Following Bliss - Originally written on Jan 7, 2009 *updated

Originally I made this post on Jan 7, 2009, just a few sentences on BLISS and a reference to me following "The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die" written by John Izzo.

I don't remember reading the book or going through the internal work of embracing those five secrets, but I do remember my intentions with writing the post. My intention was to get to my place of BLISS and an overall expression of self love. Because this is the case I will not judge myself harshly for not loving myself enough to follow through. Nearly all of my life I have been quick to judge myself and provide self-deprecatingly harsh words when I didn't live up to my own exceedingly high standards. This judgement I grew up knowing all too well, forced onto me from a non-birth parent.He used it as a trap to keep me down, which I fell into without wanting to or even knowing I did. As with much of life time heals and I am learning that with time and effort it can grow likeness of oneself to fondness to appreciate to something that might feel like love.

A writer friend of mine suggested that "there's no such thing as great writing, only great rewriting" so I have accepted his challenge and revisiting this post. Very few people in my life over the years have challenged me but when I reflect on the biggest growth and positive experiences in my life they have come from challenges given to me by others. I am naturally competitive and the past 10 years haven't had anything to really pursue more than just trying to feed myself and survive. Challenges I put myself too seem to just fall to the side most of the time.

My current challenges from others are :

Rewrite your work. 

Open your Heart (to yourself and others). 

Be Intentional with Your Words.

Reflecting back on my original title of "Following Bliss", somethings in my life give me BLISS. While I am in this state of BLISS, everything else in my world falls away, and I just breath, exist, and embrace the experience. The first entry for the word BLISS as defined by Oxford Dictionary is "perfect happiness, great joy." The second entry I find more curious and more specific to my idea of BLISS, which is "A state of spiritual blendedness, typically reached after death."

Think about this for a minute, BLISS is a state of spiritual blendedness typically reached after death. Have you ever felt this before. Felt that it would be ok to die? Or less morbid that life was so perfect in that exact moment that nothing else matters? I would be curious to what those would be. Can you post a comment on what moment that was please? For me I alluded to a few of my BLISS points in my post Tell Her You Love Her.

So if you want to find true BLISS, John Izzo suggests following his five secrets. These would be:

The five secrets as outlined below:

1. Be True to Yourself
2. Leave No Regrets
3. Become Love
4. Live the Moment
5. Give More than You Take

My original post was in 2009, but recently I have written about Be True to Yourself and a little bit on Become Love. My creativity is weening off so I will say another rewrite and future post about the 5 secrets will come.

I will leave you with this. When did you have BLISS last? How did it feel to you? What made you feel this way? Would you want to feel this more often? How can you make that happen?

Please share this blog with people who you think it would benefit. Post your comments below. Don't be afraid of your own voice, passion, or self love. Live every day like it's your last.