It is said that to be human is to suffer, and yes this world can be a painful, harsh place.  It is the way you look at things that dictates the circumstances surrounding your life and the way you perceive the world.  Contentment comes from within, and no amount of searching or material gain will lead you to happiness. 

Letting the stress of unplanned or unwanted events influence the way you react to and view the world will always led to turmoil.  Living with a mind-set of negativity and fear will blind you to the miraculous flow of bliss, which is within and around you always.

Every day, I witness people leading chaotic lifestyles, responding like robots to the circumstances of their lives, creating more dissonance and conflict.  They seek solace in the next best thing, person or position they can find, but always end up frustrated and wondering why they are not truly happy.  It is a conundrum of sorts. Sadly, it is self-perpetuating. Stress, negativity and unpleasant reactions to everyday situations only beget more of the same experiences on a deeper level.  This, of course, creates undue stress on your body, mind and spirit.  This is not blissful living.

Why is it that so many people only see the negative side of our surroundings and situations, while some look upon life with optimism and zeal? What separates those who live happy, harmonious lives from others who exist in discord?

Connecting with the bliss of life is a choice you can make right away.  I’m not going to tell you, “Just say ‘no’ to suffering.”  We will all experience suffering at some point in our lives.  I’m not going to tell you to, “Just take the bad with the good.”  Life can be better than that.  Instead, I’m going to show you how to make it all good, to minimize suffering and easily access bliss.  When you have learned to do this, your life will be nothing less than amazing.

The lessons in Connecting with the Bliss of Life can help lead you to that tranquil, harmonious state we all desire by helping you recognize and move beyond negative and fearful thinking. Learn how to bid farewell to the stress and frustration in your life and recapture that childish joy and enthusiasm you once lived with.  The key to change is within you. Know you have the power, through choice and intention, to live a harmonious and joy-filled life.  Bliss is nothing more than happiness in its highest form.  Isn’t that what we all strive for: happiness? 

The bliss of life surrounds us every moment of every day.   Bliss is not something that needs to be attained through deed, service or achievement.  You do not have to work to attain a state of bliss in your life.  It has nothing to do with whether you feel deserving of happiness or if blissful living is something you are worthy of.  You may not be perfect, but as a human being, you are the most treasured thing in the world.  Because you exist, without doing anything at all, you deserve bliss.  You deserve bliss because of nothing you have done or not done, nor because of who you think you are or are not.  You deserve it because you are alive. Blissfulness is free for the taking for all those who consciously and deliberately choose it. 

            I spent the better part of twenty years frustrated and unhappy with my life.  Although I accomplished much more than I could ever have imagined possible, I still lived in a state of dissatisfaction.  One would think being a Navy SEAL (the elite special warfare unit) would have been the pinnacle of my life, but I looked upon my military profession with disdain. Then I was living my childhood dream, playing guitar in a rock band, but irritability and aggravation were the mood of that environment.  Years later, while running my scuba diving company, a day job that many people envied, I felt only petulance and exasperation.  I dated many great women from all walks of life, but all my relationships ended in disaster.  I moved from state to state, career to career and woman to woman, with no psychological or emotional liberation.  I felt lost and I was suffering.  I was wasting this precious life and something had to change.  And one day, it did.

I often hiked to help temporarily alleviate the stress in my life.  Being in the mountains took me to another place where I could, if only for a short time, escape the turmoil of my life.  Waking up one morning angrier and more stressed than usual, I decided to forego work and hike a mountain near my home.   As I stomped my way to the top, each footstep reverberated with anger.  Hiking always helped relieve my anxiety, but I was finding little release this day.  I knew I could not go on living like this.  I had to figure something out, and fast.  For almost a decade now, I was unhappy and frustrated with wherever I was and with whatever I was doing.  I knew my own choices had brought me to where I was, but that only made me feel worse.  I had made the choices, so I must have deserved to feel that way.  Despite my best efforts, I was not where I thought I would be.  My business was extremely time-consuming and stressful, money always seemed short, my relationships were disastrous and I felt utterly alone in the world. 

When I reached the summit, I found a quiet place to sit and think.  I looked out and took in the beauty of the mountains and lakes.  The warm summer breeze felt good on my face, and the many sounds of nature slightly quieted my mind and eased my tension.  Exhausted, I lay back on a huge boulder to relax.  I felt helpless and I prayed for an answer to come my way.   My head was pounding so I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.  I woke about forty minutes later, feeling kind of strange.  As I refocused my vision out over the breathtaking landscape, everything seemed surreal.  It was so quiet, peaceful and unaffected by the chaotic state of the world.  It was as if my worries and frustration were still sleeping.  For a moment I thought perhaps I was just dreaming, but I was not.  I wondered why life could not be this peaceful all the time.  I took a deep breath and felt myself expanding into the vastness of the mountains.  For the moment, I was on top of the world. Anything seemed feasible, and my mind was open to all the amazing possibilities of what I could do and be.  I was elated—in a pure state of momentary ecstasy.  If only it could last.

