Post-CGW I've been frequently experiencing natural euphoria

[Kevin V]

While reading/finishing the book in late Nov/early Dec, there were 2 or 3 times when I experienced a feeling of a natural high. These experiences were induced by powerful, positive realizations (usually along the lines of how lucky I am and how good life has been for me/how many good things I have in my life, etc etc).

At CGW, I experienced this feeling for most of the weekend. It was easier to experience this with so many high conscious, positively energized people in one room, often talking about extremely positive things.

Post-CGW, I've been able to continue experiencing this feeling. Not all the time, but at least once a day. The reason I feel I've been able to continue to feel this way is because my environment back home in Austin is very positive. My good friends whom I surround myself with are very positive, supporting, and into PD. A lot of the discussions we have are very positive, often talking about how lucky we are, and which ways we can help better the world. When you have positive discussions like this, it definitely helps with giving me this euphoric feeling that I've been feeling lately. Also, when I am in this mental state, I am better able to have more powerful realizations. Realizations that help me realize the magnitude of some crazy things in our world.

If anyone has any experience or insight on this natural euphoric state, please share. Also, if you felt something similar to this pre/during/post CGW, please share as well!

[The Unconquered]

I'm so happy I can't sleep.

This happens almost every night.

But I'm talking to y'all, so it's good.

[Aleksander Krstic]

Happened to me twice, but I'd be glad if it happened more oftenly. Lucky you!

[Kevin V]

Originally Posted by Aleksander Krstic

Happened to me twice, but I'd be glad if it happened more oftenly. Lucky you!

When and what triggered the two times, if you don't mind me asking? Also where in Slovenia do you live? My parents used to live in Italy, only 1.5 hours away from Ljubljana... awesome city!!

[fizzleboink]

I've had some post-CGW#2 feelings of euphoria, usually about once a day. I'm actually feeling it right now.

It usually happens when I find myself connecting with people I met at the workshop, as I don't have too many local friends that are into PD. It's not quite at the same level as what I experienced during the workshop, but I'll take it!

I've also found Erin's "Raising Your Vibration" CD to really help with this as well.

[MattL]

Originally Posted by fizzleboink

I've also found Erin's "Raising Your Vibration" CD to really help with this as well.

The Love meditation and the Gratitude meditation in Erin's CD are fantastic. I'd never done guided meditations before, and it's definitely something I'll explore more. If you can start your day feeling love for others, love for yourself and feeling love from the universe, you're off to something good. And don't underestimate the power of gratitude either, both from the people you've done good to, and from the people that positively impact you. It's great to get into these two states.

Matt

[Polina]

I have had exact same experiences of natural high frequently accompanied by a beaming smile all for now apparent reason, sometimes even in the more dreariest of days. And I can also report needing less sleep than usual although I did not conduct any conclusive measurements.

I personally thought it was my awesome life in general coupled with the raw diet that I have started and continued after the workshop. Plus all the rapid changes and improvements in the areas I have identified as my primary focus during the workshop. But perhaps indeed it is some of Steve's Voodoo working on us collectively.

For those looking to intensify this feeling and make it more frequent I can recommend only one solution - gratitude: written, oral and mental. This will lead to emotional gratitude which I believe is the seed of the feelings of euphoria discussed here.

[irunthereforeiam]

Hey Polina,
I have been hearing, seeing, reading about importance of gratitude through multitude of avenues in the past few days. I think it's about time I put something on paper...Now you recommended doing it in 3 modalities..oral/written are straight forward..how is the mental part done? Repeat and affirm it?

[theorique]

Nice synchronicity guys - my latest blog post is about gratitude! Seems like there's a lot of it in the air lately

Three ways to feel happiness through gratitude

-jack

[Kevin V]

Polina, good call on the gratitude part. When you constantly realize things you're grateful for throughout the day, it definitely helps with this feeling of euphoria - especially when it's powerful realizations of gratitude.

irunthereforeiam, for the mental part, I would suggest trying to spend your day being more aware of things you are grateful for. Be grateful for the car you drive, the legs you have to walk, the country you live in, the nice clothes you have, the meal you're able to pay for, the job you have that gives you the money to afford you your car/clothes/meal, etc etc etc THE LIST GOES ON!!!!

jack, I enjoyed your blog, synchronicity indeed!

[Polina]

Jack, you post was awesome, I have about 3 months of accumulated gratitude log but I never thought of reading back over it to identify what I am most grateful for to put focus on bringing more of those things in my life. Brilliant idea!

Lakshmi, mental gratitude is just like Kevin said, just thinking about things to be grateful for throughout your day. There are many little tricks for instilling the habits of gratitude:

1. gratitude rock (if you do not know what I mean, you need to watch The Secret ASAP)
2. create a daily trigger, anything throughout your day where you need to wait anyway, feel that moment with gratitude. For example any time you are waiting in line or at a red light find something to be grateful for.
3. give gratitude before each meal
4. make a list of 10 things daily, either when you wake up or right before bed when our brains enter a different wave pattern

I have a read a great book on the subject a couple of months ago Attitudes of Gratitude - first part goes over the multitude of benefits of gratitude which serves to motivate you to make it part of your day, the second part give lots of practical examples for incorporating the habit of gratitude into you life.

Finally, inspired by all you beautiful people doing amazing things with your 30 day challenges I hereby commit to my own challenge. I have been keeping a gratitude blog for 3 months while in Japan and since I left I completely fell off the band wagon (won't bore you with the excuses). So here I commit to 30 days of gratitude logging which I usually do before bed. My blog feeds into my facebook automatically so if I miss a day someone please pull me up on it. Thanks!

[theorique]

Thanks Polina!
Let me know if you get any interesting insights. I have definitely run into some common themes when rereading regular journal entries (not specifically gratitude-oriented) as well.
-jack

[krdrever]

For some reason I want to say that I've been experiencing a lightness of being. The high I had after being at the workshop was an amazing experience that I've managed to reinvent for myself this past month since. It's not eactly the same, but it definitely has been a positive forward momentum.

In regards to the attitude of gratitude one key way of becoming more aware is to pay attention to the kinds of words you're saying throughout the day. For example, I have a friend who, when asked how she liked something, if it's good she'll say "Well, it's not that bad."... which to me says there's a general pessimistic attitude expecting that things are more naturally going to be bad than good. So, to shift to a more positive, attitude of gratitude she could say "Well, it's actually pretty good."

It may just be semantics, and I know that's a very simple example, but the things you allow to come in and out of you are the types of energies you're creating for yourself and your environment.

Kim

[colonel]

What I have to say is a confirmation of what you've already discovered and agreed upon:

For me I also notice that this "natural euphoria" feeling is one attained through the internal or external expression of gratitude - or better, appreciation.
Find a few things to appreciate and really dwell upon those thoughts, write them down, do anything creative with them and you won't be able to help but feel this way.

A related insight that certainly was interesting for me and some of you might find helpful is this one:

Life is but an appreciation (gratitude) class.

The more and better we appreciate, even and especially the small things in our lives, the better we align with our original purpose in life, the better we become at living life, the better creators we become and the better we feel about this whole experience

Enjoy!

- Denis

[Kevin V]

It definitely helps that I've been interacting with a lot of low-income, at-risk students for the past couple of months. The environments and realities a lot of these kids live in is extremely eye-opening.