I picked up a Runner's World magazine at the store the other day. Partly because I was interested and partly because I'm hoping to "attract" that lifestyle into my world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_attraction

In the Editor's Letter was an excerpt from Dr. George Sheehan's book Running & Being:

Running made me free. It rid me of concern for the opinion of others. Dispensed me from rules and regulations imposed from outside. Running let me start from scratch. It stripped off those layers of programmed activity and thinking. Developed new priorities about eating and sleeping and what to do with leisure time. Running changed my attitude about work and play. About whom I really liked and who really liked me. Running let me see my twenty-four-hour day in a new light and my lifestyle from a different point of view, from the inside instead of out.

I want that. I'm not sure if it will be running for me. (I hope it is.) But I want that feeling.
Has anyone found that feeling? Where did you find it?

Does anyone else feel compelled to find that thing that lets you "start from scratch"?

I think hooping has given that to me. I don't know about scratch but hooping has given me permission to express myself that I was supressing.

Rugby.

Running has allowed me to see real fitness progress like I could never have imagined. I started off struggling to run 60 seconds at a time. Now I can run 8 minutes without stopping. I can't wait to run a 5K straight through

Dieting! Shame it took so long to find.

I think learning to develop a relationship with my body was key for me, which was a very slow process in the past year. It started with accepting myself as I already was and concentrating on developing healthy new habits, as opposed to restricting and punishing myself for feeling fat/ugly/worthless. Each adoption of a healthy new habit has freed me from old ways of thinking, from the criticism of others, and into new ways of seeing, feeling, and believing. I now love things that used to intimidate me, and have learned to let go of attachments to certain hurtful objects, habits, and situations. And in general, I think I've become a much more positive person; I've realized I can be whatever I want to be when I'm willing to work at it. I'm still working on much of this but am continuing to make progress.

I don't think any one thing did this for me, unless you count the day I realized I couldn't let myself spiral out of control anymore and that I was the only one that had the power to change things. That in itself was sheer will; the rest was hard work and a cumulative effort that has added up into something that has let me see my life in a new light.

Good luck with your search. I'm guessing you're already halfway there without even realizing it.