Reading Stephen Cope: Tapping into Bliss

It is not an exaggeration for me to say that without yoga I would never have completed a novel.

It is also not an exaggeration for me to say that without yoga I would never have begun a novel -- much less stuck with the process, had the patience, displayed the perseverance necessary to reaching the stage I am now at.

I have been doing various types of yoga for about 12 years now.

Besides helping me develop into the prose writer I want to be, it has opened the doorway through which I walk to find poems -- those wild and elusive creatures that can hang from trees just as easily as show up under the couch.

Yoga has helped me also to recover from chronic depression and anxiety. It has helped me to find a pathway to peace and beyond -- to, dare I say, happiness.

Recently, I rediscovered dancing, and this also would not have happened without yoga.

Just this past weekend, two other miracles in my book: I have begun to sketch again, and the lyrics for a song came to me while I was drifting into a lovely nap. I have not written lyrics (as opposed to poems) since I was twenty-two, and they are quite welcome in this house, thank you very much.

What is all of this about?

It's about the fruits of the practice of stillness. Whether you want to access this stillness through meditation or through asana, the fruits are the same.

We finally get to a place where we can clearly hear ourselves. Call this what you will -- God, the Universe, our own Divinity. We can hear it clearly only when we stand in the eye of the storm that is our thoughts, this loud culture, expectations, obligations, whatever it is making all the noise.

As Cope talks about, we are layered. Think of this for yourself in an individual, micro way or as a metaphor for the whole of this existence in a collective, macro way. Either way, it's the same thing.

We are layered, and "underlying it all is the ananda-maya-kosah, or sheath of bliss -- the subtle, interior blueprint upon which all human psycho-mental structures are built."

The Sheath of Bliss.

The blueprint upon which you and I and all of this is built.

Think of this as your binary coding, in which lies the essence of who you are.

Tap into this and you eventually come to the sweetest result of all -- how to stand up off the mat or the cushion and live your essence minute to minute, sweet action to sweet action, moment to moment.

Tap into this and you realize how inane, how trivial, how silly most of our desires really are when compared to the deepest desire of all -- to express ourselves as we truly are while we are in this physical manifestation. Each of us a unique expression wanting to only express that fact.

Tap into this and you realize why material gains always feel empty after a short while.

It is in the action of expressing our unique selves, in the process (as usual), that we are the conduits through which bliss enters this world.

Funny enough, my next small purchase to support this burgeoning, awakening, wild, eccentric, unique self that is only me? Tap shoes, of course.


(Photo: Handmade Gelato at Barbara's, Erie; Photo & Text Credit: Christine C. Reed, blisschick.net, 2009)

MysticBliss: Before We Know

“The real miracle of individuation and reclamation of the Wild Woman is that we all begin the process before we are ready, before we are strong enough, before we know enough; we begin a dialogue with thoughts and feelings that both tickle and thunder within us. We respond before we know how to speak the language, before we know all the answers, and before we know exactly to whom we are speaking.”

--Clarissa Pinkola Estes, of course!

(Photo Credit: Christine C. Reed, Baby Catbirds, 2009)

MysticBliss: Taking Flight

Sometimes the most mystical thing we can do is laugh our arses off:

enCouragingBliss: Again, Who Would You Be?

When someone whom you've just met asks you: "What do you do?" -- what is your response?

Most likely, if you are an American, your answer will be your job title. But there are cultures for whom this would be their last response. Yes. It's true. They might say that they are a parent or that they love to read or sail or that they garden or write poems.

(Some of us are lucky, of course, and we spend our days making a living by doing things that express our very essence. I'm not necessarily talking to you!)

So it came as no surprise to me when I last wrote about this idea of who you would be if no one had ever told you who you are that a lot of people ended up talking about jobs.

Answering this question can, eventually, lead to a different work life. But it starts at a much more basic place than that and I think it's worth revisiting.

This is about internal chatter, toxic tapes that play over and over, gremlins, divas that take up all the space and suck the oxygen right out of our ideas and dreams.

For me, this Blisschick, "you are lazy" is a core belief I hold about myself. No matter the lists and lists of evidence that I and others could construct to prove this wrong, it is still there, waiting for a moment when I'm not paying attention to ruin my party.

This means that my question is: "Who would I be, what would my life look like, if no one had ever told me I was essentially a lazy human being?"

The opposite is not always the answer.

Meaning, I do not necessarily replace "I am lazy" with "I am Super Woman of Productivity." Instead, the key here is to erase the lazy tape and replace it with "I am fine and happy the way I am."

Period. And it's probably the "answer" that we are all looking for.

Being fine and happy just the way we are.

So for enCouragingBliss this week, I ask you, what core belief about yourself did someone else teach you and can you let it go to just be fine and happy?

Dig Deep. Be Brave. Choose Bliss.

(Photo & Text Copyright: Christine C. Reed, blisschick.net, 2009)

BlissQuest: Can You Really Let Go? And Should You?

We all have those memories that when they surface, we cringe. Sometimes it's out of embarrassment, yes, but sometimes it's a cringe of regret, a what-if?, a why did I do that?

If we dwell with these memories for too long, we become trapped by them. We are stuck in questions that can never be answered.

