Following Your Bliss

Earlier this week, my wife and I plugged in a DVD set we hadn’t watched in a long time: Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth.” Most of you, I’m sure, are probably familiar with this. In a few of the episodes, Mr. Campbell talked about “following your bliss” and how, in doing so, it put you in union with the transcendent. He very much believed that the livelihood of being was supported (if not originated) by the unseen realm which exists outside space and time, and myths were a way of describing and intimating this vast, superconscious reality.

In following your bliss, he made it clear that each person will be unique in what type of journey he/she will embark on. For some, they may choose an artistic path, such as musician, painter, or actor. For others, their bliss may be more hands-on, such as constructing with tools, exercising the body through manual labor, or solving puzzles in the mind at a computer.

Of course, not all of us follow our bliss. In today’s world, we are taught from the moment we take our first breath the need to focus on economy, monetary stability, and socially “fitting in.” We were all indoctrinated to consider the same journey: go to school, college (or some form of higher education), and find ways of becoming more “marketable” in order to land that “decent job” that will sustain you for the course of your lifetime. In addition to that, you must also raise 2.5 kids, put them through college, have a white picket fence, yada yada yada.

We were told this path would lead to bliss, or is at least what bliss is about. Now, I’m sure such a life may have many great moments of joy, but does it really classify as bliss? Does it really make you feel alive and in union with the transcendent? For some, it might. And that’s fantastic. However, I suspect for most others, this isn’t the case.

In hearing Mr. Campbell talk about bliss, I quietly reflected upon myself and honestly asked – What is my bliss? If I were to take Campbell’s definition – being in union with the transcendent, feeling outside space and time, eternal, and completely alive – then what form or journey would my bliss take?

Surprisingly, the answer didn’t come right away. The question, supplied with the definition, does make one pause for consideration.

There are many things I enjoy doing, which could certainly borderline the sense of bliss, such as composing music (you can check out a few songs here on this page), drawing (which I haven’t done in years, but it used to provide such a wonderful meditative, relaxing experience), or story writing (never could keep track of time during that either). But to access what I felt was the transcendent and be knocked out of the field of space and time, I could only settle on one thing: the study of the soul, the nature of psi, those experiences that exposed the universal mysteries within the natural world and our own beings.

Funny, it was only a few days earlier that I had thought about how colorful my life really was as a result of pursuing psychic phenomena. If I didn’t have the experiences of ghosts, thought-transference, precognition, or mediumship, how incredibly flat and sepia toned my existence would be. Without having such things in my experience, everything in the world would seem flat, monochrome, and anything but bliss. Psi related phenomena, I realized, is what gives my life its vividness, turning it from a dull black-and-white world to amazing Technicolor. At times throughout my life, I have often wondered if my preoccupation with such things was a detriment rather than a benefit. Was I being too self-absorbed? Too weird? Unable to fit into the mundane “normal” world because I was not always on the predefined “path of life”? Some of you may answer “yes” towards me on all these points. But I’ve come to realize, when following your bliss, there’s something else Mr. Campbell talked about: Sacrifice.

Sometimes you must sacrifice things that were once perceived as noble or of immense worth in order to reach greater heights. There’s a saying that goes “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose site of the shore.”

In pursuing your bliss – if once you have discovered what it is – there may be some uncomfortable acts (ironic, huh?) that you will go through on the journey. Your bliss may not be applicable to higher education; it may not require raising 2.5 kids; it may have nothing to do with a white picket fence. For many, still caught in this cookie-cutter illusion, you may suffer what at first appears to be social stigma.

That’s okay. Boldness never resulted in mediocrity.

But this is not about winning friends and influencing people. Rather, it goes a bit deeper: unraveling yourself in order to experience (and ultimately give yourself permission) to engage with your bliss and land in the field of transcendence.

In defining what your bliss is, you might discover that it is something completely foreign to what you have been doing for many, many years. This is not to say your bliss may be something completely brand-new in terms of experience, but it may be an activity or experience that you’ve only done periodically without much consideration of “following it.” Then again, it may be something you’ve never done before, but often dreamed about.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, following your bliss isn’t necessarily going to be an easy path. One would think “bliss = easy.” I mean, bliss is supposed to feel good, so it should be wonderful to pursue, right? Well, no, not when you have to deal with years of programming and conditioning – not only with social society outside of you, but also with the thick matter between your own ears.

