You walk outside in the middle of the night and look at the ever-expanding sky. See the stars, these little balls of light billions of miles away, their light traveling light years just to twinkle for your eyes.

Then your gaze moves down past the silhouette of trees to your hands. Your hands, mandibles unlike any other creature to roam the earth. The cracks on your skin, your crooked fingers, the freckle that only you are conscious of. You are human. You’re fragile, you’re strong, you’re limited, you’re infinite.

So why does it feel so strange to just exist?

Humans have lasted throughout the years by utilizing their resources and outsmarting other species. However, we have driven ourselves so far from our natural state that it seems uncomfortable to live this way. Our bodies think that we are animals, but we try so hard to tell our minds that we aren’t.

I mean, we share 99 percent of our DNA with chimps. This doesn’t have to do with evolution, it just shows that humans are not separate from the animal kingdom. Yet we walk around in clothes, huddle inside the darkness of our homes and disengage ourselves from reality.

We lack a sense of mindfulness that is naturally found in other animals by simply living. It is natural in us as well, but our lives are constructed to avoid this. To remain preoccupied in the future and past.

We don’t see animals suffering from anxiety and depression at rates similar to humans. A wolf wandering through the forest is most certainly not suffering from FOMO, the fear of missing out.

Humans are using their bodies and minds in unnatural ways.

Something changes you on the inside when you watch a beautiful sunrise. Or when you touch a tree and direct all your focus toward it. It’s purifying. It can relax you and this feeling can last for a very long time. Yet these little moments of purity seem to be rare delicacies rather than consistent events.

Until the invention of electricity, humans were waking up at sunrise and going to sleep once it got dark. It’s natural. Now we’re awake at 2 a.m. scrolling through our phones wondering why we can’t sleep. Little things like this are the reason we’re so uncomfortable.

Get up, go to work/school, microwave your dinner. Repeat until death.

Our bodies are meant to be in tune with the earth. Every form of life is connected. The world flourishes through this circle. Humans are not at the top of this or the main focus. Everything is even and we are simply a part of it.

We’re chemically driven individuals. This is what makes us creatures of habit. Just look at how addicted we get. Go to Starbucks and you can see humans addicted to coffee and their phones. People become addicted to drugs because their body tells itself that it needs it. So when we fail to engage in these natural experiences, we’re messing up the chemicals inside our minds.

We don’t have to be shackled to this way of life. But it does take a conscious effort to break free. Go explore the world for what it is. Explore yourself for who you really are. Don’t let your life go to waste like so many do.

Wander the world. Wonder the possibilities. Simply live naturally.

Sam Rios can be reached at [email protected] or @theeemessiah on Twitter