This contribution continues my exploration of the experience of a fulfilled life, or a life worth living. Here, I would like to explain in more detail why consciousness plays a central role in this, and why caring for our consciousness—or conscious intelligence—should be a top human priority.
Following a lifetime of empirical research into the relationship between the body and the nervous system, Antonio and Hanna Damasio demonstrate how consciousness emerges from the regulation of life through homeostatic sensations. Consciousness is the connection between life and the mind (Damasio, 2026).
This is remarkable because the disconnection of the human mind from life has deep historical roots in our culture and continues unabated. This is the strange order of the modern world. It seems to me that a fulfilled life cannot arise from this ancient wound of disconnection between life, the mind, and consciousness.
When Life Feels Itself
What strikes me particularly about Antonio and Hanna Damasio’s work is that they do not describe consciousness as something that hovers above life, but rather as something that emerges from it. Consciousness does not appear first and then accompany life. Rather, life itself begins to feel itself (Damasio A. & Damasio H., 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024).
Homeostasis, or the continuous regulation of the organism, provides the basis for existential feelings, which then act as a bridge between body and mind.
From this perspective, the idea that a fulfilling life cannot be achieved through the separation of mind and life takes on profound significance. If consciousness is rooted in life, then alienation from life becomes more than just a cultural or psychological issue. Instead, straying from our living selves undermines our very sense of fulfillment.
When the Mind Disconnects
Modern humans have gained unprecedented control over the world. However, they have also lost much of their direct participation in life. We no longer view nature as our home. We analyze and conceptualize our feelings more than we experience them directly. We categorize and polarize our human relationships more than we are present in them.
Perhaps our ancient wound lies in a gradual shift of our attention away from the living processes that sustain us, rather than in a lack of knowledge.
If that is true, then this statement becomes surprisingly sharp: A fulfilled life cannot arise from the disconnection of life and mind. This seems like a homeostatic truth. An organism cannot sustainably regulate itself when it no longer perceives the signals of its own condition. At the individual level, this leads to disconnection. Collectively, we see the same dynamic at work in burnout, polarization, ecological destruction, and the relentless acceleration of economies that absorb all our attention.
When Consciousness Takes Care of Itself
That is why I propose the following: Consciousness should be at the top of the human agenda. More precisely, we should foster the conditions from which consciousness can flourish. After all, we cannot directly create consciousness itself. However, we can foster circumstances that support consciousness, such as meaningful relationships, connection with nature, peace and tolerance, physical presence, beauty, intergenerational care, and rituals that remind us of our place in the greater tapestry of life.
In those moments, consciousness does not seem to grow through more thinking, but through a deeper participation in life itself. Perhaps that is the deepest lesson we can learn from Damasio’s empirical research. Consciousness is not merely the crown of life. It is the way in which life experiences, safeguards, and directs itself.
How Do We Protect Our Consciousness?
If that’s true, then perhaps the 21st century’s primary question isn’t: How do we create smarter systems? Rather, it is: How do we protect our ability to experience life?
This is a psychological, cultural, ethical, and perhaps even evolutionary challenge. A society that loses touch with the sources of its consciousness ultimately risks losing its humanity.
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If consciousness arises from the connection between our body’s life-regulating functions and our mind, then forgetting or neglecting that relationship is the deepest form of self-sabotage.
When we look at world news, this is what we see every day. What kind of decisions does a leader make who neglects this connection? What agenda does a society have when it speaks in the name of a dogma or ideology detached from life?
And What If Intelligence Without Consciousness Takes Over?
Human culture has evolved over millennia through the regulation of life. Can intelligence, lacking sufficient awareness of life, begin to undermine itself? This is the question of our time. Cultivating awareness does not require an investment fund.
It begins each time anew with a simple act of paying attention to the life already present within us: Consider the heart that never stops beating in our chest, the pulsations of our bloodstream, and the ceaseless movement of our lungs. The quality of the flow of water and oxygen in nature is the foundation of this living body. If our mind neglects or loses its connection to life, life cannot be fulfilling.
This makes cultivating awareness the most democratic and perhaps the most revolutionary human practice. It is a nonviolent revolution that can silently change everything. This is perhaps why the cultivation of awareness should be at the top of the human agenda, as a gift to the evolution of life. This transformation creates a new evolutionary possibility: life can survive and participate in its own fulfillment. This is the gift of our conscious intelligence: It is the key to a healthy mind and a fulfilled life (De Vleeschauwer, 2026).