Finding Your Bliss

This is part 2 of the article following your bliss. This one is geared towards helping you find it. 

How to Find Your Bliss

The experiences encountered while traveling with an open mind and a courageous heart are hard to quantify, particularly because they are beyond the scope of any of monetary categorization.

I knew early on that my time was more important than money. If I was going to sell my time, especially for something I had little or no interest in, I’d better get some serious compensation in return. Though that policy hasn’t always worked, I’d say it has turned out that way most of the time. For that I am thankful.

It wasn’t by chance that my particular life situation came to be. I made choices; choices that required courage and a willingness to step outside the lines and boundaries that our present culture holds as the norm.

It also required sacrifice. There are certain luxuries, shall we say, I have often done without. I’m no Luddite, mind you. I’m happy to have access to nice things and fun gadgets. If they require my slavery to acquire or maintain them, though, I find the trade-off is simply not worth it.

Others will obviously disagree and, certainly, I can foresee a time when I will have perhaps had enough of wandering about. Should that time come, I might look into a more grounded style of living. If I make that choice, though, I will make it on my own terms and I will not be coerced into it at the expense of my dreams.

This is simply my lifestyle and preferred way of living. It’s not for everyone. That I do understand.

Answer me these questions 3

Regardless of whether you can relate or not, there are some important questions you need to ask yourself in this life. They beg an answer for those who wish to find their bliss and lead a life free from regret. Whichever way your life takes you, consider the following:

What is your dream? 

That still-small voice is easy to miss in the clatter and banging flurry of stimulus that makes up modern life. It’s important to take time and reflect about what you want to do with this life. Not what you could do. Not what others say you should do, but what you want to do. What it is that you are pulled from the deepest parts of your soul to do? This awareness, in my experience, can only come from a place of stillness which I personally achieve through various meditations. If your head is all cluttered with life’s minutiae, you’ll never come to the place of clarity required to see the true path that awaits you.  

How many years will you lose before you finally take your life into your own hands?

We may think we have all the time in the world but we don’t! Not as souls having an earthbound experience anyway. That is the point here: to encourage you to make the most of your earth-bound experience.

Firmly plant in your mind how precious time is. You’ve heard the adage that time is money? This is only true for those who undervalue their time. It is far more valuable that any currency. Most of us understand this intellectually and yet our actions betray us. We (including myself) waste countless hours worrying, in distraction, counting perceived offenses against us, shaming ourselves with perceived offenses against others, or simply trying to make the quest for coin be a solution to our problems.

Even if you are trading your time for a six figure salary, what is the end result? You trade away something you’ll never make back for something you could always make more of and you’ve missed the richness of life in the process. This is time wasted and psychic energy ill placed. There are caveats to this scenario, certainly, but they are few and far between.

What is your life-time worth to you? 

Decide what your life-time is worth to you and begin to measure activities against that value. I find the chart below, created by Tim Ferris for his book ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’, a good place to start measuring the value of any activity against the quality it adds to your overall life.

Stop and think about it. How can you quantify the value of a perfect night of slumber in the fresh air under a brilliantly starry sky? What is the price of the spark of a new connection between kindred spirits? What should sharing a stunning sunset with someone you love cost? When can you truly say to yourself, “I’ve lived enough”?

Try To Find Your Bliss!

Find yourself a quiet moment away from the hassles of life. Take a few deep breaths. Clear your mind. Ask yourself these questions and quietly wait for your soul to answer. As new thoughts emerge, watch them without judgment and let them go. Give them no energy. Go back to the original questions, like a mantra if needed. Given the space, the answers will arise.

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Cheers