Between the gluten free, GMO, organic, farm-raised, vegan, vegetarian, fruitarian, super tips to tighten-our-butt-and-free-our-mind-donate $5-have-a-freer-soul-plans, I personally am a little overwhelmed at all the information coming our way at the available options to take when it comes to making transformative changes in our lives.
The good news is that in our sensory and information overload market, transformative change doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. Transformative change has nothing to do with the details and everything to do with small committed shifts in our lives.
The most important thing to take away from connecting to our bliss is learning how to make one small shift in our awareness every day. That’s it. Just one small shift in perspective. Every day. That one committed change equals huge health and wellness benefits for a balanced mind, body, and spirit.
I’ve put together a list of 5 things that will help guide you to connect to your bliss for a blissfully filled life. If you were to do anything to take steps in transformation, this list is it. The details will follow. Just follow the guidelines a little bit each day and you will soon see transformation taking place in your life.
Why listen to me anyway? Who the heck am I? I speak from experience. You want evidence? You want research? Well, I’m your case study. I walked out of the realms of hell and terror on this earth, turned that energy against itself, and came out living my bliss in light and love.
And how did I do that you may wonder? Well, as you might have guessed by now I taught myself, along with divine guidance and having the support of awesome people in my life, how to change the energy of my being within and without. It was a lot of autodidacticism (intense self-learning). And I did that by making small committed shifts in my life. The very ones I am gifting to you. These guidelines are my life guidelines. I follow them every single day. And as a mom, I teach my son the same guidelines.
Our transformative journeys will be and look different because we have so many dynamic variables that make us the diverse beauty of who we are individually and collectively in any given moment, but these tips are our strong foundation. They are our roots to grow from that will propel us forward in boundless transformation.
So here they are. Get busy living. And not just living, but living blissfully. Remember, following these 5 tips doesn’t mean investigating every aspect of every detail of every tip every day. Choose 1 tip and incorporate it into your daily life. Make one small shift at a time until it becomes a natural, positive, healthy habit. Once you’ve established one small habit, then incorporate another along those same principles.
When you have established all of the 5 guidelines in your daily routine, you will have a strong foundation to connect to your bliss for a blissfully filled life. Remember, bliss isn’t perfection. And, bliss doesn’t generate happiness in every moment. Bliss is a state of balance that can thrive in happy and unhappy moments. Bliss happens when we learn how to change the energy within our being and without.
When we establish these principles in our life, we embody vital tools that help us navigate life’s chaos. These tips guide us to relate to and take action in a chaotic world beautifully. As we navigate and relate to our crazy world in this way, we ignite our bliss and naturally start living a blissfully filled life from the inside out. And our small shifts every day, become huge benefits for mind, body, and breath. We transform little by little and become a glow in our flow of the world. And who knows, you just might inspire others to connect to their bliss. And what a beautiful thing that is.
- Intention Setting
We make lists all the time – to-do, grocery, shopping, honey-do, etc. The intent list is the most important list we will ever make for ourselves. It’s our internal treasure map. Don’t leave home without it. This list sets the tone and energy of our day. It literally changes us. It’s biologically proven – intention setting changes our gene expression. Don’t we all want to be our very best selves? Well, this is where we start. Intention setting is self-love. It’s our daily affirmation. It’s our personal internal project list with the highest priority.
For example, if you have a lot of change going on, sit down for a minute, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and silently say to yourself “I accept the changes in my life with ease and love.” This may be an intent you say every day until you internally become comfortable and much less anxious about the changes. Whatever you do, stick with your intention setting every day. You can do this anywhere and it only takes a minute. The power of intent is huge. It will change your life.
- Drink Something Nourishing
We don’t have to convert to a veghead to reap the benefits of drinking something nourishing every day. Beet and spinach liquefied into a colorful earthly explosion might not suit your palette and that’s ok. Perhaps for you it’s a cup of hot or iced cold nourishing tea – green, herbal, black, with little or no sugar, or a natural sugar alternative. Maybe you prefer fresh fruit and water. Or perhaps you prefer a banana protein smoothie. There are tons of options that don’t have you hold down your nose while the vitabliss goes down the hatch. The key to drinking something nourishing every day is to find the healthy thing that you like and build slowly from there.
If you like tea, but put too much sweetener in it and you x out the amazing antioxidant benefits and healing properties from the sugar over load, then start off slow and use a natural sweetener variety a little at a time, or perhaps one day you may not even need/want sweetener. The point is to slowly let go of sugared down drinks (including alcohol here) and processed ingredients in your liquids. Build your own smoothie with a base you like. Start from there and slowly acclimate yourself and your palette to the new tastes.
