The feature image photo credits: Brie Seavey, Olga Dossa, Gvantsa Mamatsashvili, and Ellie Savoy. (Edited by Adedayo) The image used is with their permission along with their stories submitted for purposes of the book and related work with "The Art of Being Alive" project.
This is a continuation of the first entry in this series "The Art of Being Alive: What does it mean to come Alive?" so if you missed that, please check that out first.
I believe that there are solutions to our anxieties and our fears; and having conversations regarding issues that matter like this creates an avenue for solutions to become apparent.
One of the most prominent motivational speaker today, the bestselling author of The Charge: Activating the 10 human drives that make you feel alive Brendon Buchard has three questions that he says got him awake to life and sparked his desire to live fully alive; he said "At the end of our lives, we will all ask, 'Did I live?' 'Did I love?' 'Did I matter?' How profound! I believe that is the question that will bring us to our realization as to how we choose to come alive and what the "art of being alive" means to us respectively.
It is everyone's desire to matter, to live fully alive and awake, and one of the ways to start feeling more alive is I believe begins by focusing on as little or much of what our daily practices look and feel like. Just as Mike Murdock quotes that "The secret of our future is hidden in our daily routine," hence our daily practices matter like gratitude and carving our meaningful connections, our consciousness about how we live, what we eat and who we are, awareness about our environment and awakening to the life we are living is crucial to our happiness and our well-being.
In her book Thrive, Arianna Huffington, a woman I personally admire says:
A life that embraces the third metric is one lived in a way that's mindful of our eventual eulogy... changing deeply ingrained habits is especially difficult, and when many of these habits are the products of deeply ingrained cultural norms, it is even harder. This is the challenge we face in redefining success...
Only the failure to strategically control the contents of your consciousness keeps you from feeling the consistent internal charge of being fully alive, engaged, connected and fulfilled. -- Brendon Buchard
What it means to come alive is to understand the points that we are in our lives, our degree of consciousness, awareness and awakening. What lights us up? What makes us feel free? How are we showing up every day in the world in relation to our goals, ambition and desire? What daily practices and habits are we infusing into our daily lives to optimize our well-being?
Are we connecting socially, are we serving as agents of change towards a greater good or are we just all about self? Are we doing things to improve our physical health like exercise and good nutrition or are we so much disconnected from ourselves that we don't take notice of the impact of these things? Are we being creative, exercising our creative energies that takes us into a FLOW or are we mindless TV addicts? Do we take time to step out into nature and just appreciate the art of the things that have been given to us free? How are we using our pain experiences to serve us in a purposeful manner, or are we choosing to remain the victim that undermines our experiences which inevitably always serve as the source that brings out our life's awakenings?
I believe there is so much to explore with the "art of being alive," I don't think there will ever be an ending to this project except for constant breakthroughs that will create epiphanies for us. This new quest to define what it means to live fully alive has only just begun. As a result I will be interviewing people from all walks of life and background, to explore what it means to come alive, to feel fully alive and awake to all that life has to offer us.
Your story to how you have found a meaningful way to come alive is needed to make this project viable. Please share your story using this link so your voice can be heard and be part of the game-changers making a difference.
Notes: Three ways you can be a part of the evolving of the project:
1. Be in the book series or a part of the movement by using this form to submit your inspiring story. (Every submission will be used either in the book if submitted early or in the social media feed to promote the movement.)
2.Watch the youtube trailer here.
3.Like us on Facebook to support the project.