Often in fiction, characters have a habit of using particular spaces for the purpose of contemplation.
This space can take any form, be it a rock, a chair, a tree stump, really any designated area used for thinking or meditation.
This can overlap with Bad Mood Retreat if the contemplation area is in use for the purpose of overcoming negative emotions.
Compare Putting On My Thinking Cap, when a character needs a specific item to think better. Also see Happy Place.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected: As the lone wolf he is in his school, Hachiman Hikigaya usually goes to the high school's backyard to lunch and to think, since is his "lonely place". That, until Yui Yuigahama and Iroha Isshiki started to accompany him there (for his own disdain). Also, when there're no cases to solve, the members of the Service Club use that place to think and rest from the people.
Comic Books
Comic Strips
- The Dandelion Patch in Bloom County. Doubles as a land of the Fisher King, as, toward the end of the original run, when everybody's leaving, the patch gets paved over.
- Huey Freeman from The Boondocks could often be seen sitting beside a particular local tree in the neighborhood to do some pondering.
Fan Works
- Rocketship Voyager. On having his medicine bundle returned to him, Chakotay thinks that he needs to find a place to meditate with a view of the stars, but there aren't many of those on a rocketship as there's not much to look at in space.
Film
- In If You Could Say It in Words, Sadie shows Nelson a playground where she used to hang out as a kid. Her mother was an alcoholic, so she used the playground as her thinking spot.
Literature
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: When looking for his missing cat, Toru Okada finds an empty well in an abandoned house. He eventually takes to using the well as his thinking and meditation place, and the plot is eventually bought for him by his employer and the well is outfitted with a ladder and a pulley system so he can open and close the well from inside.
- In The Amber Spyglass, Lyra uses the Botanical Garden of Jordan College to reflect on various issues, such as her life.
- In the Warrior Cats short story "After Sunset: The Right Choice?", Leafpool has a spot at the top of a hill where she likes to sit and look at the lake as she thinks about things; the story begins when she finds Brambleclaw sitting there.
- The Roosevelt:
- Emmet's closet at The Roosevelt is his safe space, with pillows and blankets and a Lycra sensory sack. He goes there whenever he needs to focus and think.
- His employers, Workiva, put in a ball pit on his advice. He and some of his coworkers go there to think about ideas.
- Zenobia July: Arli has found a Secret Room in a deserted elementary school where vo goes to think.
Live-Action TV
- The park seasons of Barney & Friends feature characters using The Idea Bench, a bench with two seats facing opposite directions that rotates on an axis in a circular area. It was intended to take the place of The Barney Bag.
- On Gilmore Girls, Jess can be found at a small bridge over a pond near Stars Hollow high school when he's upset or needs to think. Hilariously, he chooses this spot after Luke pushes him off of it in annoyance for his surly attitude. Later, it becomes important for Rory, as well, since Jess takes her on a picnic there and she retreats to it when she needs to think about her feelings for him after a humiliating public break-up with her current boyfriend.
- The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Every episode begins with Dobie sitting and thinking in the park in front of a copy of Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker".
- Schitt's Creek: In Season 5, Patrick takes David on a hike to see a beautiful view, and he tells David he used to come there to think about his feelings for David when they first met and he wasn't sure what to do. He then gets down on one knee and proposes.
- There was an episode of Scrubs where it's revealed there's a toilet on the roof of the hospital. It's also revealed that people who use this toilet usually make a breakthrough in some issue they're thinking over.
- Seinfeld has a Running Gag in which either Jerry or George would do their soul-searching at the same pier, always complete with the seagulls all flying away as the character ran back into town with their newfound revelation.
- Star Trek: Picard: The Romulan Reclamation Site provides a Zhal Makh meditation chamber for its Romulan employees. There's a winding path painted on the wooden floor, and around it are lanterns. The participant is expected to walk barefoot along the path which represents the "journey into the center of the mind's most intimate space, where deepest truths are hidden."
Myths & Religion
- According to Buddhist tradition, Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment after meditating for 49 days under a peepal tree (also called sacred fig) which is said to have grown at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, Northern India. Today this is the site of the Mahabodhi Temple, a holy site and place of pilgrimage for Buddhists and Hindus.
- The Four Gospels: Jesus goes to silent, secluded places, far away from crowds and critics, in order to pray and meditate and to have a conversation with his Father. He also tells his disciples to do the same, such as going to their rooms and closing the door. One place where Jesus prayed the night before he was crucified was the Garden of Gethsemane, an olive garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem.
Puppet Shows
- Fraggle Rock: One reason Mokey loves her job of gathering radishes is that she delights in being among the plants and trees of the Gorgs' garden. She even has a secret place there, under a tree, some distance away from the Gorgs' castle and the vegetable patch, where she likes to write in her diary.
Video Games
- Vanya Shah of Hitman 2 uses her bathroom as her private place to reflect, banning anyone other than Rani to enter. Likewise, she will use her private pool if the water tank is fixed, allowing Agent 47 to kill her.
Web Videos
- commodoreHUSTLE: In episode "Critical", Graham Stark is revealed to have a spot where "Sometimes I ... come here to think". As a Visual Gag it is revealed to be looking directly at a wall. It is revealed shortly afterwards to be one of a number of Graham's thinking spots. The gag is repeated as a Call-Back in later episode "Crisis on Infinite Spoilers", only this time Graham's thinking spot is staring directly at the end of a set of shelves.
Western Animation
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Huu reached enlightenment and became a waterbending master by meditating beneath a massive banyan-grove tree at the heart of the Foggy Swamp.
- Blue's Clues: The Thinking Chair is where the characters usually go to put two and two together and figure out what Blue's trying to tell them with the clues she's given them. In one episode, it's a couch instead because the characters have company.
- Clone High: When Abe is upset, he goes to the "Thinking Dock", which is one of two piers on a lake near the school. He usually ends up with company because someone else goes and sits on the other pier.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Three's a Crowd", Discord mentions having a "thinking tree", claiming it's where he gets his best ideas.
- Steven Universe: There's a hill on the outskirts of Beach City that has a good view of the town, and various characters (most notably Steven in "Full Disclosure" and Ruby in "The Question") have gone there to think. In fact, it's apparently called "Brooding Hill".
- Winnie the Pooh has a "thoughtful spot" where he likes to sit down and think.
