Tag Archives: happiness

Follow your bliss…

Follow your bliss.Joseph Campbell

The words are very precise, Joseph doesn’t say follow your desires or follow your happiness and certainly doesn’t ask us to follow our lusts.

Bliss is defined as follows by the Encarta World English Dictionary:

  • complete happiness: perfect happiness
  • spiritual joy: a state of spiritual joy

The definition begs the question, what isperfect happinessand/orspiritual joy’?

You must answer that for yourself. And to answer that question you must know yourself first.

So know yourself first, understand what makes you happy for the long run, understand your bliss and follow it…

Recommendation: Baksheesh and Brahman: Asian Journals—India (2003)–The thoughtful diary of Campbell’s life-changing trip to India

Discovering new lands…

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.Andre Gide

It’s that comfort zone again, that keeps drawing us down and forces us to cruise along blissfully neglecting our own growth. Growth is very important. Why? Because without the sense of achievement that comes from meaningful growth we feel empty, unfulfilled and tend to be depressed about life.

We must have meaningful goals to achieve, and constantly so. That doesn’t mean we have to be driven like rats. We can stay mindful, calm and know that we pursue worthwhile goals without neglecting what’s important in the Now. Growth must also be balanced. Physical, mental (emotional) and spiritual.

Recommendation: Do It! Let’s Get Off Our Buts

What direction?

The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.Oliver Wendell Holmes

That’s it. Don’t fret over all the things that are going wrong or whatever’s not working in your life. Focus instead on your true values and ultimate goals. This will lead to your finding your guiding compass, your North Star.

At a broad level understand what makes you tick and what you’re shooting for in life. Know what makes you happy and others around you happy at the same time. Get to know your self and your life purpose.

Then follow your compass daily. Life can be simple. And you don’t have to quit your day job to walk this way!

Recommendation: This Time I Dance! – Tama J. Kieves

Confusion of goals…

Perfections of means and confusion of goals seem – in my opinion to – characterize our age.Albert Einstein

We think we know what we want and we also think we know how to get there. Often we’re wrong on both counts.

If we don’t know what we want, the ways we choose to get to those goals don’t matter. If we know what we want but the methods we choose are not the right ones, then it gets frustrating.

Which is why frustration abounds on this planet. We’re focused on some goal, through means that we try and perfect. As we try and perfect these means we forget our end goal, we get lost in the means, along the way…

We must know and remember what we truly desire. It’s important that you follow your North Star! Do you know how to find it? Do you know how to stay on track?

Recommendation: Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Don’t limit yourself…

When you make a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped. If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want.  – Robert Fritz

First you must understand what is best for your future self and for those who you associate with. That can only happen with increased self-knowledge.

Next you must make choices. Without that, universal creative forces that lie inside you, stay dormant. ‘God helps those who help themselves’ is exactly what happens when we start to make choices. You cannot expand your self, your horizons and truly know yourself if you don’t make choices that are beyond your comfort zone.

Dynamic choices stretch us, which leads to knowing ourselves and a fulfilling life!

Recommendation: Little Gold Book of YES!

You are the masterpiece!

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.John Ruskin

You know what they say, do what you love and the money follows? Well so does a masterpiece! But did you ever think of your self as a masterpiece?

How would you build your life, your skills, your habits, demeanor and legacy?

With love and skill of course!

Love yourself and be patient. Understand what keeps you going, what you like and dislike, habits you want to improve and relationships you want to mend. Skill must be present too. You must know yourself, how to change habits, how to become calmer, more loving etc.

To create a masterpiece that everyone loves, you must view yourself as one and work at it!

Recommendation: Release Your Brilliance: The 4 Steps to Transforming Your Life and Revealing Your Genius to the World

Flow with the river…

Vex not they spirit at the course of things; they heed not they vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.Marcus Aurelius

We should have ambitions and make plans. Then leave the result to Nature/God. It pays not to worry or hassle over things that we don’t control. In fact by worrying we lessen our own preparedness to tackle life and the challenges it throws at us.

Flow with this river called time, let things take their course, maintain your own peace, do all you can, and let go… Enjoy the journey!

Recommendation: Meditations (Penguin Classics) by Marcus Aurelius