OuterBliss: More on Overcoming Resistance

A tree in our park from my "clear my head" walk.

Listening to: If you have even a bit of negativity in you today, this surely will make you giggle.

Bliss: The oranges are fully out in the trees right now. The leaves are crunching. The air is cool. I am happy to have on a soft scarf.

You may have already noticed that today's post, which is usually called "EcoBliss," is labeled "OuterBliss." EcoBliss, though an important category of discussion in terms of personal happiness, was getting to be a bit constraining.

Sure, there are lots of times when I want to talk about bikes versus cars, light pollution, or tearing up our carpet, but there are also days when I want to follow up on Monday's post, and this new heading for Tuesday's post will allow more freedom.

During this moment of change, I would also like to ask you -- dear, sweet, smart, beautiful, sassy readers -- if you have anything you would like to see changed about blisschick or if there are topics of discussion that you would like me to explore more here. Think about it.

Today, I wanted to get back to yesterday...

This concept of resisting the very thing that completes you, or as Lil put it in a comment, "the temporary abandonment of participating in tasks of pure Self," this concept really hit home for a lot of us. (And if you haven't already, make sure to read the comments from yesterday's post; they were incredibly deep and articulate and wise.)

It is not just me who resists. It seems to be an epidemic of sorts. Even for those of us who know our path, who have done the preliminary work of digging and discovering...even we end up occasionally, more often than we like, saying "no."

Why, I want to wail at the top of my lungs...and I want an answer! WHY? I want to whine to the universe.

For now, perhaps it is not for me to know why, but simply for me to say "what now?" Despite this resistance, I will move forward. I look at you, evil ugly resistance, and I walk away. (And I am totally sticking out my tongue right there.)

Walking away was literally what I did the other day.

I grabbed my camera and headed outside. I walked slowly and with no plan and I took pictures and soon I could feel it all melting away.

As soon as I reentered the house, I came upstairs and put on my yoga pants and put in this DVD. One of my new favorites by them (and in particular, I have to tell you, the menu is awesome; you can pre-program your yoga session to your liking and not have to pick up the remote to skip a section you don't want to do).

What happens during kundalini yoga?

First, it always starts with a mantra/chant. Right away, I feel my chest area relax, which is where a lot of tension sits. My heart opens. I feel the chant vibrating under my collar bone and within my ribs. A good feeling.

Kundalini is done with your eyes closed and looking up through your third eye does stimulate something -- what? Who knows? But it does something.

Like Linda says, "We don't do yoga; yoga does us." And again, I don't need to know "why," do I? I can let go of that particular obsession and just let it happen, which is, I think, a huge deal for someone who lives inside thoughts and books.

And this must be a clue...the walking, the picture taking, the yoga...all together it pours me back into me. Suddenly, I am the active participant in my own life again, rather than the watcher, who sits and wonders and worries and analyzes herself into a paralysis.

And thus "OuterBliss" -- the doing beyond the thinking. We could all use a bit more of that, couldn't we?