In Enid Blyton’s well-loved book ‘Faraway Tree’, the imaginary Lands at the top of the tree change frequently. One of the more relevant ones in the context of COVID-19, was the Land of Topsy Turvy – homes are upside down as are trees with roots in the air and people walk upside down too. Our personal and working lives are topsy-turvy and, at worst, very upsetting, distressing and worrying. Over the past 11 months, we have been fearful of getting infected by COVID-19, and worried about and frustrated with our economic circumstances, and reductions in the quality of our lives

Discovering ‘sanctuary’ is a very positive technique, lasting from 5 seconds to as long as we want it to. Visualising sanctuary and happy places uses one’s own experience from the past to visualise a safe and happy place where one can go in one’s imagination – a sunny beach, a babbling stream, a childhood room, an affectionate friend. Every ‘sanctuary image’ is unique. One can always return and enjoy its calm, beauty and peacefulness whenever it is needed. 

Professors Koch and Jackson outline techniques to help us use visualisation in our working days as a tool and technique to help us keep calm, stay happy and keep going mentally, and see how we can tailor our own happy places to create calming visual imagery to help us.