“Rituals, small little decisions make up a lifestyle and a lifestyle makes up a lifetime.” -Shannon
Many of us lack a regular meditation practice and across the board I recommend this to clients and students. The reason is that it retrains your brain to think positive, to notice your thought direction, to set intentions and steer the direction of your life. We have many rituals like brushing our teeth, wearing deodorant and drinking our morning coffee which we see the practical benefits from. A daily or bi-daily meditation practice can also help you immensely. Many successful people attribute their success to their meditation practice. Jennifer Aniston is a huge fan of it! But consistency in other areas of your life can bring up your energy and increase the amount of joy you experience on a daily basis. Let mother nature help you out! Eat a clean mostly plant based diet and the systems of your body will harmonize giving you lots of energy. Get daily sunshine and you will get an added endorphin release making you feel happier. Finally get daily movement and adequate sleep and you will be vibing high, keeping up the energy for those around you! The rituals of living in sync with your physical body and the cosmic bodies will give you a foundation and a strength that no one can shake from you.
If I could tell people one thing before I die, it would be this. Make healthy food your foundation and do yoga and meditation daily to keep up your health and positive emotional state that will direct you in your career and relationships. The rituals we intentionally generate give us unbreakable will power. Starting out, it might be slow and lurching but you can even add daily morning and evening reminders in your phone to remember to meditate (this is what finally worked for me and created a habit). Pretty soon you won’t have to think about doing your daily movement and sitting down to check in and connect. We all want to feel a connection to something special and magical in life and we often look for it in our partner or position in our career but meditation and healthy living give us a high frequency that taps into a very high level consciousness. It allows us to step into an altruistic reality where we derive our happiness from contributing our love to the whole, the growth of our society and the healing of our earth family.
So where do you begin? Keep it simple. Get a journal and sit for a few minutes every morning and night to ask your higher self what you need to know about your spiritual growth and write it down. During this time write your affirmations of what you’re trying to create in your life as well. For example you could write down, “thank you for bringing in my new purposeful job!” The ritual of writing what you want as if it’s already here, two times daily will create a laser like focus and help you direct the use of your time and energy. Taking that time twice a day to notice your emotional state, intentionally raise your vibration and bring in a pure intention will help you avoid pitfalls and detours that do not serve you (like the wrong jobs, relationships, social groups and foods).
I can resolutely say that the one thing that has changed my life more than anything else (now with 30 years under my belt I’ve definitely found many things that DON’T work) is consistency. My friend always said it’s better to do a little bit a lot instead of a lot a little bit (referring to yoga). As in don’t do two hours of yoga hard core once per week but instead do 20 minutes of stretching a day. You won’t be so sore you can’t move and it will keep your body aches down and digestion regular. Finding your favorite salads and smoothies to make your staples and healthy snacks like almond butter and bananas to have between meals will alleviate depression and long-term health complications. Drinking alkaline water as a bare minimum will even help significantly reduce your sick days!
Your routine will hold you to a high standard of self love and keep you from staying out too late, drinking too much or lowering your standards for less than healthy individuals. Your consistency will build the energy in your nervous system, allowing you to attract more positive people and opportunities! Your trust in yourself will build attracting more trustworthy people. Your consistency of taking care of yourself will attract people (the world is a mirror) that consistently take care of you and love you!
Finally, if we are willing to remove the bacteria from our mouths daily by brushing our teeth, why don’t we make it a habit to clear our energetic body too? We really just didn’t actually know we have an energetic body, that’s why we haven’t been taking care of it! It’s a learning curve but when you experience that place of peace emotionally on a consistent basis you will feel the value of taking your weekly salt baths and doing your daily meditation. When family members can no longer get under your skin, when you let go of anger much more quickly, when you start attracting healthier relationships, when your skin glows and you lose weight, when you feel excited about the future, you will easily be able to stick to your new rituals and genuinely look forward to them.