaming of that Alpha!
I love your post. I have been blogging for about five years. But this is my first year slicing every day. As soon as you mentioned your Alpha place, I immediately thought of my cottage in northern Michigan. Even though your scene wasn’t exactly the same, I bet it was within just a few miles of mine. I’m looking forward to reading your posts. I like the positive energy!
Thank you for commenting…yep…Michigan. We are on White Lake- our little lake has a channel to L.Michigan. I have to change my Alpha pic a little bit because we had to put our dog down last year…so now when I do Alpha I get weepy. Are you up near Traverse Citiy? I just love the state. love nanc
This post makes me think! I wonder if I can have more than one Alpha Place? I always feel torn between the ocean and the mountains. Having lived in Seattle, where I was drawn to both, depending upon my personal space at any given moment, I have definitely called on both for comfort and solace over the years. However, I, too, would worry about my Alpha Place being a calm place that would allow me to drift off to sleep. I will have to give this a try somewhere I can’t get in trouble the first time or two around! 🙂 Thanks for sharing, and yes, I was able to visualize your space.
thanks so much for your comment…I would be torn…the mountains…wow…in Illinois sometimes I imagine the clouds in the distance being mountains and I get so happy- we love CO, but the ocean…something about the hypnotic effect of the waves…hard choice. xo
It sounds like a wonderful place. I need to find mine. Perhaps it is Yoga class, or the house in Greece. Maybe it’s just my couch with my dog cuddled close.