"If you 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." ~Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987, Writer and Lecturer

What does it really mean to "follow your bliss?"

One of the main tenets of Inner Bonding is that all our feelings are informational—letting us know when we are loving ourselves and when we are abandoning ourselves, and letting us know when something external to us is loving or safe, or unloving or dangerous. Our true bliss can be highly informational for us.

Bliss can be defined as complete happiness, delight, spiritual joy, ecstasy—a bit of heaven. The opposite of bliss is misery.

Sometimes this can get confusing, as when people say they are "blissed out" from a drug or from sex. Getting blissed out on drugs or sex is not going to lead you toward a healthy life of passion, meaning and purpose for you. In fact, this kind of bliss will likely prevent you from finding your true life purpose.

Following your bliss means noticing the thoughts and actions that bring you joy, as well as the thoughts and actions that create your misery.

Misery is a road sign saying, "Wrong Way!" while joy is a road sign saying "Yes! You are going the right way for you."

Isn't it wonderful that spirit gives us this simple, yet profound, inner guidance to point the way?

Yet, many people ignore these road signs, preferring to avoid the misery with various addictions, anesthetics and medications. How strange that we have learned to ignore these blaring signs!

I have learned to completely trust my feelings of joy and misery. I know that my misery is clearly telling me I’m off track in my thinking or behavior. This is when I do Inner Bonding to learn what is true. My joy points the way toward my highest good and true life path. I've found these road signs to be infallible.

Finding Your True Life Path

When the people I work with learn to trust and follow their bliss, they ALWAYS eventually discover their true life path, because this is the way we are wired. We are NOT dropped on the planet to blindly find our way!

When I work with someone, I listen closely when I hear them say what they love doing. Often, when I say something like, "This is the first time I've ever heard you say that you love doing something," they discount it. Perhaps they think it's not important – maybe because the thing they love doing, the thing they are passionate about, is easy for them. Many of us have been programmed to believe that what comes easily doesn't have value. Yet the exact opposite is often true. It's what you love doing and are passionate about - which sometimes comes easily and naturally, and sometimes involves hard work and persistence - that is most likely your true life path. As Joseph Campbell said, it "has been there all the while, waiting for you…"

The reason so many people are lost regarding their true life path is because they have learned to avoid feeling their feelings. I find this incredibly sad. When I hear about people avoiding their feelings with alcohol, drugs, food, medication, TV, sex, work, gambling, spending, staying in their head, judging themselves or getting angry and blaming others, I feel so sad that they are bypassing the very feelings that could point the way toward their true life calling. By avoiding feelings, our society has gotten disconnected from the very information that helps us to stay on track.

By following your bliss -that which brings you joy and delight - and by noticing your misery, you will find your way to your true life purpose: to what you came to the planet to express.

Join Dr. Margaret Paul for her 30-Day At-home experience: Passionate Purpose, Vibrant Health! Discover your passionate purpose, enhance your creativity, and create a joyful, vibrantly healthy life!

Image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay