History Main / HappyPlace

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Jaime and Brienne are captured by a gang of bandits. Jaime advises Brienne to go into her happy place when they try to rape her, instead of fighting back; attacking them will only make them angrier and likelier to mutilate or kill her. Brienne, being a very staunch ActionGirl, refuses the idea, and later Jaime is able to think up an idea that will keep the bandits from raping her at all...though it's a near miss.

** And in ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', Sheemie Ruiz, a powerful but mentally-disabled psychic, can create a ''physical'' happy place with his mind, and sends the protagonists there to protect them.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire,'' Jaime and Brienne are captured by a gang of bandits. Jaime advises Brienne to go into her happy place when they try to rape her, instead of fighting back; attacking them will only make them angrier and likely to mutilate or kill her. Brienne, being a very staunch ActionGirl, refuses the idea, and later Jaime is able to think up an idea that will keep the bandits from raping her at all...though it's a near miss.

** We later find out why Jaime advised this in particular. In his youth, Jaime was a knight sworn to protect a very insane, sadistic king. In particular, he was ForcedToWatch while said king killed innocent people in horrific ways, and could not reconcile his honour (which demanded he serve the king faithfully) with his conscience. Thus, he used this trope frequently (the thing he visualized, in particular, was being safe and happy with Cersei, his lover.) However, when the king announced his intention to ''burn everyone in the capital city to death,'' just to spite those coming to conquer it, Jaime was so completely horrified that he could not stand by. That's why he's known as the Kingslayer when the books begin, and reviled as a traitor without honour. He comments later to Brienne on the irony of being despised by so many for his finest act, ''especially'' as it was Ned Stark, the exemplar of HonorBeforeReason, that assumed the worst of Jaime when he came upon the scene.

* In the ''Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon'' short film on the ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' DVD (2nd disc), Snotlout says this twice in a row.

* The plot of the [[Series/TheKidsInTheHall Kids in the Hall]] [[TheMovie feature film]] ''Film/BrainCandy'' revolved around a new anti-depressant wonder drug which worked by constantly replaying the patient's happiest memory, thereby making impossible for them to be miserable.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' features this trope in the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E30AStopAtWilloughby A Stop at Willoughby]]", in which a severely depressed ad executive dreams of getting off the train at a charming town from the 1800s called Willoughby, but something always wakes him from his dream before he gets off the train. By the end of the episode, [[spoiler:he gets off and is able to reach his happy place, but in the real world, it is revealed that he jumped out the window of the train and committed suicide]].

See also AllJustADream, ConvenientComa, DreamSequence, ArcadianInterlude, GhostInTheMachine, JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, AngstComa, and SpiritAdvisor.

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', Sosuke has a real-life Happy Place, revealed at the end of the third novel (or the first anime): It's a secluded corner of Mithril's island base where he can just kick back and do some fishing. It may be the only place in the world where the perpetually battle-ready Sosuke actually unwinds and has fun, and he brings Kaname there because he wanted to share it with her.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfInsanity'' is a horror game where you're a mental patient trapped in an abandoned, empty BedlamHouse. There's a segment, however, where after your mind caved in, you suddenly find yourself in a greenhouse full of flowers, a beautiful outdoor park with plenty of trees, a peaceful lake with a rowboat, and a tunnel made of ''marshmallows'' while clam, serenating violin music plays in the background. And then you wake up and you're back in your cell.

* Gaius Baltar on ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' often went back to his lake house on Caprica when under stressful or dangerous situations. Usually Six, his sometimes-abusive SpiritAdvisor would lounge about with him or rub his back and other parts.

* John Crichton on ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' would go into his subconscious when he wanted to talk to his SpiritAdvisor and former SplitPersonality Harvey. And then there was the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes episode.
** Don't forget 'Out of Their Minds', where Rygel is stuck in John's body.
---> '''Rygel:''' I'm dreaming, yes that's it! I'm asleep...and I'm dreaming all this. I'll wake up in my royal chamber surrounded by concubines and everything will be fine!

* One episode of ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' had Tom having a hallucination of a happy life that lasted eight years from his perspective, but occurred over a few seconds of real time.
** It turns out that was the power of one of the affected. To generate the Happy Place for whomever she was in contact with.
*** It also nearly killed Diana when she chose to stay in the Happy Place rather than coming back to reality.

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Objects in Space", River unintentionally experiences a Happy Place, where she retreats to shut out the thoughts of the rest of the crew.

** The Djinn in "What Is And What Should Never Be" sends its victims here while he feeds on their blood. Highly disturbingly, Dean's happy place is where he can "rest", his father's still dead (yet still having the amazing ability to be able to bully him from beyond the grave) because a Happy!John would probably make his brain short-out, his perfect girlfriend looks the reaper from the season premiere, everyone thinks he's a worthless waste of space (because he's the one who thinks that) and his family all have wonderful lives except him. And the worst thing? [[{{Tearjerker}} He genuinely thinks that "It's still better than anything he has, especially since his mother and Sam are happy."]]

** Sam is put in a happy place [[spoiler: while he is being possessed by the angel Gadreel.]] It's a mundane happy where he is working on a MonsterOfTheWeek case with Dean about ghouls and cheerleaders.
** When [[spoiler: possessed by Michael]], Dean is put in a happy place where he has retired from hunting, runs a bar with Pamela, and gets a visit from Castiel.
* Part of season 3 of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' has Earl in a [[ConvenientComa coma]] dreaming of being a character in a pleasant [[DomCom family sitcom]] called "The Hickeys", complete with many typical sitcom tropes including LaughTrack.
It's revealed that the reason his subconscious created a DomCom like that was because when he was a child, he would turn his attention to the TV when his parents would fight, and he wished he lived in a "perfect" home like the ones on TV.

-->'''Fiona''': "Tricia, I want you to try something. It's a relaxation exercise I do in situations like this. I want you to close your eyes, and breathe deep...picture a peaceful mountain stream...picture yourself [[BreadEggsMilkSquick drowning the kidnapper in the stream]]. You're taking a rock from the stream, and raising it above your head, and with tremendous force you're bringing-"

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. The Guiding Tree of the Great Forest, which is part of the Talaxian afterlife which Neelix tells Naomi Wildman before she goes to bed in the episode "Mortal Coil", becomes this for Naomi at the end of the episode.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. In "6,741", Sameen Shaw mentions that her trainers instructed agents under torture to "take their mind somewhere else. Some place safe."

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' featured this trope in the episode “A Stop At Willoughby”, where a severely depressed ad executive dreams of getting off the train at a charming town from the 1800s called Willoughby, but something always wakes him from his dream before he gets off the train. By the end of the episode, [[spoiler: he gets off and is able to reach his happy place; but in the real world it is revealed he jumped out the window of the train and committed suicide.]]
* ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. When Frank Castle is being tortured in "Home", he sustains his morale by imagining himself making love to his wife. This leads to a rather disturbing InterplayOfSexAndViolence as his torturer is getting a [[LovesTheSoundOfScreaming lot of pleasure]] beating Castle to a bloody mess.

* In ''Film/Serenity'', River Tam's character is a young woman that the government has done secret psychological experiments and drug treatment on to convert her into an psychic and assassin. Even after her brother breaks her out of the BlackSite facility, she is often in CloudCuckooLander dreamworlds as a way to block out the PTSD.

** Some people with autism/Asperger's Syndrome have healthier variants. Some have a ''task,'' like writing or drawing, that acts as their 'happy place,' where they can be undisturbed and work out their emotions. Others don't retreat into imagination at all, but just need to cool down in a quiet, private place.

* Blue and pink feathers in ''Literature/{{Vurt}}''.

* ''Fanfic/ExperimentingFear'': When the scientist threatens him if his heartrate doesn't slow down, Nando calms himself down by thinking about traveling through Sinnoh with his own Pokémon, playing music for people and making them smile.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', Darla is tapping on the fishtank glass where Peach the starfish is, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Peach cries "Find a happy place" three times as she falls off.

* One issue of ''[[ComicBook/TheNewUniverse Nightmask]]'' involves a man whose wife and young daughter were murdered, and who has slipped into a catatonic Happy Place where they're still alive. The recently-orphaned protagonist is supposed to use his [[DreamWeaver dream-walking abilities]] to bring the man out, but he's not sure he wants to, especially since it involves "killing" the dream family.

* In ''Comicbook/TheSandman'', a confused superhero couple, Hector and Lyta Hall, live inside the Happy Place of an abused boy called Jed. Hector thinks he's a hero called the Sandman who fights monsters that invade the dreams of children, but somehow he doesn't notice that Jed is the only child he ever meets. This is all based on an older comic, also called ''The Sandman''. In the new continuity, however, it turns out that the Halls' servants deliberately arranged for Jed to be mistreated so he would create this dream-place to escape to, where the servants could hide from the real Sandman.

* [[http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02232009.shtml This]] ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' strip recommends the use of a Happy Place to avoid giving unwanted raises.