Rituals

The last blog on Superstition was looking at how superstitions can negatively impact our ability to be safe, secure and worry free. Today we are looking at rituals, which can develop from superstitions but can also be experienced on their own, even if you’re not superstitious. The word rituals can be seen as very religious in its meaning and also can be linked to witchcraft too, as many of our earliest rituals are imbedded in our ancient past. The word ritual means, ‘a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions, performed according to a prescribed order’. It sounds quite formal but it’s not really, and we all have them in our everyday life. For many of us this doesn’t pose a problem at all, we may have one about how we drink our tea! Maybe it’s strong, sugary, weak, not stirred much, add cold water, milky, black, mug, china cup and even where you sit to drink it. You get the picture, every time we make our tea, we are following our own ritual in making it. This is fine – why not make things to our own unique taste? We have the capacity to do this in our lives and we should take advantage of this. Many of the everyday rituals in the past were about blessing your food, life, health and wealth, others were about self-focus, pure mind and body, the bigger rituals were births, deaths, marriages and the changing seasons.

Rituals provide us time-out from our everyday routine, to refocus our beliefs and reassure ourselves that things will be ok. Metaphorically, rituals are a time to rest, replenish, and restore ourselves on our long and winding path through life. Many of the bigger rituals we still use in our country, like the celebration of birth, life etc are great, lovely traditions that remind us of the interconnectedness of life. Rituals can help to connect to family, past and present, linking us to our ancestors and to our heritage. Their creation and performance helps us to understand where we came from, bridging between past and future, they enable us to access, honour, and strengthen our own identity. These positive sides to rituals are lovely, but imagine in the past if you broke away from your village, your religion, your cult or local practices, well that was never a good thing to do, it often lead to death.

The negative sides of rituals could still be running through your life, these I believe are about self-blame and self-flagellation – the art of mentally and physically beating yourself up. Not doing what we think we are meant to do or are supposed to do, always leading us to be told we are bad. This theme for many of us is a big issue in our lives still, maybe we have broken away from past family traditions, religions and beliefs, we have chosen something different to what our parents wanted us to do, we haven’t followed the family traditions and for many of us we have done just that. We’re in a time where we get to choose what we believe and what we choose to follow in our lives. It is amazing that we can, but giving up the past maybe much easier to do in the outside world of our lives, than in our inner selves; the unconscious minds may not let it go so easily.  This is down to the basis of one dominant feeling, being bad, we can express it as self-loathing, guilt, imperfection, unworthy, fear, dirty, damaged, broken, and this can be like a thorn in our side that we constantly feel, carry and capitulate. If you carry any of these feelings, take a moment to try and think back to why you feel so unworthy or bad? For most of us we won’t find any major thing, if you do though, you may need to seek help in working through this. But if it’s just this sense, feeling, or habit you carry, it could be that your mind is struggling with the changes and breaking from traditions of your past.

Self-Flagellation is not some weird type of farting! It is used as a way to deal with being bad, thinking bad thoughts and not conforming, maybe it’s seen as a better way than everyone else beating you up!  This habit of beating yourself up is one of the biggest issues in our inability to be ourselves and live and enjoy our lives. Hopefully we’re not whipping ourselves with belts and chains anymore, but some people are still struggling with issues of self-harm, which is a whole topic in its own right and for this serious issue, professional help is always advised.

It’s time to stop and replace these old limiting habits with some positive ones, and start reinforcing that you’re a good person and feel blessed to have and live your life.

By creating your own rituals, it allows you to feel more connected to your unique self, giving you the freedom to take responsibility for the direction and purpose of your life. It’s time to take today and everyday going forward to positively shape our lives and embrace the freedom we have in a positive, conscious, deliberate, and joyful way. Your new rituals will help shape your inner belief, to be free to be your true authentic self, which over time will be carried into deeper levels of unconsciousness. Creating and performing rituals that have personal meaning helps. Firstly, it distracts you from the inner bad voice you have been carrying and sends the message to your inner mind that you are safe to be who we are. Over time, these positive intentions will ultimately enable you to manifest and reach desired goals and aspirations too.

So, no more beating yourself up, it’s time for some positive rituals in your life! Here’s your “homework” assignment; create a list of helpful daily rituals you could start. Even if you’re not going around mentally beating yourself up, you can be just coasting without really stopping to think what actions you can take on a daily basis that will add better health, success, joy and peace of mind to your life. So it’s great for everyone to do.

It’s a pretty simple exercise, really.  Make a list of those actions that you know, or you believe, would benefit your life, if you followed through with them on a daily basis they will not only help focus and distract you from the negative rituals, but over time will send the messages to your deep inner mind too.  Here are some examples of the rituals I have in my life and also a few others to give you some ideas of what might be right for you. But do remember there is no right or wrong answers here, there is only your ideas, beliefs and desires.

• Jump out of bed with a smile at 6 am
• Go for a morning walk, jog or run
• Do Yoga or a stretching routine
• Pray, meditate and/or visualise
• Do the worst jobs first, don’t put them off until later
• Plan the day and clarify the three most important items to focus on
• Smile at someone and give them some inspiration or positive feedback
• Read or listen to something inspirational/educational every day
• Go for a walk at lunchtime
• Connect with at least one friend each day
• Exercise
• Laugh and make people laugh
• Sit in your car for a few minutes after work and give thought to how you want to be when you get home
• Read or tell stories to my kids
• Feel blessed to be you, create a positive affirmation for yourself, and when this feels real then change it to a new one
• Make a healthy lunch for the next day
• Layout clothes for morning walk, jog or run the night before
• Visualise your top 3 intentions/goals/dreams before bed
• Be in bed by 11 pm

Choose and create your own list of daily rituals that will add better health, success, joy and peace of mind and your life. Once complete, read your Daily Rituals at the beginning and end of each day and carry them out everyday. Over time, notice how these small actions make a big difference.

Thanks for dropping by,

Sara x

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