Today I am thinking about rituals. I have spent a lot of time previously building routines. I firmly believe that you are the culmination of what you do every day and that routines are how you achieve that. Those small changes make a big impact over time. I also believe that routines help us preserve will-power and reduce unnecessary decision making, when we only have a finite capacity to make decisions everyday. Mental note to talk more about routines when I am feeling driven and inspired by mine, however today I am thinking about ritual. If routine is the mechanism by which we accomplish our greatest desires, than ritual is the mechanism by which we prepare ourselves so that we can receive our greatest desires.

What I want to say about ritual is that you don’t think much about it until you have a day or a week or a moment when you would really benefit from the practice. Today I am feeling a little raw from some shadow pieces of myself I have uncovered and it has brought forward the concept of ritual in my life. How do I take care of myself? How do I let go of the things that do not serve me? With what ceremony do I do these things so that they are purposeful and intentional and do not just blend into the daily routine?

When I was driving across the country a few weeks back, I used quite a few rituals to move through that time and space. It was a time for letting go and as things came up for me, I was literally throwing my baggage out the window. I know my gremlins were ducking down and hiding under the seats to avoid being chucked out the window as I drove over the Canadian Shield. “Staying small to protect myself - you no longer serve me. Get out.” Another ritual, imparted to me by a wise and truth-telling friend, was throwing salt over my head and asking creator to release me from the things/people that were no longer serving me, but that I was continuing to hold energetic space for. I have used this one many times since. It is preferable to do this in the rain as I feel it really adds dramatic effect and deepens the degree to which you feel in your soul that you are releasing yourself from that entity.

Earlier this year, I was taking a yoga Nidra class from an incredibly inspiring woman who hosted the sessions in her home, by wood burning fire. She offered the ritual of writing down what you had been holding on to each week, at the beginning of the session, and then throwing the paper into the fire to let it go so that you could clear yourself of that thought before taking part in the Nidra practice. I loved this ritual because although it was marked - it did not make a big deal of the letting go - it just embedded it into our weekly practice. This is even making me thinking of a few weeks back, when visiting one of my good friends in Ottawa, dancing around her living room with her four-year-old daughter and belting out an off-key rendition of Let It Go over and over and over again was quite cathartic as well. I would recommend giving it a try, you don’t need to have a four-year-old to do this.

All this to say that I think ritual is important. Whether it something grandiose and noteworthy or small but marked - the point is to intentionally let go of the things that no longer serve us to make space for the energies that feed or soul now or will in future.

I notice that most of my ritual is in letting go. I wonder how do others practice ritual? In what context? With what ceremony? Please feel free to comment or reach out directly - I am curious to hear about your ritual practice.

**Pic - Sunset on Lake Superior after throwing baggage out the window on to the Canadian Shield - apologies for metaphorically adding more rock to that land!