enCouragingBliss: Helping Yourself, Helping Others

A line of trees from a recent walk.

Listening to: I love how this video plays with the idea of playing with versions of ourselves.

Bliss: Writing group last night was energizing and wonderful, as usual. I am so grateful to have a group of people in my life who are working so hard to realize their dreams.

On Tuesday, I wrote about my struggle with finding spontaneous joy.

A comment from Rowena really brought me back to myself:

People are often amazed at my focus and will power to keep doing my writing and art. I wonder if it comes from the will power to push through the depressions? Or if it is just a personality trait that serves both needs.

I do agree with the gentleness, and there should be a balance between the aggression of pushing through and treating yourself with kindness. The best metaphor for me is to treat yourself as you would your own child-- to mother yourself. The discipline needs to be there but so does the love.

And as for the joy? That is work, too, I've found. What comes easily for other people needs to be focused on in my life. I need to keep lists of where I find joy, and I need to pay attention in the moment. And I need to schedule in unscheduled free time.

Out of all of this wisdom (and there was much more contained in other comments), what Rowena really reminded me of is that because of my experiences and because of my choice to struggle through depressive episodes without medications, because of who I am and because of who I am becoming, I am different from other people. I am unique (as is everyone), and I cannot measure my own experiences against those of people who have not had my experiences.

Duh, yes, but a big and important Duh!

Her sentence "What comes easily for other people...." was so important to my waking up from this recent sleepiness. There is no need for lamenting the difficulty; it just is what it is. And sometimes it is lessened, and for those times, I must remain mindfully grateful.

I also realized that in my piece about pushing through, I was not completely honest with myself.

I know that remaining positive and experiencing happiness for me means doing some critical things on a daily basis, and yet I do not do them to the extent to which they must be done.

Realizing this is the case for many people, realizing there are many people out there who are in need of encouragement in the journey toward their bliss, I have decided to start a weekly, every Thursday, bliss "club" of sorts.

I want to call this new venture enCouragingBliss. We are here to enCourage others and to be enCouraged.

Come here and leave in the comments something small you want to work on for one week. Make a pledge to yourself but in public. Let us help you stick to it.

This is a perfect time and reason to delurk, people. Commit to your bliss.

Keep it small. Like Leo of Zen Habits says, small is doable and once you see yourself accomplish one small thing, that leads to another small thing, and before you know, you've accomplished some very big things indeed.

For my first week, this is what I pledge to you: I will do yoga every single day no matter what else is going on. It does not have to be a huge amount of yoga, but it will be something.

That's it. See? One small thing.

Because our path to bliss is made of many small steps, many small promises. Each and every day, we make these small choices for good or ill.

I think it's time to start supporting one another. What about you?