Aha Moment Quotes

There'a a phrase, "the elephant in the living room", which purports to describe what it's like to live with a drug addict, an alcoholic, an abuser. People outside such relationships will sometimes ask, "How could you let such a business go on for so many years? Didn't you see the elephant in the living room?" And it's so hard for anyone living in a more normal situation to understand the answer that comes closest to the truth; "I'm sorry, but it was there when I moved in. I didn't know it was an elephant; I thought it was part of the furniture." There comes an aha-moment for some folks - the lucky ones - when they suddenly recognize the difference.

You know you're doing what you love when Sunday nights feel the same as Friday nights....

Blessed are those with cracks in their broken heart because that is how the light gets in.

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a great and glorious nation. Favourite amongst his subjects was the court painter of whom he was very proud. Everybody agreed this wizzened old man pianted the greatest pictures in the whole kingdom and the king would spend hours each day gazing at them in wonder. However, one day a dirty and dishevelled stranger presented himself at the court claiming that in fact he was the greatest painter in the land. The indignant king decreed a competition would be held between the two artists, confident it would teach the vagabond an embarrassing lesson. Within a month they were both to produce a masterpiece that would out do the other. After thirty days of working feverishly day and night, both artists were ready. They placed their paintings, each hidden by a cloth, on easels in the great hall of the castle. As a large crowd gathered, the king ordered the cloth be pulled first from the court artist’s easel. Everyone gasped as before them was revealed a wonderful oil painting of a table set with a feast. At its centre was an ornate bowl full of exotic fruits glistening moistly in the dawn light. As the crowd gazed admiringly, a sparrow perched high up on the rafters of the hall swooped down and hungrily tried to snatch one of the grapes from the painted bowl only to hit the canvas and fall down dead with shock at the feet of the king. ’Aha!’ exclaimed the king. ’My artist has produced a painting so wonderful it has fooled nature herself, surely you must agree that he is the greatest painter who ever lived!’ But the vagabond said nothing and stared solemnly at his feet. ’Now, pull the blanket from your painting and let us see what you have for us,’ cried the king. But the tramp remained motionless and said nothing. Growing impatient, the king stepped forward and reached out to grab the blanket only to freeze in horror at the last moment. ’You see,’ said the tramp quietly, ’there is no blanket covering the painting. This is actually just a painting of a cloth covering a painting. And whereas your famous artist is content to fool nature, I’ve made the king of the whole country look like a clueless little twat.

There comes a point in time when we must acknowledge that we are more than our nationality, and we are bigger than our ethnicity. There comes a time when we have an aha moment. What is that aha moment? It's sort of like a revelation. A revelation is when we put all the pieces together to see the bigger picture. When we see the bigger picture, we can see ourselves through the realm of reality and truth. The truth is we belong to a blood family that is connected to a tribal community, and this community is big and bright and bold with life, and we should be proud of the ties to blood that each of us has. We should not play small and reduce our human nature—for we are all connected. We belong to something bigger and more expansive. We belong to life itself. Always remember that you are more than an American (as wonderfully dramatic as that can be). Together, we make up the collective of great. ...And this is good.

An interesting note to this novel is the fact that not only are a number of the experiences related herein ones to which I am intimately familiar, one is particularly unusual. I wracked my brain for quite some time to come up with a suitable near-death experience to use in the opening scene. As it turns out I had an “AHA” moment, or more appropriately a “DUH” moment when it occurred to me that I had actually survived the perfect experience to use. As a result, the first scene and the near-death experience described here was drawn, almost in its entirety from my OWN life, and I still retain the scar. I guess sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.

A marijuana high can enhance core human mental abilities. It can help you to focus, to remember, to see new patterns, to imagine, to be creative, to introspect, to empathically understand others, and to come to deep insights. If you don’t find this amazing you have lost your sense of wonder. Which, by the way, is something a high can bring back, too.

Here’s how I see your weight—it is your smoke detector. And we’re all burning up the best part of our lives.” I’d never thought of it that way before, but it was a true aha moment. My weight was an indicator warning, a flashing light blaring my disconnection from the center of myself.

In the psychology of aesthetics, there is a name for the moment between the anxiety of confronting something new and the satisfying click of understanding it. It is called an 'aesthetic aha.

The "aha" moment is a validating experience for your efforts and at the same time changes your paradigm of the world in favor of a more accurate one. Campbell simply says “it wipes out the ego.

I call it an Aha! moment. It is the moment when I can hear, when I know, that an answer is being offered to me. All other sounds measurably fade, including the banter in my brain. It is when the answer travels from my heart to my head and says, “This is so.” No questions follow, no objections interrupt; just the recognition that I must listen and follow.

Sometimes the meaning in life hits you like a meteorite.

Sometimes we think there is supposed to be this great spiritual awakening that happens before we make a change in our lives. We expect some 'aha' moment, some beautiful enlightening experience to shape us into the people we want to be, but sometimes it just happens from the circumstances in our lives that present themselves. We become who we are meant to be because of the things along our edges that pull us into existence.

God often uses desperate moments to wake us up. Only when things start to fall apart do we finally open our eyes.

Just as a father hates cancer, because of what it does to his child, so God hates divorce, because of what it does to His children.

The de'clic (DEH-kleek) is an aha moment when a child figures out how to do something important on his own...it's a welcome sign of maturity and autonomy.

One of the greatest aha moments possible is realizing our mind has a mind of its own. Our mind tells us what we want to hear. Our heart tells us what we need to hear.

This is an example of why travel is important. It changes perspective. It alters your eyes and ears, puts unexpected notions into your head, provides aha moments.

An aha moment is not a happy ending—it’s an open doorway, one you have to choose to walk through.

The Bible says in Psalms to “Be still.” God says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). I like this definition of stillness: silence on the outside and surrender on the inside.

Just because you think clearly doesn’t mean you talk to God.” “Aha!” Vetra exclaimed. “And yet remarkable solutions to seemingly impossible problems often occur in these moments of clarity. It’s what gurus call higher consciousness. Biologists call it altered states. Psychologists call it super-sentience.” He paused. “And Christians call it answered prayer.

