To ask if you've ever experience a moment of pure happiness?

[PaddleBoardingMomma]

I'm talking unadulterated pure bliss, a moment in life you just knew there and then was what real happiness felt like, a moment captured in time you can look back on now and still feel joyous about? If so... please share :)

I've never felt it, not that "perfect" moment any way. I'm beginning to wonder if it's happened and I didn't appreciate it, or if it's just never happened for me. Maybe other peoples stories might help me decide the answer on that one!

I don't think it's what you're after really, but the moment my son first cried.

He wasn't breathing when he was born and had a whole team working on him in the corner while the absolute blind panic and terror and adrenaline was just about to overwhelm me, and then suddenly he was crying and the relief and the love and the joy just crashed over me and it was like nothing else. I don't have the words for that moment.

I was also a bit loopy as I'd lost a worrying amount of blood at this point and it was just before I crashed and went into theatre myself, but I don't think there's an drug in the world that could emulate that moment of utter perfection when they handed him to me.

Just this morning my toddler snuggled up to me and for a rare minute was not climbing/screaming/wriggling. Being a mother has improved my life beyond compare.

Early evening on the beach in St Andrew’s watching the DC flying their kites, setting sun hitting the waves just as a pod of dolphins surfaced in the bay. Truly magical.

@LaBelleSausage

I don't think it's what you're after really, but the moment my son first cried.

He wasn't breathing when he was born and had a whole team working on him in the corner while the absolute blind panic and terror and adrenaline was just about to overwhelm me, and then suddenly he was crying and the relief and the love and the joy just crashed over me and it was like nothing else. I don't have the words for that moment.

I was also a bit loopy as I'd lost a worrying amount of blood at this point and it was just before I crashed and went into theatre myself, but I don't think there's an drug in the world that could emulate that moment of utter perfection when they handed him to me.

This was my exact situation with my first... and I DO remember that cry and I MUST have felt joy surely... I know there was relief... but I just can't pull that memory into focus or relive it and enjoy it. I wonder if there's a psychological reason for something like that, am I incapable? 😔

Sitting in the garden on a sunny day having a cup of tea with mum when dc were little and playing contentedly, dh coming home from work and just happy chatter all around me.
Magical days.

@PaddleBoardingMomma there could well be trauma associated that means you're blocking parts of it out.
It's funny for me as I see the whole thing in a kind of blurred soft focus way, and then the moment he was in my arms it almost snaps into a frozen HD picture when the wave of emotion just hit me.

I had a birth review before I had my daughter (she was a planned section due to how badly the first went) and I didn't really remember/experience it in the same way until after that. It's almost to the point where I wonder if it's imaginary on my part. Maybe we're both a bit broken.

I had covid in March 2020 and I wasn’t that Ill but it was the cough from hell. It just wouldn’t stop, I couldn’t really eat and it would take until about 3am every night for the need for the need to sleep to override the need tocough and get a few hours of very broken sleep. This went on for seven nights and then finally I managed to go to sleep at 1am and sleep for 4 unbroken hours. I remember looking at my phone, seeing it was 5am and feeling pure happiness and relief that I’d turned the corner.

Lots, but if I had to choose one to relive would be the first time in bed with DH. We stayed there for 36h before getting up for showers, food, and a movie.

(Of course he wasn’t DH then, just some guy I had an inappropriate crush on.)

Watching Faithless at a festival as the sun went down with a partner I absolutely adored.

Seeing Pongwe beach in Zanzibar for the first time

[quote LaBelleSausage]@PaddleBoardingMomma there could well be trauma associated that means you're blocking parts of it out.
It's funny for me as I see the whole thing in a kind of blurred soft focus way, and then the moment he was in my arms it almost snaps into a frozen HD picture when the wave of emotion just hit me.

I had a birth review before I had my daughter (she was a planned section due to how badly the first went) and I didn't really remember/experience it in the same way until after that. It's almost to the point where I wonder if it's imaginary on my part. Maybe we're both a bit broken.[/quote]
...my second was a section too for the exact same reasons! But again I had huge blood loss and remember very little. I wonder are you on to something in regards to trauma, I unintentionally don't like to talk about the births, seem to change the subject without realising until some time after.

When I was happily married with a perfect child , lovely home , perfect figure , decent job , I had everything and was grateful for it all

A year or so ago. On a riding holiday. Galloping alongside DD on a both whooping with joy when 2 years previously I'd been in ICU with talk of not making it. And prior to that had been in and out for hospital for over a year. I couldn't even walk up a single stair.

That I was not only still here but fit enough and just the right side of terrified to enjoy it was a thank you universe moment.

After years of trying, having the confirmation that I was pregnant. I was so so happy. Of course that’s only the start , but I remember the feeling clearly.

As a few previous posters mentioned, as I get older I take time to appreciate the moment. Kids are older now, and typically out with friends on Friday night. In the past DH would sit and watch some sports, or read, or the news. Now I drag him to bed early, with a bottle of wine to share. Of course, he can still read there, or watch the news on his tablet, but we do other things too ;)

@Singlebutmarried

Yes, but my soul was taken away, I tormented the girl I loved and her family and friends.

I was sent to a hell dimension and eventually came back as a feral beast.

Never did get the girl, she went for some peroxide blond English ponce instead.

@Singlebutmarried hello fellow Angel fan. I must rewatch it. Loved it so much.

