What Counts?
Wait. Could THAT Be a Sunny Spot?
Sunny Spots are not limited to picturesque benches beside lakes. Convenient, because sometimes it is February. š
They can be places. People. Animals. Movement. Music. Making something. Familiar routines. A ridiculous dog. A memory. A moment your body seems to remember before you have words for why.
They can involve connectionāor less connection. A friend who can walk beside you without interrogating you. A dog who does not require an explanation. A quiet room where nobody needs anything for ten minutes.
The name is a metaphor.
A Sunny Spot does not have to be sunny. It does not even have to be a spot.
What matters is not whether something appears on an Official List of Relaxing Thingsā¢. What matters is what happens in your experience.
Meditation might give one person room and make another person want to compose a strongly worded letter to meditation. š A crowded pet store might sound exhausting to one Traveler and be exactly the combination of Sassy + movement + people + tricks that helps Jenny find some footing.
The category is wide because people are wide.
Through Your Lens
What makes the world feel a little roomier for you?
Do not borrow Jenny's list just because it worked for Jenny. Look for your own clues.
Maybe there is somewhere you return to. Someone whose company changes the size of the room. Something you do with your hands. A rhythm, sound, animal, memory, movement, tradition, or ordinary moment that gives more of you a chance to come back online.
And if nothing comes to mind yet, that is information too. You are allowed to discover Sunny Spots instead of already knowing them.
Some Sunny Spots can travel.
You may physically go somewhere. Or the Sunny Spot may be a song, a person you can call, a rhythm you know, or a memory you can carry.
That last one gets interesting. A place can be hundreds of miles away and still leave you with the wind, the light, the temperature, the sand under your feet, or the feeling of being there.
Which raises another Sunny Spots question: what happens when you notice a good moment deeply enough to carry some of it with you?