From Bubble Baths to Bliss

When was the last time you gave yourself over to the delicious sanctuary of a bubble bath – truly gave yourself over to the sheer bliss of it? What better time, really, than lounging amid those soft, floating bubbles to relax deeply, laying your burdens and worries aside for a bit? What better time to let the sensualness of the warm water, lavender oil, and bubbles open you to a tranquil, peaceful state of pause. 

What gets illuminated, then, as your mind begins to open and relax? Perhaps your heart steps in -feeling soothed and comforted, expansive even- gently calling you back to center, back home to yourself. How is it to simply feel present, luxuriating in the exquisite here-and-now of warm, scented, bubbly water? 

Often, we don’t allow ourselves to break through to this level of being – to quietly, yet passionately, give ourselves over to a place where pure joy can be found. The place of simply being. Why not let your next bubble bath serve as the gateway to your own personal expansiveness – and then to the cultivation of additional, maybe even more yummy moments of wild abandon?

I recently reminded one of my coaching clients that the secrets for developing a rich emotional bandwidth are contained within that one, translucent, giant bubble floating in one’s bath. This, of course, got her curious. She quickly leaned in closer, appearing to listen more intensely when I share this notion, especially since she had just expressed concern about not feeling as vibrant, passionate, or spontaneous as she wished in her life.  

I then shared a few key nuggets of wisdom for cultivating a state in which one can throw themselves, uninhibitedly, and without concern for social mores or constraints, into any given moment. To witness a client able to drop all the woulda-coulda-shoulda’s of their thinking, and revel in the freedom of spontaneous movement toward a desire, is to be in awe! There is great joy to be had in cultivating one’s capacity for this kind of bliss. Great joy indeed. 

The first key to developing your capacity for glorious moments of wild abandon is to slow down and create spaciousness in your life. In other words, doing things like taking a bubble bath. A bubble isn’t formed or blown quickly. It is the product of a soapy solution stretched across a surface. As air fills the surface sheet, it takes on that magical spherical shape. It is spherical because this shape supposedly puts the least amount of stress on the surface level. 

When you can slow down in your life, taking the tension and stress you feel, and give it pause, you create an emotional spaciousness to enter more fully and deeply into yourself. The space within this bubble of time that slowing down offers subsequently allows feelings, desires, and daydreams to more easily surface and become conscious. Within the spaciousness of a relaxed pace, one is much more likely to register, reflect on, and most importantly, claim these inner callings. 

The second key on the path to wild abandon is to learn to honor whatever inner knowings are awakened. Similar to the secrets inherent in your bath bubble – where the magnificent, multi-colored translucent swirls creating the bubble’s form are central to the uniqueness of that particular bubble – so too are your longings, desires and daydreams central to your unique essence. And as we are so often compelled to reach out and try to gently hold in the palm of our hand a bubble as it floats by, so you must delicately treasure the whisper of longings contained within your daydreams or desires. For these sweet rumblings tell us who we are and what is at the heart of what truly matters to us. And just as we marvel at the swirls of colors and shapes flowing as part of a bubble’s mystery, so to must we savor and appreciate the genuine, authentic expressions of self that surface and are contained within our daydreams and longings. 

Which brings us to the third key- which really isn’t much of a key at all, rather an experience that happens as a result of the energies and attention given in the first two. It is the wondrous, exhilarating experience of pure delight!  With your longings, dreams and visions now more conscious, you can easily trust throwing yourself into them. And you will be inclined to do so, without thinking or over-regulating. You’ll dare to take the risk! You’ll give yourself full permission. Passions will be expressed, and you will overcome social conditioning or inhibitions more readily because you have claimed awareness of paths your wish to travel. You’ll now simply go for it when the opportunity arises.  Just as a bubble floats about, wandering in fantastically random ways, uncontrolled and uncontrollable in it’s natural state, often daring to land where it might be pretty darn risky – so, too you must occasionally roll. 

It was this exact process that led me to some recent moments of wild abandon. Realizing, for instance, from time spent daydreaming, my longing to experience new horizons, led me to spontaneously latch onto the opportunity to purchase the last two seats of a tour to Italy when the chance unexpectedly arose. Another moment like this came on the trip when I found myself doing shots of Sambuca liquor with my daughter -at 10:30 in the morning no less – when gifted shot glasses of such by a dear, elderly Italian shop- owner named Leo. Then later came another wild fling of sorts – the purchase of not one, not two, but three pair of gorgeous Italian leather shoes. Fully undisciplined, for me at least, because one pair was red! I truly believe going for full-out pleasure is one of the very best parts of living.

So now, back to bubbles for a minute. Think about it, when you see a bubble floating by, doesn’t it make you happy? Doesn’t it make your heart sing? You just feel the lightness! Who knows where the bubble will travel. We are compelled to watch. We watch in awe, I believe, because we want more bubble-like freedom in our lives. And you’ll be able to give yourself over to such as you practice cultivating the key steps of slowing down, and then becoming aware of and claiming your deep inner callings, desires or longings. The utter bliss and joy of self-expansiveness then will follow as you can confidently, zealously, give yourself over to the glorious impulse of following your heart’s desires. You’ll feel, I just know it, ready to pop! 

This article was also published in The Brick Magazine