On Balance – Follow Your Bliss

What happened? I followed my bliss...

This morning I woke up with a feeling that I am finally getting there. I opened my eyes moved them to the side, as I do now every morning, and said to myself my code word describing my state of balance and contentment. A ritual that became my mantra for succes. As I do it, all of a sudden, the world moves for me and I find myself in a ready state, moving forward, indescribably certain about what to do next, no longer lingering, I jump out of bed to do my life.

I realized that the story that I lived in for many years had somehow changed. I used to be sluggish and wake up slowly. Now I opened my eyes and no longer could keep myself laying down.  What happened?

Last summer Mark and I were walking up Columbus Avenue, it was a hot evening, very humid. I was hoping that we can find a place to sit outside and have a light dinner.

We settled in a place that offered tasty middle-eastern food.  We sat at the table and ordered. It was very noisy in this place. All of a sudden in all this noise I had experienced a shocking sensation of exalting excitement  sort of a mental orgasm – I finally got it.

You see, while walking we had a conversation about myths in our life and what it means to have personal mythology. Joseph Campbell, my personal intellectual mentor, and the renown authority on mythology, said,  when following your bliss, opportunities allow doors to open where there were only walls before.

What bliss? What is bliss?

The definition of bliss is a constant state of joy, contentment and satisfaction, undisturbed by gain or loss. In my opinion, what Buddha called Enlightenment. What others call happiness, balance, love in a bigger sense of the word.

But what is this satisfaction, bliss, balance?

Is this something everyone can experience? Can this be bottled and sold for prolonged use?

When Neo from The Matrix took the pill, when Lyra accepted the Golden Compass in the same title story, when Drei from the Karate Kid accepted the Kung-Fu tournament chalenge, not knowing anything about what this journey may entail and how this may begin to influence their lives they stepped onto a path of becoming a Hero.

I like very much this model of Hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell. In world mythology, in stories from around  the world, the narrative revolves around the center figure, the Hero.

The Hero received the call. The Hero accepts the call. The hero then steps on the path of a journey into the Unknown.

Do you remember what Morpheus said to Neo? Take this blue pill and you will forget you came here and will go back to your life like nothing ever happened. You will go back to your life as it was and will continue on the path of searching for answers.

But if you take this red pill you will step on to the path of the Unknown, unpredictable adventure. You are the One, the hero, who accepted the challenge, who answered the call, the pull to discover, to create to be a maker of your own life. Nothing on this path is certain, yet, everything is certain to be in your power, and as you design it, conceive it, believe it, as you desire it to be, it becomes the boon, the prize, the reward.

SATISFACTION.

The only price you pay is that you can’t go back to the life you had: predictable, comfortable in its mediocrity, certain in its dissatisfaction, longing, searching.

On the way, come teachers, guides, oracles, magic helpers, and of course, tricksters, and monsters, pulling you off the trail, so again, nothing is certain, and you find yourself balancing the find line of knowing and not-knowing.

Not-knowing and being ok with it, because you are following your desire, bliss, passion, because without it life seems empty, because you can’t not do it, because it creates such profound satisfaction that nothing can compare with the inspiration you feel toward your bliss.

So…

I got it what it means to follow you bliss, to be at your best to be able to choose it amidst of all the things going on in life. To be able to have the courage to make this decision and to follow through with it.

Somewhat scary yet, exciting!

For the fleeting moment, it all came together, as the most complicated puzzle clicked becoming the whole picture.

As Neo takes on being the One, the hero accepts the call.

I accept the challenge of following my bliss, through obstacles and monsters, helped by guides and mentors. I finally got it. It is a heroic act to be able to follow your bliss. That is why it is called a hero’s journey and not a wimp’s journey.

As I do my life, as best I know how, following my bliss of being alive, at any moment, being present to the moment of my being alive and enjoying it.

One of my clients’ objectives was to become able to begin to enjoy her life. She was able to get it in the first 30 minutes of our time together, now it is the choice to want to enjoy life.

What do you want?

Tags: balance, Morrin Bass, my life story, myth, personal mythology, personal story