Joseph Campbell was a professor of mythology and loved to study the human spirit. He said, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”  This past week for me was very inspiring because I had the privilege of engaging with a number of people who appear to be following their BLISS“. You can identify these people because they have a certain glow and radiance about them. Life feels lighter when I am around these types of people and when I leave their presence I somehow feel more present to my own life. I am inspired (in-spirit). What I find most evident with these types of people is that they are so clearly comfortable in their own skin. They seem to know who they are and what they want. What I’ve also discovered is how deliciously diverse each Bliss can be. There are no two paths that are the same. We are all different beings with something different to offer to the world.

Last week, friends of ours visited with us on their way out of town. They had taken an old school bus and converted it to an RV. With three teenage children, they were taking to the open road with the sole purpose of experiencing life and learning from their adventures. The only plan that existed was to be back in New England in three months. There adventurous spirit, their creativity (the bus is one very cool fort with each kid having their own “room”) and their dedication to their values of family, learning and fun was infectious. They were clearly following their bliss. You can checkout their blog @ http://unschoolbus.com

Why do I talk about this on a chiropractic health blog? Because it inspires me. I think anything that inspires the spirit is just as much about health as is eating an apple, exercising, or getting adjusted. Someone a long time ago told me that the word “health” comes from a derivative of the word “whole”. To be healthy is to become whole. Discovering who we are and what we want is the process of becoming whole. Maybe this is also why I have taken to telling my patients that they do not “need” to be adjusted, but have the freedom to choose to be adjusted if they “want”. It is my experience that “need” is so rarely the place where one can discover their passions and follow their bliss.

If you read this blog, then I thank you and hope that it inspired you. But you don’t have to read it in order to inspire me. Writing it was my bliss.

Other Joseph Campbell quotes:

“Love is a friendship set to music.”

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

-Dr Jerry