What is the difference between living and existing?
When you look back on your life, will you remember the times you decided not to try and stretch yourself and accepted what life had given you?
Or will you think back on the moments where you gave it your best effort and either exceeded all expectations or failed miserably?
Either way, you were fully engaged in the process of finding what you were made of. I believe that much of the difference between living and just existing stems from this search to measure ourselves.
What Am I Made Of
Most people never push themselves past the level that they have to. If everything was just handed to a person, they have no appreciation for what they have and soon lose it.
Or, at the very least, turn it into something unhappy and undesirable. In most people, there is a drive to find out what we are made of. How much lies beneath the surface? Am I the greatest? or Am I just a weak comparison for talent?
All of these questions quite naturally come to our minds. If you have everything you need and do not feel the need to test yourself, I believe that is part of existing. To live, an awareness and appreciation come to a person when they see the connections between themselves and the rest of the world and try to show them through their art or actions. That is when you are living.
Living in The Moment
It is still difficult to explain and experience for me, but life makes sense when I can get into the moment I exist. Food tastes better, happiness is more profound, and awareness of the world around me is at an apex. Sometimes I daydream and push myself back into the moment and wonder why it is a constant struggle to get there.
If you don’t know what I mean by living in the moment, then you have never had much exciting happening in your life, and it is simply appreciating all the sensations that are happening around you all the time.
Seeing a broader scope of life usually comes from looking at the world outside of yourself. When you worry about the future or entertain regrets about the past, you live in a fantasy world that does not benefit you today.
The past is gone and can’t come back again; tomorrow may never come. All you have is the moment right now. When you enjoy that moment, you will see what I mean. All of the experiences of life are there for you. This, I believe, is living rather than just existing.
Love Not Fear
There are two sides to the coin here love and fear. They are opposite but close together; if you are not careful, one can turn into the other. When you are living, you are experiencing feelings of love. Happiness, kindness, acceptance, or forgiveness come from this emotion. If you are constantly living, it is a fear that has infiltrated your life.
When you are afraid of being hurt, in one way or another, there is no way to live in the moment, or at least it is difficult because, in reality, you would rather be anywhere else than worry about being hurt. Often, what we fear doesn’t even exist, and it is just a possibility.
This usually stems from some self-created thoughts surrounding make-believe circumstances where who or what we love is taken away from us. These fears can manifest into pretty powerful things if you are not careful. The concern we create works to take us out of the moment and away from living the life we are capable of living, leaving us with the ability to exist in fear. When it comes to a choice between love and fear, choose to love.
I believe that it is much better to live than to exist, and we can choose how we experience our lives by what we focus our attention on.
What do you think is the difference between living and existing?