The key here too is simple. Make it simple. When we get too complicated, we don’t stick with it. If you freak out over smoothie love, then start with basics and a childhood favorite of bananas and peanut butter, add some liquid such as coconut water, milk of your favorite variety, ice and blend. Then create more from this basic nourishing blend.
Commit to one healthy drink a day other than plain water. Water is great, but living a blissful life is also about adding the right amount and right kind of spicy flair to our lives. A nourishing drink does wonders for the mind, body, and spirit.
- Eat Something Nourishing
How can we live our bliss if we feed our bodies processed chemicals that make us hyper-emotional, tired, and bloated? We can’t! Bet we don’t have to instantly convert to a vegan diet to feel good and live good. Find one meal a day, whether a main meal or a snack, and replace it with something nourishing. Remember, one small shift. Love to snack? Learn to love snacking on raw fruit, nuts, protein/raw food bars, etc. Whole foods will give you the ultimate fuel and sustain your energy. Raw food eating may sound boring and scary, but it can be an explosive painting for our sometimes stubborn afraid-of-change palette. Add some raw veggies to your sandwich, beans, legumes, soup, or anything you think may be good with an extra veggie crunch.
When our bodies are nourished naturally, we heal internally in profound ways and we will have sustainable energy. This is the perfect recipe to act from a place of love and live our bliss each day. Start small. One small shift in whole foods eating each day will bring profound healing benefits to mind, body, spirit.
- Move the Body
Neuroscientists confirm that 80-90% of our brain cells are coded for movement. We are not born couch potatoes! Our bodies are made to move and they are made to move every day. While our bodies are made to move, commitments to marathons or other heavy endurance type exercise regimens do not necessarily mean bigger benefits. The latest research suggests that all we need to do is move our bodies for 30 minutes a day to reap the mind, body, spirit benefits.
Seriously, check out the research by Dr. Mike Evan via YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo
So, yep, that’s it. We just need to move our bodies 30 minutes each day. The other great news too is that we can break that time up into increments throughout the day instead of one block of time. No 30 block of time on a crazy over scheduled day? Break your movement time up over a day by taking the stairs, parking far away from the store entrance, playing with kiddos, condensed yoga home practice style, etc., all count as movement towards better health. Do you sit in an office all day? Get up every hour and take a walk around the office or learn some office yoga! There are so many possibilities to easily incorporate movement into our daily life without taking 2 hour training runs or spending a lot of time at the gym.
We must work our heart and flush out the toxic emotions and junk that gets stuck in our bodies. When we move our bodies, our minds and our spirits are happy. We clear blocked energy channels in the body when we move and work the kinks out. Our minds/bodies then communicate efficiently and effectively, which gives us clear channels to connect to spaciousness where our spirits can thrive, know, and grow.
- Self-Enrichment
Once we have our to-do list aka as our daily intention (remember this is our internal treasure map) we set the platform to make small shifts in eating and drinking nourishing things, which in turn gives us the fuel and desire to move our bodies. When the mind-body-spirit pathways are clear, we now have the spaciousness to create. Creativity can be manifested in a lot of different ways. Read a new book, take up a new art, craft, activity, or sport. Learn how to garden, paint, or make the best smoothies ever! We are creative creatures when our life channels are balanced.
Make small shifts. Perhaps you will be inspired by what you are making or researching and that energy in the making will lead you to a new creative endeavor. When we are balanced and open, our creativity will surge. We must invest in enriching ourselves. When we don’t water our plants, they die! We must water and feed our internal landscapes. Self-enrichment is pivotal. TV, social media, and video games will not nourish us. They are distractions. Sometimes small distractions are nice, but distractions can suck our nourishment away. Reading, writing, journaling, making smoothies, healthy food, gardening, and painting are all great nourishing activities. There’s a host of other possibilities. Social neuroscience research also provides evidence that self-enrichment helps grow neural pathways and build up strong hub-like neural networks so our brains actually will start functioning and processing at greater speeds and efficiency. When are brains our happy, our bodies are happy, and our spirits are happy.
Remember when you follow these guidelines that bliss isn’t perfection. It isn’t about living in the Bahamas or a pain free world either. Living our bliss is when our mind, body, and spirits are in balance, and we navigate the chaotic beauty of this world with a love that takes action instead of crumbling into reactive self-destruction. In this balance, we find and open the creative reservoirs within. When we discover that love reservoir within and act from that place, that’s what I like to call blissful action. All it takes is one small shift every single day for the rest of our life. One small committed shift every day. That’s it. Take these tips and run in love with them. Make them true for you. Grow with them.
Take some blissful action, add a little more blissful spice and dice into your life. Just roll with it, but roll with it with intention and a balanced base. Now, go, count 5 daily and get your bliss on. I’ll see ya around enjoying my own blissicle and welcoming your blissfully awesome company.
Om Shanti Om ~ Athea
