Do You Recognize & Follow Your Bliss?
How To Recognize, Find, & Experience It ...
You have probably heard of the idea of bliss. But what is it? How do you find and experience it? And how do you start following it?
Well, it all starts with knowing what you are looking for.
What is Bliss?
When people think of bliss, often they associate it with the place where they experience it most ...a spa, wedding, beautiful garden or sublime restaurant. Or they think of a movie or song that is named for and explores what it is.
But that doesn't help you much if you want to follow it. Instead, the place to start when dealing with any Word is where it comes from and what it really means (in the olde country it came from).
Bliss comes from an English word meaning lighthearted and joyful ... and is related to a Sanskrit word (ananda) that translates roughly as "supreme happiness". Ananda means incredible joy, extreme happiness, being in a state of spiritual ecstasy or feeling in harmony and at peace with the entire Universe. (The last sounds a bit like the Tao, doesn't it?)
Some of the world's most profound thinkers have shared their insights about bliss ... and Joseph Campbell reintroduced it to the World ...
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls. - Joseph Campbell
A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips.
- Lord Alfred Tennyson
How To Recognize Sweet Bliss
Because bliss is such a personal experience, and rare for most of us ... it can be hard to recognize ... at first. But the way you feel when you are in your bliss, or having a blissful moment, is easy to describe ...
- your feel at one with the world, as if everything is in its rightful place and all interconnected
- you feel totally alive, as if your body is resonating at a slightly higher frequency
- you eyes light up and you feel like you could spend hours talking about the subjects you love
- you see things more clearly, as if a mist has cleared or a fog has lifted and now you can see more clearly or deeply understand
- you feel totally at home within your own skin and so comfortable within yourself that the ideas of who you are fade
- time ceases to exist or the way you experience changes ... it goes by very fast or very slow
- you find yourself surrounded by kindred spirits who are passionate about the same things you are
- you have deep, insightful discussions with people you have known only a few minutes
- you experience leaps of insight and a profound understanding of concepts and ideas that go beyond words
- you find yourself creating at an extraordinary level far beyond your typical abilities
- worlds of ideas and knowledge that you never knew existed open up to you
- the world becomes a place where synchronicities start to make sense and form a subtle path pointing you to the things you need to discover
- you feel the touch of unseen hands guiding you
- you feel like a light deep inside of you has been turned on
- it feels a bit like Christmas morning, making you want to jump out of bed and see what the day holds
So, now that you have a few ideas of what it feels like to experience bliss, are you ready to go find it?
How To Find Bliss ...
Once you have experienced a blissful moment, you want more. And if you want more than just the rare and random occurrence -- you have to find out what creates the experience of supreme happiness for you. Not just the random occurrence, but a reliable and repeatable experience.
To do that, you need to know all the things that make you feel supremely happy. What you need, in fact, is your own personal recipe for bliss.
If you create a life filled with these eight ingredients, you will have made a life that you would be thrilled to live ... a life filled with bliss, happiness and joy ... every moment spent surrounded by the things, people and places you love ... where you get to do the activities and have the experiences which make you incredibly happy.
That, my friends, is living your bliss!
Experiencing More Bliss
So to experience more bliss in your life, on a regular basis, bring more bliss into your life, one ingredient at a time. Then, before you know it, you are building a life full of your personal bliss ingredients.
Some people start by collecting and surrounding themselves with the things they love. Others by spending more of their weekends and time off doing what they love. But remember ... bliss comes in many forms. So choose to live and work in places that makes you feel inspired. Start mingling with the types of people you love to be around ... and see if you can get paid well while you are doing it.
All of that works for bringing more bliss into your everyday world. But for peak moments of bliss, start once a week having an experience that puts you into a blissful state ... whether that is rocking a baby to sleep, jumping out of an airplane or winning at a hand of poker. Do more of what you love .... more of makes your heart beat with excitement ... more of what takes your breath away.
Following & Living Your Bliss
To permanently bring bliss into your life, you want to start living it by following your bliss where it leads. Often that is where the heart and your intuition take over ... and following your passion becomes the way you organize your day.
Following your bliss isn't always easy, especially in a culture that values the life goal of being successful more. But it is not only possible, but doable.
One of the best and simplest ways I have found for following your bliss is discovering the life calling that puts you to work solving the problems, championing the issues and meeting the needs that you love. The work that calls you, inspires you, turns you into a passionate advocate ... is Great Work.
If you want to start following your bliss . . . the path to get started lies before you. Are you ready to have many more blissful moments be in your future?
follow your bliss: a step by step guide
