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| Celebrating our Heart Bliss must be a Practice |
It's Sunita here.
If you've read even a few poems from my book Stripping, My Fight to Find Me, you know how depression, anxiety and feelings of hopelessness can take over the reality of life.
Having had a long history of living with the darkness of trauma, I know that joy can become not only elusive, but absent.
Further more, anyone who has suffered from mental illness or is caring for a loved one who is mentally ill may feel extreme guilt when feelings of happiness and joy knock at their mind's doorstep. So they do not open the door and remain sequestered with despair and loneliness.
What is bliss?
Well, it's a noun that means perfect happiness ; great joy.
Some synonyms for bliss are joy; happiness; pleasure; delight; ecstasy; elation; rapture; euphoria
Bliss is also a verb; to reach a state of perfect happiness so as to be oblivious of everything else
What brings you to a state of bliss? That is a very important question because it can help you counteract the hold that depression may have on you in addition to increasing the joy in your life.
What lights up the pleasure zones of your brain and brings you to a state of ecstasy where everything else around you and inside you becomes irrelevant at that moment of time?
I am a firm believer of writing things down as they come to you. So I actually have a running Bliss List on my phone. This way I remember what made me feel happy. And then, I plan to reproduce that feeling of pleasure and joy by doing what's on my list.
The operative word here is plan!
Especially if I am feeling blue. So instead of staying put on the quicksand of anxiety, I refer to my Bliss List and pick something that appeals to me and is readily available at that moment. And this changes the direction of the tide flow of my mood.
It is a conscious decision that is made with emotional precision. Because I have practiced making this choice thousands of times, and continue to practice choosing joy. At times, it is neither easy nor convenient. Going back to deeply embedded patterns of helplessness is still, despite my healing, never an option that is unavailable to me but suffering from the pain of that world has become unacceptable to me.
(Here I would like to clearly state that for some, major depression and mental illness could make it very hard, if not impossible to make such choices for a while. At that time, medical attention from a caring, competent and qualified professional/medication or both may very well be indicated. Please seek that care for yourself or a loved one and don't go at it alone)
The picture above is the inspiration for today's blog.
I took it to attach it with a note of thanks to a dear friend who had sent me these flowers and this beautiful card. When I looked at this photograph, I felt my heart expanding in a special way, which I recognized to be Heart Bliss. So I stopped to think about what caused me to feel that joy.
Well, the picture has 3 things from the Top 10 of my Heart Bliss List.
Books- I'm always reading at least 3-5 books and can't imagine a life without books
Flowers- I'm in love with every flower I've ever seen
Friendship card- I couldn't live without the deep connection I feel for those I love
So there it is!
I hope you will consider keeping a Bliss List tab.
I hope you will choose joy and hope over despair.
I hope you will remember the most important point of this blog.
That we must PRACTICE choosing bliss.
Every day, every hour and every moment...
Wishing you a blissful week,
Be well Do well Live well,
Sunita
#selloveselfcarefirst #jointhemovement
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