Bliss

“If you follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say follow your bliss and don’t be afraid and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
Joseph Campbell

Just came across this quote on my favorite photography forum and it got me thinking about bliss.

The regular dictionary definition is some variation of “a state of extreme happiness”. My my own personal experience of bliss feels more like this yogic explanation:

“It is a conscious, refined, deeply peaceful vibration which is even more highly charged than Joy. Joy comes and goes and is connected to an experience in the world, but Bliss becomes a permanent state and is not dependent on the outer world”

The past few years have taught me a great deal about Bliss – finding it, following it, living it. Even so, it takes mindfulness and focus to avoid losing track of Bliss and letting myself wallow in the muck and mire of existence (like the dirty dishes and cranky kids and money worries). Bliss can be a transcendent force that overarches and inspires everything in my life, or it can be a fleeting moment that slips out of my grasp all too easily. Without attention, awareness and gratitude – Bliss can even be a source of heartache and frustration. Becoming conscious and mindful of Bliss and cultivating it in my life has proven harder than it sounds.

Before Bella was born I hadn’t the slightest clue who I really was, let alone what brought me Bliss. Bella’s birth was the beginning of a new path, and the past four and a half years have been one big journey of self-discovery and personal awareness. Julianna’s birth feels like another milestone, a seismic shift in my being that brought everything into focus. My youngest baby is also my ancient guru – and she has brought me to new levels of consciousness. New levels of joy.

New levels of Bliss.

A huge part of this journey has been discovering a transcendent, deeply personal joy. The kind of joy that - in the moment - makes everything make sense.

In the past four and a half years I have found Bliss over and over again. I have found Bliss in my birth work and the service of women that is more calling than vocation, more reward than obligation. I have found Bliss in my writing. I have found Bliss in my friendships, in the women of uncommon beauty of spirit who have entered my life and moved my soul and made my heart dance. I’ve found countless moments of the purest Bliss in my children, and lately I have glimpsed it in my photography – seeing the beauty of the world in a different way through the viewfinder. I’ve found Bliss in the acknowledgement of my strength, and in owning my own vulnerability. I’ve learned that Bliss is available in moments of weakness just as it is in moments of strength.

My next journey will be figuring out how to embrace my Bliss without fear or reservation or excuses or self-deprecation. To get past the paralyzing self-doubt that prevents me from chasing dreams. To reach beyond my comfort zone into the scary places – to delve into the dark and dirty so that I can be free to become the woman I am meant to be.

I’m going to spend the next little while diving into my Bliss.

Care to join me?

“Our fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not out darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
–Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love (1992)

What is your Bliss? Are you seeking it ? Chasing it? Embracing it? Are you living it? Are you the embodiment of your Bliss?

Are you hiding from it? Unaware of it? Afraid of it? Convincing yourself that it is not worth it? That you’re not worth it? That it is unimportant, or silly or unrealistic?

What makes you feel alive? Giddy? What makes you make sense?

What is your Bliss?

POSTED BY Administrator ON 04.22.06 @ 7:25:08 | filed under: Inspiration | 8 Comments