People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

It’s fairly common to hear that exercise makes one feel alive. LeBron James has said it. Jane Fonda has said it. That annoying guy at your gym has probably said it. It’s also easy to gloss over such a cliche turn of phrase. If I’m breathing, I must be alive, right? What else would I be? Yet, I sort of know what they are talking about. I know I’m a living, breathing, conscious being, but I also seek aliveness.

So how might exercise help us to feel alive?

More feeling

Exercise wakes you up. Like an ice cold shower or a BOSS Iced Double Espresso (起きてる？), cardio enlivens your senses and places you firmly into your body. Blood circulation and a cocktail of feel-good chemicals help yank us out of our thoughts and back to the physical plane. The trouble is it doesn’t last. With any positive change of chemistry (I’m looking at you, first beer of the night), we can’t help but want more. Running around the block turns into marathon training. Runners high can help to bring you back to reality, but it’s not sticking around for long.

More spontaneity

Exercise can become a platform for finding flow: control of attention that can turn anything from sawing a log to swimming across the British channel into an optimal experience. Ideally, we don’t get distracted and find ourselves totally immersed in the doing. This is spontaneity. This is dancing like no one is watching. This is noticing an hour has passed in what felt like minutes. Unfortunately, we can’t stay concentrated forever. Like endorphins, flow eventually flushes out of our system.

Less fear

Pushing through fear can also make you feel alive. I’ve always felt mildly scared and uncomfortable scuba diving. When I think of diving, I think of disorientation and claustrophobia rather than the stillness and beauty that most people talk about. But when I acknowledged these fears and got back in the water (with sharks), I found myself feeling more in control of my mind and my body.

Some control

Although we can’t expect to stare down new fears every workout, perhaps more control and agency helps us feel alive? Alan Watts suggests that total control is no fun but some control is what we are looking for. Like descending down a mountain or getting into a romantic relationship, “we always love controlling something that’s not really under our control.” Our girlfriend could decide to break up with us. The bike could skid or slip. That’s the game. That’s what makes life scary. But that’s what also makes life feel alive.

Less dead

Our persistent, dogged drive to feel alive may stem from a desperation or concern about death. If someone doesn’t fall in love with us, or invite us to that party, we might just drop off the earth or fade into a fine mist forever. So we exercise to not only feel alive, but in an attempt to clear away all the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that make us feel dead.  Children and dogs never seem to have this problem. Nothing is really impeding their aliveness or concerning them about their life on earth. They don’t feel pressure to prove it. They form a living, breathing example that being alive is a natural, simple fact. Ordinary. And not something we should be trying to game or control. Paradoxically, as soon as we place conditions on aliveness, we’ve lost it.