The Comfort Of Ritual

This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don’t have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn’t have the specific ritual you are craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Hey, Lovelies.

It was a big day yesterday, with the churn and upheaval in America, with COVID deaths, with so many things going on in the world, and in our community – and by the time I finished my meditation and was ready for bed I’d worked a fourteen hour day and I was shredded.

This morning, after my meditation, I could feel the brittleness inside me still. The fatigue.

I could see the enormous list of tasks I needed to complete, many that have spilled over from a too-busy yesterday.

And that is why I DIDN’T start straight in.

Instead I made a pot of tea. I took out my Planner. I reached for my crystal and my oracle cards and my journal. I drew a card for the day. I wrote my morning pages in my journal, I sipped my tea, and I let my soul settle back down into a space of peace and expansiveness.

Rituals are so important in times of upheaval. They keep us anchored to safety. They refill our well. They act as a touchstone to what matters in our lives, even when everything around us is madness.

It doesn’t matter if your ritual is morning meditation, or an early run, a gym session, prayers and reflection, a walk around the block, tea and the daily crossword, emptying the dishwasher and then making yourself a coffee and sitting with a good book…

What matters, especially during the continued instability that will hallmark 2021, is that you create rituals and routine that allow you to find stability and security in your daily life despite what may be happening in the wider world.

When you create self-care rituals that become routine, you will have developed coping skills to help you manage whatever this year throughs at you. More importantly, you will anchor calm and peace, you will radiate love and good-will because of the way you have managed and cared for your emotional well-being, you will be able to bring a stable and better version of yourself to the world. In an unstable world, that matters.

Be kind to yourself. Make room for yourself and what matters to you. We need coping skills for the long haul!

Sending you gentle hugs, mugs of fragrant tea, and delicious blank pages waiting to be written upon, Nicole xx

PS – My Journeymaker’s Planner for 2021 is an awesome tool for creating rituals and routines. It comes with a free online course to show you how to use it – and my community love the results they are getting from using the Planner! You can get it here