“The worst burden is to exist without living.”

Victor Hugo

The terms « existing » and « living » are often used while they both pertain to describe the state of being, they describe experiences which are radically different.

Existing.

Existing refers to the mere fact of one’s existence or being present in the world.

We all start in the state of existing, the only difference is that some of us end of their life end-up in the state of existing while a few of us succeed in living, experiencing life to its fullest potential.

Let’s use a comparison to help understand the difference between existing and living. Before we become adult, we have to learn to exist to this world. Depending of the culture we are born, we learn a set of behaviors, we learn the “standard book of knowledge” some of it being very specific to our culture and we start behaving accordindly.  This learning could be compared to a vehicle which is given all the rules and all the possible roads he can drive in the environment he will circulate. He then can safely use all the different roads present in his knowledge books and interact safely with all the other vehicles.

Living:

The first level of living occurs when you start to realize the beliefs and conditioning you have been exposed. Fer me it came when I became exposed to first an anglosaxons culture and then an Asian culture. This made me realize that some of my beliefs, conditioning, habits ware not universal and gave me a chance to free myself from the one I inherited to consciously choose the one which suited me more. Years after this first evolution, I had to face a serious health challenge which I survive by making another evolution: connecting to other forms of intelligence that I had kept before under the sole domination of my rational mind. This was literaly mind blowing. This helped me to realize that the obsession of my brain was not my happiness but its own comfort. The rational mind hates the unknown, it is synonym of danger and will do everuthing to keep us from what it considers its confort zone even if this comfort zone ends up being unconfortable for us. But by learning to harmonize the other forms of intelligence we have been given, we can rebalance its excessive power and learn to take care of our deep aspirations.This is when real fulfilment start. What I would refer as the first level of living. To go back to the vehicule comparison, we do not let the autopilot keep us on the roads it knows. We atke back the control and our vehicule becomes an all-terrain vehicule, we can find now our own roads, the ones we like the most, the ones which give us the highest joy, drive as we like; The autopilot is now off and we have taken back full control. We have gained the full sovereity over our life.

But one more level is still possible over this level of authenticity and soverenity. For me, it occurred at the death of my mother. The signs I have received gave me the personal proof that there was another dimension to our reality. I started to pay more attention to quantum physics and the implication of this new understanding that everything at the quantum level was energy, vibration and information. To interact with this dimension we have to learn new rules and behaviors. I understand that not everybody is willing to do this step but for the ones who are willing to do it, they discover new extraordinary capacities which allow them to shape their destiny. This is now for me the ultimate experience of living

To summarize we either exist or live. When we exist our existence is primary controlled by our learned beliefs and conditioning. We react through learned patterns. The first level of living is to take back the full control, we gain back the sovereignty over our life, the ultimate level is to widening our awareness to the hidden level of our reality for our senses. This awakening allows us to have access to extraordinary powers to shape our destiny. 

Reflective Questions for Self-Assessment: Are We Existing or Living ?

The presence or absence of joy in our life is probably the best indicator to show us if we are living instead of existing

Are you happy to go to your work ? Are your accomplishments at work source of joy  ?

Do you feel really fulfilled in your personal life ?

Do you often feel like magic is happening in your life ?

do you feel like helped by the universe in the realization of your goals ?

A Powerful Reflective Tool from Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs shared during an emotional speech to the new graduates of Stamford University a great daily practice : each morning, when he looked himself in the mirror, he was asking himself this simple question: “if today was the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today”. Whenever the answer was ‘No’ for too many days in a row, he knew he had to change something….

How would you answer his simple but powerful question ? If you look back at the previous weeks, months, years..how many times would you have answered ‘No’  ?

If there are too many ‘No’, if you feel less and less the ‘joy of living’, these are clear indications that it is time for you to change something before it is too late!