This is a question that have been going through my head in the past 3 weeks.
What is the difference between being alive and truly living?
What is the difference between being alive and truly living?
Question Of The Week #17
- Thread starter Cheer
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The simple answer seems to be:
Alive - not being dead. Breathing and being alive without feeling happy. Maybe not accomplishing much.
Truly living - Not just be alive, but also being happy.
To make an example: I'm just alive, the happiness I experience is just "on the surface" in a way. Like smiling briefly while wasting my time in front of the PC, or doing things that means nothing. I don't live my life, I'm just surviving it.
This is how I know the difference and I don't mean to complain about it.
Alive - not being dead. Breathing and being alive without feeling happy. Maybe not accomplishing much.
Truly living - Not just be alive, but also being happy.
To make an example: I'm just alive, the happiness I experience is just "on the surface" in a way. Like smiling briefly while wasting my time in front of the PC, or doing things that means nothing. I don't live my life, I'm just surviving it.
This is how I know the difference and I don't mean to complain about it.
Being alive: only requires you're breathing, conscious, putting food in your food hole, and not dead yet.
"Truly" living is more subjective. It's more about fulfillment. Ever see that romantic comedy that when it starts the main character is just eating, working, and sleeping all alone? Then they meet the love of their life and suddenly they're doing all that great stuff they passed up on due to fear and routine? Truly living is 50% doing all of those things and 50% changing your day-to-day routine into what you really want it to be. For some people that means "defying" society's rules and doing what makes them happy. For others, it's climbing a corporate ladder. Only you really know how it would apply to your life.
"Truly" living is more subjective. It's more about fulfillment. Ever see that romantic comedy that when it starts the main character is just eating, working, and sleeping all alone? Then they meet the love of their life and suddenly they're doing all that great stuff they passed up on due to fear and routine? Truly living is 50% doing all of those things and 50% changing your day-to-day routine into what you really want it to be. For some people that means "defying" society's rules and doing what makes them happy. For others, it's climbing a corporate ladder. Only you really know how it would apply to your life.
hmmm interesting. So in other words being alive living in fear because of "what if?"
While truly living is to take a risk and leave your bubble.
While truly living is to take a risk and leave your bubble.
For me, simply being alive is just going through the motions and doing what people have to do to live - eating, breathing, sleeping, mating, using the bathroom, etc. - and a few things that are expected of them like working and getting an education. Existing as something of a husk. They look like people, and they act like people, but there is a certain coldness to them that you can't quite put your finger on. They're hollow in some ways. They don't really have anything to look forward to, maybe because they had it beaten out of them in one way or another, or maybe because they never had a spark to begin with. Either way, they're the people who just exist and do what they can to prolong that existence before they finally can't be sustained anymore. They are usually the ones who start a new year telling everyone their resolutions, but defeat themselves before they even start. They may have a family and love them, or enjoy listening to some music now and again, or have a favorite sports team, and they may even want something better for themselves and their loved ones, but they, for whatever reason, don't pursue life beyond what they have.
Those who are truly living do. Those who are truly living don't make New Year's resolutions because they take action. They see life as something of a finite gift, and rather than spend every waking moment worrying about and dreading their impending death, they embrace the fact that, one day, everyone dies. From there, they make a conscious decision to 'do something' with the time they have, however long that may be. They seek fulfillment. What that means may be different for everyone, but it all spurs from the same desire to be and do more than the average. More than what is expected. Maybe even to actively seek the unexpected. These are your people who take risks. And I don't mean stupid risks like jumping out of a plane without a parachute or anything. I mean something in a more abstract sense of pushing their own personal boundaries. They'll do all those things that the other group will do, but they will push to become something greater than all that. Rather than just wanting for something better like the other group, they take steps toward finding and securing it.