English Social Sciences Psychology

Hi,
first of all: Happy New Year!

I have a doubt about the meaning of “new” in the phrase “a new sense of being real and alive” in the passage below, which describes the experience of a man, Zachary, with a meditation practice called The Wheel of Awareness, which changed his life.

I'm not sure whether "new" refers to the fact that
1) Zachary didn't feel "real and alive" before or
2) Zachary feels real and alive in a new way.

The text also says “I now have a sense of being alive that I’d like to share with others”…
Thank you very much for your help!

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Zachary told me that the experience of the Wheel at the first workshop had opened his mind to a new way of experiencing meaning in his life, helping him feel a richer connection to himself, to others, and to the larger world around him. He told us at the lunch about his experience with focusing the spoke of attention on the hub of awareness in the more advanced Wheel practice. He said that when he had first “bent the spoke of attention around and back into the hub, the sense of being wide open and filled with joy and love” gave him *** a new sense of being “real and alive,” *** an experience that came to change his life and the direction of his professional and personal path. It was, he said, what had been missing that he could never quite name—a sense of meaning, purpose, and connection. Zachary added, *** “I now have a sense of being alive that I’d like to learn how to share with others ***, not just keep to myself.” He said that he was even considering becoming a minister in his faith or a mental health practitioner.