There are some moments in life in which a sudden self-awareness of happiness hits - a moment in which you step back from yourself and realize that, in that instant, everything is good. A feeling of your consciousness pulling away to make an emotional snapshot of that moment to care for and examine like one would a wounded bird or a nugget of gold.
While I don’t consider my life as a unhappy one, I only have a few of these moments guarded away. The first being at around age 6. My parents were giving me a group hug while we were all singing a family lullaby. My mother was expecting my baby brother at the time and that was the first time the baby’s name was included in the song. I remember feeling detached and floating away while taking in the moment.
The last time I experienced it I had just finished changing the sheets on a new king bed I splurged on after a small windfall. I remember laying on the bedspread and my 2yr old pup hopping on to play around the newly made bed. Instead of ushering him off as I usually did, I just watched him mess up the bedspread.
(I know happiness is not a fixed concept and everyone can have their own definition and experiences, but given my ignorance of the specific word to refer to the instant moment of self-awareness described, I just went with it)
Curious to read your thoughts and experiences.
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Yesterday I was just driving home from the grocery store and the sky was a beautiful shade of pink. Light snow on the ground driving by a state park. In that moment I knew everything was Ok and I was at a state of peace I never would’ve thought possible even 1 year ago.
Ever since that DMT experience I had about 8 months ago, I have had more and more moments like this. And overall a profound sense of peace and joy. I have never been more grateful for a drug in my life.
I thought I killed my analog oscilliscope about 20 minutes ago. Thankfully I didn’t, so that’s pretty cool.
If I’m smart, I’ll soon cut off basically everything news adjacent, maybe including lemmy depending if I can get good filters. Maybe a desprate effort to claw back from anything which weighs me down, given the gravity of our future, but eh.
Summer of 2013. Just graduated high school and parents were fine with me taking a few months to relax before starting the job search. Once that started I became miserable again, especially once I got a job.
~Oct 10, 2021 to about ~Nov 26, 2021.
For a short time, thought I was going to be a dad. Was finally happy again. Torn away when I figured out the only reason she wanted to have kids with me was so I could bank roll her. I was just an ATM.
Before that, maybe around 2004-2007. Was in college, in what I thought was a happy relationship, had friends, genuinely looked forward to each day. I had goals and dreams. I smiled because I wanted to, not because it’s what people expected.
Waking up to no headache after feeling gross yesterday due to said headache.
I’d recommend reading The Power Of Now. Its actually life changing. If this book replaced all religions, I bet we would have close to a utopia overnight.
The premise is simple, and you highlighted it in your stories. There is nothing but the Now. Dwelling on the bad past is pain. The worry of the future is pain. There can be no joy in either. All you ever have is the Now.
It takes mind training to get into that mindset, but its truly freeing. There’s no sky daddy. No misogonyst racist preachers. Its just You, Life, and Now.
And I am not some hippy dippy person who thinks energy crystals make you younger. I’m a wrencher and a PC nerd and I don’t do yoga. But I definitely recommend that book to everyone.
Eckhart Tolle. Thich Nhat Hanh. Maharaj. Some of my favorite folks.
Nonduality and mindfulness (and a bit of DMT) have brought me a profound sense of peace and happiness into my life that I never thought imaginable.
A few days ago when that naval base in Bahrain got kablammed
When i ate that tasty mango yesterday,at 10pm
I found some chocolate in my desk yesterday that was pretty good, happiness is fleeting, take what you can get
Yesterday, on my bike, feeling the warm sun on my skin again after a long winter.
I know feeling the sun is pure bliss after a long winter. It’s astounding how universal this experience is, as if there’s a biological reason for it. One of the ways it’s amazing to me is that it’s a feeling you can imagine sharing with practically at some moment with every other human being in history. Regardless of their location, status, or moment in time; it’s a common part of humanity (possibly even with some types of animals).
Thank you for sharing.
Oh god yes!
I know it’s not the type of answer you’re looking for, but I felt a moment of communal joy reading your story and all the other replies here. Thanks for sharing and helping bring that out in others, op. Love you.
A recent weekend event - it was just my son and myself that weekend and I decided to take him to a cultural event in our city. As we were walking home after filling our bellies with food truck chicken and watching the lion dancers, he interrupted our silence with “Mom, I love going to street fairs with you.”
I could’ve held on to that moment forever.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful moment.
Today. I woke up.
Thank you for this.
Made me think of Vonnegut’s prologue to Slapstick:
"I have had some experiences with love, or think I have, anyway, although the ones I have liked best could easily be described as “common decency.” I treated somebody well for a little while, or maybe even for a tremendously long time, and that person treated me well in turn. Love need not have had anything to do with it.
Also: I cannot distinguish between the love I have for people and the love I have for dogs.
When a child, and not watching comedians on film or listening to comedians on the radio, I used to spend a lot of time rolling around on rugs with uncritically affectionate dogs we had. And I still do a lot of that. The dogs become tired and confused and embarrassed long before I do. I could go on forever.
Hi ho."
I honestly cannot remember.