The first time my Dad introduced me to his friend as his daughter after I was adopted. He passed away a few years ago and he will never know the absolute joy that brought me but I will always have the memory. He always bought me a separate birthday card from my mum's because he wanted me to know I was important to him.
My son being placed safely in my arms, if I didn't know better I would have said I was high on drugs because it felt so good.
My first kiss with my husband when we were 16 in a beautiful park, we still call it "our spot" now.
Secretly doing a random act of kindness but sneaking a peak at the happy recipient, that was humbling.

This was my exact situation with my first... and I DO remember that cry and I MUST have felt joy surely... I know there was relief... but I just can't pull that memory into focus or relive it and enjoy it. I wonder if there's a psychological reason for something like that, am I incapable? 😔

Don't worry Op, I did the same thing when my DD was born. I was so overwhelmed by a very traumatic birth and the relief when she first cried was indescribable but when I replay it in my mind, it's like I'm on the outside of the situation, as in I know I was there, I know it happened, I know how I felt but I can't really feel those feelings. And it's for this reason: when we experience trauma, our brains can "numb" us so we don't feel every single thing at once, it would be far too much. So our brains numb us, allow us to keep moving forward and doing what we need to do but we don't take in the full weight of something and it's hard to replay it afterwards.

I had it before when one of my parents died. Very sudden, very traumatic, and like that I know I was there, I was sad, I spoke to X people but I couldn't tell you any details of it. Brains are funny things.

I had a very, very abusive childhood, and I left home at 15.

Unfortunately I had my son at 18, he had some complications and died, so I know that from 18 and until I take my last breath I will never feel pure joy again, everything is tinged with a bit of sadness.

The only time I have ever felt pure joy was when I left home, moved into a hostel hundreds of miles away, and went out to a rave (90s) I took my first E, dancing to happy hard-core music with my new friends, for the first time ever I felt free and totally untouchable, I'll never forget that feeling. Makes me sad now that my only moment of pure happiness in my life was drug induced though

(Sorry, I should say I had PTSD after my daughter's birth...that's how I realised the above and that I also had PTSD after my parent's death years before... )

I realise how lucky I am, I have lots of them. At home on a winters night with the fire on, watching the kids when they don’t know I’m watching them, playing a game or drawing something. Sitting in our garden at sunset having a beer and making holiday plans with DH. The best though is when my youngest climbs onto my lap and just cuddles me. Can’t beat it!

Yes but I used to take a lot of ecstasy

@WhoIsBernieBrown

I had one earlier when out for my first run in a few weeks. Clear blue sky, sun was low as it was late afternoon, gorgeous light. I had a cracking playlist of music on and I just thought.... Ahhhh this so bloody lovely.

To be honest I have these moments quite often, mostly when chasing my toddler outdoors or watching her faff around being silly.

I don't get this feeling with the big moments in life - didn't feel it on wedding day etc, just felt overwhelmed by the expectation of the day. It's 100% the small, quiet moments for me.

Very well put! I’m the same. Big moments don’t do it for me, it’s the little things 😊

Ive had loads. Most of them riding my old horse thunder. Clydesdale x cob. No time limit on where to be back just tack and go. Slow meander through the woods, hit the stubble field and canter till my hearts pounding out my chest and she’s foaming at the mouth. Jumping logs and boulders and bales and dykes till our hearts content whether the rain is lashing down or the sun is splitting the trees. Or fishing with my granda as a wee girl. Drinking shandy and hiding from the keepers at the big house. Making flies and patching homes in my handed down waders.

Walking down the aisle on my wedding day.

Being handed the keys for my first house. I was 23 and buying my own property totally independently, the first step in a plan to escape a mentally abusive relationship. Seems daft because everything else in life was pretty shit but it just felt like a huge achievement and a sense of “things will get better.”

The first time my DSD turned to me when we were playing and said “I really love you”

Most of my purest, happiness moments are found in nature or when I’m doing something really fun.

My road trip around Tasmania (many years ago) I got to join a quad bike tour of the Henty Dunes.

I was on my way to the campground/tourist park, I was booked in for the night, when I stopped to have a look at the Henty Dunes. I naively thought that I could just climb them.

I climbed the first sand dune, which was very hard work, expecting to see a magnificent view of all the sand dunes before me. But, all I saw was a wall of sand from the next sand dune right in front of me. No way could I climb another one. Feeling a little deflated I came back down and a tourist group on quad bikes was just arriving. I asked the man leading the group if it was possible that I could join them, is there a spare quad bike and how much etc.? He was totally cool with it and talked to someone who got me a quad bike.

I had never ridden one before. The group leader gave the group really great instructions and then off we went. It was wild and awesome, the Henty Dunes were beautiful. We drove so fast that sometimes as I came to the top of the sand dunes I would become airborne and land safely as we drove down the sand dune. I was totally in the moment and filled with adrenaline.

I think being in the moment where your mind is totally focusing on the here and now and not thinking about problems or the past or planning for the future is a great way to fully experience life in the present.

The moment of pure happiness that trumps all the other moments is when I gave birth to my dd and the midwife place her on my bare belly and she climbed me, right up to my neck. The midwife explained that she was rooting for breastmilk, then placed her at my breast and I breastfed her for the first time.

No matter that I hadn’t slept for over 24 hours, I just couldn’t stop looking at her. I experienced the most awesome, amazing feeling of love like I’d never experienced before.

Any time I've been in Disney World