What does aliveness mean to you? I was driven to write this blog because I think we don’t cultivate the feeling of aliveness enough.
Feeling alive or having a sense of aliveness is what brings us energy. Aliveness also brings a feeling of being grounded and strong. Aliveness wakes us up to go for what we want—pursuing our dreams, living with joy, and having a wonderful sense of excitement in our lives.
Sometimes we get so bogged down with the heaviness of life that we stop living with vitality.
We get stuck in a routine. We might feel afraid. We can be consumed by the checklists of what we need to get done. When we stop paying attention to what brings us positive energy, we can lose that sense of aliveness—we lose that vital part of ourselves.
One of my favorite authors, Don Miguel Ruiz, offers this thought in one of his books:
“Death is not the biggest fear we have;
our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive
— the risk to be alive and express what we really are.”
I had to read this quote a couple of times to let its meaning sink in. To me, it is so true that we often talk about the fear of death; however what we sometimes really fear is the risk involved in being alive—facing the fear to go for our dreams, taking the risk to make a mistake or even voice what matters the most to us.
When we are feeling our aliveness, we are living our lives regardless of fear or worry.
We know we are living and making choices instead of living in fear because aliveness helps wake us up from a deep slumber or from the routine of our lives. Aliveness challenges us to ask ourselves how can we do better.
In aliveness, we are also honoring parts of ourselves that we dream about and instead of just dreaming, we are doing. Aliveness honors that inner voice that says, “Yes go for it!” and “Isn’t this awesome?” or “You can tackle it and go for your dreams.”
Embracing the risk to live means going for the job you always wanted, the relationship you wanted to have, and the vacation that you have dreamed about. Aliveness also let you know that you are working hard for what you want, what is important to you and what matters.
In the end, aliveness wakes you up to say: YOU matter!!
Aliveness helps us remember parts of ourselves that we have turned off and also reminds us that we are all important and that each of us is worth the risk of living. Death is one thing that we really can’t control, but to make a choice to live is ours. Why not choose to live and let all the wonderful things fall into place?
It doesn’t mean everything magical is going to happen all at once. It means you have to work hard, and you have to make mistakes along the way. You have to fail at some things—the most important thing is you pick yourself up and keep going.
Aliveness give us the strength, the energy, the motivation in some way to say, “Hey! You matter, you can do it, and this risk to live is the best choice you can make.”
Aliveness happens within ourselves and makes our relationships better. Your relationship with yourself, your partner and your friends. It makes it better because you are honoring all parts of who you are and not allowing yourself to turn yourself off.
Aliveness helps you remember who you are, that you matter and your hopes and dreams are so important. When you turn those parts on, people notice and are inspired by you.
Ask yourself today, the next day and so on: what makes you feel alive, what helps you connect to parts of yourself that honor your hopes and dreams, what gives you strength to pick yourself back up when you have failed or made a mistake.
How do you participate and cultivate this sense of aliveness within yourself and how do you continue to make the choice to continue to live.
Have fun on this wonderful journey of life, living it and honoring aliveness!