Self-Care Series: Caring for Our Spirit with Rituals

 

This is part of my series about self-care - looking after all aspects of our self: our mind, body, emotions, heart and spirit/soul. In this series of blog articles, I’ll be talking about looking after our spirit, or our soul, and the first thing that I recommend in connecting with our spirit is rituals.

What rituals do you do on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis? The things that are basically comforting for you, that you absolutely love, and absolutely need, to nourish yourself? For me it’s non-negotiable that I have a cup of coffee in the morning. A cup of coffee brewed from coffee grounds - no sugar, no milk. It is what I need to come into my body first thing in the morning, awaken into my body, my physical body, and prepare myself mentally and emotionally and psychologically for the rest of the day.

For some of you it might be your first shower in the morning. You absolutely need that, so that is non-negotiable. Your day just wouldn’t be right if you didn’t engage in that ritual. Think about the daily rituals that you just need to anchor yourself into the here and now.

And then there are the rituals that you do on an “as-needed” basis. I have a ritual that I use especially after working in the clinic - I use a sage stick or an incense stick to clear my auric field. Sometimes I miss it because I don’t need it, or it’s a day where I feel fully in the flow and my vibrations stay high. Some days I really need it because I feel like I’ve picked up a lot from clients or from my own issues, so I need to sage, and clear my energy field.

 

When I first started off in my healing journey I would need “sage” every day, after every client, it was absolutely non-negotiable. So, if you haven’t realised it by now, rituals come and go, and rituals adjust with you as you grow.

So maybe a few years from now, I don’t actually need my morning coffee (cue laughter), I will replace it with an herbal tea. Who knows? But what is important about rituals is that the rituals become a way to slow down, honour your body, honour yourself. And in honouring your body and yourself, you honour your journey, and you connect with your divine self, your soul. Traditionally, the idea of rituals stem from religious or spiritual practices where we connect with the Divine outside of us, and in doing so, we connect with the divine inside of us. So rituals primarily become a way to slow down and connect with the Divine both within and without.

The second important point of rituals is that they are something that you love to do. It connects with your loves, your heart, your soul. The focus is on you. This is especially important if you are the sort of person who gives and gives to other people. If this is you, the rituals that you want to incorporate into your life would be the rituals that are giving back to you, and it isjust for you. To help you cope, to help you function, to help you thrive, whichever it is, but it is about you, it is about connecting with you and self-love.

The third important thing about rituals in my experience, is that it helps us anchor our self, especially when we’re going through shifts. When we go through a consciousness shift, we question ourselves, we doubt ourselves, we wonder what on earth we are doing with our lives – all those questions swirling around in our heads!

Come back to your rituals. Come back to your anchors, the things that you do on a regular basis that remind you of you, that remind you of what you love. Coming back to the rituals and using rituals to anchor ourselves can help support us when we go through those moments of self-doubt, moments of shifts, moments of shedding our old selves. Because, ritual is about connecting with your divine self - with that eternal, unchanging spark within .

So how do you engage in rituals in your life? Are they daily? Weekly? Are they monthly like celebrating the full moon? Celebrating the changes in season like the equinox or the solstices? How do you incorporate rituals into your lives to help you connect with the divine you within?

I would love to hear how you incorporate rituals into your life. Comment here or come find me on my Facebook page, Rae of Light.