Today,
I want to talk about ritual.
Ritual is this piece of our heritage,
No matter who you are,
No matter where you're from,
No matter where your ancestors lived.
It was an innate piece of what it meant to be human,
This capacity to connect to one another,
To have this call and response between self,
Community,
And the environment,
Nature.
Ritual can hold all of us,
And it's evolved with humanity since the dawn of time,
As we've ritualized burials and births.
But recently,
Our humanity has allowed ourselves to forget our ritual.
We've allowed ourselves to separate from what we once knew,
To what we think we need to know now,
To what we need to know now.
Today,
In the absence of communal rituals,
We often instead fall into ritualized behavior.
Sadly,
Though absolutely understandably,
We invite in other patterns into our lives that are not built to connect us.
They don't carry the requirements of what makes them nourishing to our souls,
To our lives,
To our relationships.
We are addicted,
We are compulsive,
Or just simply our routines lack the artistry and renewal of genuine ritual.
I invite in now an awareness around that ritualistic behavior that disconnects you,
That numbs you,
And just doing your best here to stay in this state of curiosity,
Of non-judgment,
Knowing that this act of filling space up is human and normal and absolutely understandable.
Inviting in grace for yourself for these patterns,
Inviting in non-judgment as you just continue to observe,
To welcome in these pieces of you that perhaps you're even aware of,
That you'd like to let go of,
That you'd like to shift,
But for one reason or another hasn't yet.
Take a few long,
Slow,
Deep breaths,
Releasing all of the tiny little muscles in the face,
Finding space between the shoulders and the ears,
As you continue to acknowledge those ritualistic behaviors that you've built around you,
That you're starting to realize do not serve your highest self.
It's time to find something that is even more human.
Ritual evolving alongside us from that dawn of time.
A passage from Z Budapest says that the purpose of ritual is to wake up the old mind in us,
To put it to work.
The old ones inside us,
The collective unconscious,
The many lives,
The different eternal parts,
The senses and parts of the brain that have been ignored.
Those parts do not speak English.
They do not care about television,
But they do understand candlelight and colors.
They do understand nature.
Connecting to this part of you that's craving ritual through true connection,
Through weaving this fiber between self,
Community,
Environment.
And just starting with the self here,
Closing down the eyes if you have not already,
And just starting to notice the colors and the light behind your eyelids.
Taking a peek at that internal canvas that is uniquely yours.
Continuing to relax those muscles in the face,
The space between the shoulders and the ears.
Finding deeper stillness and truer softness.
Just observing this little phenomenon in the body and inviting in now an idea on what you might pursue in the future.
What in your past has felt connective that you've let go of since?
Maybe it's painting,
Writing,
Or maybe it's a book that you've been reading for a long time.
Maybe it's a book that you've been reading for a long time.
Maybe it's painting,
Writing,
Crafting,
Dancing.
What have you pushed off to the wayside that you remember just feeling good?
Tapping in to that feeling now in your body,
Ruminating on all of the evidence that you have from your past,
That this felt good,
Connective,
Enjoyable,
Expansive,
Grounding.
Expansive,
Grounding.
And making a little commitment to yourself today to start to chip away at that ritualized practice that doesn't serve you and to gently,
With loving compassion,
Replace it with this ritual that does.
And if there's not this discomfort,
This internal scream,
This fear that comes up when thinking about this replacement,
Then this isn't your work.
But if there's some tiny sliver of excitement within that internal scream,
This is good.
You deserve this,
And it's going to feel a little sticky at times.
Noting that now,
Remembering this grace when you do invite this ritual back in.
And I invite you to also think about a ritual in community and a ritual in nature.
And a simple way to intertwine all of these would be to go outside put your feet on a trail and go for a walk.
Notice all of the species of trees,
Of grass,
Of flowers,
Of shrub,
Of birds,
Of critters that surround you.
Notice what they remind you of.
Notice where they touch you in your heart.
And when someone passes,
Making eye contact and offering them a gentle smile,
Maybe even a hello.
Maybe even a hello.
This is ritual.
This is the fostering of the self,
The community,
The environment,
This tapestry woven that allows for connection.
And connection is one of the most healing elements for humanity as it's something that we always had,
But have strayed away from recently.
Noticing how this short ritual makes you feel,
Noticing how this short ritual makes you feel,
Noticing how the offering to yourself will make you feel,
And also noticing how this short little meditation shifted something inside of you,
No matter how small.
I bid you a beautiful day,
A connective walk,
And deep breaths all along the way.
