The Importance of Ritual, Part 2

By Mary on September 27, 2010

Last week I talked about the difference between ritual and routine, and that intention plays a big part.  This week, I’m going to talk about why I would want to make more of my routines into rituals.

Several of you left comments last week about how the shift in perspective from routine to ritual helped make those things flow more easily.  I’ve certainly noticed that in my life. For example, each night before bed I prepare my raw breakfast for the morning.  I pour the filtered water in the bowl, and put the seeds and oats in to soak.  For me, this ritual is about nourishing my body in a healthy way and starting my day off right.  I end the day preparing for the next day, telling the Universe I plan to wake up in the morning, and creating a circular flow to my days.  And so flow is a big reason to focus on ritual.

One of my core beliefs is that I am a soul having a human experience.  My soul is an extension of the Creator.  I am made of Divine Source energy, and so is everyone and everything in my experience.  When I am coming from a place of ritual, I am recognizing and honoring the Divine in all aspects of my life.  I feel my experiences are more meaningful to me when I approach them with a sense of the Sacred operating in me and through me.

Ritual is a great way to signal your mind that you are moving into a different space.  I have a ritual of writing in my journal, drawing cards from a couple of different oracle decks, and meditating.  I gather all the things I will need on my bed, sit cross-legged up by my pillow and tuck the blankets on my lap.  I feel cozy, and I have cued my mind that we’re going to be here for a while.  My mind moves into meditation easier sitting there after writing than it does if I just sit down and decide to journal.

Another reason to change a routine into a ritual is for those tasks that I just don’t enjoy.  I can usually think of about a hundred other things I could be doing than folding the laundry.  On the days where it is just part of the routine, I often get distracted, and it takes me four times as long to finish, because I really don’t want to be doing it.  It gets done a lot faster and easier when I look at the chore as a way to serve my family.  It is an expression of my love for my children that I sort and fold their laundry (they still have to put it away ;) ). It also is a perfect time to practice mindfulness meditation!

Thank you for all your comments last week!  Please leave more comments below and let me know what routines you are turning into rituals.

Blessings,

Mary

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The Importance of Ritual, Part 1

By Mary on September 20, 2010

What do you think of when you see the word “ritual”?  Do you picture candles and chanting?  Or do you visualize all the things you do when you first wake up in the morning?

Okay, okay.  The things you do when you wake up in the morning are probably just a routine.  Or are they?

Let’s start by figuring out the difference between a ritual and a routine. Wikipedia says…

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers, or dictated purely by logic, chance, necessity, etc.

Routine is a course of normative, standardized actions or procedures that are followed regularly, often repetitiously.

For me, a routine is something I do from habit.  It is a program I have created in my life, much like one would craft a computer program, something that runs without having to think about it.  It’s the route I take to get to work in the morning, or to drive home at night.

A ritual on the other hand, is a series of actions I take mindfully, that prepare me to transition into another frame of mind.

Using our example of getting up in the morning, let’s say I wake up, drink some water, have breakfast and get dressed. If I do all of these things every day without thinking about it, because it’s what I’ve done every day for the last several years, then it is just a routine.

However, if I drink the glass of water because I understand that it gently starts my digestion process and moves my body from fasting to eating while hydrating my body; if I eat breakfast and get dressed mindfully, knowing that these actions are transitioning me from sleepiness to wakefulness, and as preparation to go to work, now I have made my morning routine into a ritual.

In my case, on work days, it is more of a ritual.  On my weekends, it is routine.  It happens a little more haphazardly over a much longer period of time.

Another thing that helps me distinguish between routine and ritual is my intention.  A sense of sacredness and purpose turns a routine into a ritual.

Next week I’ll talk more about why I would want to have more ritual and less routine in my life.  See you then!

Blessings,

Mary

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Back to School and Technical Difficulties

By Mary on September 6, 2010

Yes, it’s that time of year again…back to school.  I’m not one of your typical parents who rejoices at sending my kids away for hours of the day.  Sure, it has its benefits, but it also has its negative aspects as well.  Like children becoming more oriented to their peers than their parents.  But I’ll save the homeschooling argument for another day.

