When the day is over and I know I kicked ass at work, kept my kids safe healthy happy and they’re asleep and my husband and I are together, post-sex, watching a favorite show of ours on TV or just laying in bed and talking…I feel alive and energized even though that’s when I’m most exhausted…

2am. Im dead all day, but for some reason my mind just clicks on at night.

I feel most alive just before sex! When it starts as teasing and firting and you know exactly what will happen very very soon! The feeling just makes me come alive, i love it!!

After my first week of a three week vacation.

Early in the morning. As the day goes on, I just more and more run down. But the mornings, anything is possible. ;-)

A list in no particular order (and not limited to)...

1) In the woods.

2) While drunk.

3) Just after exercising.

When playing my horn and the energy between me and the audience is just wild!

When I’m working in some physical form [jogging, yard work, gardening]. My mind feels very clear and colors seem so much brighter and vivid.

When I see my SO.
My heart lurches and well a bazillion other things.

I’m a morning person and have most energy in the mornings.

when i’m tacking a challenging problem that i’m passionate about. this can be anything—when life takes the form of a really great game.

Making very long and passionate love with my woman after being out of town and away from her for a very long time (she hates it when I’m 300 miles away and she can’t even give me a hug). And then cuddling naked, watching a movie, and eating great food with her in bed. One other moment of feeling alive is after doing 6 hours of Kung Fu, and being completely sucked dry of energy. But some how I’m still able to walk around and take deep breaths of air, the feeling is wonderful.

I feel most alive when I learn something new.

While playing rec hockey. :)

At the precise moment when I make a play and it WORKS. When the best shooter from the other side comes sweeping in and I steal the puck out from under them and skate up the ice with it, and in the meantime, my goalie is getting cold and bored. I don’t feel pain, I don’t feel tired, my heart is beating hard and love my body and what it’s capable of doing while I play, and nothing else in the world exists,

Space Mountain at Disneyland!

On a cross-country course with my horse (ex. Rolex 2009 Pictures
.. only I am not at this level yet). Everything else gets blocked out, and the only thing I can hear are my horses hooves galloping across the ground with my own heart in perfect rhythm and both of us breathing… and not breathing as we take the next fence. I love that feeling of being on course, with a complete narrow vision, and seeing the next fence, at which point both my horse and I anticipate the momentary flight over it. There’s nothing like it!

It’s happened when I was learning to longboard surf in freezing black waters notorious for white shark attacks. In order to catch a decent wave, we’d paddle about 1/4 mile from shore and wait… sometimes a half hour of waiting, consciously keeping calm and relaxed to not exude fear or tension through the water. The temperature of the water numbs your limbs even through a temp suit so if you get wiped out and smacked off your board, you sometimes also get thrown up into the air and there’s a tiny little voice that asks if you’ve been nailed by a shark or just water, it hits that hard and everything looks slow motion, goes silent except for your breathing and the slap of water and you want to keep feeling alive.

Isn’t it funny how we feel most alive when we’re closest to death?

After a run.

But sometimes it can come in the middle of the night.

When I have my tongue in a live light socket.

@ratboy—do you do that often? I had a friend who did that. Sadly, that friend is no longer with us.

During a long game of Ultimate Frisbee. I’ve been playing for 4 hours, my legs turn to jello when I try to sprint, I can barely breathe, and then somebody drops the disc. Everything else seems to fade away and I manage to push myself past exhaustion just to make a catch.

Very early, pre-dawn mornings when we are the most open and relaxed. Sitting in my hot tub star gazing, absorbing the mystery of this life on my little mountain! :-)

Sometimes at work when i have accomplished things, things are going well and you feel a sense of satisfaction at what you have achieved at that point. But mostly i feel energised at home relaxing with company, doing things i love to do and with people i love to be with.

I feel most alive when I am visiting other countries and right after accomplishing something very difficult.