Though I consider psi and psychic phenomena “bliss” in the definition that Campbell offered, it has not been an easy road. Parts of my life, my thinking, my lifestyle, have all had to die in some way, shape, or form over the decades, piece by piece, little by little (and it’s still an ongoing process). I’ve struggled with myself in how I thought I should behave with others – being a closet psychic, more or less, and fears of being “discovered” and ridiculed within “normal” environments. There were years where, if I was not in the process of conducting a sitting, I would “close myself down” as a course of self-protection – attempting to be “right” versus “weird.” These (as well as potential others) are the battles that can wage inside your consciousness when you are not aware of your bliss, but are still following something. Even when you do declare your passion and march down the road within that awareness, these kinds of things can still pop up.

At some point on the “bliss trail” a choice will have to be made: follow what the bliss demands of you, or succumb to mediocrity. This doesn’t necessarily mean dropping everything at once, but may require you to take a better look at the road and plan for what may lie ahead, and what you may need to leave behind in order to engage it. You might need to strategize in order to gain the most from what the road of your personal bliss offers.

The tricky thing about following your bliss – there is no map. The entirety of the road is not revealed to you. However, being as that it is bliss, this piece of the puzzle is not as hard to deal with so long as you are truly enraptured with the journey and not stuck on its future-oriented outcome.

What’s the benefit of all this? In following your bliss, you will not only connect with that essence which is beyond space and time, but you will live life feeling completely Alive. You won’t be able to wake up in the morning and tell yourself “It’s going to be another drab day.” You also won’t die feeling unfulfilled. But on the journey, you may encounter stresses the push and pull you, which are still part of the journey of a blissful life.

In following your bliss, it stands to reason that you will enjoy more of your life. That enjoyment, rightly so, will emanate from you in ways you can’t imagine, to positively affect those around you – again in ways you may not perceive. Genuinely happy people, let’s face it, are just more fun to be around. And the more people who can be happy on planet earth – following their bliss and saying “to hell” with the cookie-cutter life – will undoubtedly produce more positive energy that can help this planet grow and heal versus decline and die.

So … what is your bliss?? Are you prepared and willing to follow it?

Til next time,

Happy New Year! A Perspective on the Future

The New Year has dawned, so what does this mean for us on a soul's journey? Well, it's an opportunity to reflect on the previous 12 months and consider all that has come before. We can measure and weigh whether we have accomplished much or amounted to little and how the results speak to our inner beings. It's a moment to inspect our innermost realities, to see if we are progressing and growing in the time and speed of our liking and how we've stood up to our own sense of self and standards. Were the last 12 months fruitful? Or lackluster? Was our focus on simply one thing or many? And if your energy was on one thing, how much more did that one thing develop or expand as a result of the attention? Are you better for it or worse? If you were focused on many things, how did it all pan out? Did certain items end up consuming more energy and time than others?

Once this self-absorbed reflection is over, take a moment to congratulate yourself - whether you feel the previous year was a success or not. Give yourself the kudos for living through each and every day, and experiencing every kind of moment -- the joys and the sorrows. You lived through each of them and are worthy of the small reward of personal gratitude. Recognize, if you will, the power of your own fortitude for making it through (especially during these tying times, where jobs are scarce and people are really having to scrape by). It is so very important to be grateful in honoring your strength and persistence.

This, in reality, is the Hero's journey that you are on. We are all on this path in our own unique ways. A hero is not born, but rather forged through the trials and tribulations of the journey. It is through the tests and drama of experience that mold and impress the hero to reach within and pull out of him/herself those qualities and aspects left hidden, which raise not only the soul of the hero to greater heights, but also the community s/he serves. We are all diamonds in the rough, yet it is through the course of life that the black outer crust of existence gets chiseled away and the brilliant glory of your being is brought to light.

Rejoice in the aspects of your illumined brilliance -- a result of the past year's events. You have earned the right to honor the energy you've spent, the price you have paid, and to recognize at least a sliver of your own personal heroism in getting through it all.

