____twoism

So this has been on my mind a lot lately...

You know, I wonder what your thoughts are on what it means to be alive without sounding too bold or dramatic?

For me, it's a feeling I get when I'm reading books, walking and exploring, being with loved ones, being with a special person, watching the rain, walking in the rain, listening to great music, making music, writing and travelling. This isn't a conclusive list, nor is it a list of all the things I enjoy doing. These are just things that come to mind when I think about being connected with everything around me.

What about you?

To me, living is directly linked to intention and liberation. If you're not doing what you want to be doing, you're not living, you're in chains. For example, unfortunately, most of the people I encounter in office complexes are not living. But people who are doing with their lives what they want to be doing with their lives, they are the ones living in this sense of the word. When your actions are in line with your heart, then you're really living.

I'm currently reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. In it he tells his story of is journeys around America by car, train and hitchhiking. He had few cares, almost no possessions, just a great, deep, vivid appreciation and love for all of life. He traveled all over the place, got to know all sorts of interesting people, and never seemed to grow bitter and jaded like the average modern day office drone. Now that is a great example of someone who really lived.

being alive to me is that feeling when you're coming back from some physical activity and you ache all over, sit down, and just appreciate being around for all this

hexagonLife wrote:So this has been on my mind a lot lately...

You know, I wonder what your thoughts are on what it means to be alive without sounding too bold or dramatic?

For me, it's a feeling I get when I'm reading books, walking and exploring, being with loved ones, being with a special person, watching the rain, walking in the rain, listening to great music, making music, writing and travelling. This isn't a conclusive list, nor is it a list of all the things I enjoy doing. These are just things that come to mind when I think about being connected with everything around me.

What about you?

Actually your list is close to my definition. I find that it is very small things that are meaningful. Just waking up in the morning and hanging out on the backyard patio with my dogs, while it is quiet and the sun is coming up, is when I feel like I'm living an authentic life. Also, I would add, the more honest you can be with yourself and other people, the more alive you will feel. The problem with this is that societal conventions require us to be false to a degree.

For me, being alive is learning the lessons to move further on in the quest to work your way back to the universal consciousness and being able to go there at will and come back from time to to time to dip your toe into 'reality', like playing a video game: pick it up and put it down as the mood takes you, be the character in the game until you get bored or just have something else to do, and then switch it off again.

I really love being alive. I never really felt that way most of my life after early childhood. I felt like I just didn't want to exist most of the time, and sometimes I actively wished I'd just die. Now I feel really grateful to be alive, even though it's not always roses and is in fact kind of shitty a lot of the time.

I'm reaching middle age but it's not like I'm that old, I'm not like to die any time soon, but sometimes I feel Roy Batty in Blade Runner, "I want more life!"

Nothing like hard work paying off, especially if the work is done entirely by and for yourself. You see this come back into creativity but also modern entertainment, like video-games (even though nowadays there's no such thing as "hard work").

There's also nothing like taking a break...from hard work.

rainier wrote:I really love being alive. I never really felt that way most of my life after early childhood. I felt like I just didn't want to exist most of the time, and sometimes I actively wished I'd just die. Now I feel really grateful to be alive, even though it's not always roses and is in fact kind of shitty a lot of the time.

I'm reaching middle age but it's not like I'm that old, I'm not like to die any time soon, but sometimes I feel Roy Batty in Blade Runner, "I want more life!"

Completely off topic, but I love your signature, that quote from that video never fails to make me smile.

Not just around our sun and our moon anymore!

Everytime I see this thread I think of mc hammer's take on this

Making things always gives me a feeling of purpose. Even just making a humble dinner or working in the garden. I also remember how crazy alive I felt when I'd ride in the back of the pick up truck while we drove around in the country with the music way up. It's the simplest thing, but it feels so good.