7 Less-Discussed Ways to Cultivate Your Bliss

You’re at the ma & pop diner down the street with your loved ones, but you feel your eyes glazing over, barely enough energy to listen to the conversation.

You work all day to go home in exhaustion. You want to exercise and cook dinner the way you used to, but for some reason, you’re just feeling uninspired.

You’re normally a happy-go-lucky, ambitious, outgoing person, so why are you feeling so detached?

More importantly, how do you get it back?

1. Inspire awe into your everyday life.

When was the last time you experienced something and felt so small that the vastness of the world stifled you into a tantalizing stillness? It’s probably been awhile.

Awe pulls you immediately and magnetically to the present moment, and you need that to feel connected. You can find awe in the tiniest of places, you just have to know where to look.

A great way to do this is to experience something or travel somewhere new — but we can’t all do that. Try something smaller: go for an awe-walk in nature; or meditate or write a descriptive story on the last time you experienced it.

2. Find a healthy outlet for your stress, and use it.

It’s very possible that you don’t know how to alleviate stress. High levels of cortisol (AKA the Stress Hormone) can cause changes in mood, blood sugar, and libido (among other things).

Sound like you? Lower your cortisol! The options here are endless, but it might take you getting up off the couch. Relaxing isn’t always as simple as that — relaxing has to be catered to yourself.

Pet a dog, bring plants into your home, or get out in nature and exercise. Sleeping away or letting your eyes glaze over behind the TV aren’t fix-all approaches.

3. Discover and ground yourself in the present moment to feel more connected.

You regret the past and you worry for the future so much that you forget the present moment. How can you feel connected to your environment without even seeing it?

The only time you need to think about the past is when you need to call upon your experience to make an educated decision. And, if you’re thinking about the future, your actions right now are the things that will affect it.

Tune in. What’s going on right here, right now? Wiggle your toes, feel the air fill your lungs. Listen to the birds and feel the breeze on your face. There’s blood rushing around under your skin — find it.

4. Replace situations that no longer serve you with situations that do.

Explore the things in your life that cultivate joy and find the things that inhibit it. This can be a little bit difficult, but you can do it Marie Kondo style if you’d like.

Look at your job and ask yourself if you enjoy it, or if you dread waking up and going in every day. If you dread it, then damn it, find a way to get a different job. You can do it! You’re not stuck.

Then look at your significant other. Do they contribute to your happiness, or do they constantly inhibit it? If they constantly inhibit it or you find yourself in a bad situation, leave it. You are NOT stuck. You can do this for any and everything in your life, and you should.

5. Discover what problems you ENJOY solving, and make those your problems.

There will always be problems, but if you enjoy solving yours, how can you ever be unhappy? Problems can be looked at as nuisances, or (if we know how), we can use them to our advantage.

If you enjoy solving the problems in your life, you can experience an extensive amount, build self confidence, and gain the respect and trust of others.

For example: you like horses, so maybe you’d enjoy teaching therapeutic riding. The problems you solve would be related primarily to horses and would contribute to the well being and happiness of people around you, further enhancing your self esteem while gaining trust and respect from others.

6. Create a safe space where you can be yourself.

Bliss can come from attaining a totally authentic persona: one that you’re proud of and honest with yourself about. It’s hard to do this in front of yourself at first, let alone the rest of the world.

To help that process, create a space that is 100% your own. It could be an entire room or a corner of a room. Hang up some string lights or put up a tapestry; hang some of your artwork or other work that inspires you; maybe create a vision board.

Whether it be outdoors or in your home, make a place where you can be completely, apologetically yourself, and visit it frequently. Become comfortable with all that you are. Baby steps are OK, I promise. :)

7. Help someone else to better understand yourself and the world.

Exploring the needs of others can help you understand your own. In the end, we’re all connected, and if we’re contributing to the bliss of the world, we’re contributing to our own bliss and vise versa.

Help a friend move, or actively listen to the stranger in the supermarket. Extending a helping hand or offering a shoulder to cry on goes a long way in feeling like you’re contributing.

When we feel like we’re contributing, we feel like we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves. When we feel smaller, yet somehow more confident, we inspire within ourselves little sparks of awe and bliss.

Practice these everyday, and this holiday season, you’ll be ready to kick back and connect with the ones you love.

While sitting around the dinner table, you’ll find yourself able to effortlessly join in, contribute, and laugh again, the way you’ve been missing.

Your significant other will thank you for creating happiness for yourself and not expecting them to do it for you (or, if you don’t have one, they may just appear).

Keep yourself busy with the things that make you happy and all the rest will fall into place.

Go get happy, chief. This is your rodeo.