RandomBliss: The Action of Bliss & Sometimes Being Pissed

The Lake on a windy, cooler-than-usual day.
(A Coast Guard boat in the distance.)

Listening to: The real video for this, which I couldn't find, has two women romping near the water, which I've supplied above. But I love the song, regardless of no video.

Today's Bliss Formula: I had bad dreams last night (I get streams of these sometimes -- leftover from when I was little), so today will mostly be about self-care because bad dreams can make for a very precarious mood. Yoga, sitting with animals inside, birds outside, finding something good to read, some journaling, a long walk -- all would be good. Of course, I'm also right now listening to some uplifting music!

This blog started with Joseph Campbell. Literally -- the first post was about his philosophies and his influence on what I would be writing.

Here's the first thing I quoted:

Now I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: sat-chit-ananda. The word "sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know what my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

This is what it means to be a blisschick: you are someone who hangs onto your rapture.

No matter what. No matter the obstacles. You have discovered the very thing you are meant to do in this life and you will not let anyone or anything dissuade you. Period.

In the context of this blog, "bliss" is not some feel good state. It is an action; it is a way of being and acting in the world. Bliss is not an emotion but a path to be walked. Actively.

Like real love.

Love is not real if it only makes you feel good -- it is real when it makes you act in a way that is intended to make another feel good.

We have romanticized love and made it passive.

We are dreadfully close to doing the same with bliss.

Bliss is your purpose here and not some generic, idealized feeling state whose attainment and maintain-ment (a made up word!) is frustratingly elusive -- giving us yet more reason to judge ourselves as insufficient.

This is where pissedchick comes in. She is a feeling state. There is room for her within the context of bliss because bliss is active and therefore bigger and stronger. Bliss works in tandem with that internal ass-kicking warrior I've written about. Like the Gabrielle to the Xena, for my fellow Geeks out there! Or think of them as the yin-yang symbol -- true balance.

(A side note here: balance is not about being peaceful. Moments, long ones, where you feel at peace will ensue if you are balanced, but balance itself is not equivalent to peace. Again, think of the yin-yang symbol.)

So blisschick is about making choices. OYE! Doesn't it always come down to that?

Yes. There will never be a day when it doesn't come down to that. So don't look for it. If you do, you are looking for delusion. Every day you have to wake up and decide to be the you you were sent here to be and then you have to act on it.

Right now, bliss is big in advertising. They would have you believe that this water or that yoga mat or this style of yoga or a certain car, etc. etc. would bring you to a perpetual state of bliss.

But, again, that's a lie. Bliss is not a destination but a journey.

So dig very deep and ask yourself what your bliss is.

Here are some things it is not:

--Bliss is not anything outside of yourself. It is not your family or your cats or your house or your job. Those these things can bring wellsprings of happiness, they are not your bliss.

--Bliss is not the absence of extreme emotions. We are meant to feel a wide range of emotions -- it's what makes us human.

--Bliss is not you perfected. (Whatever that would be!?)

So dig deeper.

What is the thing that ties all of the joy of your life together? What keeps you sane? What drives you?

What is the thesis of your life?

Look back at this, this, or this interview for some clues.

My bliss is story, what about you?