Peak Moments

I have been reflecting a lot on “peak moments.” Peak moments are what psychologist, Abraham Maslow, defined as “mystical moments of insight and feelings that include joy, peace, wonder, and a sense of wholeness, selflessness, spontaneity, and relatedness to the world.” This is the type of thing I was recently trying to articulate with Jenn, the one who is involved in the Omega project with me. She and I were talking about those rare moments in life where you have a moment that is almost out-of-body, in the sense that it is when you take a step back and think, “This moment is life at its finest. Everything is so perfect that all I can do is breathe it in and try to remember everything.” She and I both experienced three of those moments together, although we did not realize this until reflecting on them later. I said that I felt it was those perfect split seconds in life that give us the energy and drive to keep going. I loved when she said that she felt those moments were the only times we are completely our entire authentic selves. I like that idea, because we talked about this in my religion and psychology class, how no one knows entirely who is their authentic self, because we are forced to wear so many masks and different personas for different situations. If my authentic self is me in those rare moments, then I like who I am, because I am a free spirit and happy.

The most recent peak moment I had was at Wheatland music festival dancing to African drums at night carelessly and child-like along with others from my writers group underneath the beautiful starry night sky. I felt child-like and carefree just jumping around giggling underneath the stars in a crowd of free-spirits while feeling the African rhythms send adrenaline through my body. I had several peak moments while the kids from Pine Ridge were here. The ones that stick out are a moment I shared with Drew, Jenn, and Chris Iron Hawk on the sand dune looking over lake Michigan, the car ride home from Grand Rapids with Enoch, Xylena, and Jenn while we danced to “Maneater” four times in addition to other silly pop songs, like “fergalicious,” and some Beyonce number. We taped Enoch up and had a good laugh. The most perfect of them all was when we decided to take a detour in Jackson to Cascade falls. The sun was setting and were supposed to be going straight back to Jon’s house so we didn’t have much time at all. We pulled into the park and Jenn put the car in park. She said, “You guys ready? One-two-three-GO!” We all unbuckled our seatbelts, opened the car doors, slammed them shut, and sprinted to the top of the hill where Cascade Falls is located. It is quite a large hill so we were out of breath very quickly and giggling the whole way up. When we reached the fence I could hear the water from the falls and it was just dark enough to see the lights changing color. It was beautiful and the four of us sat silently listening to the water and the sound of us all trying to catch our breath. I kept thinking how I didn’t want this moment to end. It was life at its finest, but all I could do was breathe and smile.

I don’t remember having any of those last year that wasn’t tainted by the pessimistic voice in my head. I feel very fortunate to have had several recently. In my class Maslow said how rare these moments, are but how one percent of the people (such as Mother Theresa, the saints, Einstein, and other great people) have these moments often and/or huge ones that change their lives and motivate them to greatness. He claims it is when a person has become self-actualized by fulfilling all of their needs he includes on his famous pyramid of needs. These moments are the same thing as religious experiences, but he claims they are purely natural phenomenons that are independent of religion. This gave me hope, because Maslow was not against religious experiences but he didn’t think they were necessary to be great, happy, and feel a sense of oneness. I feel like I am becoming much more self-actualized and spiritually comfortable. I have bad days like everyone else and forget any progress I’ve made, but I am doing really well spiritually. I am looking forward to a workshop I am going to this Thursday evening called “Centering and Positive Energies.” I am really into that kind of thing and it is hard to stay on track alone so I am hoping to find some positive encouragement. I get that a lot at home, but it is much harder to find here at school.

I e-mailed Jenn after this class where I learned about peak moments, and she thought this was exactly what we both had been trying to articulate and that is why she doesn’t like using lablels for them, and she said she didn’t think they have to be all that rare. She said, "With open eyes, there is so much to see and feel." It amazes me how she loves life. I think Jenn is pretty self-actualized herself. She is a great person to remind me that life isn’t a fairytale, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy and love life. I want to acquire wisdom and love life. I am learning…slowly, but learning.