It doesn’t feel like I am alive (9 Tips to feel better)

In this article, we will try to understand what does it mean when someone says “it doesn’t feel I am alive”. We also look at a few tips on how to feel alive again. 

How to deal with the feeling of ‘it doesn’t feel like I’m alive anymore’

If you feel like you don’t want to live anymore. Here are a few things you can do to make yourself feel better. 

• Sit and breathe for a while: You must try to relieve your stress. There is no better way than practicing relaxation. Find yourself a peaceful place among nature. Sit down and try to look at the beauty around you while you take deep breaths. Inhale and exhale. Do this until you feel better. This does not make your problems vanish but gives you the strength and courage to face them. 
• Do one thing that you love: Some people love running, others love painting. Do whatever that makes you happy. Something that makes your heart race. If I were to choose something, I would choose climbing mountains. The rush to reach the peak before sunsets, the beautiful road that leads to the destination, all make me feel happy. Every journey teaches me one new thing in life. 
• Push yourself to do something instead of wondering what is happening to me, I agree it is easier said than done, but if not you who will push yourself? Like to make music – make it, like to dance- do it, like to read – do it. But make sure you do something that is dear to your heart and brings you joy. 
• Challenge yourself: life does become very mundane and boring. in such situations, give yourself a reason to get excited, and energized. Do not let your life slip away from your hand.challenge yourself by learning something new, take part in a new project, make some new friends. It is not easy to challenge yourself, but it does bring a sense of joy and energy to it. It adds extra meaning to your life. 
• Go for an adventure: adventure does not mean you have to always go to a different country or a continent. Find out about new places in your surroundings. Go for a hike. Go to adventure sports. Go to a museum. Take a ride alone by the lake. Give yourself the adrenaline rush.

If possible, take a small break from your life and go to a different place for a visit. Go on a solo trip. Survive come what may, just like Julia Roberts does in the movie- Eat, Pray, Love. 

• Do not let your fear control yourself: before starting anything new, do not think what if I fail or what if I cannot do it. This is counterproductive. If you think that you are going to fail, you will never be able to take the first step. 

Getting hold of your fear is not an easy task. You need to start with baby steps. Choose small things to do first, gain some confidence. Challenge yourself for bigger things slowly and then go on huge adventures. Take one step at a time. This slowly turns into one hour at a time to one day at a time and so on. 

You will learn to survive. You will start to live, love, and laugh again. Always find time for things that make you feel happy to be alive.

Although it is very important to keep in mind that, even after trying to do these things, or if you are unable to do these things. You should visit a professional. Do not be ashamed of your feelings. A therapist might be able to guide you in ways that your friends and family can’t. 

In addition to a counseling session, join self-help/ support groups. This will help you to a great extent. Finding people who feel exactly like you will make you realize that you are not alone. You can make new friends and share with them what you feel that you think no one else will understand. This will also help you learn more about how you can deal with your situation. 

It doesn’t feel I am alive

We all have low days. Days where we do not feel like doing anything. Those are the days we want to just lie in our beds and binge watch Netflix. 

But when such days turn into weeks and weeks into months, we start to realize that something is wrong with us. 

The thought that it doesn’t feel I am alive passes through our minds, leaving our hearts sore. 

When a person wakes up one morning and thinks that he doesn’t feel alive, he is crumbled by his stress and emotions. The person feels numb about everything. They feel mundane and uneventful. This is not mere sadness. It is above it, the person does not feel anything. He loses the ability to feel anything. It is like his heart and minds have shut the gates of emotions. 

It also becomes extremely difficult for the person to communicate. They stop celebrating life and what life has to offer to them. 

When a person says It doesn’t feel I am alive, he does not mean that he cannot breathe or his body is giving up. It means the mere opposite. It means that the person’s life is going on, but they have no control over it. Their own life is like a movie to them. something that is just playing on its own, without a pause button.  Most of the time they are not aware of what is happening to them. It is not like they do not engage in physical activities, yet the thought that it doesn’t feel like I am alive crosses their minds. 

The sun no longer feels warmer, the grass is not green, the food is not tasty. They are unable to see the beauty in small things as well as life. 

For people feeling this way, life is a graveyard, and they are a walking corpse. 

Natasha Koo, a career coach and co-founder of Intolign shares her experience of the days she did not feel alive. 

Natasha says “I, too, once questioned my life. I questioned it from every aspect-  my job, family, friends, and my whole situation. I would wonder: is this it? Is this all there is to life?

At the time, it felt like I was ungrateful for my job, for the great life that I had. But the feeling within me when I went home from work, day in and day out, disagreed. Something was wrong. Something was so off that I found myself biking for hours after work or going for two-hour-long yoga sessions just to shake the day off. To feel something other than the mundane tasks that would endlessly display itself on my computer screen.

When it came to relationships. It seemed like I had great friends, the family who supported me. But there were times where I questioned if we would truly be friends if we didn’t share the same job.

It was tough to see my life laid out with all the perfect bricks that I was told to achieve. I got them, but then what? Seriously, what was there other than the repetitive days, weeks, and years that would go by. 

I didn’t feel alive anymore.”

One can only imagine the pain people like Natasha go through. When we listen to such stories our heartbreaks and we wish that such a situation does not fall upon us ever.

To those who are facing such a situation you need to remember “Little by little, day by day what is meant for you will find its way”

Can this be classified as a mental disorder? 

The idea that you do not feel alive, you start questioning the reality of your existence, is sometimes known as Cotard Delusion. 

Cotard Delusion is a rare disorder,  marked by the false belief that you or your body parts are dead, dying, or don’t exist. The main symptom of Cotard delusion is nihilism. Nihilism refers to the belief that nothing has any value or meaning. They also feel that nothing really exists, questioning the reality of every aspect of their life. 

Cotard delusion is seen to have high comorbidity with depression. Apart from depression as the symptoms, the person also experiences anxiety, hallucinations, guilt, and self-harm or death.  

Conclusion 

In this article, we will have tried to understand what does it mean when someone says “it doesn’t feel I am alive”. We also looked at a few tips on how to feel alive again. 

FAQs: It doesn’t feel I am alive

References 

How I Started To Feel Alive Again

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-be-true-to-your-self-when-life-doesnt-feel-like-you-anymore/

https://medium.com/@connieho182/5-ways-to-feel-alive-when-youre-not-okay-21e1f297fd7b