Holistic-Personal-Development.com

To follow your bliss is a commitment to happiness. As I talked about this on our morning walk today, my wife Maggie said she wasn’t sure if she understood the meaning of the phrase. I’m sure there are some misunderstandings and differences of opinion, so I thought I would write about it here.

To follow your bliss is to allow the most wonderful world imaginable to unfold. Everyday is an adventure, calling forth the latent genius in you. Consider the words of Joseph Campbell: “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. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.”

To not follow your bliss would be a tragic denial, it would be the equivalent of death. Just imagine if John Lennon and Paul McCartney called it quits in 1962, or if Steven Spielberg decided not to go to film school, or if Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize winner in Literature, concluded that no one would want to read a book about Turkey.

Bliss is the abundance of the soul overflowing, a river in flood. Some people go through life and never discover an iota of bliss. If you do discover it in your lifetime, treasure it, embrace it, share it. No one can take it away from you. In fact, the more you share of it the more you have. What an investment!

To follow your bliss is to affirm the richness of the soul and saying yes to life and everything that is creative and beautiful inside of you. It’s an acknowledgment of life. As Campbell said, “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

If we follow our bliss, in this sense, we will experience fulfillment. We will avoid the possibility of addictions, obsessions, and delusion. Our life becomes our soul’s expression. That is bliss. How can you have a happier life than that?

Can you imagine a world where everyone is happy? Can you imagine what that would be like? Just imagine the culture, the music, the art. There would be peace, harmony, and love in abundance. Everyone would be inspired and happy. There would be no drugs, crime, poverty, or war. Everyone would be fulfillment personified. To follow your bliss would be as natural as breathing.

As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The greatest revolutions in thought and life all started as an idea, a creative thought, in the mind of one person. To not allow it to manifest in yourself would be a denial of your genius.

“But how do we do it?” I hear you asking. If it were easy, everyone would be living in such a way. It might seem irresponsible. After all, you have bills to pay and a family to support.

You do not have to be irresponsible to start following your bliss. Start out small if you have to. Do it in you spare time. Joseph Heller wrote the multi-million seller novel, Catch 22 in the evenings after work, depicting with black humor the insanity of war. He said he quit watching television to find the time to write it. People start businesses in their garages. Others go to night school. Some write songs on the way to work on the subway.

I remember a commercial that always put me in a good mood. In the commercial, you hear someone yell out, “Hey Edison, get a candle!” Ignore the voices of pessimism.

Don’t leave your bliss behind. Stay with it. It’s a companion to your soul that will keep your spirits up. Think about it, talk about it, write about it. Doors will open, possibilities will manifest that you had no idea existed. But the key is always, follow your bliss.

In my case, the most recent example of following my bliss was the creation of this website. I love to write, and I love exploring the spiritual life, and I’m always eager to expand my horizons and become the best person I can be. And then the idea was born: Holistic-Personal-Development.com. Not only is it following my bliss, it is increasing my bliss. To focus on these ideas is to keep me connected to my source of being, my higher self. That is a great blessing. It allows me to live in the present and use my creativity to realize my highest aspirations.

Every morning, when I wake up, I am excited because I know that before the day is over, I will have added another article to the site that will not only make the site better, but possibly inspire someone to become a better person. It’s a chance to give something of myself, and that is a key to aligning myself with the abundance of the universe.

Realize before it is too late, life is an opportunity, and this is it. To follow your bliss is to live life at its best. And here is some good news. Everything on this site will be an aid to you in this journey to your highest aspirations—the articles on communication, consciousness, leadership, meditation, abundance, self-development and self-esteem.

You will be a better person for having taken the journey, and the world will be a better place, because of you. Best wishes for your success as you follow your bliss.