Creating a Positive Ritual!
Are you Wanting to Create a Positive Ritual or Practice?
After my many failed attempts over the past few years to integrate different positive practices into my life and stick with them, I have finally found a formula that works! With the many positive practices on offer now, through social media and magazines, there is so much inspiration around us, encouraging us to 'make a difference' to our lives in a positive way.
There's also a tendency to want to try as many different ones as you can so that you can reap the juicy benefits from them all! However, it can feel a little overwhelming just thinking about trying to squeeze them into your already crammed schedule! (despite the known benefits!) You too may have created time in your life to begin a positive practice to discover that overtime it has fizzled out. When I talk about creating a positive ritual or practice I am talking about creating a pattern of behaviour that has a set sequence, ie always done the same way, that contributes to your well being, and supports you in an uplifting way. This could be an exercise routine, meditating, journalling, conscious breathing, mindfulness, prayer, yoga, listening to an inspirational audio ...
Below are my top pointers for creating a positive ritual and sticking with it so that you can see and feel the benefits of it over a period of time.
1. Start with just one thing You'll set yourself up to fail if you go hard out from the beginning. Once you have one ritual/practice embedded into your daily routine, you could consider adding another. 2. Make it consistent and part of your routine, same time each day for the same period of time. For example, I do a gratitude exercise at 6.45am every morning for 10 minutes. Put a timer on if you have to. 3. K.I.S.S. - Keep it Simple Sweetie! When I started out doing my gratitude practice I discovered very quickly that it took me too long to write it out on paper and I ended up running late for work -RED FLAG MOMENT! It was causing some pain in another area of my life! Not good - as I was at risk of giving up already! So I quickly tweaked it and decided to say out loud what I was grateful for. This is a much quicker way of doing it. 4. Commit to it! Just do it! If you stay at it long enough you'll see the benefits. 5. Have a visual reminder I also have a gratitude practice I do at night (thanks to Rhonda Byrne's 'The Magic'.) I have a rose quartz stone on my bedside table and the practice involves holding it, going through the events that happened during the day and then deciding on the one thing I am most grateful for and giving thanks for it. If I am tired and prone to forget, the stone reminds me of my evening ritual. 6. Tag something you love to your new practice/ritual! Here are some examples of this; I have a delicious nespresso coffee when I do my gratitude practice in the morning After my gym workout, I pop into Tank and get my favourite green juice When I exercise, I listen to music I love. Last but not least...
7. Celebrate your success I started going to the gym after Christmas of 2014 and set out to keep it up consistently. (This would be something I would have given up on in the past!) When I hit the 3 month mark I celebrated my commitment and consistency to working out, by going out for dinner. I also shared this milestone with people close to me. If you slip up, don't be hard on yourself, just get back up on the horse and get going! What positive ritual have you been wanting to integrate into your life? Do you have 10-15 minutes in your day to squeeze it in? What are you waiting for?
