The Importance of Rituals

Remember Easter and Christmastime when you were young? What did these two events have in common? They both involved rituals that revolved around religion. While you may or may not be spiritual, that doesn’t mean you can’t engage in meaningful and relaxing rituals every day.

A ritual is defined as ‘any method of doing something in which the details are always faithfully repeated.’

Rituals give life meaning, and they help us celebrate and honor our lives. They offer security, stability, and routine and help bring a sense of calmness to an otherwise chaotic existence.

Rituals can include more than special events on your calendar – you can invent morning and nighttime rites to help ease you through your day.

Rituals date back thousands of years and are apparent when we study the ancient Egyptians. Theirs was a culture seeped in traditions. Eating, drinking, bathing, hunting, and burying the dead were a succession of rituals. They used fire, drawings, metal, and jewels which signified important events in their lives and gave their existence some purpose.

Over centuries, mankind has lost the importance of rites. However, many of us in the 21^st century are reconsidering traditions and adding them to our lives as we desperately seek meaning during this increasing shallow and disconnected time.

Christmas offers us with a chance to engage in numerous rituals. We may attend mass at church, shop for presents for friends and family, give to the less fortunate, and look for a Christmas tree to place in our homes to decorate.

My husband, children, and I have a ritual for getting our Christmas tree. We drive about 15 miles to a beautiful tree farm in the country. We let our sons choose the ‘best’ tree and once we spot it, we use a little hand-saw we receive when we first arrive at the farm.

We drive home, prepare hot chocolate, turn on Christmas music, and spend the night placing decorations on the tree and around the house. While this is happening, we watch Christmas movies to put us in the mood.

Some of our favorites now include: Scrooge, Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s a Wonderful Life, and more.

If you seek more meaning and happiness in your life, adopt some new rituals.

Consider your daily rites? Is there something you must do every morning before work? Do you need to meditate, read the morning paper, or prepare your clothes a certain way to feel ‘ready’ for the day?

How does it feel when you wake up late, skip everything, and reach the office late? Not great, I bet. Chances are, your entire day feels awkward and disjointed, and you probably fantasize about going home and pulling that cozy duvet over your head.

If you’re a not a morning person and typically hit the snooze button, try something new. Turn off the alarm, grab a book, meditate, or sip a coffee – forget about going back to sleep.

At work, make a ritual of meeting colleagues and socializing during some lunch hours or on Friday afternoons after work.

During the week, you might have a ritual of getting up early enough to run, walk, do yoga, play an instrument, or meditate before work.

To cope at work, you might have tea time, lunch at the coffee shop with a good book…you get the idea.

At the end of a busy week, many people designate Friday night as movie or board game night and have fun with friends or family. If being at home doesn’t excite you, sign up for sports and go get out your weekly frustrations.

Rituals are especially great when you have children as they appreciate stability and enjoy knowing what to expect. It’s easier to set up rites with small children as you’re their universe, and they crave spending time with you. Small children enjoy reading, being creative, building things, playing with their toys, and having your around.

The challenge is with teenagers; they may act like they don’t want to be involved with you but this isn’t always true. In fact, they secretly crave your presence. If you find something they enjoy, do it with them while you have the chance. Time passes too quickly, and before you know it, you’ll still be doing housework, but your children will not be around.

My oldest son loves to beat me at video games, and although my ego feels pretty squashed when he beats me, our bond grows while we sit on the couch on a Friday night and battle it out in a video game.

When you add traditions and rites to your life, you add meaning, a sense of permanence, history, and more joy for your friends, family, and children.

Lisa Rickwood, B.F.A., is passionate about helping people slow down and enjoy their lives. She is the founder of Escape The Pace^®, a business dedicated to helping people live a happier, relaxed life while pursuing careers, raising families, and making their dreams come true. This was a spin-off from her highly regarded book, Escape The Pace: 100 Fun And Easy Ways To Slow Down And Enjoy Life. Lisa has helped dozens of professionals, entrepreneurs, and executives improve their lives by offering: seminars, play-shops, keynote talks, books, greeting cards, gift boxes, e-books, and an e-zine.

Lisa was born in Vancouver, Canada, and raised in the Okanagan in British Columbia. She has a visual art degree from the University of Victoria and is an accomplished international visual artist. She also spent years working for two large newspapers as an advertising consultant before becoming co-owner of a high-end menswear store with her husband on Vancouver Island. When she’s not at the store or working on her business, she’s taking care of her husband, two sons, and step-son.

She is a sought-after speaker and has lectured at colleges, Health and Wellness Shows, business networks, Rotary Clubs, and large organizations. She is a regular contributor to Woman’s World magazine as well as Synergy and Pure Woman magazine. She has been featured in Common Ground magazine and the The Berkeley Psychic Institute Newspaper. Two well-known U.S. authors will feature her in their books, respectively, Mom CEO and Less Than Perfect.

Lisa is passionate about being involved in a world-wide movement about work/life balance and was asked to participate in a conference in Seattle called: Take Back Your Time (www.timeday.org).  She looks forward to helping others ‘take back’ their lives.