“To laugh often, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bliss can also be created by choosing to expose yourself to healing vibrational experiences: translation, your favorite music. Research has shown that when we listen to music of our choice, we release more endorphins and experience greater clarity, less confusion and increased well-being. Beside being soothing to our cells, vibrationally, the music forces us to be in the moment, distracting us from focusing on what would cause us further suffering. The result: bliss!

Be sure to consider other types of vibrational sounds on which you can focus. Bliss can be the result of listening to comedy that causes you to laugh heartily. Norman Cousins was one of the first to write about the power of laughter to ease pain and expedite healing, leading to bliss.

Bliss can be evoked even through journaling which uses the powerful tools of imagery and visualization. Make it a practice to write ten to fifteen minutes or more daily and allow yourself to write about something you intend to create, be it your dream job, spouse, family, home or your world. Being fully in the Now as you write, use all your senses to imagine what you want in the future as actually occurring in the Moment. Feel the joy of this and the vibration of this will move through every cell of your being, filling you with pure bliss! And, what is lovely, is that this process enables you to manifest your dreams.

Bliss comes when you give yourself permission to do something you enjoy and about which you are passionate, but which you do not do often, if ever! Taking time to go to a concert, meeting a friend for coffee, driving to the mountains or to the beach to visit friends, shopping, taking a course, learning to play an instrument, taking a luxurious hot bath or getting a massage are some examples.

One of the most assured ways of experiencing bliss is knowing you are making a difference in the life of another. Choosing to be of service by volunteering your time, effort and energy  results in the release of endorphins, making you feel gratified and valued. Consider learning a healing modality, such as Reiki, and using this not only on yourself, but on your pets, as well as family members. You may wish to receive certification in a healing modality and choose to use this as a way you can help others to heal.

Finally, bliss is often the described state of taking time daily or whenever possible to experience going deep within you, into the stillness of your soul. You can do this by learning to focus on your breath, praying, meditating, doing yoga, qui gong and/or tai chi, Engaging in any one of these activities enables you to connect with your intuitive wisdom, which, in turn, connects you with your Higher Power and the recognition that you are a being of Love, worthy of being loved.
Bliss is Love, be it the love you feel for your most significant other, that is, you, or the love you feel for another. May your life be filled with only bliss.

Susan Barbara Apollon
Author of “Touched By The Extraordinary”

©Copyright 2008 Susan Barbara Apollon

"You can do nothing to inspire the person in front of you, if you do not inspire yourself first.”… Sogyal Rinpoche

“I can roll up in a ball and cry…or I can sow some nets. I choose to sow some nets in the time I have”…Randy Pausch

How amazing you are! It is the choices you make that determine your bliss, joy, peace and even contribute to your being aware of how connected you are to your Higher Power, whoever and whatever that may be. This is real Power! And you were born with the intuitive wisdom to do whatever is necessary to find your bliss.

Though you were born feeling and knowing this bliss, life being what it is, this knowing is something you tend to forget. It becomes part of your life’s journey to realize  - or remember - that you are entitled to live in bliss – and that it is all an inside job! There is nothing outside of you that determines whether you are happy or peaceful. It must come from within.

What is bliss, after all? Personally, being in bliss is my awareness of overwhelming peace, joy and well being, as though I am connected to All That Is. It is not unlike what athletes call “being in the zone,” or making love, or successful meditation, or simply being still. Bliss can be the feeling you may experience when you are in the park on a beautiful fall day, on the beach listening to the soothing sounds of the waves, or listening to your favorite music while on a drive in your car or even seated in your special chair at home.

Remember the moment you held your newborn or your first puppy or kitten and how you felt? That is bliss! You were totally in the present moment, enjoying the experience you were having. Perhaps you can recall the first time you traveled somewhere that you had longed dreamed about?  Or remember that moment you experienced winning a competition for which you had long been preparing? That, too, is bliss.

Of course, when things are going well, it is easier to feel bliss. But, when your outside world feels as though it is falling apart, such as dealing with the impact of the recent financial crises, the loss of a loved one or receiving upsetting news about someone or something about which you deeply care, you can and you must, eventually, find your sense of bliss, peace and well-being by connecting you with the core of your being.

You really do have the power to create your bliss via the choices you make and the image, person or thought on which you choose to focus. We have extensive research to validate that when you focus on your fears, worries, tragedies, anticipated problems and losses, you create an inner state of suffering. Yes, suffering.  And, when you choose to focus on what feels good, you feel good!

Please, do not misunderstand. Life is what it is. There are going to be curve balls; there will be events and occurrences which result in pain and suffering. But, there needs to be balance. In  time, you need to re-create a dominance of feelings of well-being and bliss.  This comes by the choice you make about your mental images and thoughts. Choose carefully! 

Susan Barbara Apollon
Author of “Touched By The Extraordinary”

©Copyright 2008 Susan Barbara Apollon

“The secret is to go with the mystery… When the situation does not make sense,, a larger overall message may appear if you let it unfold naturally.” Judith Orloff, MD

So many of us like to think that mind, body and spirit are separate entities; truthfully, as a psychologist who works with the ill and the dying, I now recognize that experiencing any kind of physical distress impacts you emotionally, mentally and spiritually. More than two decades of working with patients has shown me that mind, body and spirit are one. Furthermore, you can enable healing on all three levels by choosing to allow the extraordinary into your life.

Before going further, let us first define the word extraordinary. According to the Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary (Random House), extraordinary is “beyond what is usual, regular or ordinary” and “exceptional to a high degree and remarkable.”

Next, we need to define heal and healing. According to the dictionary, heal is “to make whole, sound, or well; bring back to health; cure.” Healing is “that which heals or cures” as well as “getting well” and “the act of a person or thing that heals.”

Let’s put this together. You are extraordinary (meaning you are exceptional and remarkable); you were born extraordinary, though most of us tend to forget who we are, including the power with which we were born, and why we are here. Forgetting or disconnecting from your natural, inherent power leads to being off balance and feeling incomplete, not whole or well and in need of healing ( to be made whole and balanced).

By permitting yourself to be open to such remarkable and unusual experiences, you are connecting not only with your own wisdom, but with that of the Universe, and, in so doing, you are aligning with the powers of your own inherent intuitive knowing and your own Consciousness or Mind. This means that you can reclaim the power with which you were born, a power which may be forgotten but which is familiar to your whole being and which enables healing (ie .or the restoration of balance, harmony and wholeness) to occur.

For example, consider the following synchronicity: You are concerned about some health issue and intuitively feel there may be a health issue which you feel may need to be checked out. You then happen to be in a library or bookstore when a book falls off the shelf. As you pick it up, you notice that the page to which it opened is one which discusses the very matter about which you have concerns.

It behooves you at this point to consider the possibility of an alignment of your intuitive wisdom with the wisdom of your Higher Power or that of the Universe. This might then lead you to then considering the possibility that the extraordinary might help speed your healing– if you choose to listen to the message. On some level, you (i.e. the power of your thoughts and your intentions) contributed to that book falling from the shelf into your path.

Keep in mind that among your blessings is the fact that you live in an age in which you have scientific and technological advances providing you with powerful medicines and a variety of other kinds of healing aids or support. Yet, even with such strength coming from your physical world, it is your natural-born resources, historically used by shamans and healers, which enable true healing to occur; that is healing at your core and a healing which permeates every aspect of you, including your mind or consciousness, your physical body and your spirit or soul.(TO BE CONTINUED)

Susan Barbara Apollon
Author of “Touched By The Extraordinary”

©Copyright 2008 Susan Barbara Apollon