Have you ever seen those memes on Facebook that tell you to ‘Follow your bliss’ and thought, ‘Yeah! I need to do that!’, and then moved on to the next post and completely forgotten about it? Have you ever sat back and actually asked what ‘Follow your bliss’ means?
What is your bliss?
What would it mean to follow it?
What would it take for you to feel so passionate about something that you couldn’t do anything BUT follow through with it??
I really loved my work in the midwifery world and as a doula. It was definitely a source of bliss. There is such joy in helping a woman bring a new baby into the world. It’s also a lot of work with insane hours – babies don’t schedule their arrival around things like sleep and rush hour traffic, and sometimes it takes a while for them to want to join us! But when my own kids came along, my bliss turned to being their mom and I couldn’t do that and manage all the hours, so I returned to chiropractic with a new sense of purpose – to educate women about their bodies, their physical and emotional health, to help them become their best selves. The fullness of women’s health became and remains my bliss.
When I started working with essential oils and combined it with my practice, it all became clear to me. These oils are the very essence of Mother Earth. They are the purest nectar of our planet. When I use them, my whole body responds. And I want to share that with everyone I meet! I want everyone to experience how much better you can feel, so you can feel liberated to enjoy and appreciate your life! That’s like my bliss on speed! And the door to this even more fulfilling life opened when I followed my bliss to begin with!
Following your bliss isn’t always easy. Transformation of any kind can be hard. It’s not enough to say “I want to become a yoga instructor.” You have to actually go to yoga classes and take instructor training. You have to learn what it means to transform yourself from the person receiving the instruction on how to get into Crow Pose to the person giving the instruction, and really be present when a student of yours does it for the first time. It takes time, determination, and patience to accept mistakes and breathe through them, and a steady head to decide how you’re going to move beyond them. You’ll encounter a day or a week when you feel like you wasted 15 years being an accountant when you could have been helping people achieve Crow! Do NOT get lost in self judgement – looking back will only slow down your steady forward momentum. You’ll likely come to realize that what you did before helps you achieve what you want to do in the future, that EVERYTHING you’ve done in your life helps to determine who you are now and who you are still becoming.
Following your bliss may not be as dramatic as starting a new career or leaving a relationship. It may be as simple as picking up a paintbrush in one of those evening adult programs, or going for a walk one day, that becomes a run, that becomes a daily passion. Or planting a garden. The point, my friends, is that life is so very, very short. Fill it with bliss, one breath at a time. Relish your life. Revel in it!
So – what lights you up?
What is the subject that widens your eyes and makes your heart beat faster? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to pursue it? Joseph Campbell was an American mythologist and writer I adore, whose work covered many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is perhaps best summarized by the phrase “Follow your bliss”. Here’s his poem:
Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
You put yourself on a kind of track
That has been there all the while waiting for you,
And the life you ought to be living
Is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
You begin to meet people
Who are in the field of your 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.
If you follow your bliss
Doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.
Are you in “the field of your bliss”? What would it take for you to get there?
Transformation sometimes looks daunting, but start moving forward and doors will open for you. It’s so worth it!
Namaste, Marissa