I bet it was also the triumphant Aha! and not the truth itself that had fueled all those famous literary detectives I knew not much about except their names - Philip Marlowe, Sherlock Holmes, Joe and Frank Hardy. I felt like yelling something celebratory on my way home, something like, Yeah! or Fuck, yeah! just like Marlowe would have yelled, just like the Hardys would have yelled, and maybe Holmes, too, although maybe that's why he kept Watson around; to tell Holmes to simmer down and not get too far ahead of himself.

No matter how entertaining, diverse, concise, or detailed, a writing craft book is, it’s not going to work magic on you, it’s not going to suddenly make you a brilliant writer simply by reading it. You need to use what you read and learn in your own writing. Because that’s when you have those AHA moments. That's when it really sticks.

If you know why you believe something, you will not be upset by having that belief challenged.

SHINING is how you become BRIGHTER!

If self could help, then we would all have been fixed a long time ago.

Gender is the remaining caste system that still cuts deep enough, and spreads wide enough, to be confused with the laws of nature. To uncover the difference between what is and what could be, we may need the “Aha!” that comes from exchanging subject for object, the flash of recognition that starts with a smile, the moment of changed viewpoint that turns the world upside down.

The only thing we can do now,” said Benjy, crouching and stroking his whiskers in thought, “is to try and fake a question, invent one that will sound plausible.” “Difficult,” said Frankie. He thought. “How about, What's yellow and dangerous?” Benjy considered this for a moment. “No, no good,” he said. “Doesn't fit the answer.” They sank into silence for a few seconds. “All right,” said Benjy. “What do you get if you multiply six by seven?” “No, no, too literal, too factual,” said Frankie, “wouldn't sustain the punter's interest.” Again they thought. Then Frankie said: “Here's a thought. How many roads must a man walk down?” “Ah!” said Benjy. “Aha, now that does sound promising!” He rolled the phrase around a little. “Yes,” he said, “that's excellent! Sounds very significant without actually tying you down to meaning anything at all. How many roads must a man walk down? Forty-two. Excellent, excellent, that'll fox 'em. Frankie, baby, we are made!

Was this a flash of inspiration? No. In Einstein’s own words: “I was led to it by steps.” All stories of aha! moments—and there are surprisingly few—are like these: anecdotal, often apocryphal, and unable to survive scrutiny.

Taxiul gonea printr-o mare de ricșe, mașini și motociclete, într-un șablon desprins din lumi paralele. Un aha moment mă înghiontea în gânduri la fiecare tresărire. Roțile păreau că circulă în legea lor, căutându-și loc între bucăți de drum despletite între curgeri de mișcare. O geometrie circulară își ascuțea privirile peste toată strada. Părea un haos total, și totuși, lumea se împletea într-o armonie năucitoare. Roți, oameni, gânduri și emoții. Toate erau acolo, într-o structură perfect construită. Șoferul, un bătrânel simpatic, îmi arunca câte o privire încurajatoare în oglinda din față, cu un zâmbet larg: “No worries, ma’am! You are safe.” “Aha, îmi răspundeam printr-o grimasă mai mult speriată decât zâmbitoare, “o fi safe, dar ăștia circulă ca-n codru.” Părerea mea. Părerea lor însă nu coincidea cu impresiile mele, iar codrul lor era deja demult bătătorit de hoarde de motoare umblătoare.

You already have a partner in success. Your partner is the living Universe! Acknowledging your partner is fundamental to your wellbeing. You communicate with the Universe through your feelings or emotions. List your aha! moments:

The father’s job is to teach his children how to be warriors, to give them the confidence to get on the horse to ride into battle when it’s necessary to do so. If you don’t get that from your father, you have to teach yourself.” Oprah’s note: This was a big aha moment for me—if you don’t get that confidence, you’ve got to teach yourself, and if you don’t teach yourself, you can never win a battle. That’s why, into my forties and fifties, I was still having trouble with confrontation, because I was never taught that.

Charlie slowly crumpled to the floor, Allison soon joining him. “Dinner is served!” Stanley trumpeted, as he reached into the steaming mass of offal and fished around for the teens’ livers. “Aha!” he crowed, as he lifted one liver in each hand over his head. Stanley brought his right hand down and took a large bite from the first liver, spreading blood and gore over his face. He chewed for a moment and swallowed, and then bit off a large hunk of the other one. “All I need are some fava beans and a nice Chianti!” he said as he slurped.

The CIO is that one leader who can see everything that is happening within the organization," says Victor Fetter, CIO of LPL Financial. "The CIO looks at every transaction and every customer service experience that takes place on the digital platform. With that unique perspective, the CIO understand where efficiency is happening and where it is not. The position, at its most basic level, has moved from someone who just accepted the way things were, to someone who uses that visibility to create aha moments for all leaders across the organization.

Welcome to Lahore, ma’am!” îmi spuse încă o dată în timp ce coborâsem în mulțime. Oprisem în fața restaurantului, iar o altă mare de oameni, gânduri și emoții mă aștepta să încep o nouă aventură. Am comandat biryani și paratha iar în așteptarea lor îmi ascultam gândurile cum îmi vorbeau, printre zumzetele unor muște prietenoase ce își traficau firimiturile căzute printre mese. Un tablou în care toate nuanțele purtau căldură și comfort. Probabil că lecții interesante de viață musteau printre crăpăturile secundelor, într-o lume cu totul nouă pentru mine, în care am înțeles pentru prima oară că universalitatea cuprinde mult mai multe nuanțe în paleta-i, decât cele pe care le priveam dintr-o rutină molcomă în spațiul meu mioritic. Și da, un aha moment m-a făcut să înțeleg că oricât de greu și întortocheat poate părea drumul în viață, se vor ivi întotdeauna portițe pe bucățile de drum despletite între curgeri de mișcare. Și că legea nativului din noi strălucește uneori deasupra oricăror reguli impuse de societate; are nevoie doar să-i dăm voie să se exprime… în trafic… Mișcare într-o structură perfect construită.

I told them a bit of what I told you: that this is bigger than a beekeeping class, that Slovenia is a magical place, and that the person who comes here will have an Aha! moment that will change them forever. And that person will absolutely become a champion for bees in the process.

There is a tendency for us to minimize the Word of the Lord. Maybe because of its familiarity. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” the saying goes. But it may be more accurate to say that “familiarity breeds indifference.” The more we hear some warnings, the less seriously we take them—like the tornado warnings in grade school we didn’t take seriously. The people of Nineveh heard God’s warning. God got their attention, and they were honest with themselves about themselves. One of the reasons we minimize our own sin and rebellion is that we don’t take God’s Word seriously. Maybe a strong pinch is needed to get us to sit up and pay attention.

Bad art makes you say, “Wow! Huh?” Good art makes you say, “Huh? Wow!” Looking at bad art is like eating fast food. You’re excited about the thought of it, but when it hits your stomach, the relationship ends quickly. Good art is seen, but not immediately understood—“Huh?” Then comes the “Aha!” moment when the subtext, the real meaning, unfolds and our mind expands.

Men, when will you put down the remote control, choose God, and stand up for your family? Put down the cell phone, pick up a sword, and fight for your marriage. Put down the PlayStation controller, put down the 9 iron, put down the iPad, and fight for something. It may even be time to put down this book. Maybe you’ve heard enough; stop reading, watching, talking, and playing—it’s time for action.

But the truth is that I don’t want to simply offer others a fleeting moment of “inspiration.” I want my story to spark real change. An aha moment becomes most meaningful when it leads us to do more. Dream bigger. Move past our so-called limitations. Defy expectations. Bounce back with the resilience that every single one of us was born with. I didn’t write this book because I want you to say, “Wow, look at what that girl overcame—good for her.” I’m sharing my story because I want you to see what’s possible in your own life. Right here. Right now. Starting the second you pick up your pen and create your own amazing narrative. The words of the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu have always resonated with me: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” What follows is my first step. My first stumble. My first dance. My first dream.

The mind, if preoccupied with a problem or question long enough, will tend to come up with possibilities that might eventually lead to answers, but at this stage are still speculations, untested hypotheses, and early epiphanies. (Epiphanies often are characterized as “Aha! moments,” but that suggests the problem has been solved in a flash. More often, insights arrive as What if moments—bright possibilities that are untested and open to question.)

Het tweede is dit: wanneer je kind sterft, voel je alles wat je zou verwachten, gevoelens die door zo veel anderen al zo goed beschreven zijn dat ik niet eens de moeite zal nemen ze hier op te sommen, behalve dat ik wil zeggen dat alles wat over rouw geschreven is één pot nat is, en het is één pot nat met reden: omdat niemand werkelijk van de tekst afwijkt. Soms voel je wat meer van het een en minder van het ander, en soms voel je het in een andere volgorde, en soms langer of korter. Maar de gevoelens zijn altijd hetzelfde. Maar nu komt er iets wat niemand zegt: als het jouw kind is, voelt een deel van jou, een piepklein maar niettemin onmiskenbaar deel van jou, ook opluchting. Want eindelijk is het moment gekomen dat je al verwachtte, waar je voor vreesde, waarop je je hebt voorbereid sinds de dag dat je een kind kreeg. Aha, zeg je bij jezelf, daar is het. Het is zover. En daarna heb je nooit meer iets te vrezen.

This is the essence of learning. The lecturer says something, and it goes in one ear and out the other. The factoid is repeated; same thing. It’s repeated enough times and—aha!—the lightbulb goes on and suddenly you get it. At a synaptic level, the axon terminal having to repeatedly release glutamate is the lecturer droning on repetitively; the moment when the postsynaptic threshold is passed and the NMDA receptors first activate is the dendritic spine finally getting it.

At one point, the math nerd in me could not help but calculate, literally on the back of an envelope on an airplane, the fantastic improbability that a single functional protein was ever created by accident in the entire history of the universe. I was thunderstruck—it was an “Aha” moment. I remember staring at the calculations in disbelief—couldn’t others do the math, and see what seemed obvious? It was a “no-brainer.” At that moment, I knew modern science supported belief in God.

The “joy of discovery” is one of the fundamental joys of play itself. Not just the joy of discovering secrets within the game, but also the joy of uncovering the creator’s vision. It’s that “Aha!” moment where it all makes sense, and behind the world the player can feel the touch of another creative mind. In order for it to be truly joyful, however, it must remain hidden from plain view—not carved as commandments into stone tablets but revealed, piece by piece, through the player’s exploration of the game’s rules.

Ich sehe die Szene schon vor mir, wie ich oben ankomme, mit dem Typ, der meinen Namen auf der Liste sucht und nicht findet. "Wie heißen Sie nochmal?" "Novecento." "Nosjinskij, Notarbartolo, Novalis, Nozza..." "Es ist nämlich so, daß ich auf einem Schiff geboren bin." "Wie bitte?" "Ich bin aif einem Schiff geboren und da auch gestorben, ich weiß nicht, ob das da aus der Liste hervorgeht..." "Schiffbruch?" "Nein. Explodiert. Dreizehn Zentner Dynamit. Bum." "Aha. Ist soweit alles in Ordnung?" "Ja, ja, bestens... das heißt... da ist noch die Sache mit dem Arm... ein Arm ist weg... aber man hat mir versichert..." "Ein Arm fehlt ihnen?" "Ja. Wissen Sie, bei de Explosion..." "Da müßte noch ein Paar liegen... welcher fehlt Ihnen denn?" "Der linke." "Ach herrje." "Was soll das heißen?" "Ich fürchte, es sind zwei rechte, wissen Sie." "Zwei rechte Arme?" "Tja. Unter Umständen können Sie Schwierigkeiten haben,..." "Ja?" "Ich meine, wenn Sie einen rechten Arm nehmen würden..." "Einen rechten Arm anstelle des linken?" "Ja." "Aber... nein, oder doch,... lieber einen rechten als gar keinen..." "Das meine ich auch. Warten Sie einen Moment, ich hole ihn." "Ich komme am besten in ein paar Tagen wieder vorbei, dann haben Sie vielleicht einen linken da..." "Also, ich habe hier einen weißen und einen schwarzen..." "Nein, nein, einfarbig... nichts gegen Schwarze, hm, es ist nur eine Frage der..." Pech gehabt. Eine ganze Ewigkeit im Paradies mit zwei rechten Armen. (Näselnd gesprochen.) Und jetzt schlagen wir ein schönes Kreuz! (Er setzt zu dieser Geste an, hält aber inne. Er betrachtet seine Hände.) Nie weiß man, welche man nehmen soll. (Er zögert einen Augenblick, dann bekreuzigt er sich schnell mit beiden Händen.) Sich eine ganze ewigkeit, Millionen Jahre, zum Affen machen. (Wieder schlägt er mit beiden Händen ein Kreuz.) Die Hölle. Da gibt's nichts zu lachen. (Er dreht sich um, geht auf die Kulissen zu, bliebt einen Schritt vor dem Abgang stehen, dreht sich erneut zum Publikum, und seine Augen leuchten.) Andererseits... du weißt ja, daß Musik... mit diesen Händen, mit zwei rechten... wenn da nur ein Klavier ist...

This dish... it's sweet-and-sour pork but with black vinegar. In fact, you could call it "Black Vinegar Pork." The glossy black of the vinegar was used to great effect in the plating, giving the dish a classy and luxuriant appearance. But the moment you put a bite in your mouth... fresh, vibrant green tea explodes in a sea of invigorating green. It is extravagantly delicious. Chef Kuga's Sweet-and-Sour sauce includes not just black vinegar but also balsamic vinegar as well as Chef Mimasaka's smoked soy sauce! It destroys the traditional boundaries of sweet-and-sour pork, creating a dish that's rich, tangy and savory while erasing the pork's thick greasiness to push the taste of the green tea to the forefront! He has completely succeeded in taking the green tea leaves and making them the centerpiece of his dish! But the point most worthy of attention... ... is that this sublime taste experience wasn't created using solely Chinese-cooking techniques. It shows an equally deft use of traditional French techniques!" "What the... French?! But isn't he supposed to be a purely Sichuan-Chinese chef?!" "Yes, yes. I'm gonna explain, so quiet down and listen up, 'kay? See, there's another secret y'all don't know. That sweet-and-sour sauce? I based it on Sauce au Vinaigre Balsamique. That's a balsamic vinegar sauce used in a whole lot of French recipes." "Aha! Now I see. So that's where it came from! French Vinaigre Balsamique sauce is a reduction of balsamic vinegar and Glacé de Viande! It has a light tanginess and thick richness, which must have boosted the deliciousness of the sweet-and-sour pork into the stratosphere!

»Hey, Gallagher Girl,« he said, looking deeper into my eyes than ever before, »promise me something!« The train went faster. The night behind the windows was pitch black. And Zach stepped closer. »Be« - he gently touched my forehead, where the bruise once was, and as if the spot was still swollen - »careful!« Then he opened the door. For a moment the noise was deafening. We crossed a deep gorge. There was nothing on either side when Zach opened his arms. For a fleeting second he looked back at me. And jumped into the night. »Aha ... «The voice behind me was strong and calm. I turned to see a very compassionate looking Macey and a hugely impressed looking Aunt Abby staring at me and the dwindling parachute that was Zach, »So this is the man of your life. «

You can’t get caught up in perfect. It’s not about what the paddle says. If you immerse yourself every single day for three months in this journey, you’re going to grow. You’re going to learn stuff about yourself; you’re going to overcome your obstacle--be it physical or emotional. That’s what’s important. But I want to be 100 percent honest here: there are days when I’m freaking out and I don’t have the answers. I get frustrated, but I try and see it as a temporary situation and a separate entity from who I am. I step away from it. I’ve learned a ton about myself and how to manage myself and my expectations. There have been days when I’ve said to my partner, “I need you to help me today.” I put them in the teacher role, and they wind up giving me the pep talk: “We can do this, Derek. We can do it.” They’re saying it, they’re doing it, they’re believing it. Before DWTS, my work was instinctual and internal. It was something I could never put into words. But being a teacher forced me to dissect what I was doing and explain it. Some partners I could be really tough with and they’d respond to me. Others would shut down. If I got a little intense with Jennifer Grey, it was counterproductive, because she would block me out. But if I did this to Maria Menounos, she would get a fire in her belly and try harder. I have to learn to adjust myself to cater to each partner’s needs and style of learning. If the look I get from her is deer in the headlights, I know I am on the wrong path. I have to find a way to make them understand. Great teachers strive to get through. My fulfillment comes when the lightbulb goes on and they experience that aha moment. They see not just what I want them to do, but what they’re capable of.

The right Brand Promise isn’t always obvious. Naomi Simson — founder of one of the fastest-growing companies in Australia, RedBalloon — was sure she knew what to promise customers who want to give experiences such as hot air balloon rides as gifts, rather than flowers and chocolates. Her promises included an easy-to-use website for choosing one of over 2,000 experiences; recognizable packaging and branding (think Tiffany blue, only in red); and onsite support. It wasn’t until a friend and client mentioned that she was using the website as a source of ideas — but buying the experiences directly from the vendors — that Simson had an “Aha!” moment. She realized that other customers might be doing the same thing, assuming that RedBalloon must be marking up the price of the experiences to cover the costs of the website, packaging, and onsite support. To grow the business, she promised customers they would pay no more for the experiences they bought through RedBalloon than for those purchased directly from the suppliers; otherwise, customers would get 100% of their fee refunded. The company calls this promise, which is technically a pricing guarantee, a “100% Pleasure Guarantee,” to fit its brand.

It is clear, then, that the desire for certainty shapes our spaces of possibility, our perceptions, and our lives both personally and professionally. Usually, this need saves us. But it also sabotages us. This produces an ongoing tension between what we might think of as our conscious selves and our automatic selves. To overcome our inborn reflex that pushes us to seek certainty (sometimes at any cost), we must lead with our conscious selves and tell ourselves a new story, one that with insistent practice will change our future past and even our physiological responses. We must create internal and external ecologies that… celebrate doubt! This means the biggest obstacle to deviation and seeing differently isn’t actually our environment as such, or our” intelligence, or even—ironically—the challenge of reaching the mythical “aha” moment. Rather, it is the nature of human perception itself, and in particular the perceived need for knowing. Yet the deep paradox is that the mechanisms of perception are also the process by which we can unlock powerful new perceptions and ways to deviate. Which means that mechanism of generating a perception is the blocker… and the process of creating perception is the enabler of creativity

He had worked damn hard and prospered. Now it was time to live. He even thought he might get it up tonight and surprise his gorgeous Maggie; then it was Israel and the Pharaohs. Stopping at his front door he took a deep intake of the free English air and smiled contentedly; England was home and so was he, this time for good. He went in the front door and called out for her as he had done so many times before, 'Maggie . . . I'm home sweetheart!' He closed the door and hesitated for a moment, she was usually in his arms by now, planting a sweet little kiss on his expectant, eager lips. She had not been her best lately, complaining of headaches and spending a lot of time down at the library; but today was different, it was retirement day. Aha! This could be a surprise, he thought hanging up his coat. Calling out again, he rubbed his hands together and started to climb the stairs to wash up before tea. This is definitely a surprise . . . no smell of any grub! His whistling stopped abruptly half way up when he saw a darkened figure appear on the landing, pointing a gun at him. A finger tightened and the weapon jolted, sending screeching Belarusian memories echoing across his subconscious. The blast lifted him off his feet sending him to the floor below. The last image of Cedric Boban's life on earth was the flash of a sawn-off shotgun; which fired from a few feet, took his life and most of his upper torso away. The slate was clean, the screeching culled. His assailant moved halfway down before jumping over the banister to avoid the bloody mess on the stairs. Maggie walked steadily into the hall from the living room. She gave a little smile and took the small sawn-off shotgun from the gloved hands of the assassin,

Now, we’ll begin,’ interrupted Mr. Torkingham, his mind returning to this world again on concluding his search for a hymn. Thereupon the racket of chair-legs on the floor signified that they were settling into their seats,—a disturbance which Swithin took advantage of by going on tiptoe across the floor above, and putting sheets of paper over knot-holes in the boarding at points where carpet was lacking, that his lamp-light might not shine down. The absence of a ceiling beneath rendered his position virtually that of one suspended in the same apartment. The parson announced the tune, and his voice burst forth with ‘Onward, Christian soldiers!’ in notes of rigid cheerfulness. In this start, however, he was joined only by the girls and boys, the men furnishing but an accompaniment of ahas and hems. Mr. Torkingham stopped, and Sammy Blore spoke,— ‘Beg your pardon, sir,—if you’ll deal mild with us a moment. What with the wind and walking, my throat’s as rough as a grater; and not knowing you were going to hit up that minute, I hadn’t hawked, and I don’t think Hezzy and Nat had, either,—had ye, souls?’ ‘I hadn’t got thorough ready, that’s true,’ said Hezekiah. ‘Quite right of you, then, to speak,’ said Mr. Torkingham. ‘Don’t mind explaining; we are here for practice. Now clear your throats, then, and at it again.’ There was a noise as of atmospheric hoes and scrapers, and the bass contingent at last got under way with a time of its own: ‘Honwerd, Christen sojers!’ ‘Ah, that’s where we are so defective—the pronunciation,’ interrupted the parson. ‘Now repeat after me: “On-ward, Christ-ian, sol-diers.”’ The choir repeated like an exaggerative echo: ‘On-wed, Chris-ting, sol-jaws!’ ‘Better!’ said the parson, in the strenuously sanguine tones of a man who got his living by discovering a bright side in things where it was not very perceptible to other people. ‘But it should not be given with quite so extreme an accent; or we may be called affected by other parishes. And, Nathaniel Chapman, there’s a jauntiness in your manner of singing which is not quite becoming. Why don’t you sing more earnestly?

By hurrying to eliminate the dissonance of the “I don’t know moment,” it actually diminishes the effectiveness of the “aha moment” in discovery.

A-HA. Slender Frame.

I went along agreeably until all that was left was agreeability.

Marturano recommended something radical: do only one thing at a time. When you’re on the phone, be on the phone. When you’re in a meeting, be there. Set aside an hour to check your email, and then shut off your computer monitor and focus on the task at hand. Another tip: take short mindfulness breaks throughout the day. She called them “purposeful pauses.” So, for example, instead of fidgeting or tapping your fingers while your computer boots up, try to watch your breath for a few minutes. When driving, turn off the radio and feel your hands on the wheel. Or when walking between meetings, leave your phone in your pocket and just notice the sensations of your legs moving. “If I’m a corporate samurai,” I said, “I’d be a little worried about taking all these pauses that you recommend because I’d be thinking, ‘Well, my rivals aren’t pausing. They’re working all the time.’ ” “Yeah, but that assumes that those pauses aren’t helping you. Those pauses are the ways to make you a more clear thinker and for you to be more focused on what’s important.” This was another attack on my work style. I had long assumed that ceaseless planning was the recipe for effectiveness, but Marturano’s point was that too much mental churning was counterproductive. When you lurch from one thing to the next, constantly scheming, or reacting to incoming fire, the mind gets exhausted. You get sloppy and make bad decisions. I could see how the counterintuitive act of stopping, even for a few seconds, could be a source of strength, not weakness. This was a practical complement to Joseph’s “is this useful?” mantra. It was the opposite of zoning out, it was zoning in. In fact, I looked into it and found there was science to suggest that pausing could be a key ingredient in creativity and innovation. Studies showed that the best way to engineer an epiphany was to work hard, focus, research, and think about a problem—and then let go. Do something else. That didn’t necessarily mean meditate, but do something that relaxes and distracts you; let your unconscious mind go to work, making connections from disparate parts of the brain. This, too, was massively counterintuitive for me. My impulse when presented with a thorny problem was to bulldoze my way through it, to swarm it with thought. But the best solutions often come when you allow yourself to get comfortable with ambiguity. This is why people have aha moments in the shower. It was why Kabat-Zinn had a vision while on retreat. It was why Don Draper from Mad Men, when asked how he comes up with his great slogans, said he spends all day thinking and then goes to the movies. Janice Marturano was on

I remember thinking that this bed, at last, seemed very firm, and then I was blinking at the bedside clock that told me it was eleven-fifty-three. That didn’t seem possible. It had been well after midnight when I fell onto the bed. How could it be seven minutes before now? I closed my eyes again and tried to think, which was even harder than it had been lately. For just a moment I thought I must have slept backward through time, finally arriving here in bed before I actually got here. I spent a few pleasant moments thinking of what I should say to myself when I saw me walk in the door. But then I opened my eyes again, and noticed a bright edge of light showing around the bottom of the heavy curtains, and I thought, Aha. It’s daytime. I slept through the night, and lo! The sun has riz. That explains everything. Still, a little disappointing. I’d been hoping for a really interesting conversation with someone I knew to be a brilliant conversationalist—Me.

After years of breaking Rules and settling for random hookups, she finally meets a cute guy and after one kiss she has an aha! moment. She realizes that she does want a healthy loving relationship, not just a lot of texting and sex.

The junior executives recommended a variety of different techniques to foster cross-group dialogue and afterward seemed proud of their own ingenuity. Then Jeff Bezos, his face red and the blood vessel in his forehead pulsing, spoke up. “I understand what you’re saying, but you are completely wrong,” he said. “Communication is a sign of dysfunction. It means people aren’t working together in a close, organic way. We should be trying to figure out a way for teams to communicate less with each other, not more.” That confrontation was widely remembered. “Jeff has these aha moments,” says David Risher. “All the blood in his entire body goes to his face. He’s incredibly passionate. If he was a table pounder, he would be pounding the table.

I want my story to spark real change. An aha moment becomes most meaningful when it leads us to do more. Dream bigger. Move past our so-called limitations. Defy expectations. Bounce back with the resilience that every single one of us was born with.

Learning becomes a joy when children have what we call “aha!” moments.

I am an insatiable learner, so my 20-year quest to shine a light on DreamMaker, has taken me on a fascinating voyage which has brought me an abundance of aha! moments.

The deepest form of self-love is not centering your happiness around others. It's accepting you’ll disappoint a few along your journey. It's not earning the world's approval, but feeling at peace in your own skin, unmoved by how others perceive you. It’s not feeling unsettled until you reach all your goals, but finding joy in how far you made it. It's not regretting past decisions, experiences, or relationships, but unwrapping silver linings and letting aha moments be your closure. The deepest form of self-love is not doubting yourself when honest love shows up, but welcoming it with confidence because you know every cell in your body is deserving of it. It's not convincing yourself that the world has turned its back on you when a situation arises, but having faith that you will rise again and settle into your beautiful self as the glorious sun does for the sky every morning. The deepest form of self-love is feeling proud of the life you're living despite how it may look on someone's screen, despite not capturing a sacred moment and uploading it in time. It's understanding that happiness is always in your hands, that it always starts with you.

Feeling listened to and understood changes our physiology; being able to articulate a complex feeling, and having our feelings recognized, lights up our limbic brain and creates an “aha moment.

Allowing for the Inner Knowledge to be integrated and amplified into one’s waking reality, though, can cause an aha moment; creating a new vibration alignment altering one’s entire Law of Attraction Creation Gestalt. Getting into the zone: acknowledging that the universe holds all probable expressions of you can also initiate a significant shift. Consciousness’s awesome flexibility will ultimately allow information from dreams and perhaps even Outer-Ego’s shamanic-like Gamma Mind State to supersede any Outer-Ego recalcitrance. There are other superhuman, latent potentials occurring somewhere between waking and dreaming, reminding that one’s multidimensional capabilities are readily available. Thinking yourself there: fully achieving your moment-to-moment focused intent, you create focal points drawn from parallel parameters that enhance energy. Indeed, this energy-alignment; this synchronicity is the mechanism for thought-to-matter manipulation. Representing the deepest level of focused intent, you become fully engaged: an integral part of the picture that up until now, you’ve only been observing.

Cognitive neuroscientists at Drexel and Northwestern universities have found that the flashes of insight that precede “Aha!” moments are accompanied by a large burst of neural activity in the brain’s right hemisphere

Step 4: Engage your child to problem-solve with you. Offer “leading” ideas, but allow your child to experience the aha moment of brainstorming a coping mechanism. Resist the urge to explain the fear away or solve the problem on your own. Phrases like “I wonder” and “I’m thinking about” help engage your child in problem-solving. It might sound like this: “Hmm . . . I’m wondering if we can go to the basement and start going down the stairs one at a time . . . let me know when the scary feeling starts and when it feels like it’s getting bigger.” As you inquire about the fear in this way, you infuse your parental presence into the moment, and as your child feels less alone in her fear, it won’t hold such a strong grip. Next, maybe say, “I wonder what you could say to yourself as you go down one of the stairs . . .” Or maybe you suggest a solution like, “I’m thinking about practicing going down one stair now, then in a few days maybe another stair, and the next day a few more . . . hmm . . .” Step 5: Create a mantra. For kids who struggle with anxiety, mantras can be very helpful in the moment. Whether spoken out loud or recited internally, a mantra focuses their attention on the calming words rather than the source of distress. Examples of mantras include, “It’s okay to be nervous. I can get through this,” “I can feel scared and brave at the same time,” and “I’m safe, my parents are near.” Work with your child to develop a mantra that feels good to them and encourage them to repeat it during scary moments. Step 6: Share a “slowly coping with a fear” story. Yours might sound like: “This reminds me of when I was about your age, and I was scared of dogs. I still remember how bad those moments felt in my body.” Do not offer a quick fix like, “But then I realized that I was safe and it was okay.” Instead offer a story of slow coping, something like: “I remember talking to my dad about it, and realizing it was okay to feel scared. I remember that my dad and I would read a lot about dogs, then I’d start to walk closer to dogs with him. And then one day, my dad helped me touch a dog. Little by little, dogs felt less scary. It was such hard work to be brave when I was feeling scared!

Let's start at the beginning: the first step of the unmasking process is realizing you're Autistic. It might not feel like it's an active step toward self-acceptance or authenticity, but coming to understand yourself as disabled is a pretty dramatic reframing of your life. Almost every neuro-diverse person I've spoken to for this book shared that discovering they were Autistic was a powerful aha moment, one that prompted them to rethink every narrative they'd believed about who they were. Painful labels they'd carried around inside themselves for years suddenly didn't seem as relevant: it wasn't that they were stupid, or clueless, or lazy, they were just disabled. It wasn't that their effort had never been enough, or that they were fundamentally wrong or bad. They simply hadn't been treated with the compassion they deserved, or given the tools that would have allowed them to flourish. Naming their position in society as a disabled person helped them to externalize that which had long been internalized. It proved that none of their suffering had been their fault.

Abductive knowledge comes to us in the a-ha moment – an insight that can be described as a flash of knowing. It is the creative insight.

God sees everybody. I wanted to be special. I guess I thought it would be very fine if everybody said, ‘There goes Brother Gregory; he may only be a second son, but he’s really illuminated.’ But that just turns out to be Pride.” He sighed. “I guess you can’t find God by looking.” “I think—I think you can by asking. And—by listening …” She curled up in the covers and closed her eyes again. Gregory tucked his knees up, and put his elbows on them. Resting his chin on his cupped hands, he peered into the impenetrable darkness. He listened. First he heard his own breath coming evenly in the quiet, and the soft pulse of Margaret’s beside him as she returned to sleep. Then he heard the little uneven puffs of the baby in the cradle, and through the walls the children and old Mother Sarah and Cook and even the neighbors. The little thoughts that cluttered his mind like busy ships moving to and fro in the harbor had been swept away in the listening, and he no longer sensed himself as he listened. He wasn’t turning over old sins like moss-covered stones to see what was underneath; he wasn’t addressing prayers to the Virgin or imagining the Passion; he wasn’t naming the seven virtues or praising the mighty deeds of God. Not a thought of last night’s supper or tomorrow’s breakfast flitted past like a distracting moth. And still he listened, until he could hear the deep and ageless sound of the earth breathing. And beyond that, nothing. As he entered Nothing, a strange warmth sprang up in his breast, somewhere around the heart. And he didn’t say, Aha! this is described in the Incendium Amoris but not in the Scala Claustralium, but instead, Let it be. It kindled and sprang higher until he was ablaze with it. It reached high up, outward, and inward into the Nothing. Pure love, on fire. It blazed, for a fragment of a moment, all the way to God, like a spark rising in the darkness. And as it died down, he could sense that everything on earth was softly glowing with it. “Astonishing,” said Gregory to himself as it faded and he returned. “I must try this again sometime,” he mumbled, as he rolled over and sleep overtook him.

I once heard Palestinian activist and co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, Omar Barghouti, talking about an ‘aha moment’ – what I would call, as you might by now have guessed, recognition. He was talking specifically about the moment when an Israeli realises, in a turning point of action, that a Palestinian is a human being, just like him or her.

Preparation is the key each scene needs an aha moment It is part of the story It is also pasrt of the storyline's conclusion LIFE IS HAPHAZARD FICTION IS NOT

you don’t have to hit rock bottom. You can wake up now. You can come to your senses today.

You realize you weren’t actually following Jesus; you were just following a list of rules and rituals. You

Often we miss the alarms sounding in our lives because we’re not sensitive to them. The harp won’t do the job—it’s going to take

Minimization is acknowledging the reality of the situation and even owning responsibility for it but denying its seriousness. Instead

We rationalize by telling ourselves, “As long as I’m having fun and not hurting anyone, it’s fine.” There

Lyn, this was the “Aha!” moment when Desta found another astonishing skeleton. Remarkably, it appeared utterly human but existed before humans walked the Earth. Clutched in its hand a small sphere attached to an elaborate gold necklace. The sphere was not like any material on Earth. Remember when I told you our origins might lie in the stars? Well, I think we found the answer in the Afar desert Max

I walked down the hall to the exit, I thought about all of the “aha” moments there are in the world of these diseases. So many people hiding and pretending, so many people who just want to be able to say out loud what’s wrong with them and get proper treatment, so many people all over the country who are facing the same problem but rarely find each other—and if they do, it’s often too late.

A rustle of movement drew her attention to the open condo door. A tousled blonde head peered in. “Everything okay?” “I think so.” Amber eyes followed the destructive path of the combatants. “Men. Can’t train them to behave inside and can’t teach them to not piss on the furniture.” Arabella’s mouth rounded in an O of surprise. Surely she’d misheard. “Pee?” “Only my ex-boyfriend ever actually did that. He’s the reason why I moved. Fucker would get drunk, break in through the window by the fire escape, and pee on my stuff. I’d get mad. He’d apologize. We’d have wild jungle sex, and then I’d kick him out and tell him to never talk to me again.” Still couldn’t fathom the logic. “You had sex with a guy who peed on your couch?” “Less the couch, more like the kitchen chair, so nothing I couldn’t wipe up. And the worst part is the bastard would wait for me to wake up. I’d wander into the kitchen all oblivious like, totally in the buff, usually to find him munching one of my homemade cookies.” The crazy blonde’s brows shot up in an Aha moment. “Hey, wait a second. I wonder if that’s why he got wasted so often?” She’d just clued in. “He was after no-strings sex.” “I was actually talking about the cookies, but I think your explanation is more plausible.” -Luna & Arabella

I’ve discovered that what drives many travelers to the Distant Country is that they are running away from a god that doesn’t exist. For one reason or another, their perception of God doesn’t match up with reality. They are rejecting a god they created rather than the true God who created them.

One night, my husband, Rodney, and I were surfing YouTube videos when we stumbled on a video of a Fiona Apple concert. It was an “aha!” moment for me. I thought: This woman is telling the truth with her body. She’s not what you would typically call a good dancer, she was jerky and unconcerned about looking pretty, but something about her was raw and real. She was moving with her wounds, with her limitations—she was moving truthfully. She wasn’t hiding, and she wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable and expose herself through her voice and movements. Her courage and honesty made her dance mesmerizing and powerful. It penetrated something deep inside me. When you bow to someone and say, “Namaste,” it means, “The deepest part of me acknowledges the deepest part of you.” Fiona Apple’s performance was a Namaste from her body to mine. I want to have the courage to be as honest in my life, my teaching, and in this book as she was in that dance. Yoga can bring you to this kind of truth by helping you to observe, then to let go of, the habits you cling to and the stories you use to protect yourself. As you practice, you become intimate with your body, which many of us spend a lifetime either alienated from or waging war with. Yoga practice can pierce emotional places that most of us guard or avoid. Our bodies are intelligent, more a source of direct truth than our minds, but we rarely listen to the wisdom that’s buried in our beautiful chambers.

The warning label on my chainsaw says, “Do not attempt to stop chain with hands.” Our

Mr. Lefkowitz—sixty-five, a widower—was having a very lonely time in Miami Beach, and he observed a man of his age who was never without a companion; people forever streamed around him, extending invitations, swapping jokes. So Lefkowitz screwed up his courage, leaned over, and said to the popular paragon, “Mister, excuse me. What should I do to make friends?” “Get—a camel,” the other said with a sneer. “Ride up and down Collins Avenue every day, and before you know it, everyone in Miami will be asking, ‘Who is that man?’ and you’ll have to hire a social secretary to handle all the invitations! Don’t bother me again with such a foolish question.” So Mr. Lefkowitz bought a paper and looked through the ads, and by good fortune he read of a circus, stranded in Miami, that needed capital. Mr. Lefkowitz telephoned the circus owner and within half an hour had rented a camel. The next morning, Mr. Lefkowitz, wearing khaki shorts and a pith helmet, mounted his camel and set forth on Collins Avenue. Everywhere people stopped, buzzed, gawked, pointed. Every day for a week, Lefkowitz rode his trusty steed. One morning, just as he was about to get dressed, the telephone rang. “Mr. Lefkowitz! This is the parking lot! Your camel—it’s gone! Stolen!” At once, Mr. Lefkowitz phoned the police. A Sergeant O’Neill answered: “What? … It sounded as though you said someone had stolen your camel.” “That’s right!” “Er—I’ll fill out a form…. How tall was the animal?” “From the sidewalk to his back, where I sat, a good six feet.” “What color was it?” “What color?” echoed Lefkowitz. “Camel color: a regular, camel-colored camel!” “Male or female?” “Hanh?” “Was the animal male or female?” “How am I supposed to know about the sex of a camel?” Lefkowitz exclaimed. “Wait! Aha! It was a male!” “Are you sure?” “Absolutely.” “But Mr. Lefkowitz, a moment ago you—” “I’m positive, Officer, because I just remembered: Every time and every place I was riding on that camel, I could hear people yelling: ‘Hey! Look at the shmuck on that camel!

It may sound harsh to say, but the number-one contributor to spiritual growth is not sermons, books, or small groups; the number-one contributor to spiritual growth is difficult circumstances.

For a long time I didn’t have a defined Dana doctrine to describe this approach; it was more a ball of string. Then one morning at a hotel I came back to my room for bed after a speaking event, and the hotel staff had placed a Zen card with a Buddhist saying on my pillow (this will make Gutfeld roll his eyes). It read, “Say little. But when you speak, utter gentle words that touch the heart. Be truthful. Express kindness. Abstain from vanity. This is the way.” I had an “Aha!” moment when I read those words, because it captured how I was trying to live my life most productively and happily. I carried the card with me for months until I tacked it in my medicine cabinet, and I still see it every morning and night when I brush my teeth. The card is a little worn, but its message never gets old. In the morning it helps set my intention for the day, and at night it reminds me to forgive myself if I haven’t lived up to it (usually because I’ve let Bob Beckel push my buttons).

Ready? Here you should have said, “Yes." Out loud. Here we go.  How much is 1 +1? Your answer? How much is 2+2? How much is 100-35? Do it in your head. How much us 236-137? Do this one in your head no matter how long it takes. Are you ready? Say the resulting number backwards. Now multiply it by three. And here my friends is your AHA moment. Please

ART UNITES WORDS, SOUNDS, FEELINGS, IDEAS, EMOTIONS, KNOWLEDGE, THE INEXPLICABLE, COMPASSION, INBALANCE, EQUANIMITY, SORROW, ANGER, LOVE, THE MAGIC, AHA MOMENTS, FEAR, INSANITY, KINDNESS, SILENCE… EVERYTHING EXIST WITHIN ART.   Whether you regard yourself an artist or not creative at all. Art and creativity is your guide to wholehearted self-acceptance. We’re not talking complicated High Brow Art, those mesmerizing gorgeous art journals, breathtakingly beautiful photographs or fabrics that will rock your world.

This is why people have aha moments in the shower. It was why Kabat-Zinn had a vision while on retreat. It was why Don Draper from Mad Men, when asked how he comes up with his great slogans, said he spends all day thinking and then goes to the movies.

My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:29–32) Now don’t miss this: the older brother never left the father, never broke the rules, never went to a distant country, but he also never experienced AHA. You have to ask yourself which story is more tragic—the younger son who lost everything and ended up in a pigpen but experienced AHA, or the older son who lived at home with the father and followed all the rules but never experienced AHA.

The truth is, he, too, was a prodigal son. He, too, had a heart that was far from his father. He, too, was lost, but he didn’t see it. Tim Keller put it this way, “The bad son was lost in his badness, but the good son was lost in his goodness.”38

When the Bible gives descriptions, I immediately get an image in my mind of who I would cast for that role. I was thinking Joe Pesci would be a good Zacchaeus, right? Pesci’s this little guy known for having a high, annoying voice who dresses really well. Picture Zacchaeus in this crowd. He was shorter than most, so elbows were flying near his face as all these rubberneckers jockeyed for a view of Jesus. Zacchaeus finally gave up trying to compete with the crowd and climbed up a sycamore tree. He was perched in the tree when Jesus arrived. Here’s what we read in Luke 19:5–7: When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter.

Confronted with the Truth When Jonah confronted the people of Nineveh with the truth, how did they respond? With brutal honesty. Jonah 3:5 records: A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Sackcloth was an abrasive covering made of goat hair that was worn in public as a sign of repentance and grieving. Does that sound like something a respectable person would wear? Is that something you would do? Well here, even the people of privilege and power did this. Picture Donald Trump publicly fasting. Think of Kim Kardashian putting on sackcloth. This was a gesture of humility. Remember, this was a great city in Assyria with around 120 thousand people, and everyone—from the greatest to the least—fasted and put on sackcloth.

I woke up this morning with the words clomping around in my head: "Truth does not become wisdom until the exact moment you're ready for it." No one can force it on you, even though everyone thinks they have a right to try. So the rest of us should just put a sock in it. Bug out. Leave everyone to discover their own truths, each in their own way, all in their own time. And go find our own wisdom. Which will happen. But not until that exact, excruciating Aha! moment when, at long last, confusing, convoluted truth becomes simple, crystal-clear wisdom. Because we're finally, gloriously, ready for it. Not a second before.

Business ideas are like those flying dragons in Avatar. First you have to find one, let it choose you, then be brave enough to ride it.

Most of the time, your body is way ahead of your mind.

You are your So(u)lution.

Insight involves trust - trusting that the information coming through is correct.

When I Go Within, I Am Never Without.