Yesterday, on my bike, feeling the warm sun on my skin again after a long winter.

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.

I have no idea. I only have two modes: distracted and uncomfortable.

If I'm uncomfortable then I'm not happy; If I'm distracted, I might be happy but I won't notice.

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.

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.

This morning watching my dog steal my spot in bed and snuggle with my husband.

Today. I woke up.

This morning when I looked at my manicure. Even though it's time for another. I love my nails and they make my day when I take a few seconds to look at them.

When i ate that tasty mango yesterday,at 10pm

Me after reading this thread.

Fuck, am I depressed?

Two weeks ago. It comes and goes.

I’ve been a bit overworked lately and that’s made me feel numb generally. Then of course there’s the news… I’m very not happy with the world at the moment.

The first, strongest, and longest lasting moment like this I can recall is when I was 15 and homeless and a friend snuck me in to sleep on their floor. I felt safe and understood and accepted in a way I never had before and all too rarely have since. It's still a moment I escape to sometimes when circumstances are rough and I can't change them. Not the food or the games or the teen romance, just laying there in the dark knowing that everything was (and could actually be) ok. That a better world was possible, so to speak. That I wasn't alone.

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.

That's a nice description. I would say for me, it's when I'm not afraid or worried about everything all the time. These occasions happen, thankfully, but not too often. And sometimes through out the day.

I honestly cannot remember.

~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.

Elation is a moment. And honestly that’s fleeting. When most people think of happiness, they are really feeling elation. Happiness is a state of mind. With happiness it’s more or less being content and enjoying your big picture ..

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."

Before looking into psychology or (god forbid) reactionary existentialism:

• potassium (your multivitamin does not have this, supplements are generally inadequate, check the label you will be shocked, get powder online)

• magnesium (ditto but also "magnesium oxide" causes gastric issues and is NOT ABSORBED so trust the label even less, when you look online get glycinate)

• 25-50g of fiber. easiest + cheapest if you live in an unhealthy supermarket area without cheap veggies is psyllium husk, powdered peanut butter (WITH NO ADDED SUGARS!! use in savory dishes), wheat bran, and dried vegetable mixes you can buy from asia

• lift weights AND do long very fast walks for posture + eyes. engage your core muscles while you walk

• 100-300g (yes, 300, but we will never be that ripped now without roids lol, 250 tops prolly, and obv you need some short (protein powders) and long (yogurt, egg whites, meat) chains otherwise you will be too full, beware of doing this with beans sorry) of protein depending on physique. limit fat intake. no sugars. complex carbs and proteins burn 30% of calories as heat, that activity fuels your digestive microbiota.

just a good bedrock before mindset and medication, also look into tianeptine. trust me this will improve your mood enough to realistically gauge what to do next this is foolproof numerous people have told me it works and any doctor should back me up.

oh, and eat fish! so much fish! omega 3s really do work over time. also eat as many plants rich in random antiinflammatory compounds as possible (they taste good, berries are fiber nukes and they are just packed with anticancer stuff)

Today. It was a sunny day, I was back at the office after a couple of miserable sick days, I had good food. I was happy, or maybe very content is more accurate. Although happiness is pretty much my default setting.

A few days ago when that naval base in Bahrain got kablammed

1988

January, I took a five day weekend and in the middle of it was actually doing things I wanted to do and having fun, instead of my usual of trudging through work, making dinner, and going straight to bed after. I think that was pretty good, I felt a little happy. Before that it was probably over a year though. I have to enjoy it when it comes, because it's sparse and fleeting.

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.

I mean not the last time but as I look back over my life there is this point in time where my wife and I lived in the city in a neighborhood just out city center in a two flat. I worked at a research university and while the pay was low it had benefits and we could pay our monthly nut. It was 3 miles away and I could walk, bike, or take the bus. I would often walk in the morning and my wife would take the dog and there was this park about a mile or so away and we would have a little kiss goodbye and I would keep going to work while she walked the dog through the park and back home. We could spur of the moment grab food from close by places or any grocery item we wanted by walking. It was glorious. The lab I worked in was a research lab and interesting as heck on a day to day basis and collaborated globally. We had folks from japan practically every other summer doing research as well as many eurpean companies. Oh also my wife and I were barely in our thirties. it was sweet.

It's been a few years. I was rebuilding myself. For context, I used to be a pretty shitty person. People tell me I wasn't that bad but I hate the person I used to be. I actually felt good about myself for the first time in my life and was happy. Due to a combination of factors I rebounded heavy on the self loathing and depression and have been that way ever since. That was a few years ago.

I found some chocolate in my desk yesterday that was pretty good, happiness is fleeting, take what you can get

Yesterday my wife texted me to say that her body is clear from what was preventing a pregnancy (won't go into too much detail). a beacon of hope after years of struggling.

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.

Waking up to no headache after feeling gross yesterday due to said headache.

Uhhh, kindergarten maybe?