Hello and welcome to AfterBath.
My name's Matt Creedon.
If this is your first time here,
Welcome.
If you're returning,
Welcome back.
It's really good to have you here again.
AfterBath is a place to slow down,
To listen and to gently step out of the noise of the day.
A place where nothing needs fixing,
Achieving or improving,
At least for a little while.
Today's episode is taken from chapter 4 of a book I'm currently writing called Transforming Lives,
One Note at a Time.
This chapter explores what I call the state of presence,
Or as I like to describe it,
Chasing bliss.
After the reflection,
I'll guide us into a 6 minute sound bath preview and then gently close the episode.
For now,
Just get comfortable,
There's nothing you need to work out.
The state of presence,
Or chasing bliss.
Let's talk about presence.
Presence is the state of being fully conscious and aware of what's happening right now,
Without mental distraction.
No commentary,
No judgement,
No reaction.
Just awareness.
I like to call this chasing bliss.
Even though you're not actually chasing anything.
Because the moment you start chasing bliss,
You've already implied there's a problem that needs fixing and that bliss hasn't arrived yet.
And it's the chasing that causes most of the mischief.
The funny thing is,
There's already a part of you that is bliss.
That part of you is your awareness.
Awareness,
The one who watches.
Awareness is the part of you that watches without judging.
It observes thoughts,
Emotions,
Sensations and events the way you might watch a movie.
It doesn't need to intervene.
It doesn't need to fix the plot.
It just watches.
In some ways,
It's similar to dreaming.
When you're dreaming at night,
You're often watching events unfold with far less concern for your personality,
Your status,
Your reputation,
Your petty wins and losses.
During waking life,
However,
Those things suddenly feel very serious.
Beliefs become identities.
Opinions become battle lines.
Right and wrong become matters of life and death.
People feel deeply hurt or offended when their belief systems are challenged,
Because the ego rushes in to defend the mental position.
Belief systems,
Society and navigation.
To be fair,
We do live in a world with laws,
Borders and social agreements.
We can't all just do whatever we like without consequences.
If everyone were suddenly released from jail and told to follow their bliss,
We'd have anarchy by lunchtime.
So,
Society creates shared rules,
Not because they're perfect,
But because not everyone is on the same page.
These systems act like glue between very different belief structures.
What I've learned over time is that navigating people successfully doesn't require agreement,
It requires not taking it personally.
If someone thinks you're wrong,
There's no need to be offended.
You're probably thinking something similar about them.
Often,
People cling tightly to beliefs because they're afraid,
And they demand that others adopt their worldview in the hope that it will bring peace.
Ironically,
It rarely does.
Chasing bliss in a traffic jam.
So,
How do we find bliss in the middle of all of this?
It can feel like trying to exit a freeway,
When you're stuck in the far right lane,
Bumper to bumper traffic,
And no amount of indicating gets anyone to let you in.
You might think others need to move out of your way before you can find peace,
But that's not how it works.
You don't need different people,
You don't need better circumstances,
You don't even need fewer thoughts.
Bliss isn't somewhere else,
It's already here,
Hidden beneath the effort to get somewhere.
The breath,
The most underrated doorway.
Let me give you a simple example.
When you're doing something that requires precision,
Like threading a needle,
Typing a password,
Carrying a full cup of water,
You might notice you start holding your breath.
That breath-holding creates subtle stresses in the nervous system.
Over years,
It compounds.
One of the simplest doorways back to bliss is also the most often obvious,
Breathing.
There is only one thing you must do to stay on this planet right now.
You must breathe.
That's why when someone is upset,
We say,
Take a deep breath.
Meditation often begins with the breath,
Because breathing naturally calms the system.
And as you continue,
The calming deepens.
You begin to realize there's nowhere you need to go,
No one you need to be,
Nothing you need to solve in order to settle.
If you miss a breath,
That's okay,
You always get another chance.
The mind's favorite interruption.
The mind will try to interrupt this with something like,
Yes,
Yes,
Breathing is good,
But first let's solve this one small,
Incredibly important problem.
It's a bit like saying,
I'm not going to breathe until I finish this sentence.
And this sentence is going to be so brilliant that everyone will finally see how intelligent I am.
And heaven forbid anyone interrupts you or contradicts your belief.
Have you ever realized mid-argument that you're actually wrong and kept arguing anyway?
Because admitting you're wrong feels like death to the ego.
A friend once said to me,
The more I learn,
The more I realize how little I know.
Facts are a very shallow form of knowing.
Experience goes deeper,
But awareness goes deepest of all.
Beyond thought into being.
Awareness sees the mind and its tricks.
It notice how beliefs are inherited,
Adopted,
Defended,
And sometimes quietly dropped.
Everything you believe came from somewhere else.
And there's no harm in holding beliefs lightly.
As temporary labels rather than absolute truths.
The mind is excellent at doing,
The heart and awareness are better at being.
Animals demonstrate this beautifully.
They don't need to prove their worth,
They're content to be.
We're not aiming to regress to animal behavior,
Although alcohol has a go at that.
What we're pointing towards is a state beyond human overthinking,
A higher consciousness that's quieter,
Softer,
And more spacious.
When the chase ends.
When you notice the mind becoming dissatisfied,
You can simply observe it with curiosity.
Oh,
There it goes again,
Looking to the past or future to solve a make-believe problem.
The mind thinks it understands bliss.
It doesn't.
The heart understands bliss through feeling,
Not facts.
Sadness and happiness are two sides of the same coin.
When you stop running from one toward the other,
The chase naturally ends.
And when the chase ends,
Bliss begins to rise,
Not as excitement,
Not as drama,
But as a quiet,
Steady contentment.
As the Buddhists like to say,
When realization dawns,
You laugh at the sky,
And it falls back on you like a big blue pancake.
In a moment,
I'll let the words fade and bring in a 15-minute sound bath.
There's nothing you need to do.
No technique,
No effort.
Just allow the sound to meet you where you are.
And slowly returning.
Thank you for spending this time with me.
As you move back into your day,
Stay curious.
Notice the difference between chasing bliss and simply allowing presence.
Lean gently into that awareness,
The part of you that's already at ease.
Until next time,
Take care and be gentle with yourself.
