K,

You asked about when I decided to quite my training for marathons and bike rides.  I just got tired of doing it.  I stopped enjoying the training and the physical toll it took on me.  I wanted time to do other things.

You also ask what are some of things that make me truly happy with that feeling of “Wow.”  I am still working to allow that in me.  I perceive or judge myself by having a damped down sense of excitement and joy.  My emotional range is not as wide as I would like.  I don’t get really angry or really happy.  When I feel pain, I now want to really feel it and sit with it to notice and be with it, to fully get into it.  I do so partly because I want to feel the opposite as well, i.e. to really feel happiness and joy for unless I feel deeply with either emotion then I cannot really feel well.

I pay attention when I cry.  I like when I cry for I believe that taps what is important and deep for me.  I cry when I talk about my children.  I pay attention when I laugh as well.

Insofar as activities that bring me that “Wow” feeling, I love dancing to live music with wild abandon with others who are enjoying themselves as well.  I know that whatever I do, it is the company I keep that makes the activity fun and enjoyable.  I can do something really great but without someone to share the experience with, it does not shine as bright for me.

Thanks for asking.  This is something that I have been working on for years and been very conscious about getting more of.

Mark