NEW: Read My Blogs & Newsletter

Please subscribe to My Blogs & Newsletter by clicking HERE

From The Beginning... sort of

Living Joyously: My New "Religion"

Date written: 8/4/08

I was filling out a great online profile once where choices were given for what My religious affiliation was and I chose, "I am a religion" from their drop-down menu! At the time, I thought it was very insightful of the website's creator and now, I see that truly, there are no accidents.

Several events have occurred over the past few weeks that have prompted Me to make a new commitment to Living Joyously:

1. My Epiphany of 2021 ~ What If?;

2. I won (another) prestigious award in My vanilla life for techniques that I have developed and am not thrilled about it at all due to the organization's prejudice against how I use My Work in the Fetish Arts (see My upcoming blog); and

3. I have embarked on My life of Responsibly Living for Pleasure, also known as My New Religion, "Spiritual Hedonism" (hey, L. Ron Hubbard did it, so have I!). In the past few weeks, there have been quite a few people who have not appreciated My Gracious Goddessness and because I do believe in the Greater Good, I have ~ as always ~ taken the High Road when dealing with them -- but I was NOT enjoying it! It is very hard to take the High Road with people with low-life behavior. It's even hard to take the High Road when people don't mean to be offensive, but invade Your space anyway. Resisting the temptation to slap down the twits completely takes away from My enjoyment of being a Sadist!

So, what did I do? I found a new experience of pleasure through My choice to be Responsible to the Greater Good. This is not easy, but totally worth it. We can grow through joy as well as through pain and We all know that there is such a deliciously, fine line between the two! My experience of the Greater Good is the recognition of the beauty of life expressed in all its glorious ways to allow Us to evolve into being the best that We can be.

So, this is My gift to you today: choose Joy and be responsible to the source of your joy and the Greater Good. Every time We are confronted with something that appears to block Our joy, it is a gift from The Universe and from your Highest Self for you to actually connect with your power and see how powerful you are. With power comes responsibility to be an asset to the Whole of Life because everything you do affects others in some way. So, start from a place of contributing to the Greater Good and you will see that riding the waves of Joy is just a matter of practice and strengthening your skills (like learning to surf!).

One sure way to strengthen your tools for choosing to Live Joyously is to focus on all that you have. All spiritual and religious teachings tell you in one way or another to "count your blessings" and blessings are something that all of Us who have the ability to read this right now have so many more of than the vast majority of the people on this planet. So, instead of whining about how you need a new car, or you're fat, or you don't have enough money to take another vacation, remember that you have so much to be thankful for. For example, you have:

• food to eat when there are people starving to death - literally;
• a home with running water, electricity, the internet, a computer, etc. - hey, you have a home when there are thousands of homeless people right in your country, even in your city;
• you have clothes, Fetish attire and otherwise, when the majority of people in the world don't even have shoes;
• you woke up this morning able to see the beauty that surrounds you, if you care to take the time to look...

Start your day by listing 10 things to be thankful for. You will be amazed at how in no time at all, things get better, including your ability to deal with stress and distress. And this will boost you on your way to Living Joyously!

One point of interest of Spiritual Hedonism that revolves around Responsibility is My concept and practice of Responsible Sadism. I am writing about these things further in My New Blog, and I will let you know when I've published it.

In the meantime, take a moment to think of 10 things you have to be thankful for right NOW and strengthen your ability to Live Joyously!