Have you felt a sudden, unexpected calm?

I’ve only felt something like that during a possible emergency. Everything becomes simple, and all my confusion and anxiety disappears.

And, I guess I’ve felt it when waking from strange dreams and after epiphanies.

Yep, it usually comes just before the realization “I can handle this” or when I’m particularly focused, the pattern becomes clear, and everything just starts to click.

Yes, then it is followed by panic. :-)

Yep, it’s called ’ the peace that surpasseth all understanding.’

In other words, your true nature realizes that really, none of this worldly angst matters.

I am not religious but ther are many biblical phrases that encompass the truth of ones nature beneath the manifestation of form.

Other ‘spiritual’ teachings say the same thing..Buddha nature..etc.

Typically that can be explained by a rise in serotonin levels.

A few times. “When all around you are losing their heads and you remain calm…you obviously misunderstand the situation.” (A loose mis-paraphrase of Kipling). But seriously, when you have trained and drilled hundreds of times to react in a certain way to a hazardous situation, your body seems to react before your conscious mind grasps it; when your mind catches up to the situation, you realize “this is just like a drill” and you are calm where others would be panicking.

Yes. On Monday afternoon, I was studying for a presentation I had to give in all French, with no help (notecards, notes, etc.). I was late on studying for it, so I was trying to rush. I kept looking at my watch noticing the minute hand jump in between blinks. I wasn’t nervous about the presentation part, but rather the French grammar and conjugation. Eventually, about 5 minutes before I had to leave my house, I was suddenly calm.

I realized that I had to give the presentation, and that I had no more time to study. I was going to do as best as I could, and that’s that. I ended up doing well.

Yes, in fact just happened a few minutes ago. I was able to resolve a major personal conflict and felt as if an angry rhinoceros was lifted off my shoulders. Don’t ask me how it got there! lol!

I’m similar to @zophu in that I find the most calm when everything around me is falling apart because my brain goes into survival mode, quickly prioritizing and then formulating strategies. After that initial dialing in and feeling like I “put out the fire” then I get like @ChazMaz and have the panic attack about what all has got to get done.
and then there’s the unbelievable calm and sedation after happy sex, best trick in the world to put me to sleep or bring me out of panic/anger/fear.

Yes. Usually on the final leg of a yacht race when I am looking as though I have a good chance of a place.

Usually the night before an exam I’ve been studying for, I get this peace that’s past understanding.

When I’m about to get into a fight. It’s like a breeze flowing through my body; relaxing & energizing, both at once. My vision blurs to nothing, but all my other senses are sharper than ever. I can hear my opponents pulse….

When the mind ceases it’s endless chatter, becomes still, ‘you’ are then in pure presence power, action without thought, which is not to be mistaken for thoughtless action.
Stillness ‘speaks.’;-)

@Coloma that’s fancy

@zophu

Not really. It’s a truth.

Mind is noisy, ego is tantamount to needing itself ( the little me ) to be in control.

Action without thought is born of pure consciousness.

Right action flows.

If one is hanging off a cliff there is no thought, only presence and right action will save you, not thought. You simply move, reach, grasp the next rock, root. Consciousness leads, not mind. :-)

The bird does not think of the next branch it wishes to land on, it moves in pure awareness and that movement is perfect, exactly what is called for in the moment.

@Coloma To achieve that state in life is to be truly Human.

@zophu Yes. It is the eternal perfection that moves you, not thought.;-)

Not since spring of 2001. I’ve been in a heightened stage orange anxiety level since then. However after spaghetti dinners I feel a sense of calm, but then I realized that’s just me bloating from all the wheat gluten.
seriously, only when I meditate or medicate.(martinis or wine) can I get calm.

@Coloma I was pooping while you were typing those beautiful words, so I’m not sure if it’s just perfection that moves me, but there’s definitely something to being alive.

sorry to bring it down, there are people on here who want to peg me as an over-abstract weirdo. (which I may be, but you know.)

@zophu

were you pooping with presence or was your mind somewhere else? lololol

“Pooping with presence!’ Sounds like a workshop for Esalen or something.

@wundayatta

Lol

well…mentally balancing ones checkbook while pooping distracts from the moment.
Be fully present with your pooping. haha

My cats watch me…is that pooping with presents?

I never “freak out,” so no, I never experience that “sudden calm.” : )

Oxycodone does the trick quite nicely.

That happens to me quite a lot. I treat it as my gut instinct that everything will be ok. So far I have been right and I hope I continue to be.

Yes it happens to me. I am very much aware of the feeling because there is no legitimate reason for it. Sometimes I get a kind of calm before the storm sensation.

After a huge panic attack. That’s why I just get it over with and get to the calmness.

I remember once after I took 5K mg of Vitamin D3. I wish it would happen often. That would be Wonderful.

Remind of the saying Calm before the storm. A calm time immediately before period of violent activity or argument is the calm before the storm.