There are several definitions for the word paradise. The one we are going to focus on here is the following.
Paradise – a state of happiness or bliss
People love to create their own versions of paradise. They may aim to do this by creating a garden, room, book, relationship, community, work environment or another place.
Different people also have different time frames regarding paradise. These include the following.
Some see it as a place they experienced in the past – such having a wonderful childhood.
Some see it as the things they are able to do and experience in the present – such as the activities that give them positive energy.
Some see it as a place they aim to reach in the future – such as a promised land or a specific picture of success.
This section explores the second approach. Looking at the present, what are the activities when you experience a feeling of bliss? When do you get positive energy or a feeling of paradise?
Different people give different answers when exploring this theme. Here are some they mention.
Paradise for me is being able:
To feel in charge of my day … To spend time with our children … To encourage people … To do satisfying work … To design beautiful things … To do things I believe in … To pass on knowledge to people.
There are many views on how to appreciate life and help others. Sometimes such ideas are misunderstood or become cliches.
Joseph Campbell shared such an idea that has helped many people but also been misunderstood by others. He was often approached by individuals who wanted to feel more alive. He sometimes suggested that aim to:
Follow Your Bliss
Here is an excerpt from the Joseph Campbell Foundation website that explains this idea.
Joseph Campbell was a life-long student and teacher of the human spirit and mythology – not just the mythology of cultures long dead, but of living myth, as it made itself known in the work of modern artists and philosophers – individuals who searched within themselves and their societies to identify the need about which they were passionate.
He called this burning need that they sought to fulfill their bliss.
When Campbell died, just months after recording the interviews with Bill Moyers that were to become the PBS series The Power of Myth, he had no idea how these interviews, and, in particular, this idea of following one’s bliss would resonate with the public.
Within months of airing on PBS in the United States, the phrase “Follow Your Bliss” had become a catchphrase.
In 1990, the Joseph Campbell Foundation was created by Campbell’s colleagues and his widow, choreographer Jean Erdman.
Its mission was (and is) to keep Campbell’s work moving forward, helping people learn about myth, and its relationship to religion, art and psychology, and trying to help them follow their bliss.
Yet it is important to note that following one’s bliss, as Campbell saw it, isn’t merely a matter of doing whatever you like, and certainly not doing simply as you are told.
It is a matter of identifying that pursuit which you are truly passionate about and attempting to give yourself absolutely to it.
In so doing, you will find your fullest potential and serve your community to the greatest possible extent. Joseph explained this in the following way.
“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.
“Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.”
Maria Popova adds to this theme on her website The Marginalian. Here are excerpts from her piece on the topic.
How To Find Your Bliss: Joseph Campbell
On What It Takes To Have A Fulfilling Life
Discerning one’s bliss, Campbell argues, requires what he calls ‘sacred space’ – a space for uninterrupted reflection and unrushed creative work.
Far from a mystical idea, this is something that many artists and writers have put into practice by way of their peculiar work rituals as well as something cognitive science has illuminated in exploring the psychology of the perfect daily routine.
But Campbell sees past the practical rituals of creativity and into the deeper psychic and spiritual drivers – that profound need for a ‘bliss station’ into which to root ourselves.
Looking back on how he arrived at this notion of finding one’s bliss, Campbell touches on the crucial difference between religious faith and secular spirituality:
“The religious people tell us we really won’t experience bliss until we die and go to heaven. But I believe in having as much as you can of this experience while you are still alive.
“There’s something inside you that knows when you’re in the center, that knows when you’re on the beam or off the beam.
“And if you get off the beam to earn money, you’ve lost your life. And if you stay in the center and don’t get any money, you still have your bliss.”
Some people interpreted Campbell’s words as giving them permission to do whatever they wanted, whatever the cost. But another view of his message was:
Follow your bliss in a way that helps people and the planet.
Let’s return to your own life and a question we explored earlier. Looking at your present life, what are the activities where you may experience a sense of paradise?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to build on the sentence:
Paradise for me is when I am able to …
How can you continue and maybe even add to these things in future? What may happen as a result of taking these steps? What may be the pluses and minuses – for you and for other people? How can you build on the pluses and minimise any minuses?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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