Small Step – Allow Yourself to Feel Bliss

If you want to live a life of bliss, you need to start becoming comfortable with the feeling. A great way to do that is to take a little time to define what bliss is and spend time imagining what it would feel like.
Bliss to me is a day with no agenda, an expansive canvas just waiting to receive the paint of the day. A time when following your nose is the only agenda. Time – what a precious resource, what a gift to the self. Time to think your own thoughts, to do as you would prefer. Time to sit on the couch and drink coffee and read. Time to talk to your girlfriends about life, time to walk in the neighborhood, or the mountains. Time to listen to the trees, gaze upon a sunset, laugh with friends, create a new recipe, clean the house, organize a cupboard, write a letter, listen to music, dance, play.
Do we sell our souls for consumer goods? Do we sell our lives to have that Mercedes, or vacation to Maui? Do we sell our souls to live in a nice house with heat and air conditioning, computers, big screen TV’s, fancy rugs, wood floors, granite counter tops? Do we merge into traffic on the freeway and wait patiently to get to our destination where we spend the day away from our children and pets so that we can come back home and spend as little time as possible tending to their needs because we are so darn tired and drained? Because we have no time to think our own thoughts, enjoy making a meal, enjoy a sunset? How did we get here? How did we allow ourselves get so brainwashed?
I am reminded of a story of a fisherman who was fishing down at the sea. A man walked up to the fisherman and encouraged him to start a fishing business. He encouraged this man to work to create a large fleet of boats and other fisherman who could make him more money and help him expand his business even more so that he could make more and more money. The fisherman listened patiently to the man and finally asked why he would do all of that? The man answered, so that you can sit here on the beach and fish.
Why do we race through our lives to collect all kinds of things so that we can retire when we are old? Why don’t we decide to live our lives for the fun of it when we are young? Why do we allow society pressure us so much to conform, to follow the status quo? To go to college and become something? Aren’t we already something? I’m not saying that it’s wrong to go to college, but sometimes I’m amazed at how little we think about that decision, especially if it is an expectation growing up. I mean, I’m glad I went to college and I do like to learn, but when I was 19-years-old and a freshman in college, I had no idea who I was, what I was doing, or why I was doing it. I just did it because I was “supposed” to and didn’t really enjoy it. I was in the rat race, going to college, working a part-time job, trying to pay my bills, trying to get somewhere. I had no idea where that somewhere was and have spent my whole life working two jobs, trying to get ahead of my bills and never feeling like I’d made it.
Recently I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast and happened to hear an interview with Mr. Money Mustache www.mrmoneymustache.com and it sent chills down my spine. Here was someone who had a plan when he was just out of college to work for ten years (along with his wife), save as much money as possible, and retire at age 30. At such a young age he already knew that living life on his terms and having the freedom to spend his time the way he decided, which included being present as a dad when his son was born and throughout his son’s life, was what he wanted. He made it happen and went on to write about it. Now he lives frugally, but created a blog about it that has gone viral. He’s started a movement because there are so many other people who are tired of chasing the almighty dollar at the expense of everything else. Now he has more money than he could ever need and is creating ways to help others.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s bad to have money and I have nothing against it. In fact, I really enjoy having money, but am no longer willing to chase it at the expense of my joy, my family, and my freedom. I have allowed a lack of money to keep me from living my dreams and doing what I came here to do with my life. I am now ready to stop that and to live my dreams, share my gifts, and be who I am. I am enough, that’s who I am. How about you? Are you living your bliss?