Bliss
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:
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?
–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?
Had I not been convinced before that I was destined to meet you, Jeanette, this post confirms it. The wonderful quote from Marianne Williamson was one that I kept on my screen saver for years at my old office. Just yesterday, my laptop died (again), and this time it seems to be beyond repair. My husband was asking me what I would hope to extract from the machine, and my old workfiles, with the quote, were on my list. I couldn’t remember Marianne’s last name, and I was heartbroken that I wouldn’t be able to read her words again, especially right now, when I need that mantra more than ever.
I’m trying to find bliss within my new identity as a mother, as well as within my new identity as a financially-strapped grad student’s wife. We are struggling to figure out where and how I can work to bring in money as well as feed my soul, and at the same time, I have found an amazing Masters program across town that I would love to enroll in. I find myself bogged down with worry, but at the same time, I feel like I am standing at the doorway of everything that I’d ever hoped for my life, and just need to find the courage to look in my pocket and find the key.
Thanks for inspiring me, again!
Comment by Kori — 04.23.06 @ 1:21:08
My bliss…
Being entwined with my husband, naked or not. Spooning my daughters. Smelling Sula’s head and Mia’s neck, diving into the deep pool of their eyes to find my wisest woman self.
I found utter and absolute sweaty, uninhibited Bliss today as I experienced an Ashtanga yoga class for the first time since before I was pregnant with Mia. Each ansana and instruction called in Sanskrit woke up a sleeping part of the self. Yoga. Bliss for me is the path of yoga…on the mat and off. Breathing. Breathing is bliss. Doing about 60 Sun Salutations in about 70 minutes. Bliss.
When I write. When I reach that state of satori in writing when I am no longer the person typing the words, when I have left myself somewhere else and the words come from another place, time, planet. In those rare moments when I get there…that it my total and utter bliss in life. Bliss Bliss Bliss. Writing. Bliss.
Running through the mountains singing Three Little Birds by Bob Marley (think thats the name). Then tripping over a big huge rock and landing on my face. Falling and the ability to get back up. Bliss.
Dark chocolate on an empty stomach.
The moments when fear almost takes over and I stop it from becoming me and remember that THIS path, the one I am on right now is the one I am destined to walk, the one I have choosen and the one that will lead me to my wildest dream/s.
Bliss is getting lost in the moment of dance, with music really loud and bass heavy, barefoot. Dancing without caring. Dancning with skill or dancing totally and utterly silly. Dancing…oh I miss the bliss of moving on a dance floor hot and sweaty with a ton of other people, united by sound.
Just the thought of finally being to go on vacation with Bill. By the sea.
Choosing to surrender to each moment. Bliss!
Thanks for this, J. You have been a wonderful muse. I could go on and on…it’s nice to see how blissful my life is.
Love You!
Comment by marybeth — 04.23.06 @ 4:24:47
One of my most intense memories of bliss: I had paddled to a tiny island in an archipelego of hundreds (called the Broken Islands) off the west coast of Vancouver Island. I pulled my kayak up a whitesand beach, and felt something calling me. I ran to the middle of the island and came across the most immense old-growth yellow cedar tree I’d ever seen. It must have been 1500-2000 years old, and twenty people would have stretched to join hands arounds its trunk. It stood in the middle of a perfect circle of companions, a tending priests and guardians, equally stunning. The sun beamed through the branches and mist, casting a spotlight. This tree was the oldest, the biggest, and protected, safe, forever. It was so alive, so wise.. I’m not religious, but recognized the presence of God. My arms and shoulders were still burning from the work of the ocean, and I felt so blessed. I’m calmed by that tree, knowing it’s still standing in its circle, six thousand miles away as I write this. I’ll never forget it.
Comment by Kate — 04.24.06 @ 2:25:05
My bliss is my family life. My Sofia, her soft curly hair, her big brown eyes, her laugh. My husband, the smell of his neck, his touch. The way we interact as a family. Our little triad. My house, working in my garden, falling asleep in freshly washed sheets after a warm shower. Baking marvelous cakes with my girl… Simple pleasures.
I’ve felt lost for a long time, not sure of what my calling is in life. The things that make me happy, that are my bliss, are so simple, so mundane. Having a social worker mother that has done so much good, such important things, I’ve always felt…simple minded, superficial, if you will.
I’ve also been paralized by fear and self doubt. And regreat for not going back to school to finish my college degree. But not to long I figured out that is OK that my bliss is my family life. It’s what I craved as a child, what I did not have (the stable family life with a mom and a dad, that is what I did not have. The unconditional love of my parets I did/do have). So perhaps is not so simple minded after all.
So my goal was to find a profession, a job that would allow me to enjoy my family as much as posible. And what do you know? I think I found it. I am going to start an interpreting and translating company so I can work from home, freelance. Languages are someting that I love, something that I am good at. So I am putting my fears aside and I am going to jumping in, feet first, hoping for the best. I am petrified, but excited.
It’s bliss.
Comment by Libby — 04.24.06 @ 5:23:56
We haven’t had much time to really connect, but I love the way you can make me think deeply just by reading your blog. What is bliss? I’ve found it in family time. It’s those times when my husband and I and the little ones are together, enjoying even the simplest things in life… playing in sand, swinging at the park, doing a puzzle. I have found my bliss in motherhood. It’s holding my sleeping baby with his face at my neck, his heartbeat next to mine.
Comment by Beth — 04.24.06 @ 6:46:39
What a fabulous post. You hit the nail on the head when you wrote: “Becoming conscious and mindful of Bliss and cultivating it in my life has proven harder than it sounds.” Indeed, I think all of us let Bliss pass us right by, every single day. In my case, I tend to focus on the frustrating things that have happened in my day instead of the 100 blissful things that occurred right in front of my eyes.
Sometimes I find Bliss trying hard to engage me and I choose to ignore it. I don’t know why! As Marianne’s quote alluded to, it’s as if we feel we don’t deserve it.
You, Marianne, Marybeth, all of us are here to say “Dammit, we DO deserve that piece of blissful dark chocolate every once in awhile!”
You got me thinking…For me, Bliss seems to be those experiences and moments that remind me how alive I am, how alive everything around me is, and how connected we are. Bliss is permission to feel good, really good, without fear or apology. Bliss is…
- Those days in which I’m completely in tune with my daughter needs and flow with her as if she’s still within me
- Watching my husband love our daughter and show tenderness
- Feeling soft grass under my feet
- Swinging (on a swing, that is…)
- The energy from the deep, quiet woods in Spring
- My childhood home(s), which have become “the temple of my adult aloneness” (from “The House of Belonging” by David Whyte)
- That moment of validation
- Checking the final item off my list (rare, rare occasion)
- A big body stretch, with every muscle in my body, in the morning
- Pregnancy
- A breeze
- Melting with my husband during labor rushes
- The muted noise and light, and weightlessness, of being underwater.
- A poem that comes from deep within, composed and completed without once removing pen from paper or fingers from keyboard
Comment by Leigh Steele — 04.24.06 @ 7:29:48
This is such a wonderfully well-written post! Thank you! I now realised that bliss is what I’ve been chasing after all my life. The life changing place I wrote about is the one which brought about the beginning of a sense of real bliss.
While I’m struggling to stay afloat with the many obstacles in my life, I am still experiencing bliss, in my small everyday happiness.
Comment by sesame — 04.25.06 @ 5:41:24
My bliss are so many things. Mainly those things that are free, such as the joys my children bring me, a shared laugh with my husband, seeing the beautiful stars above, hearing the roar of the ocean yet feeling it’s serenity, a close relationship with God, a clear conscience and my passion of photographing children and families. Great post!
Comment by Michelle — 08.27.06 @ 8:14:57