I have officially declared it Bliss Engine week on my blogs :) As I mentioned yesterday on JennyBlake.me, I'm thrilled to share that my dad recently released his book The Bliss Engine on Kindle for just $2.99. In yesterday's blog post I shared his essays on creative "Return Time" and "Small Stuff" -- today, a wider swath of my favorite quotes. Before we jump in, a little recap . . .
About the Bliss Engine
How often do you find yourself in a bliss state? Wondering how to get there faster or more often? Ever experienced the depression of a post-bliss crash? Noticed how the comfort tools we use to (often subconsciously) numb out actually impede our bliss?
My dad explores these questions and more based on years of experience in the arts, the army and his own inner trenches.
Praised by Norman Mailer in a previous edit as "f*cking brilliant," The Bliss Engine is about the relationship of diet to creativity. From the book description: "The Bliss Engine is a recipe for un-blocking personal consciousness, allowing creative thought to flourish, and opening doors to releasing new energy of our national consciousness."
The ideas in this book have been a huge inspiration to me, and the subject of many a long weekly walk that my dad and I used to take back when we both lived in California. He has since recently followed his big dream of moving to Nashville to pursue music, and I'm thrilled to help shepard his ideas into the world in the midst of his latest great leap.
I hope you'll find my dad's thoughts on the relationship between diet and creativity as insightful and as thought-provoking as I do. Today I'm sharing one of my favorite essays from the book (with more to follow) but first . . .
Special Bliss Engine Bundle
I'm doing a little something special for Daddy-O to help The Bliss Engine take off:
If you purchase the book (just $2.99) between now and July 31 and forward your receipt to receipt [at] theblissengine.com, I'll give you a complimentary pass to my two-week course, The Acorn Project (a $15 value).
The Bliss Engine will help you reach your highest state of creativity, and The Acorn Project will help you figure out exactly what to do with it once you're there: you'll reflect, answer questions and explore a variety of big ideas to figure out which of your acorns you want to grow into your next beautiful oak tree.
A Few of My Favorite Bliss Engine Excerpts
INTRODUCTION
Bliss is a state of heart, mind and body wherein one absorbs and radiates the energy of light, of happiness, creativity, joyful spirit and hard work or meditation. Bliss is an answered prayer and bliss answers prayers. Bliss is all around us and it is strong and fragile.
We phase into and out of bliss all our lives. It may last for a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, maybe even months. Some of us spend our first years in a bliss bubble of parental love. Bliss gets more difficult to achieve and to manage as one gets older. As an adult, the zone can be inaccessible for weeks at a time or permanently blocked.
Looking back, it is clear that food and drink were powerful determinants of my bliss. If I'm in the zone, eating meat will terminate bliss. Drinking any alcohol kills bliss; after-dinner bloat is a bliss-killer. Bliss is fragile. It must be cultivated, respected and nourished. Bliss is soulful, sensitive, perceptive life-energy speaking to us and through us.
COMFORT FOOD: Comfort food is deceiving. The comfort is short-lived, fleeting pleasure from a seduction. The sugar, fat, salt and carbo-charged calories lift your spirit for a moment of frosted, phony bliss, then drop you to the cracked pavement of your neglected dream. The empty calories add up. They create a short-circuit in your soul. If you seek this faux-comfort, this shallow respite every day, you will get fat and your dreams will shrivel, hang their heads and walk away from you. All things in moderation.
LESS: You are what you don't eat. God bless less.
SEDUCTION: We are all suckers for seduction. To be seduced is to short-circuit the spirit. To be seduced is to fall victim to ephemeral pleasures of the eye, stomach and crotch, fast cars, pulsing music and pheromones. We are drawn to shiny, tasty, sexy stuff.
EXPLORATION: There will be times when you explore regions so far beyond the established envelope that to receive anything but rejection should worry you. If too many people are comfortable with your work, you are not stretching their imagination or their capacity for wonder.
ISOLATION: Bliss requires courage. Bliss creates courage. Creative people strive to conquer their fear of excellence, fear of being separate. Bliss creates separation from community. It means standing apart, climbing above, exploring below and within.
STARDOM: Bliss isn't for sissies. The zone is for the brave and courageous. Heroes are not afraid of their bliss.
THE WAGES OF BLISS: A person living in bliss radiates charisma, genuine sex appeal and graceful, natural personal power.
Get it while it's hot!
Like what you've read? Click here to purchase your copy on Amazon -- huge thanks to Melissa Anzman for her help getting it Kindle-ready! And don't forget to forward your receipt to receipt [at] theblissengine.com for instant access to The Acorn Project from now until July 31. I can't wait to hear what you think!
I'd love to hear from you in the comments: How does your diet affect your creativity or flow state? What would help you more readily harness your bliss?