As I sat relishing the moment, I had what some might call an epiphany.  I realized that all my problems were still waiting for me at the bottom of this mountain.  Nothing had changed, yet something seemed very different.  Why was I so happy here and now on the top of this mountain, but not happy at the bottom? 

I sat thinking about this for a while, and then something occurred to me. I had heard it many times before, but never really grasped the concept.  Bliss is a state of mind—a choice, a simple choice.  While in sleeping meditation on the mountain, I had unconsciously connected with the flowing bliss of life.  What if I actively chose to stay in this state as I hiked down the trail?  Would it work, could it work?  I decided to try.  I figured if I could mentally bring myself back to this spot whenever I began to feel stressed or overwhelmed, I could reconnect with that feeling of bliss. 

Before I left the serene summit for the turbid waters of normal life, I captured the essence of the moment in my head.  I took a mental snapshot of the scenery, the smells, the sounds, and how I felt at that moment in time—empty of stress, full of peace.  What I did next was the key to my success:  in my mind, I created a Bliss Box—a special gold box for that moment to exist.  In it, I put the embodiment of everything that helped to create the perfect peace I felt.  I tied up the box with a gold ribbon and placed it on a storage shelf in my mind.  I knew I could count on opening it later, and in the days that followed I was thoroughly amazed to find how well my Bliss Box worked. 

A few days later, I got a call on my cell phone from an employee who worked at my scuba diving shop.  I was immediately annoyed.  Employees were only supposed to dial my cell phone in an emergency.  “Sorry to call you, but, um, I have a problem,” he said.  I became even more irritated. I could hear a man in the background yelling and swearing.  “I’ve got this guy here who says he’s going to hurt me if I don’t give him a new tank.  I did a visual inspection of his tank and it failed.”  We only fail diving tanks if there is a serious safety issue that could endanger customers and employees. These tanks are filled with 3000psi.  That’s over a million foot-pounds of kinetic energy.  If a tank ruptures, people will die.  We don’t take chances when it comes to safety. 

As I listened, the man proceeded to push my employee onto the floor and demanded reimbursement for his failed cylinder.  I hollered for my employee to call 911, and then my cell phone failed.  I was helpless. I was worried about my employee and about the store. The entire situation made me very angry and my blood was starting to boil.  I felt my old SEAL mentality creeping up, and I knew that was extremely dangerous for everyone involved.  As a former member of the elite military anti-terrorism unit and a black belt in several martial arts, I was more than able to deal with this problem.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reached for my Bliss Box.  As I exhaled, I mentally untied the ribbon and removed the lid.   I saw the mountains, smelled the pine and the rock moss, and heard the wind and the birds.  I tried to remember how I felt there, to recall the peacefulness, the bliss.  It worked. I instantly began to feel calmer.  With that calmness, my thoughts became clearer.  Instead of throwing my phone, running angrily to my truck and speeding to the store as I once would have, I calmly but quickly walked to a place where my phone worked, and called 911.  When I finally arrived at the dive shop, the police were there and my employee and store were fine.  We both gave our accounts to the police officer who responded, and let the law handle the situation from there.

In the days that followed, I was thoroughly amazed to find that my Bliss Box experiment worked over and over again.  When I felt myself becoming irritable and flustered, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and opened my Bliss Box.  As I exhaled, I felt peacefulness within me.  I finished that week the happiest I had been in many years.  I began to touch on the secret of being blissful all the time.  Knowing I could choose my state of mind changed everything.  I quickly realized that, with practice, I could make my choice a habit.  From that day forth, I became a “bliss technician.” That is, I wanted to know and master all I could about living a more peaceful life. 

Connecting with bliss took lots of time, learning and practice.  It still takes daily active thought—but I am no longer a slave to stress and frustration.  I realized that most of my problems were caused by my own negative thinking patterns and destructive habits, which were brought on by my perceptions of how life should be.   Now, I have developed the habit of choosing positive thoughts and constructive reactions to the situations around me.  I wake up every day and intend to be happy.  I am only human, and far from perfect.  Choosing bliss is often a battle I lose, but I try to learn the lessons from the situations of my life and to be just a bit better than I was yesterday.  I live life to the fullest and to the best of my ability.  Now life is truly a grand adventure every day.

Know that you deserve bliss and allow yourself to move beyond negative and destructive habits.  They have never served you.  Make the choice to connect with bliss and live life as it should be: amazing.