What is your bliss? For me, there’s a big difference between bliss and happiness. I know the things that make me feel contented and happy: seeing my daughter and husband laugh, watching my dogs play, cooking a recipe I love, shopping for shoes when I’ve got money to spare! Happiness is fleeting – it comes and goes like the tide. But Bliss is different, it is something deep down inside – a feeling that I experience when I’m either lost in doing something I’m passionate about, or when I’m meditating and manage to transcend my crazy monkey mind.
Bliss is permanent. I believe that it’s always there for me to dip into. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to access – actually far from it. If it was that easy, there wouldn’t be so much addiction in the world – people chasing after whatever it is out there that they think will bring them this incredible feeling of “bliss”.
The great American Mystic, Joseph Campbell said the the secret to life was to “Follow Your Bliss.” But how exactly are we supposed to do that? I believe that trying, or striving to find happiness or “bliss” is the surest way not to find it. When I am concerned with finding ways that I can make Sophie happy, I can be pretty sure that I won’t be. This is because I’m living in future, not the present, and it’s also because I’m concerning myself with “little me” rather than the Divine/Spirit/God (or whatever you want to call that miraculous intelligence that is greater than your limited thoughts.)
The surest path to finding Bliss, is acceptance of “what is” right now, in this very moment. If I can put aside my selfish needs and desires, if I can soften into the fullness of the present, if I can find beauty in my life in this very moment, then I have a chance of experiencing Bliss. So, “following my bliss,” would in it’s simplest form, be following my breath. By focusing and becoming hyper aware of my breathing – by following each inhale and each exhale (and even the pause in between,) I can begin to slow down my thoughts – and it’s ironically my thoughts, which take me away from Bliss.
“Don’t ask so much what the world needs.
Go out and do what makes you come alive,
because what the world needs most
are people who have come alive.”
– Howard Thurman
The things that make me feel alive, are indeed, the things that bring me bliss. Can you remember the last time that you truly felt ALIVE? Our fast-paced, techno lives do not help us to feel alive. Our many gadgets and gizmos may help us to communicate more quickly, and to get more things done, but they don’t necessarily help us to live in harmony with the Divine. This is what’s so sad about our crazy lives.
So, this week, let’s ponder on what makes us feel really alive. For me…hmmm – let me think? Hiking up in the snowy mountains with 5 families and dogs over the New Year, and looking down into a white fairyland below us – I felt pretty alive that day. Laughing with my BFF on a beach road trip in the UK last summer the wind in our hair, and laughing because we love each other for all of our weaknesses and faults, and she is someone that I can just totally “be” with. Riding bikes across the Santa Monica beach with my beautiful husband on a icy, but brilliant morning a few weeks ago, holding hands and feeling the sun warming our backs. Come to think about it, it’s communion with certain people, and nature that makes me feel really alive.
Mr Campbell also believes that if you: “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
This is so true for me because when I am living in struggle or scarcity/fear, the harder I try, I just get more scarcity, fear, and hardship. This is because whatever I put my attention on, increases. When I am following my bliss, I am trusting the Divine, and thus opening up to receive the goodies. It’s scary to follow my bliss in this way, because it feels like I’m not in control. However, when I get out of the driving seat and stop pushing, God can do for me, what I absolutely cannot do for myself.
What about you? Are you following your bliss? When is the last time that you felt truly alive?
