Have you ever noticed, while experiencing an aha moment (some call it the eureka moment), what actually happens, how it comes about, and why it occurs?

Try and think of your last aha moment as you continue reading my observations gleaned from many aha moments I have had. I experience these aha moments in different situations. Some are solving problems, listening to music, or a lecture, seeing an exhibition, or a movie, reading a novel or an article.

What you first notice happening when you have an aha moment is how you feel. So an aha moment is a kind of feeling, similar to fear and sadness, but fortunately more uplifting and usually manifests as excitement and joy.

Most human feelings are an instantaneous reaction to a situation. You become aware of a situation (e.g., a bear standing close), and your subconscious makes an instant evaluation (danger) that causes your reaction (feeling fear).

It is generally a learned behavior (a baby may think the bear is cute and laugh joyously).

An aha moment is also an emotional reaction to evaluating a situation. The situation can be a solution to a problem, a new realization, a piece of art you are exposed to, like a painting, music, or literature (both fiction and non-fiction). These events trigger elation based on a realization - an insight.

Observing my aha moments, I find they always have a cognitive ingredient - the starting point of aha emotions. And that's the difference to other emotional triggers - it's conscious. So although you often rely on your large repository of subconscious knowledge to make things fall into place and discover an insight, there is conscious, focused attention that makes it happen whether you do it yourself or are assisted by others.

So, aha moments are a unique instance of feeling joy. You discover an insight, it is beautiful, and it triggers a sense of pleasure based on both delight in making a discovery and recognition that it is beautiful. The "greater" the discovery, and the more "beautiful" it is, the stronger the feelings you will experience.

Here's what happens:

• You discover an insight,
• You appreciate its beauty,
• Your judgment may lead to an aha moment.

However, not all discoveries are equal. Only some lead to experiencing an aha moment. The rest remain simply insights without the joyful elation you feel with aha moments. Your insight to lead to an aha moment needs to surpass your threshold for greatness and beauty.

There is some beauty simply in the degree of the greatness of a discovery, but I can also find true beauty in more minor discoveries, and I consider it a separate factor in creating the aha experience.

Defining what is considered a discovery or how great it is, and even more so, what is beautiful in a given context, is important and deserves separate thinking and writing.

There is a simple test for my purpose here, and I am sure you have experienced it yourself in other areas of your life. For instance, take the question of how many hairs make a beard? It’s somewhere on a continuum with fuzzy borders, and you know one when you see it. it’s the same for something being great or beautiful.

What do you experience when having an aha moment?