Follow Your Bliss

“Follow your bliss.”

It’s a saying coined by one of the most intuitive minds of the twentieth century, Joseph Campbell.

If you haven’t heard of my friend Joseph, you need to go watch The Power of Myth. Right. Now.

Okay, fine. Maybe you don’t have time (cough cough MAKE TIME), so let me provide you with a much too simplified summary:

Joseph was a literary anthropologist, so to speak, who spent his life researching myths throughout human history. After decades of research of countless religions and cultures, he found a common thread of what it means to be human throughout every story, every age, every religion, everywhere.

And what was that common thread? Our drive to see beyond what’s in front of us. To connect the dots between humanity’s past, present, and future. To tap into that timeless, shared essence of what it means to be a cell in the larger body of the human race.

And how does humanity articulate such a non-something? Through the metaphors found in myths. Usually, it’s the story of a person who suffers, experiences something eternal, and returns with a gift to society: knowledge, freedom, love, etc.

Sure, that’s great for a story, but how does it pertain to real life? He proposed that you, too, could tap into this common thread and bring back a “gift” by simply (can you guess?)… following your bliss.

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

Sure, some would argue that following one’s bliss would set people in paths of opposition to one another. I may not be a religious woman, but I believe in the inherent goodness of people and their intentions, once you strip all the cultural negativity away (often religion included).

Wouldn’t it be nice if it could be so simple? Three little words to live by, for everyone, regardless of age, race, creed, or religion. Three little words to guide your epic life story.

What gift could you bring back for the rest of us?