Are you truly living?

I think I’m living, not just alive. I’m working toward a goal (getting my PhD), I feel enriched by what I do in my daily life, and I’m contributing to the greater good (or, at least, I will be, once I’ve actually started my career).

I think everyone spends at least some of their time going through the motions. Not everyone enjoys everything they do – I mean, I know my cats are happy when I clean the litter box, but that doesn’t really feel like living. Spending time with them when they’re happy, though, that’s living.

“I want to live, not merely survive”.

I’m working on lvin’ it to the fullest.

“Truly living” is getting out of the cramped confines of my head.

In my head lives an impostor who calls himself “me”. He’s lost in ideas about past, present and future, how he measures up against others, what he likes and dislikes, his plans and desires. When the fog of confusion settles in, that cramped prison of ideas seems real, and that impostor’s ravings begin to sound like the story of my life.

But sometimes, the fog of confusion lifts. The impostor’s mask is lifted with it, and he’s revealed to be just another idea, harmless—laughable, really—and not-me. In the bright sun and blue sky of those moments of clarity, I am the crocus pushing up through last Fall’s leaves, the pothole jolting morning commuters awake, the homeless guy shaking his cup. All that is me truly living.

Truly living to me is living life to the fullest. Doing things that are good for you and others. Making you and others happy.

I have a bit of a different angle on this. About six or seven years ago, two days before Christmas, I slipped on ice on some steps and took a major header. I landed flat on my back and shattered my collarbone. I also hit my head and was out for a few minutes, but the collarbone hurt so much I didn’t realize my head hit as hard as it did. I had a severe concussion, but I didn’t realize it. I got the arm taken care of, but I felt like crap. It wasn’t until five days later still thinking I didn’t hit my head and still feeling like crap I reached back and touched my head and it really hurt. I spent the next four months on a different plane. It was like I was trying to walk through really deep mud. I could look at things and hardly know what I was looking at and not reacting to anything. I just existed for those months. Then one day around the end of April I was walking to the post office and I started hearing the birds signing, I noticed it was a beautiful day, and I felt truly alive again. I stopped and started to look around and notice the trees, the sky, and how green everything was. It was a strange sensation. I wouldn’t want to go though it again, but it was an interesting experience.

@Adirondackwannabe good story. Mine is about smelling mud after the rain. Similar to yours except I was emotionally shattered. I knew I was on the way to recovery and living again one morning on the way up the driveway to get my newspaper. I stopped and stood around thinking, “What is that smell?” I realized it was the mud from days and days of rain. It was the best smell in the world. I had been so hurt, I hadn’t smell, or noticed I hadn’t smelled anything in months and months. I’m truly living now and it feels wonderul. Even the smell of mud.

Yes.

[ using a long explanation won’t help anyone understand why ]

Honestly? No, I’m not. I’m splitting my time between dealing with family-oriented legal/ financial/ social issues and using this “in-between time” to feel out what I want/ am going to be as the smoke clears. Am probably taking on too much at once, and that’s likely one reason why I’m just sort of existing one breath at a time right now.

I do intend to like who I am after things settle down— whenever that’ll be!

For me, more or less. But many would label my life a wow. It’s not too bad. Lots of free time at least which is really nice.

I don’t think I’ve ever just lived. I have always truly lived. I have had a crazy life and I have loved living. I always say if I am to die this very moment, I can not say I haven’t truly lived. I have, it’s been a hell of a ride.

I think living life is doing the best you can within the moment and being satisfied with the results.
I do just fine.
As for future plans for my life? I certainly have those and will make them happen.:)

I’m living. Not always at 100% capacity – but I’m here.

Lately, I’ve given into my true nature, and now I am truly living instead of getting in my way all the time, trying to please people at the expense of my own selfhood. I may make a bunch of people mad or uncomfortable, but this is so much easier in one way. I hate fighting myself. Now I’ve given myself permission to do the things that truly make me happy, I’m not quite sure how I have changed, but I think I feel more confident and I think I am helping more people. Helping on a deeper level, too.

Good for you @wundayatta.

I am currently going through the motions in my life – content, but listless.
It is weird how fast the peak experience times can leave you, just as quickly as they arrive.
I wish I could say I felt like the Cream’s old song ” I’m so glad, I’m glad, I’m glad, I am glad.”

That reminds me of that retarded thing that chick says in Highlander.

Some people are afraid to die. That’s not your problem. You’re afraid to live.

You know, since he’s immortal and stuff, that automatically makes that quote some deep shit. Lol.

Anyways. I’m not really living, I don’t think. I’m like a premature ghost or something. I’m alive because I am, but I’m not really doing anything with my life besides accommodating my drinking problem. I wish I was some immortal fool with a sword or something, instead.

I try to find a chore to do and something to enjoy each day but no, I’m not really living, not how I think living is. I do nothing useful or helpful for society. Well, I guess I often encouragement and actual support in all it’s forms to one kid at the moment.

I have some moments in which I truly feel fully alive. I want more and more of those moments. I am greedy and selfish for those moments. Too much of life is filled with routine. I often feel like I am on a treadmill just trying to keep from falling down. Art and music are very important to me. They remind me of my deepest, truest self and of all that is important in life. I seek out the things that give me real joy. It can be simple things…it doesn’t have to be climbing Mt. Everest or white water rafting. I am not an athlete. I am an aesthete. That is what is important to me. That, and human connection, love. Feeling seen. When I have these things, I feel truly alive. When I don’t I am a very unhappy person.

I am on my way to live it truly everyday..Well living a life truly for me means to make someone smile, to hug someone who is sad, to share my food with those hungry and to be happy in all these small things!