I’ve decided to take some classes as well.  My church has some courses that it offers online, and relatively inexpensively, too.  I know that I am more disciplined if I have others relying on me, so I’ve gathered a group of my friends to form a study group, and we’re all going to take the classes together. I’m also debating taking a meditation course online, though I may wait until I have completed the other course to begin that. I’m quite excited, but I don’t want to over do it!

One of the components is an online classroom, and when I installed the software the other evening, I discovered that my computer is too old and slow.  I need more RAM and a newer graphics card.  It’s a long weekend, though, so I have to wait until the computer stores are open tomorrow to see about the upgrades I need.  Because my computer is so old, I can’t find the parts at Staples, or Future Shop.  I even spent much of the weekend attempting to get other old hardware to work in my machine!

One of the quotes my husband and I live by is, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”  My computer has not been growing, so it has been slowly becoming quite outdated.  Just like me, when I don’t keep learning and keep my mind active.  Whether it is improving my parenting skills, my financial literacy, or learning the process of manifestation (or all of the above at the same time!), I like to keep my mind quite active.

What are you learning about right now?  Please leave a comment and let me know.  I may want to learn with you!

Blessings,

Mary

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Rough Re-entry

By Mary on August 31, 2010

I’ve been home from Maui for a week now, after leading two Peaceful Woman retreats back to back.  I don’t believe I will ever facilitate back to back retreats again.  Re-entry into my other life has been challenging for me.

The retreats were spiritually exhilarating and fulfilling, and at the same time, physically exhausting.  If I lived on my own, and had another week off work, I might have paid off  my sleep debt by now! :)

So I appreciate your patience as I gather myself back together, become accustomed to the new vibration I came home with, and integrate everything I learned about myself into my day-to-day being.

Mahalo (thanks) and Blessings,

Mary

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An Invitation…

By Mary on May 24, 2010

I recently returned home from The Peaceful Woman Maui Facilitator Passage.  This is the third time I have gone, and it continues to amaze me.  Or rather, I continue to amaze myself.

How do you describe your own inner journey to someone else? How do you put deeply personal and meaningful “aha” moments into words?  The Peaceful Woman Maui Passage is a week long journey into your own truth.  And each time I return, I learn more and more about myself.  I learn how to cut through the noise in my own head, to drop into that still place inside myself where my soul resides.  I learn how to be the observer in my own life–how am I occurring in this situation?  And what does that say about how I occur in the rest of my life?

I arrive open to the teachings this time and this place have prepared for me, vulnerable in the knowledge that I have manifested the experiences that will take me to the next level.  I am here to support the other women on their journey, and I allow myself to be supported, by conscious women who become soul sisters, as well as by Mother Maui, a magical island that has much to share.  I tune in, listening to the requests of the women with me on this Passage, my body,  and Mother Nature all around me, knowing they are all reflections of my innermost Divine self.  I share my experiences and insights, and soak up the breakthrough moments like the rays of brilliant sunshine.

I dance the ancient dance, blessing the land, and walk the labyrinth to my center and back.  I am cleansed in the river of feminine energy, and purified in the ocean where the ancients landed their canoes.  I am teleported to the sacred place where the sky meets the land, from which messages are sent and received.  I walk the fields of heat and passion, sweat out the stones that block my Light, and claim my blessings.  I sway with strong bamboo, bathe in healing waterfalls, and am pampered into a state of relaxed bliss.  I unite with my sisters to carry us swiftly across the waves to sing to the turtles, and swim amidst rainbow colored fish.  I celebrate the journey with dancing, singing and feasting!

And throughout I am treated to the wisdom of the Hawai’ian culture.

Experience is a better teacher than any book, and nature is the best classroom there is.

This is my truth, and I choose to live from this place of peace and power.  I invite you to join me, to know your truth, and live your truth. I am leading Peaceful Woman Maui Passages August 15th-21st, and September 12th-18th, and there are other dates with other incredible facilitators available. For a limited time, you can get 10% off the full price of your Passage.  Please enter coupon code “MM”.  There are also limited spaces for facilitators still available.  Contact me here if that is something you are interested in.

Here’s my experience from my first Passage:

Blessings,

Mary

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Where my spiritual path and science meet

By Mary on March 10, 2010

I read this article by Stacia Topping last week, and it really affirmed my choice to use meditation and guided meditation in my life.