How do we let go of regret, a feeling that we've made bad choices, shame*, even embarrassment? This is a question from a Skribit suggestion. (You can suggest topics to blisschick using the widget to the right.)

(*A Caveat About Shame: In this piece, I am speaking of shame we feel about actions that arise from choices we make. There is a deeper and darker shame that comes from abuse. I am not speaking to that here.)

As a chick working hard to live her bliss path, this idea of regret gets to the heart of the matter. Every day, we must make choices about how we live and then we must live with those choices.

Deciding to make choices that are in line with your beliefs and your integrity and your dreams is what living your bliss is all about. We must make a commitment to ourselves to only make choices that are of the highest caliber.

This is how you get to the end of the day, the end of the week, and the end of your life without regrets. This should be the goal -- not the releasing of regrets but the not taking on of regret.

Perhaps we are awakening right now and making these bliss affirming choices, but perhaps we have not been so good about it in the past. What then?

Excuse my Geek, but...

Marcy and I were watching a Star Trek Voyager the other night. In it Seven of Nine, a recovering Borg (drone) who did many bad things in her past, is lamenting the fact that she feels badly, ashamed, about some recent decisions. She fears she is, once again, losing her humanity.

The Doctor (ironically a hologram) tells her (and I am paraphrasing), "But feeling badly, feeling ashamed is your humanity. These are good things. You will not make the same mistakes again because of these feelings."

Exactly.

So perhaps letting go completely of these feelings is not a good thing. Perhaps we really do have them for a reason.

You should not beat yourself up for them. They are done, in the past, but you can own the bad decisions by deciding never to make the same mistake twice.

What do you think?

Are there things you regret that are weighing you down?

Why are you holding onto the regret? What do you get out of holding onto it?

What would happen if you simply decided not to make the same mistake twice?

(Photo (Baby Apples) & Text Copyright: Christine C. Reed, blisschick.net, 2009)

Nurturing Excitement

Today, Jamie's Wishcasting Wednesday prompt is What do you wish to Nurture?

For a very long time and for very good reason, my main goal in life has been to nurture peace and calm.

When you don't have these things as a child, they feel imperative as an adult. They are imperative as an adult, actually, if you want to grow beyond what you were raised with. (So many people just continue the pain and the drama, thinking it "normal.")

I have succeeded on this front. When people come to Marcy's and my home, for example, they tell us later that it felt like a sanctuary, that there is peace here, and love and beauty.

But lately I have begun to realize that I have gone a bit too far with this.

I have created Safety -- rather than simply peace and calm.

Safety is good. We should all feel safe. But the thing is, I am safe. There is no need for me to grasp it, reach for more of it.

Safety of the sort of which I speak begins to deaden us. I do not try new things. I do not go new places.

Not anymore!

As you know, I have signed up for Yoga Dance training at Kripalu in the fall. This is a huge deal for me. I will be traveling there by myself. I have been having anxiety about this and then the other day I noticed something.

I wasn't having anxiety -- No. I was excited!

These two things can feel very much alike, and for someone used to one, the sudden uprising of the other can be quite startling! We don't necessarily notice.

But I did. So that's what I wish to Nurture: Excitement about this life I have created. Excitement about adventures to come. Excitement about my work. Excitement about projects.

Excitement, even, about taking risks.

Are you allowing the excitement of life to be overridden with concerns of safety or a sense of obligation to the extreme? What could you do to get your excitement back?

(Remember: One Exciting Thing you could do is participate in the Wild Woman poster contest!)

(Photo & Text Copyright: Christine C. Reed, www.blisschick.net, 2009)

Calling All Wild Woman Artists!

So I have this idea and I need some help from you visual artists out there -- and I know there are so many of you!

I'm not just talking to those of you who make money with your art. Yes, you are included -- some of you are some of my favorite artists -- besides Marcy, of course!

I'm also talking to those of you who haven't given yourself permission to say you are "artists." Now is the time. Time for you to come out to yourself and the rest of the world -- or at least, this tiny piece of the world.

It is my dream to turn the Eccentricity Revolution for Wild Women manifesto into a downloadable poster so that women can hang them up on their refrigerators, over their computers, in their yoga rooms, at their jobs, wherever they need a reminder of their true selves.

But I am not a visual artist of this kind.

That's where you come in. Yes, you!

I will take submissions until Tuesday, July 21st. You have three weeks to work on this.

Just send a JPEG image to pinkyogi at gmail dot com.

After I have collected the images, we will put it to the vote. All pieces will be loaded anonymously and the readership of Blisschick will pick their favorite.

The winner will receive a copy of Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Women who Run with the Wolves, but if she already owns that, we'll come up with something else.

Here are the rules:

1. You may submit as many images as you like.

2. The poster must contain all 14 points of the Manifesto.

3. The poster must be able to fit an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper and still be readable.

4. The poster must be Wild, Fun, Expressive, Colorful, and Inspirational!

5. The poster may be generated in any way you see fit -- photography, paints, digital, whatever!

6. At the bottom, the poster must be copyrighted to www.blisschick.net and yourself.

The winning poster will be made available for free.

How about it? Are you ready to play?

I double dog dare you!

(Photo Credit: Christine C. Reed, Lilly Passed Out Mid Run, 2009)