**As a belated 2015 New Years Resolution, I decided I would write a daily (or, almost daily, I know some days I just won’t be able to find the time) blog answering a thought provoking question from a long list of questions I found here in a quest of self exploration.
Today’s Chosen Question :
What is the difference between living and existing?
If you are on your death bed and you have millions of “what ifs” and “I should have”s in your mind, you did not live, you only existed. Living, to me, is embracing everything in you that makes you YOU and fighting against the brainwashing we were raised with about how we should live life (both from society in general, and from whatever values our immediate family has.) I am not saying fight against values for the sake of fighting against values, but question everything. Questioning everything has one of two results and both are positive. Either by questioning, you are going to find out that a belief you were taught might not align with what you really feel, OR you will feel even more resolved in your initial belief because you have challenged it and accepted that there are other possibilities and other viewpoints than your own.
I can’t say I have NO regrets, but I try to take chances. Sometimes I crash and burn because of those chances and sometimes I get down about how things turned out, but if I hadn’t taken those chances, I would be living with what ifs and those are worse than taking a chances that turned out badly – because at least you had that experience, at least you learned that lesson.
Its so incredibly important to know who you are and to embrace who you are, its so important to spend time on your passions, tell people you love that you love them, as cliche as it sounds, live each day as if it were your last, and that doesn’t mean skydive every day but just pay attention to how you treat people, own your mistakes starting with owning them to yourself and working up to owning them to others, don’t let people put you down or hurt you because anyone who is putting you down is only doing so to feel better about themselves and that is not your problem. Embracing who you are, every day, is the essence of LIVING.
Kell Frillman - Author 