A Soul’s Code insider asked herself, “Can enlightenment happen through meditation or practice?” Drawing on examples like Eckhart Tolle, her personal experience and science, the answer is: Yes

I began meditating about two and a half years ago, at the urging of a then-friend (translation: a fellow I was very briefly dating.) I was an avid journal-writer, and felt that was enough for clearing the detritus-of-the-day from my mind.

But a couple weeks later, when someone came into my office and was handing out flyers for beginning meditation classes, I decided to take up the invitation. My work ’situation’ was super-stressful, and I thought that meditation might help ameliorate the effects more than what I saw people around me using to cope — from Ambien to alcohol.

Continue reading the article here…

Blessings,

Mary

There’s a new meditation available for you. Download for free here…

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Happy….

By Mary on December 25, 2009

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Yule, Hannukah, Ramadan or Kwanzaa,
May the growing Light bless you with Peace, Love and Joy this holiday season.

Want to learn more about these different holidays?  ReligiousTolerance.org has a great write up describing the different celebrations at this time of year.  You can read about it here….

Blessings,

Mary

A new guided meditation is now available!

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Faith Manages

By Mary on December 1, 2009

I had a conversation recently on facebook with a friend of mine about faith and trust.  I was planning to copy that conversation and edit it for today’s blog post.  Facebook is not letting me see that message thread right now, so instead I have to have faith and trust that I can rebuild my thoughts on the subject!  How’s that for irony?

My friend was questioning a decision she had made.  She saw it as a test of her personal values, and was questioning the Source that would challenge her in this way at this time in her life, and given other recent events.

The first thing that came to mind was a line from a Babylon 5 episode: Confessions and Lamentations.  In the episode, an entire species (the Markab) was being wiped out by a plague, and the remaining Markabs were quarantined in a part of the space station.  None of the doctors knew if the plague would affect other species, and so they were left to themselves to die.  An ambassador of the Minbari, Delenn and her assistant, Lenier, who are of the religious caste of their race, go in to the quarantined area to give what comfort they can to the last Markabs, not knowing if they will succumb to the illness or not.

They come upon a little girl who is crying:

Delenn: She has separated from her mother. Please find her.
Lennier: [looks around, somewhat lost] How?
Delenn: [to Lennier] Faith manages.
Delenn: [turning to Markab girl] What is her name?
Markab Girl: Mama.
[Delenn turns and looks at Lennier again]
Lennier: Faith… manages.

This quote rings through my head whenever I am facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge, and I have no idea where the solution will come from.  As long as I believe that everything will work out, it usually does.  They did find the girl’s mama, by the way, and Delenn and Lenier survived, though the Markab race was completely wiped out.

Going back to my friend, I reminded her of some of my beliefs.  They may or may not be your beliefs, and that’s ok.

I am a soul having a human experience. I *chose* to come here, and I *chose* many (all?) of the challenges I have faced in this life before I came. Why? So I could experience things my soul may not have experienced before, or perhaps so I could choose to respond differently this time.

The Earth is a big playground, where all these amazing, all-powerful, creative beings have come to experience EVERYTHING! However, on the journey here, we forget that we are amazing, all-powerful creators. So we struggle. But the playground is essentially harmless. It is beneficent even. What is my ultimate goal here? Experience everything with joy and gratitude. So even when, ESPECIALLY when, something “bad” happens to me, something painful, something WAY better is just around the corner.

But do I BELIEVE that? Do I TRUST that the playground is harmless, that it is here to fulfill my every wish? Or will I let myself get bogged down in the pain? Do I celebrate when I pass a test of my resolution? Or do I rail against the Universe for testing me in the first place? As the creator of my Universe, I would only be railing against myself.

Do you see the joke? Once you see it, and can laugh at it, challenges become easier to face.

So I choose to CELEBRATE! In my friend’s case, she could see the pattern of where her previous choices have not brought her joy, and now she has chosen differently! While it may seem painful at the moment, something WAY better is now available to her because she learned and exercised her power of choice. Woo hoo!

Wishing you the vision to see  and the sense of humor to laugh,

Mary

PS. Facebook came through at the end and let me see the thread.  You know, once I had mostly finished writing.

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