Do you have any personal rituals? You may think that’s an odd question and you’d deny any such thing, but let’s try a few I use on for size:
In fact, on Sunday mornings at 8:40 a.m. is the Sacred Moment: When NPR’s Puzzler comes on the radio. No one is to talk to me for the five minutes it’s on the air while I challenge my usually under-caffeinated brain.
I turn on the lights at dusk in a particular order, silently welcoming the night and summoning protection during the dark hours.
Just before sleeping, I go outside for a few minutes (or seconds if it’s cold!) and just feel the night and its sounds.
When I get in my car, I say a quick little prayer/invocation or whatever-you-want-to-call-it setting my intention for a safe trip.
When I feed my dogs, they are required to wait and say a simple grace—a training tool, fair enough—but still a ritual.
The whole family has special cheap, cheesy musical neckties that the entire family wears during the gift time on Christmas Day. The dogs have equally cheesy antlers they wear as long as they can tolerate them. They’ve generated lots of laughter over the past ten years or so.
These rituals give an order to my life, a sense of calm, purpose and continuity.
That’s what I mean by rituals. They don’t have to be formal or even well thought out. And—surprise, surprise!—those little rituals have long-lasting health benefits.
The routine of rituals creates balance and order amid life’s chaos. It relieves stress and anxiety or even its lesser cousin, general uneasiness and they increase confidence.
Rituals can be anything that is important to you.
Ritual without conscious intention becomes habit—mindless actions like brushing your teeth or even the rote “Now I Lay Me Down…”
Conscious intention, even brushing your teeth can become mindful and significant. Maybe you recite an affirmation or look in the mirror and say, “I’m beautiful.”
Rituals transform the mundane into the sacred. They encourage us to take a breath and pay close attention to what we are doing and, most important, why we are doing it.
What are your rituals? Why do you perform them? What have you gained from them?
Do you have any personal rituals? You may think that’s an odd question and you’d deny any such thing, but let’s try a few I use on for size:
