How has your first enlightenment experience changed your life?

[abundance]

Well, to start I am far less triggered by things and seem to be more accepting of reality as it unfolds. Also, I am not sure, if anyone else can relate but my first enlightenment (awakening) experience was a realization of just how much I didn't know and crushed everything single notion I had about reality up until that point. Unfortunately I have undergone a major ego backlash since then and am just now able to put everything in perspective. 

[traveler]

I knew yesterday that it was finally my time. I was gonna smoke some weed alone, which I have never done before, and surrender completely. I went outside and sat on a bench and smoked my joint, my ego had a lot of bubbling and I laid down on the bench. My heart began pounding faster than it had ever pounded and I completely surrendered to the fact that I was going to die. I stopped holding on to anything, and the world that I thought I new crystallized into complete nothingness and everything was at the same time. I saw everything as it was and spent eternity in this place. Then suddenly I was back laying on this bench outside. I got up and went home, knowing that none of this is real. You wake up to the fact that all of this is just a play of consciousness. There is no control and no one controlliling, only experiencing. Everything is intimately interconnected, everything is pure experience, there is nothing to worry about and no one left to worry. Everything is appearing on the screen of consciousness. It is the eternal play of infinite possibilities. 

It is freedom.

[mandyjw]

Mine was probably just the first time I realized that my mind was causing me a lot of pain and I just became aware of my surroundings and realized how perfect and stunningly beautiful they were even though I had been complaining and made miserable by them a few moments ago. It was late winter and we had had several massive snowstorms that were really hurting my business.  I looked at the snow on the trees and saw that it was perfect. Ever since then I practice flipping from the mind to presence until presence is more of my experience and my mind doesn't cause me a lot of pain anymore. The more I train my brain to see beauty especially in the mundane and ugly, the more spectacular unexpected beauty triggers an enlightenment experience. 

[iTommy]

I've had a few that had a positive impact on my personal & spiritual development. One experience stands out, here I meditated and did a bit of contemplation. There was a train of thought that came to mind that I at first didn't really grasp. So, the focus went to trying to grasp that train of thought by walking around in circles, reciting it over and over again. Suddenly something in me *clicked*. "I" as a self, wasn't there anymore. There was only the whole or no-thing-ness, experience without an experiencer in it, deep stillness out of which everything arose. Shortly after the *click*, I sat down in my chair laughing and crying simultaneously for approx 2 hours or so... out of joy, appreciation, relief, gratitude etc. and about the absurdity/hilarity of "not getting it" all my life till then. Worry, fear & most of my mental struggles disappeared.

Afterward, this experience made more motivated to dig deeper. It made me realize that all "my" problems aren't ultimately MY problems. It made me appreciate existence & life more, accepting things as they are/were became easier. There was less worry, anxiety and negative mental chatter than before, amongst other benefits.