The third Big Easy Bliss Commitment is Nature Appreciation.
Most people get that Yoga and Meditation is key to the Bliss Path. I see people all around the world practicing great yoga and meditation in beautiful yoga studios, which is great for body, mind and soul and it is part of the blissology path but to me the foundation for spirituality is Nature.
In fact, someone once asked me once, “You seem like a pretty spiritual person, what is the first spiritual experience you ever had?”
My first memory was being a small boy, looking up at the stars outside my house on the lake in Canada where I grew up. There were so many. Even at that age I was trying wrap my head around the size of the universe, the immense distances light travels, etc. To be honest, I still don’t fully grasp it. At one point, I have to submit to the fact that it is a mystery that my mind will never fully get.
What I do get is a sense of reverence, of awe and of wonder. I feel so small, but so lucky to be alive even for a second. Every moment is a precious gift. In other words, I am open to the Big Picture.
Spirituality is some elusive thing for most people. It can be something very lofty. Like you have to go to Church or Mecca or a shrine to feel it. Like when you get there, you will become enlightened and capable of levitation. Like only gurus or holy people can open the door.
I prefer to use the term, “mystical experience.” The mystical experience means we are open to the grand mystery of life. There is nothing lofty about it. So many questions that people debate and even in some cases fight wars over in the name of Religion fall away. Do we have an afterlife? I don’t know. Do we get reincarnated? I don’t know. Is there some omniscient being that knows that I feel this sense of mystery? I really can’t say… All I know is that this feeling of mystery lights me up and one of the best ways I know how to experience it is to walk into the forest or the beach and to start looking around and quietly feel the miracle of it all.
So many of us now live in cities. In fact, after 1996 we passed a point where more people live in cities than in the country. This means light pollution that blocks out the stars that opened me up to the mystery of life in the first place.
The point is even in cities, there are countless little mysteries of Nature that should be observed. When we make this a habit as per our Blissology Project Big Easy Bliss Commitment number three, we will see an amazing shift in our state of mind. When there is awe + wonder there is respect for the preciousness of life.
To take it one step further, this is the key state of mind we all need to make saving the planet not just a cerebral commitment but one informed by the heart.
Enjoy Bliss Commitment Number 3. Share your observations with others. Feel the mystery of life often.
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