Evolution basin sunset in Sierras: Loving Bliss, 'Definition,' 'Practices,' Conversation for riffing about bliss ...

The following are a definition of Loving Bliss and practices for this, with an ensuing email conversation:


While the following definition doesn't fully explain what loving bliss is for me, it does involve experiences, (as neurophysiology, too), that are deeply, gratefully harmonizing, and reciprocally appreciative and affectionate, both with a friend or friends, and alone, as well as profoundly and naturally high at the same time, and which are ongoing, biological, 'flow' experiences. {What is it for you?}

{http://scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissPractices.htm}




Practices to Elicit Loving Bliss

A basis for loving bliss (the following open the way to bliss for me, - explore innovative ways for yourself):

relaxing into the relaxation response (Benson 1972)

releasing and breathing practices (especially delicious ones)

{a healthy bodymind also seems important, - walking, yoga asana, swimming, dancing, a good diet, and flax seed omega-3 fatty acids taken with food, and a daily multivitamin?}



For bliss {each of the following can be a rich kind of flow experience, - especially when cultivating bliss; in some ways these are 'technologies' for bliss}:


listening to music (iTunes)

arias in Mozart's "Magic Flute," especially
"O zittre nicht" aria (on youtube.com)
"Queen of the Night" aria
Yo-Yo Ma playing J.S. Bach's "Cello Suites" (here's the Prelude)
Grateful Dead ~ "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad"
The Belleville A Cappella Choir, recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (on pandora.com)
dancing (especially New England contra-dance for me)

singing & improvisational, play singing

making music

playing and working with kids

eating extraordinary food

making love, intimacy, sexuality & coitus

conversing (mind-expanding & receptive, intellectual conversation)

engaging great music, poetry, literature, art, etc.

enjoying incredible nature, natural areas, wildflowers, flowers ..., - richly

traveling

opening to bliss while moving back and forth between Harbin Hot Springs' hot (113 F / 60 C) & cold (60 F / 15 C) pools

shaping a virtual world to explore practices of loving bliss?

smiling ~ beaming :))

~ What helps you elicit bliss naturally?




For love:

reciprocated, ongoing affection for another, a friend

exploring love in art, music, and ideas with a dear friend, and/or friends

nameless, loving understandings between friends who love one another

receiving and giving warmth and love with a radiant friend






Practice loving bliss:

consider using language that works for you as a kind of art or technology to bring these qualities of bliss to your bodymind in a variety of ways

- learn loving bliss through practice
{guidelines for practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis practicing a musical instrument}

- rekindle a lovingly blissful memory in your bodymind, and let this flower

- explore loving bliss {with friends} ~ dream it ~ write about it~ focus on it ~ create it :)




Some friends replied to an email I sent:


Your Loving Bliss as Friends is Beautiful and a Wonderful Compliment to the course work -

M and I brainstormed a few additional items, that elicit bliss in each of us - in addition to the wonderful list you have started

· living with intention

· waking up to a sunny morning

· living on the summit

· hot springs

· tantra practices with the one you love

· burning man and other gatherings of open-minded thought provoking kindred spirits (similar to Harbin)

· workshops at burning man and harbin

· anything that pushes you beyond your comfort zone - physical, mental or spiritual

· creativity - art - quilting, painting, photography, wood-working

· a job well done - with compassion and joy

· unconditional love and acceptance of myself and hence others

· complete acceptance of others and seeing bliss in and through each person

· intentional physical touch - feeling the tingling of sensation and flow of energy

· collaboration of friendship and sharing of ideas with those moving toward moment by moment bliss

· yoga and the community it provides - all kinds - especially here on the summit -

· meditation

· time in Panama - on an island gardening, building, loving -

· alone with the one you love - your soul mate - doing anything

· backpacking in the wilderness - multi-days

· gathering of healers and workshops around healing (haven't done this yet, but I imagine we'd love it!)


Other items that elicit bliss for us that you have included: dance, music, fresh ingredient - well balanced - delicious food, wilderness, quietness in nature, helping others, loving life, family and others

O.k…gotta get back to my blissful job :)



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Dear M & D,


Your bliss/joy ideas are wondrous and beautiful ...

... so nice to be sharing generative ideas about this

... I updated some of the links here - http://scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissPractices.htm .

Many of the ideas on my page are pleasure oriented ...

I see loving bliss as deeply pleasurable (joy, as well) ... and seek to cultivate this ...

I've also riffed with your ideas below ... with a focus on bliss ... see my additions

I'm also interested in playing with bodyminds as musical instruments' idea ... where, like the Grateful Dead playing together ... 2 people or 3 people might, in a focused way, elicit neural cascades of pleasure by making music together, both actually, as well as metaphorically

... I return again and again to music, MDMA (30 years ago) and my own natural growing up experiences, - so neural cascades of pleasure, building on 'flow' experiences (viz. enjoyment researcher Csikszentmihalhi - see http://scottmacleod.com/EudaimoniaFlow.htm ) as touchstones for the kind of bliss I continue to explore.

