What if You're Not Burnt Out — Just Under-Alive?
Why so many of us feel flat, even when life looks fine on paper.
“I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive.” — Joseph Campbell
For the past few years, I’ve been circling a single question: What does it really mean to feel alive?
At first, it was personal. Despite being healthy, accomplished, and “doing all the right things,” I felt… flat. Uninspired. Like something essential had quietly slipped away. I wasn’t willing to accept that this was just part of getting older or being a grown-up. I wanted to feel passionate again. I wanted to feel awake in my own life.
As I started talking to others, I realized I wasn’t alone. So many people today aren’t actually burnt out in the traditional sense. They’re not overwhelmed by too much — they’re quietly eroded by too little that feels meaningful. We go through the motions. We stop asking what we truly care about. Life becomes grayscale.
But I also started noticing something else: not everyone was living this way. Some people still felt lit up — curious, driven, alive. I wanted to understand what made them different.
So I launched this Substack and began interviewing one of the world’s most passionate people every week for a year. Nearly 80 interviews later — artists, athletes, psychologists, scientists, obsessives, seekers — I started to notice something surprising.
Despite their wildly different paths, many of them shared similar inner worlds: a sense of purpose, deep curiosity, and a devotion to something bigger than themselves. As I listened, a bigger picture began to form.
There’s a science to passion. There are patterns to aliveness. And while we now have a name for this in-between state — languishing — we still don’t have great, tangible solutions for how to move through it.
One quote that’s stayed with me for years comes from Joseph Campbell, who said, “We’re not so much seeking the meaning of life as we are the experience of being alive.”
I think that’s what we’ve lost sight of — and what so many of us are hungry to reclaim.
Because while therapy, wellness tools, and mental health support are essential, I believe the deeper answer lies in learning how to burn brighter. How to live with fire—not for productivity, not even for happiness, but for that raw, vital sense of aliveness that makes life worth showing up for.
So I’m building something around this. It’s called the Human Aliveness Lab.
It’s early days, but it’s already unfolding in powerful and surprising ways: a research study inspired by Abraham Maslow. An immersive event designed to help people reconnect with their spark. A pilot program for organizations ready to reawaken meaning at work. And a whole ecosystem of ideas, tools, and stories to help more of us live fully, not flatly.
I’ll still be writing here about what I’m learning. But if you want to be part of this in a deeper way, you can stay subscribed (thank you), become a paid subscriber to help fuel the mission, or fill out this short form if you’d like to collaborate, connect, or bring this work to your world.
Aliveness is contagious. Let’s spark something.
With fire,
Krista
P.S. If this speaks to you, becoming a paid subscriber helps directly support this work — and everything that’s coming next.
I’m intrigued.