do you feel like you just suddenly "WOKE UP" one day?

[rocketman]

...in terms of changing your life....

if so, what triggered it?

for me, and this will come as the greatest of ironies, it was coffee. allow me to explain.

my entire life, in retrospect, passed by to that point as if i was literally a zombie, walking in a daze. i wasn't awake, in both the literal and figurative sense of the term. i wasn't attune to my thoughts, my goals, etc...

now make no mistake, i wasn't some worthless slob. i got a hell of a whole lot out of that small amount of life energy that i was using. i graduated from a top university and was in great shape, working out regularly. but i was literally utilizing maybe only 10% of my total potential. i just wasn't "awake."

i became aware of this in recent years and attributed the greatest cause behind my problems to be my sleep issues. if i didn't have class, or during summer, i would wake up at noon at the earliest. i didn't actually start hitting my stride until 5PM at the earliest. when i actually was awake, my brain was very foggy, atleast until later in the night. in fact, i actually thought this "fogginess" was the norm. when awake, i was always sleepy and had little energy, either mental or physical. the few hours i was actually awake during the day i would spend doing the things i had to do for school or socializing, and then i would waste time online at night. but there was no extra time at all to work on myself - how could there be when your "asleep" either literally or figuratively for the majority of the day.

i realized i didn't want to waste my life like this and had to change myself but what could i do? no matter how much i tried, i simply could not stay awake during the mornings. i would tell my doctors and they would check me for anemia or prescribe me sleeping pills. not once did they ask about my diet (which was horrendous). idiots. i gave up and decided to just accept that i wasn't a "morning person."

one day, a few months ago, i decided i had had enough and had to do something. i told myself i would wake up early the next morning and drink a strong cup of coffee. this thought never occurred to me before because i didn't want to become addicted. but i felt this necessary now. i drank it and was wide awake. more awake than i've ever felt at that time of day in my entire life. it was incredible.

i kept drinking it over the next few weeks and was able to adjust my sleeping schedule for the first time in my life. up at 5, in bed by 11PM. now, with all this free time in the morning, i was able to devote time to working on myself. i began researching various things online and drastically changed my diet. this in turn gave me evermore increased energy throughout the day. as i see it, coffee wasn't my solution, but it was my "enabler" to find my solutions.

in the figurative sense, for the first time in my life, i have actually felt "awake" in that my MIND is actually awake. i am aware of my observations and my goals etc. i really can't describe the feeling of your mind actually running on hyper-drive for the first time. constantly processing thoughts, actions, rather than just slugglishly/passively dwaddling through life. it's amazing.

from that point, i began implementing goals and trying to learn/do the things i've always wanted to do.

a few weeks ago, the coffee lost its efficacy and knowing the danger in addiction to any substance, i just gave it up. after having already adjusted myself to the early mornings, i haven't needed it since. like i said, it wasn't the solution, but was the enabler for my solutions.

was there any point at which you turned your life around?

[JaredR]

Did I wake up in a day? No, for me it was like yawning and turning and, after hitting snooze for the hundredth time, FINALLY getting out of bed.

[LVGeneration]

Originally Posted by JaredR

Did I wake up in a day? No, for me it was like yawning and turning and, after hitting snooze for the hundredth time, FINALLY getting out of bed.

funny. But maybe I could say the same.
It wasn't an awakening at all for me, I think I always was "awake". Since as far as I can remember, being a kid, I was interested in weird things, and I felt different than other kids. I was fascinated by sharks and had a scrapbook where I put pictures from magazines of different species and write all about them. I would often start conversations with my friends about the Universe, we would stare at the stars at night and talk about the purpose of life.
Fast forward, the state that you call awakening I think is still in me, it's part of me and I will always feel that way, it's constantly evolving and taking shape, it's a lifelong process.
I still do lots of mistakes, like eating junkfood every now and then, not eating as many fruits and vegetable as I'd like, not waking up early enough, not going out in nature often enough, etc. But I'm trying to live consciously and right now I'm not too tough on myself about certain things, I know I've improved a lot and I'm going the right way

[Roseblue]

I too feel like I have always been awake, always aware of the unusual aspects of life but with no understanding I had questions and with every answer there came more questions. I was afraid for a long time. I doubted my sanity. Then one day I just got so tired that I decided that I didn’t care anymore what the hell was going on. I let go. Then over a few days I became quite overwhelmed with elation and the realisation that the sky didn’t fall and that I was okay. Then all kinds of information came to me and it was finally making sense.

[lovelyn]

It was a gradual thing for me. I'd get one thing and then another and then another over time. I'm slow. I learn one lesson at a time. Line upon line. That's what works for me.

I've had my share of aha moments and those moments have built up to become something big.