Blissful By Nature: 9 Ayurvedic Principles for Blissed Out Living

Ayurveda, the sister science of yoga teaches that your emotional well-being — how happy you feel – is closely tied to the relationship between your body, mind and the world around you. It offers a variety of simple, natural principles to make blissful, conscious living your daily reality.

One of the things we all have in common is that we want to be happy: to experience pleasure, joy, good health, fulfillment and a sense of purpose.

The ultimate state of happiness is known as “bliss”, an all-pervading sense of love, peace and well-being with what you are and all that exists. Bliss is the feeling of heaven on Earth, a perfect state of contentment, balance and peace which is undisturbed by any external circumstance.

Bliss: the ultimate state of happiness, peace, unconditional love, inner knowing, emptiness and marvel coming from a sense of being one with all that exists.

If you’re fortunate, you may have had one or even a few experiences of bliss throughout your life. Most commonly, your first experience of bliss may have come from an external experience such as the birth of a child, a sense of awe before nature, a spiritual high or even, a sexual experience.

Bliss can also be self-generated, meaning that it can be generated by your choices, actions and level of awareness (rather than an external experience).

Yogic philosophy teaches us that ‘bliss’ or ‘bliss consciousness’ can also become your permanent state of being, associated with unity consciousness and self-realization.

What Does Ayurveda Teach Us About Bliss?

Ayurveda, the sister science of yoga teaches that your emotional well-being — how happy you feel – is closely tied to the relationship between your body, mind and the world around you. It offers a variety of simple, natural principles to make blissful, conscious living your daily reality.

Here are 9 basic principles of ayurveda to cultivate and enhance blissful living:

Recognize Bliss As Your Natural State.

Ayurveda teaches that bliss is not something outside that you need to achieve, but your natural state of being when you relax as you are.

This may seem hard to believe at times, in an age where stress and anxiety run rampant.

However, you will notice that when you take time to relax — for example, by taking a long walk in the forest or by looking up at the night sky — your worries and mental conversations quickly subside, and a sense of peace, ease, harmony and wonder naturally emerges.

Bliss Comes Through Daily Discipline

Real pleasure is rooted in self-discipline. This may seem counter-intuitive if we want to believe that bliss is an irresponsible, laissez-faire kind of happiness, but part of us knows that this is not really true or sustainable in the long-term.

Real bliss comes from your daily self-efforts to cultivate your highest self and values (sattva guna). This includes eating well, exercising, cleanliness, proper rest, moderate work habits, thinking well of others and kindness in speech.

Daily spiritual practice (or sadhana) including a combination of meditation, breathwork and yoga, is one of the best tools for the activation of your highest attributes and to induce a naturally self-generating state of bliss.

Bliss Comes From Your Belly.

Ayurveda teaches us that good digestion is the foundation for a naturally happy mood.

Once we recognize the importance to good digestion in our overall health, we are more likely to start taking better care of it.

If you suffer from digestive issues, do not despair. Ayurveda provides a variety of helpful tips to improve digestion and to help your body heal from food allergies, acne, anxiety, gas, constipation, ulcers, slow metabolism, and to promote a pleasant relationship with your next meal. Keep reading…

Bliss Comes From The Balance of the Doshas

Ayurveda teaches us that there are 3 mind-body types (or doshas) : vata, pitta and kapha. Each of the doshas has a different way of communicating its needs to us.

For example:

• Vata (air and wind elements) may communicate as fear, anxiety, restlessness and ungrounded thinking;

• Pitta (fire and water elements) may communicate as anger, control, aggression, impatience and intensity;

• Kapha (earth and water elements) may communicate as laziness, apathy, depression, greed and a resistance to change.

Caring for the doshas may include a combination of diet, exercise, herbs, natural therapies and self-care. The more balanced your doshas are, the easier it is to reside in your natural state of peace, happiness and equanimity.