Today we continue with the series of posts on Aliveness Theory by regular guest columnist, Dale Swinburne.
Through his life, Chip Anderson, defined Aliveness as an effervescent state of being, full of life and fully alive. It is characterized by joy, enthusiasm, inspiration, growth, and development. Sadly, though we don’t always find ourselves in that state of being. And, even if we can’t admit that for ourselves, we surely can point to the people around us who surely don’t experience life in that way. There are two other levels of living that Chip also defined – Mere Existence and Deadness.
Mere Existence, Chip defined as going along with life, just moving based on inertia. It is characterized by feeling trapped, lethargic, apathetic, and habitual. Very often we and the people around us are plodding through our lives with just this perspective.
Deadness is defined as having no reason for living or very near to that state. Characterized by pessimism, discouragement, depression, despair, and hopelessness.
Here is an exercise you can do. On a piece of paper draw a horizontal line. Let the left end of the line represent your birth and the right end of the line represent the present. Now chart your level of living throughout your life. If, at a certain point in your life, say, for example, your high school graduation, you felt fully alive than make a dot above the line. If you felt like you were merely existing you would make a dot on the line. If, at that time, you felt complete deadness mark a dot below the line. Using the horizontal line as a time line chart the remarkable times in your life and represent either above, on, or below the line based on your level of living at that time. You can label each point with the event and or time of your life that it represents. Now starting at the left connect the dots. What you will have created is a chronological graph that displays the ups and downs in your life.
Many of us will be surprised at the amount of time we spent living at or below the line. How much time have we spent dead or merely existing?
All the while, though, we have an inner desire to be fully alive. Chip called this the Alive Drive. We have an innate desire to have meaning and purpose, to be competent and feel confident. A desire to be vibrant, healthy, and whole. We want to freely give and receive love and experience worth. All these are characteristics of Aliveness. Life, however, doesn’t always go our way and feelings of aliveness can give way to lesser levels of living.
In my next post we’ll discuss Chip’s description of the things in life that rob us of truly high levels of living and threaten to bring us down, below the line. Armed with that knowledge not only will we learn the path to Aliveness for ourselves we will learn about the incredibly vital role that we can play in the lives of others.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great stuff Dale. So important to watch what is going on so we don’t spend time mourning lost time. As I thought about the graph and the different points, I realised that this also tells me a lot about where life comes from (and where deadness comes from). I noticed that distraction leads to deadness and awareness relates to aliveness, for example. I also noticed the powerful role of relationships, both divine and human.
Thanks for stimulating this reflection and stimulation. Up with aliveness and down with deadness!
Rob,
Insightful comment! As we unpack this theory of Chip’s, you will see how incredibly important relationships are to this equation. That is a power we experience but also a power we wield.