Fun to bliss-rif here together :)

xo,
Scott



(Below I add comments to my friends' ideas about bliss - which generally for "... MMmm ")

and I brainstormed a few additional items, that elicit bliss in each of us - in addition to the wonderful list you have started

· living with intention ... with a focus on bliss :)

· waking up to a sunny morning ...MMmm yes ... the light in my little home in Canyon can be so sunny :)

· living on the summit ...MMmm yes ... on a ridge here

· hot springs ...MMmm yes ... I like Harbin especially because the warm pool is body temperature, and there are a lot of free naked spirits, all kind of mellow ...

· tantra practices with the one you love ...MMmm yes ... must explore

· burning man and other gatherings of open-minded thought provoking kindred spirits (similar to Harbin) ...MMmm yes ... must explore ... and in new directions (like Burning Man and Rainbow for me :)

· workshops at burning man and harbin ... ...MMmm yes ... must explore

· anything that pushes you beyond your comfort zone - physical, mental or spiritual ... ...MMmm ... I'm looking for such threshholds that lead to a kind of Grateful Dead or MDMA neurophysiology, - so toward a kind of ecstasy - and maybe within most other of my comfort zones ... (hiking, skiing or sailing long days, to a point of tiredness, works for me, but I don't seek pain, for example)

· creativity - art - quilting, painting, photography, wood-working ... MMmm yes ... must explore ... and my ongoing question has to do with the metaphorical cello bow stroke of eliciting loving bliss neurophysiology with these as musical scores ... how to engage creativity for neural cascades of pleasure (viz MDMA, as a biological example :).

· a job well done - with compassion and joy ... MMmm yes for satisfaction ..

· unconditional love and acceptance of myself and hence others ... MMmm yes ... and in terms of an ecology of love (say within a family), how to get to Grateful Dead - 8 folks rocking out again and again, creating space and bliss, for 30 years ... as a kind of unconditional love that's social ... :)

· complete acceptance of others and seeing bliss in and through each person ... MMmm yes ... yes and practices for this :)

· intentional physical touch - feeling the tingling of sensation and flow of energy ... MMmm yes ... looking for a friend who may become a Momma for this, especially, and even holding back a little otherwise :)

· collaboration of friendship and sharing of ideas with those moving toward moment by moment bliss ... ... MMmm yes ... and can we turn this into song ... literally, and 'sing-ularly' as well :))

· yoga and the community it provides - all kinds - especially here on the summit - . MMmm yes ...I enjoy Angela & Victor's yoga and approaches, in particular (in Greece) ... as kind of old hippies ... who move away from yoga's asceticism

· meditation ... . MMmm yes ... and relaxation response ... and can we turn this into song ... literally, and 'sing-ularly' as well :)

· time in Panama - on an island gardening, building, loving - . MMmm yes ... and UNESCO World Heritage Sites all around the world ...

· alone with the one you love - your soul mate - doing anything ... ... MMmm yes ... and how to cultivate a duet here, with singing, as a way to elicit loving bliss repeatedly, as well as just hanging out ...

· backpacking in the wilderness - multi-days ...... MMmm yes ... (with portable showers, :) or well-planned swimming holes)

· gathering of healers and workshops around healing (haven't done this yet, but I imagine we'd love it!) ... ... MMmm yes ... I enjoy Angela and Victor's Eftalou, Lesvos, Greece workshops, as well as the Rainbow Gathering...

· bringing in the new day at the temple at burning man

· sunrises, sunsets


· a good bottle of wine by the fire

· gratitude log and journal (though we are not very consistent)



Other items that elicit bliss for us that you have included: dance , music, fresh ingredient - well balanced - delicious food, wilderness, quietness in nature, helping others, loving life, family and others (... MMmm yes ... to all)

O.k…gotta get back to my blissful job :) ... MMmm yes ... Which is?



*

Hi All,

... Also curious about going to this bodymind chemistry for just 5 minutes here (e.g. listen to the Dead on YouTube) and an hour and half there (going to a good dance, with great music), if only with a memory.

In other words, what's the 'cello bow stroke' of such neurophysiology? And how to rif with a friend for 5 minutes (a quickie? :), 30 minutes (singing harmony together intensely and beautiful - so a series of tones as a way to stimulate this brain chemistry) or 5-8 hours (e.g. MDMA), or for 2 decades with another (conversation, singing, bodyminds as musical instruments - haven't gotten here yet - what would each of you suggest? )

{Loving bliss neurophysiology is one of the best experiences in life, so, thinking out of the box, why not learn to elicit it whenever, but how ... ? :}

... all curious questions of eliciting neurophysiology, in my book .:)



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I got to admit you are well beyond me know Scott and I really have no idea really what you are talking about - sounds like a good topic for a burning man workshop at Red Lightening...

I'm a pretty simple kid and keep my life pretty simple - and I am definitely not as "brainy" as a H - so I'm not sure I can really go there on this topic -

Love and Hugs -

D


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... it's like listening to music, for me ... and thinking outside the box ... extending this ... what's the biology and how do you get there ... :) I like your Joy list ...




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Here's WUaS's Loving Bliss - Eliciting this Neurophysiology, wiki (editable), subject to further open this conversation:
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Loving_Bliss_%28eliciting_this_neurophysiology%29








(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2012/02/evolution-baisin-sunset-in-sierras.html - February 3, 2012)