Steve Update: Letting Yourself Bliss Out
This is Steve. My dog. Well, technically he is OUR dog (seriously, he loves my husband more than me), but for the purposes of this blog, we’re going with my dog. I still consider myself new to this dog-person thing, but Steve makes it easy.
Steve really lets himself go. He loves without abandon. He enjoys life thoroughly. He relaxes completely. Today’s picture is Steve, upside down, in the backyard. The story behind this picture is that he found his favorite toy, Mr. Turtle. I suspect he’d forgotten about Mr. Turtle. And, I’m almost 100 percent sure that Mr. Turtle had been, um, “relocated,” when a friend’s dog had visited. So Steve is just going about his business in the backyard, patrolling for vicious threats like squirrels and magpies, and found himself delighted when he spotted Mr. Turtle.
Steve proceeded to reunite joyfully with Mr. Turtle, throwing him in the air, shaking him all around, pouncing on him and generally loving on him (read: chewing on him). A little while later, he was out in the sun, he had Mr. Turtle, and in his enthusiasm, he had spent his energy so he stopped to rest. But, somehow, resting with his head on the ground wasn’t relaxed enough. Next thing we knew (we watched this all unfold from our kitchen window), Steve had rolled over and was sunning his tummy. He actually fell asleep like this, which is when I snuck in to take the picture.
Steve was totally blissed out.
When was the last time you let yourself love without abandon? Sun yourself? Relax completely? Totally bliss out? I suspect it’s been a while, what with all the stress and work and political stupidity and kids and health and money and, and, and…. did I miss anything? Yeah, that lengthy to-do list is also an issue. I’m sure I missed other stressors that get in the way of total bliss.
The interesting thing is that we have an opportunity to switch into total bliss if we’d like. We may not be able to do it quite as regularly as Steve. After all, he has his needs met comprehensively and is satisfied by little pleasures. But we are just fancier mammals with less hair. We too are satisfied by little pleasures when we let ourselves be. What simple pleasure can you provide for yourself today? Is there a friend you can call and chat with? Is there someone you are grateful for you want to drop a quick note to? What about just getting outside for 5 minutes in the middle of your day and letting the sun hit your face? Raining where you are? No worries, rain on your face can be a great pleasure too. Could you get yourself something particularly yummy and savor the flavor while you eat it? Could you read a couple of pages in your favorite book? Color for 10 minutes instead of mindlessly watch tv all night?
You see the trend here: pick something simple and not all that lengthy and really, truly enjoy it in the moment. Repeat regularly. Pretty soon you may just feel like Steve and be totally blissed out. I can’t wait to hear what you choose!
