When something isn’t working in your life, what’s the first thing you try to change?
For most people, the default approach is the urge to “change your habits.”
Eat better. Exercise more. Meditate. Start journaling.
What if there’s a better approach?
When life isn’t working the way you want it to be, you need to change more than habits.
You need to change the system.
Habits are what we do unconsciously. Instead, you need a more conscious way of living.
You need a revolution.
A revolution is one thing moving around another thing.
The earth around its axis.
The planets around the sun. The moon around the earth.
Revolutions.
In our personal life, our rituals are the axis around which everything else revolves.
Before you start conjuring images of witches stirring a pot and other “woo” things, take a breath and listen.
Rituals can be “woo,” but they don’t have to be.
Rituals are conscious actions we do with intention.
A ritual is a way to create the space and set the container in which you can do some activity.
You set the table before you eat dinner.
You set up your yoga mat before you practice.
You take out the barbell and set it up on the platform.
You light a candle to set the mood before an intimate dinner.
You dim the lights before watching a movie.
These are all rituals.
Rituals are how we create space for our best work. They bring a level of intention to the actions that will follow.
Rituals are the secret to navigating change and chaos. They are the center that mediates the circumference.
Rituals are earth to the seasons, the space that holds the space for everything else.
They are the sun to the planets, the fixed point around which everything else revolves.
Rituals are the axis of rotation around which we turn, the spit on which we rotate.
Rituals are the plumb line.
Rituals put us in the center:
Home. Sanctuary. Safe space. Sacred space.
Rituals ARE the space.
They are the space for people who want to create consciously, who want to awaken out of trance, out of reactivity, out of habit.
Ritual is the path to navigate change and chaos. It is the constant in the sea of change, the still water deep beneath the waves.
Ritual creates the container for your creations and your best work — your ultimate best work being showing up as your best self.
Ritual is the path to moving through life with ease and grace, fluidity and fluency.
The ritual of our movement.
Whereas habit is unconscious and reactionary, ritual is an awake and aware practice. It is embodied and intentional.
It is the way out and the way in.
The way out of trance.
The way out of sabotaging thought patterns and habits.
And it is the way into yourself.
The way into your heart.
The way into your truth.
[…] injects chaos into the status […]