How to wake yourself up to the miracle of being alive.
“If we only saw the world for a day, we would weep with joy and awe.” (Life Savor)
Most of us aren’t dead. But sometimes we don’t feel fully alive either.
We go through our days dulled by routine, lulled by sameness, anesthetized by the narcotic of familiarity.
The gift of life—this once-in-eternity chance to exist—becomes something we sleepwalk through.
The good news? Numbness is not permanent. It can be interrupted. It can be shaken off. You can step back into your life with fresh eyes and a sense of wonder.
Here are some tools for doing exactly that.
1. Mortality Awareness
Mortality awareness isn’t morbid—it’s clarifying.
When you remember that you will die (and that billions of possible beings never even got the chance to be born), it reframes everything. That boring commute? It becomes one more day of bonus time. That simple meal? A chance that billions of atoms never got.
You don’t need a near-death experience to access this. You just need to pause and tell yourself: This is not practice. This is the only round I get.
Suddenly, even ordinary moments hum with significance.
2. Borrowed Eyes
Imagine for a moment you could only see the world for a single day. How would you look at it?
Or imagine you could borrow the eyes of someone who has just come back from blindness. What would you notice?
The cracks in the sidewalk. The shape of clouds. The way sunlight hits the rim of a coffee mug.
This isn’t a game. It’s an experiment in attention. By deliberately imagining borrowed eyes, you loosen the anesthetic grip of familiarity. You remember that nothing in your line of sight is guaranteed or permanent.
3. Gratitude as Disruption
Gratitude is not just a feeling—it’s a tool.
When you name things you’re grateful for, you interrupt the cycle of numbness. You pull your focus away from what’s missing and place it on what’s present.
Try this: make a quick gratitude list right now. Five things. Don’t overthink. Just write.
- That breath you just took.
- The light coming through the window.
- The fact that you can read.
- The voice of someone you love.
- The fact you are alive, period.
See how quickly numbness loosens? Gratitude is like a crowbar for awareness.
4. Micro-Adventures
Sometimes numbness sets in because we’re too comfortable. The same route to work. The same grocery aisle. The same chair at the same time of day.
Shake it up. Take a different road. Eat a food you’ve never tried. Talk to someone outside your bubble.
Adventure doesn’t have to mean mountain climbing. It can be as small as saying yes to something that nudges you out of autopilot. Every small disruption is a reminder: life is not locked down yet.
5. Meditation: Practicing Awareness Without Carrots
Meditation can feel boring. That’s the point.
When you sit and focus on your breath, a word, or even a candle flame, your brain gets twitchy. It misses the dopamine drip of constant stimulation. But if you stay with it, something subtle happens: you realize you don’t need endless novelty to be okay.
You can just be.
This is radical in a culture addicted to noise and goals. Meditation proves you can be awake to life without chasing constant “rewards.” That realization itself is a tool against numbness.
6. Soul Therapy
Soul therapy is my shorthand for whatever fills you back up.
It’s not about achievement or even productivity. It’s about immersion in beauty, connection, or play.
- A walk in a thunderstorm.
- A concert that vibrates in your chest.
- A hot bath that melts your defenses.
- Petting a dog.
- Reading a novel that carries you elsewhere.
Soul therapy reminds you that life is not just about managing expectations and chasing goals. It’s about being filled. Without that, numbness creeps in. With it, numbness dissolves.
7. Mortality Practice (Again)
This one deserves a second mention. Because numbness isn’t just about boredom—it’s about forgetting what’s at stake.
When you remember death, you remember urgency. You remember the absurd gift of being alive at all. You remember that this moment is not guaranteed or permanent—and that makes it infinitely more precious.
Mortality practice is not grim. It’s gratitude in disguise.
Living Awake Is a Habit
Numbness is easy. It happens automatically. Living awake requires intention. It requires building habits of awareness, gratitude, and perspective into your life.
But the payoff is enormous: the anesthetic wears off, and the aesthetic returns. You begin to experience life not as a blur of tasks, but as a symphony. Not as a series of boxes to check, but as a feast to savor.
And here’s the best part: you don’t need to wait. Every tool on this list can be practiced today, with whatever time you have. Even a few seconds of borrowed eyes, a five-item gratitude list, or a moment of soul therapy can shake you awake.
Closing Reflection
Life doesn’t owe you more days. But you owe it to yourself to be awake for the ones you get.
Shake off the numbness. Borrow new eyes. Treat your breath as bonus time. Let gratitude, soul therapy, and mortality awareness do their work.
Because existence itself is a miracle. Don’t sleep through it.
