The Top 21: What Makes You Feel Alive?

Have you ever stopped to think about what fills you up with happiness, joy, and gratitude? What makes your veins pump with excitement and liveliness?

Awhile ago, my dear friend Alisa contacted myself and others, confessing that her impending birthday had her wondering and reflecting on what inspired her or what made her feel fully alive. I haven’t known Alisa for a terribly long time, but she comes from a group of beautifully strong women whom I have connected with and deeply admire, trust, and draw inspiration from. And of course, as such women do in your life, she engaged me in the thoughtful process she was personally going through by asking these same questions of me.

For each of us, there are things in life that just make us feel ALIVE. You know what I'm talking about. You know the feeling - the one that lets you know you're right where you're supposed to be.

Life brings us to many pivotal points that cause us to pause and think about where we're at on this one wild journey. But if you're lucky enough, you may have special people in your life that invite you in and usher you confidently, hand-in-hand, towards these pivotal life points all in an effort to help you be a better "you" right along with them. Regardless of if you get there yourself or with the nudge of someone else, we all approach these pivotal points from different perspectives. Perhaps it's from a parenting perspective, a career perspective, an individual growth perspective, an adventure perspective...you name it, we've all been there. It's that moment that causes you to stop and think, "is this where I imagined I'd be?"

For myself and my little family, recent decisions to relocate, homeschool, shift career goals, etc. have forced the Hubs and I to make "reevaluating" our lives a constant state of normal. And even though there's a lot of energy, effort and work that goes into this intentional way, I'm grateful for it. This approach causes us to be really thoughtful about how we spend our time together (or apart). It forces us to think about what kind of experiences we want our children to have as they grow up as an integral and contributing part of our family and society. Furthermore, it's my hope that such efforts encourage our boys to understand the value in living an intentional, thoughtful, purposeful life that makes them feel ALIVE and inspired as they move forward on their own unique and individual life journeys.

So, when Alisa's email went on to state the following, I was all in:

"A birthday with a zero at the end of it sounds like as good a time as any to ask questions about what things are uplifting and fulfilling in times that feel overwhelming, and also to ask a small favor of you. Would you please send me a photo of something that makes you feel fully alive? It could be a moment, a person, a place, a band, a certain tree. Don't think too much. Just snap the picture or find it in your archives and please send it my way. And of course, you can send more than one if you like..."

Game on!

As you can imagine, I had plans to be really honest with her, as well as with myself, about what DID make me feel alive. I knew right away that just one photo wasn't going to do it for me. I started scrawling through my archives and selected those that resonated with me in a deep and connecting way. Thankfully, and with gratitude, so many of my photos resonated with this message of feeling alive and inspired. So many. And Alisa got them all.

If you're interested (which if you've made it this far, I'm sure you are), now you'll get them all too! Below are the images I selected and why. Hopefully some of them resonate with your heart as well...

SIMPLICITY. Bare bones living really fills me to the brim with gratitude and reminds me that we don't need much to fill us up. In fact, the less stuff, perhaps the more full?

HIKING & EXPLORING. And specifically, as shown in the below photo, with other women alongside me. It makes me feel like we're walking this journey of life together as women. Because we are.

FOOD FROM THE EARTH. Whether it's apples from an apple tree or fresh lettuce from the garden, when something from the Earth nourishes my body, I feel more alive than ever. To me, the connection to a bigger circle of life feels undeniable when consuming real food from the Earth.

MOTHERHOOD. Breastfeeding. Growing my family and raising my children. Hardest f#!%ing work of my life, yet also the most rewarding. To me, it is the rawest and realest reminder to me of what it truly means to be HUMAN. The experience of motherhood encompasses it all. (Photo cred: Meghan Pate Photography)

NATURE. Nature, nature and more nature! Mother Nature is amazeballs. Simply put, I'm a new woman when I get my nature time.

YOGA. Specifically "stop, drop and yoga." And outside is even better! How can breath and movement and fresh air NOT make you feel fully alive?! RIGHT?

