Monday, September 29, 2008

Follow Your Bliss

It has become a popular catch phrase, follow your bliss (I first heard this advice when I was graduating high school), so I was interested to learn where it originated. Joseph Campbell, whose writing and teaching have been on my mind of late, said:
I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
I've found it's pretty easy to fall off the track of the life one ought to be living (or never get on the track for those who start from less than desirable circumstances or can't imagine their bliss). And I do suspect that when I'm not following my bliss I'm more susceptible to getting off track. Still part of me believes there is no one right track, no wrong track either, maybe no limitation to a single bliss. The entire journey informs us; it's how we use what we learn, how we make corrections, in order to live to our fullest potential. But maybe these are just different sides of the same gem stone. Read more about following your bliss.

1 comment:

Abbie Groves said...

I have this superstition as well and I worry that it conflicts with Maslow's controversial Hierarchy of Needs. But I do think that if you make following your bliss a priority, and put one foot in front of the other, the rest will follow.