To ritualize something is to bring one’s utmost attention, intention, and presence to it to influence the creation of new neural pathways that support the actualization of the desired outcome.

The power and importance of ritual cannot be emphasized enough!  You have immense power within you to create what you want IF you harness, channel, and direct this power with the right intention.  Enter: ritual.

Think of modern day rituals – weddings, graduations, retirements, etc.  These are events that tend to follow a typical script and flow and that signify the end and beginning of some phase of life.  Nothing happens other than the passing through of the standard operating procedure of the ritual and then BAM, you’re now a “wife” or a “recent grad” or a “retired person.” In taking on these titles, one’s persona, behaviors, habits, routines, and overall way of living markedly shift and all because of a simple ritual.  Pretty remarkable, huh?

The Power of Ritual

A ritual needn’t be an elaborate event with an audience or bells and whistles and ponies and fireworks (unless of course you desire some or all the above, then please, go ahead – and be sure to invite me).

So, where to begin?  You desire to manifest something in your life, do you?  Often the biggest obstacle in the manifestation process is your mindset and the deeply ingrained habits, beliefs, and patterns that are the background music of your mind that seep into and create your life 24/7.  How to change the tapes, bring clear focus and intention so that this powerful background music can turn into your greatest ally and support system?  RITUAL! 

The old go-to ways are your habits.  You’ve clearly got them on lock.  Your life is a reflection of them.  They’re as unnoticed and involuntary as your hair growth.  However, to create something new, you must rewire the internal system by bringing conscious awareness to what you want to then direct these subconscious mechanisms towards manifesting your desires.

Rituals are simple.  I offer tailored ones to my clients as a way to continue the momentum of their process.  Sometimes they’re done daily, sometimes they’re done once, sometimes they take five minutes, and sometimes they may take an hour.  When creating your own ritual, you’re in charge and there is no “right” or “wrong” way.  Seriously.  Follow your heart on this one.

5 Considerations For Creating Your Own Ritual:

Be crystal clear on what you want to create and why

What exactly do you want to create, shift, change, manifest, etc.?  The clearer you can get on the vision, the more easily you can actualize it.  Dream big.  The only barriers are the ones you create.  Most importantly, above anything else, is why.  Why do you want this?  Get to the real heart of the matter.  Often times, the thing we want won’t satisfy the bigger, overarching why and this is where we can tweak just slightly to meet the real need.

For example, say you really desire to lose weight and your why is to look good at your high school reunion.  Admirable, and yet, can we get deeper?  Did high school leave you with untended wounds and grief that has been festering in your system and needs some TLC?  In that case, perhaps what you desire to create is a greater sense of self-compassion, which by its very nature, would yield weight loss (among MANY other positive, life changing outcomes) more easily than beating your body into submission to look a certain way by a certain time.  See the distinction?

Home in on what this desired outcome feels like to you

Where do you feel it in your body?  Use all your senses to create the scene – your brain can’t tell the difference between “reality” and “non-reality” and being in this happy place is creating a calming and healing effect on your system, which will make it want more and more.  Now you’ve got your energetic system on board!

What is a symbol of this creation that means something to you?

Anything that appeases one or several of your five main senses will do.  You desire to live on the beach in Hawaii?  Some coconut essential oil adorned on your neck during your morning meditation is just the trick.  Perhaps a picture of the beach on your desk or altar.  A seashell next to your toothbrush.  Get the picture?  Keep this symbol visible and allow it to engage the senses to evoke powerful responses within the brain.  This continues to work on the rewiring of your subconscious reactions and the stimulation of being around this symbol will jog your memory to keep you on track without you really having to “do” anything.

Do whatever makes you feel nourished! 

• Create sacred space in any manner that feels appropriate to you.  For example, burning sacred plants like sage, cedar, palo santo, mugwort, etc., calling in your guides or allies, and declaring aloud your intentions and your desires.
• Use the cycles of the moon to work with your intention and ritual.  Each phase of the moon offers support for the manifestation/change process.  The New Moon is the best time to plant the seeds of your desire, the Waxing Moon continues to raise the energy of your intentions, the Full Moon illuminates the areas of our lives that are no longer serving us and provides the opportunity to release and cut away, and the Waning Moon is the time to begin to turn in once more to reevaluate.
• Use music, breath, and/or movement to raise energy and to seal this intention in your body.
• Use art and creation to channel the emotional energy of your desire into an image.
• Create a ritual bath using flowers and herbs, essential oils, flower essences, and crystals as a symbol of cleansing away the old to make way for the new to emerge
• Create a sigil
• Invoke the elements by having representations of them in your space.  For example, a bowl of water, a feather for air, a candle for fire, your favorite stone for earth.

What are things you can do daily to continue reinforcing the manifestation of this desire?

Yes, rituals are powerful AND your daily actions can serve as the icing on the cake to continue the process on a daily basis.  Create daily action steps and follow them.