AGE-OLD WORK. Tapping into the work around us which is no longer work. In this photo, I'm washing my own clothes. Scrubbing. I can't say I would love to do this all the time, but there's something about the gentle reminder of how our world USED to be for our ancestors that makes me feel alive and full and connected across time.

MY WOMEN'S CIRCLE. The beautiful, intelligent and caring women in my life are IT. Nothing fills me up more then spending time with them. Nothing. It's the hugest gift. It makes me feel so amazingly full and grateful. The feeling of community and belonging will do that.

WOOD STOVES. (But, really, simplicity again). Man. Wood stoves make my heart pitter patter. The smell. The sound. The look. And making homemade soup on top of the wood stove makes me feel AMAZING! I LOVE IT!

BEING ACTIVE. Keeping my body moving and able. That makes me feel for alive. No doubt. I have my ups and downs...but I feel my best and most alive when I'm enjoying life in an active way. Mostly because being active enables me to access other elements of life that also make me feel alive and well (like yoga, nature, hiking, etc.)

BEING OUTDOORS WITH MY FAMILY. Introducing my children to the Great Outdoors and seeing them learn to love and respect it as much as I have learned to. Nothing better.

LAUGHING. A lot. Hysterical, almost crying laughing. Like, laughing-until-you-feel-like-you're-going-to-puke laughing. Being silly. All of it. My favorite.

THE MOUNTAINS. Enough said. I will end up the mountains someday. Someday.

LOVE. Exploring the world and walking this journey of life with the Hubs by my side makes me feel so lucky to be alive with HIM. I'm grateful for our love. I'm grateful to have a "love of my life." It's not always peaches and cream, but we're committed to doing it together,

side-by-side, and that feels full in my heart.

EXPERIENCING CHILDHOOD AGAIN. I love watching my children experience the little things that bring so much joy. These are the things that are the building blocks of what childhood is. I love seeing it again through their eyes. What a gift.

ADVENTURE. Hiking, playing, splashing, being a kid again, yoga, breath, fresh air, mountains, trees, exploring, so much more. All of it!

THE LITTLE THINGS. If you stop and look, you catch wonders all around. It's an opportunity to feel fully alive, always. You just have to be open to receiving what's there.

LIVE MUSIC. It moves you. One way or another. No matter what.

BEING A WITNESS. Witnessing the arrival of a fresh new soul Earthside through the transition of birth. Witnessing the lives of my beloved elders and holding the space as they share their stories of old. And witnessing the moments before a soul leaves this Earth. You can't help but feel fully alive with the gift of being by someone's side as they enter into or leave this Earthly life. Seeing someone's beginning or someone's end is such an honor.

MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS. Watching those who mean something to me share their perspectives and discoveries of the world with my children. Brings an unfathomable joy to my heart.

KYAKING. So fully alive! Nature. The beauty. The stillness. The sounds of water, air, and life around you. Yum.

There you have it folks. Now we know each other a little bit better. I hope you feel inspired to think about the things in YOUR life that bring you joy, inspiration, and the feeling of being fulling and wholly alive. Because it's there.

Through this process, I realized that "feeling fully alive" is equivalent, in my eyes, to "feeling huge amounts of gratitude". And frankly, feeling alive is, at the most basic level, what LIFE is all about, right?! If in this lifetime, you can't feel ALIVE and inspired and whole by the simplest things around you, then what's the point? There is so much beauty that this life holds. We ALL owe it to ourselves to do the work, to go through the muck as needed and to be honest with ourselves about the process.

You may not have 21 things, but even ONE can bring a sense of thankfulness to your heart. Like Alisa said in her original email, it could be a moment, a person, a place, a band, a certain tree...anything! Don't think too much. Just identify what it is. And then infuse it in your life. Make it a part of your every day. Just simply make it happen. Because it's worth it to feel fully and wholly ALIVE. It's such a gift.

And you deserve it. We all do.

#Holdingspace #Alive #Family #Outdoors #Gratitude #Explore #Nature #intention #simplethings