1. Listening to Mumford and Sons at the video music awards. The pure passion of their musical performance stood my hairs on end.

2. Tackling my first true mountain bike trails. Spills and all, it is definitely "peak experience"!

3. Studying the connection between economics, anthropology, psychology, etc. For the brief moments when feel as if I am seeing a part of "the big picture" I am literally in a state of reverent bliss.

Giving birth au naturale to two healthy baby boys (not last year).

Butchering a lamb for my family at my friends farm - from whole animal to 30 lbs of meat.

Driving this road when I lived in Utah always made me feel pretty vulnerable - and that the people who built that sucker are amazing.

• Seeing my boyfriend for the first time in months (he lives 500 miles away from me). I had been dealing with anxiety attacks since I'd last seen him and being with him was the ultimate high/relief.

• Waking up one morning after a few weeks of grain elimination and increased fat, vitamin & mineral consumption (not yet entirely paleo!) realizing I didn't feel nearly as anxious, depressed or lost as I had weeks prior.

• Waking up one morning after a while on paleo realizing I didn't have any symptoms at all of anxiety or depression, I had an appetite, and I was actually happy for no apparent reason.

• On that note ^, being able to dance again after months of inactivity related to anxiety.

• Holding my niece for the first time hours after she was born--on 9/10/11 :D

• Go-go dancing on stage for one of my favorite 60s bands who'd recently reunited (:

for me, it's often related to breaking through fitness barriers. Fight Gone Bad was definitely up there for me. Also, getting my first unassisted pullup.

Also, a different kind of peak experience often comes to me when I run. It's not like a sharp high, but more like a serenity and peaceful joy. And that often comes to me when I'm running and it's easy, and I feel like my body is doing what it was meant to do, and I'm so darned grateful that I feel like crying.

Almost always have one (Endorphin high) after a good strength training workout. But curiously, taking a walk just makes me want to take a nap afterwards.

• Hike up the Kriegeralpe from Oberlech, have a large glass of Gruener Veltliner and a nice Grostl and try and pick out all the Anthony Gormley Horizon Field statues.
• Volunteer at the local Holocaust survivor lunches, which include a surprising amount of flirting and totally exhausting dancing.
• Cancel a couple of work meetings, sneak out and check out a few gallery shows
• Fabric shopping shopping in the Garment District

-Learning to play and sing my favorite songs on the piano has given me a hobby that I will never get bored of.

-Shifting from a healthy SAD to a Paleo lifestyle.

-Dabbling in weight lifting has been pretty exhilarating.

-Getting into a graduate school for PT.

It's a been a good year. Lots of ups and downs (actually a hell of a lot of downs lol) but I hope the rest of 2012 is just exciting.

I don't need to do anything special to be happy. By following Paleo, and especially Paleo-ketogenic (which messes with the brain more than plain Paleo does), I'm happy all the time. I explained about all that here: http://eugenia.queru.com/2012/03/07/bliss/

• Sex with a Beautiful Babe from the bar

• Setting a new PR lift Good tunes

• Eating a buffalo Rib Eye with a side of Mashed Sweet Potatoes

• Live Shows