bliss

The Art of Blissful Breaks. Gidget Needs No Reminder.

Posted by Barbara Techel
The Art of Blissful Breaks. Gidget Needs No Reminder.
Blissful Gidget

After a meeting via a video call with a friend/colleague discussing a potential collaboration on a future workshop, it was time to take a break.

In the past I’ve driven myself to the point of burning out a few times. It’s not a place I wish to find myself again. While I still have tendencies to push myself, I’m much more aware, and realize it sooner rather than later more often than not.

I remind myself that not everything needs to be done in one day…that pausing and moving away from the computer will benefit my work when I return to it again. See? I too am truly a work in progress and continue to practice what it is that I guide and empower other women to do…and the importance of pausing, listening and capturing what matters.

What matters isn’t only in the big things of life. But it’s in the small things too. It’s recognizing that time away from the computer screen is vital to my well-being. While I’m not a fan of the word balance, I often gravitate to the word flow. For me, it feels in alignment with following the flow of your souls wishes for the big things, and for the small.

I enjoyed myself immensely in my discussion with my friend/colleague this morning, but also recognized it was time to move away to something that didn’t require so much of my mental energy.

With the sun shining I decided to work on the high-top table on my deck. I gathered together my bullet journal, some pens, gelatos (not the Italian ice cream – though that would have been yummy (!) – but rather a creamy crayon for creative projects), scissors, glue, and an image of an owl. It was time to create my calendar for July. 

A few months ago I set the intention to have more creative outlets that take me away from the screen of my computer. I remember hearing someone via a podcast talk about how she has a separate digital desk and analog desk. I liked that idea! So after a writing session or other work tasks I’ve completed, I’ll sometimes turn my chair around now and work on an art journal page, or as in today’s case, create my July spread for my bullet journal.

As I got lost in cutting out the owl for July, which by the way is the animal that swoops in as my ally for the month from a reading I had done in January, I glanced down to notice Gidget lying peacefully next to me.

As I was lost in my bliss of this creative spot in my day, so was Gidget, lost in her bliss enjoying the summer breeze and the warm sun, I had a moment of lovely reflection. It’s something that has been coming up for me often the last few weeks and how sweet this summer has been with her. Different, in a beautiful way- more expanded – in many ways than summers before.

It’s in large part due to me, I know, as I worked through some deep inner work late winter/early Spring. While that inner work was painful and difficult in many ways, I’m continually reminded now of how grateful I am that I opened to doing the work that needed to be done. Gidget was so often a reflection for me, even though I couldn’t quite grasp it in the thick of the emotional downpour.

There is a new depth to our bond that may have not otherwise made itself known had I not heeded the messages I was receiving from her, or the signs all around me. So while I got lost in the bliss of creativity this afternoon, I also melted into the bliss that this one said little dog has opened in me, too.

Wishing you many blissful moments, too!

XO,

Barbara

Bliss. How Do We Get It and Keep It?

Posted by Barbara Techel

Photo courtesy of Flickr 

My yogi tea bag saying this morning says:  “Bliss is a constant state of mind, undisturbed by gain or loss.”   I love the sayings I find on my tea bag each morning.  They always make me think.

Bliss, like choices, yes, I do believe are a state of mind. We have a choice to live in bliss, no matter what may be going on in our lives. But how challenging that is at times, right?  I know for me, someone who for the past five years has really talked the talk of being positive with my wheelie side kick, Frankie, this is something I’ve tried hard to to not only talk, but also walk.

I’ll admit this summer was a bit of a challenge for me with being positive despite losing Frankie. I found myself swallowing the grief many times, continuing to put on my happy, blissful, positive face, even when I wanted to just lay down and cry. I didn’t want to be happy. I wanted to wallow in the depths of losing Frankie- the little being who filled my everyday with such amazing love and joy. I didn’t want to be in bliss.  I wanted to feel sorry for myself and crawl into a hole and never come out again. I wanted to feel sorry for what ended and not have hope for what might be. All I wanted was to have Frankie back again. Then my life would be complete once again.

But I knew I couldn’t stay there- and many days, even though I had days of wanting to just live in the pain and let it take me away, I also wanted to find my way back to my bliss.  I read a book a few weeks ago that talks about grief in one of the most honest ways I’ve ever read. The book is called, “This I know- notes on unraveling the heart”  by Susannah Conway. It is the book chosen for the Creative Book Salon I am in which writing coach, Cynthia Morris leads each month.  Susannah says in her book, “You don’t get over grief- you move through it as you learn to live with the loss. You have to learn to swim with it.”

So that is what I did this summer, I learned to move through it, to accept that yes, my life is now changed because Frankie is gone. I learned to swim.

Another thing she said which I found so profound was this, “Each person experiences grief in their own individual way. And though I have often thought that to lose a child would be the most devastating loss of all, there is no hierarchy to grief—only we can know the pain we feel and what we have lost.”  I can’t even begin to express what this meant to me to read this. Even though I know losing an animal is just as hard as losing a human for many, sometimes harder, I still can find myself not expressing my loss around those who may not understand for fear of judgement.  But I appreciated how Susannah seems to give permission to dealing with any type of loss and doing it in our own way.

This brings me full circle back to bliss- a state of mind.  Susannah lost the love of her life and she spiraled down to the deepest depths of her soul– only to come out finding a new bliss, trusting that it was there all along—that she would find her way back to it.  Bliss, always there, no matter what gain or loss we have– we just have to make the conscious choice to choose it.  And when our mind can’t even begin to grasp it during dark days–  we can trust that we can have bliss back in the simple act of choosing our thought to be just that.