Of course, the New Year wouldn't be complete without accepting that it is not another go at the same wheel as 2010, but a chance to make things new. Celebrating the New Year is a chance for inspiring our spirits to open new doors; to accept that next chapter on our heroic journey of uncovering what it is that makes us a divine being and sharing it with the world. How much more of your brilliant light will be exposed in the next 12 months in comparison to where you are now? How much more do you wish to glow?

Oftentimes we start the New Year with the best of intentions -- all those resolutions and stuff -- and then for some reason let them go and return to what is comfortable and familiar. Yet, if we take stock of all the years gone by, the comfortable and familiar never really returns, in terms of our experience. If anything, it is only a feeling or mental attitude that returns, creating events and circumstances that may be quite different from ones gone by, but result in the same "feeling tone" we have grown accustomed to.

Make a resolution this year to change that "feeling tone." Little by little, that tone changes regardless of whether or not you are directing it -- this is the natural flow of the Hero's journey. Yet it is a slow change that you are hardly conscious of. But here you are, at the start of a New Year (and a "1" year at that, in a quasi-numerology point of view), so try a hand at doing something a little different: Don't wait for the adventure to come to you, why don't you go on the adventure?

You've been honed, carved, fashioned, and bread for greatness through all the prior challenges and adventures of your life, so you are by no means incapable of going on the "offensive" for change, versus feeling on the "defensive." You've gathered an immense treasure chest of skills, wisdom, and abilities through the decades and can no longer be considered an apprentice to life's missions. The third act of every dramatic play spins the hero around from being a perceived "victim of circumstances" to becoming the initiator of change. He takes what he has learned, dips into the treasure trove of his experiences, and discovers he has everything he needs to change his world in the direction of his choosing. Of course, "his world" is a personal reflection, which metaphorically (and perhaps in some cases, literally), can have ramifications for the greater masses surrounding him.

Let the New Year be an open door for you to become the Hero in the third act of your own dramatic play. There will always be challenges -- things that push and pull us in directions and invite us to grow and become different than what we were moments before. This, my friends, is inevitable. But the promise of a New Year is an invitation to engage your own creative faculties in making new choices, new decisions, and also engage in new actions to inspire the change in a direction you choose.

Keep your mind, your focus, your intention, on that new "feeling tone" of your life. A Hero, in the course of his journey (and most certainly in that third act), finds his strength by keeping his mind clearly on the goal -- sometimes to the point of saying "I won't take 'no' for an answer." And the great thing is, the universe does assist us. When you start doing things in the direction of that "feeling tone," the universe will conspire to move things in your direction, provided you keep to the task and accept these gifts when they come (hint: sometimes, they won't feel like gifts, but obstacles. Don't worry, it's a playful disguise). Commit not to return to your old ways of thinking, doing, and feeling. The mythical Hero usually burns his bridges (or rather, they are burned for him) -- meaning he's not only unwilling but unable to return to the ways of old; instead, he must construct anew. It is, quite frankly, the only way to grow.

We are always in a state of change, but change doesn't necessarily mean growth. We don't want to backslide here.

Let 2011 be the first year, the "1" year of beginning your third act in certain areas of your dramatic life. This means sacrifice -- unwilling to return to the old ways of thinking and feeling. Slay the dragon of your discontent by crying forth your belief - your faith - in not only the possibility of a better "feeling tone" (and hence life), but the fact that you will not be denied it.

At this point is when you encounter some of the wonderful hidden treasures buried deep within. Here is where the peasant farmer turns off his computer and uses the Force to destroy the Death Star; or where the gladiator removes his protective armor and shield to rely solely on his own wits, strength, and the will of the gods. There's something magical in that act. Previous experiences provide the platform -- these are not careless moments of naivety. These are moments when the Hero knows he is worthy, capably, and the possibility of failure minuscule in the face of his learned skills.

Yes, let your review of 2010 fuel you for the next act of your life in 2011. Do you wish to allow circumstances to mold and guide you through all of this coming year, or will you dare to finally enter the dragon's keep?

Happy New Year!