There are times when everything is better than anything. When you just want to punch the air and giggle and take a dancing step because... well. That's the thing. Usually something nice has happened, but not always. Sometimes everything is just great and there's no single explanatory reason.

I get these quite often, but I don't really have a clear idea why or what's the actual reason. Time for some introspection. These are today's ideas on the subject. I will have to start keeping track of these and adding data and research on happiness and feelings of euphoria.

Privacy

I'm not sure if I get these in company. These are mostly solitary and personal moments. I identify rather clearly as an introvert, so that might have something to do with this. I very rarely get giddy in company, but mostly when I'm by myself with something interesting to do. Being alone in an empty apartment is a source of overflowing happiness at times. Being social is nice and entertaining, but true glee is found in solitude.

Exercise

I don't really care about the idea of exercise or sport. It's not something that registers on my important stuff in life-meters at all. Still, all the studies show that exercise has a huge impact on the well-being of a person. I do exercise regularly and it does seem to always elevate the day onto a completely new level. There's euphoria in lifting heavy things, seeing what you are capable of and being weary after a workout. There's also a blog post or two in this, but I'll get back to it later.

Challenges

New, interesting and challenging things are always a possibility to kick me into happiness overdrive. A new project (this, for example!) is a pretty certain way to get me hyped. I'm actually not that interested about the results. Sure it's nice to see something ready and even better if someone else likes it too, but starting something new and working on it is always better than finishing it. There's probably a hack or two in this. Also a problem to solve: how to persist in long tasks, when the preliminary excitement has worn off?

Self-destruction

Curiously, most of the cases I remember off-hand seemed to contain some element of self-destruction. I've always found Freud's idea on Todestrieb - death drive - to be powerful and somehow important . At the moment I'm writing this, I should be in bed already, optimizing my sleep quality. Instead, I've just made myself a cup of coffee.

I feel elated about it.