Autumn: The Season to Restore Rituals
Autumn: The Season to Restore Rituals
Rituals are powerful. Rituals can make life more meaningful. Rituals can cultivate contentment.
The year 2020 challenged most of our routines and rituals but I’ve heard many women report because of that huge hiccup, they are now more intentional about rescuing and restoring the rituals in their lives.
Rituals do not require fanfare or excess. Sometimes the simplest expression heals the heart and creates community. Let’s look at some ways to revive rituals for our health’s sake:
Clarifying Terms
• A ritual is any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner, especially religious practices or rites.
• A tradition is the handing down of beliefs, customs, information, etc. from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or practice.
• A routine is a regular procedure; habitual or methodical commonplace tasks, such as daily chores.
“Before there was written history, there were rituals. Our ancestors sought ways to understand their world, to live in harmony with its mysterious ebbs and flows.”
• No Internet, book clubs, 12-step programs
• Most rituals marked seasonal cycles and rhythms (environmental, rites of passage)
• Rituals helped “make sense” of life and brought organization to communities
• Rituals brought sense of order, comfort and belonging
––Body +Soul Magazine (year unknown), “Reviving the Ritual” by Suzanne Gerber.
Our fast-paced, over-scheduled lifestyles frequently crowd out rituals, leaving us feeling disconnected or lost. British author and ritual expert Jane Alexander says, “Good rituals are essential to our emotional, psychological and spiritual health.” The act of intentionally including simple ceremonies in your day may help you release (tension, anger, disappointment, etc.); heal (forgive, create, show gratitude or honor, etc.); and connect (with ourselves, family, God, etc.).
Returning to rituals strengthens family and friendship ties across the miles or across the years. Playing “remember when” and recalling past rituals or traditions may bring barrels of laughter or buckets of tears, but it will reunite the participants as they “pass on wonderful moments of family history, part of the glue that keeps a family together.” –––Hallmark Magazine, Nov-Dec 2006, “Steal this Ritual” by Lou Ann Walker.
Importance of Rituals
• Historical: Keeps family, cultural occasions alive and meaningful
• Familial: Birth; puberty; marriage; pregnancy; anniversary; death; etc.; family meal at the table
“Happy families don’t grow on trees. They grow around the dinner table.”
––Simply Organic Foods
• National: Has America back-slid from rituals? Patriotism? The Pledge of Allegiance?
• Health: Seasonal cleanse; bath-bedtime ritual; silence sabbatical; morning ritual;
• Seasonal: First day of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter; First snow; Farmer’s Market opening day; etc
• Religious: Baptism; Advent; Communion; other...
The Making of a Ritual
• Simple acts that cultivate lasting health and harmony in your life
• Intentionally choosing what you want a ritual to accomplish (personal wellness, remembrances, quiet time, other )
• Plan the details to simply and meaningfully fit your intention
• Create a space to support your ritual (if this applies)
• Rouse your senses with your ritual. Let your taste, smell, touch, hearing and vision be stimulated in some way (soothing music, candles, magnificent view, hot tea, floral arrangement, etc.).
• Thought starters: Bedtime story and tuck kids into bed; dinnertime with family at the table, share an experience; begin the day with a gratitude declaration; plan a mother-daughter or girlfriends annual event; others.
The benefits of ritual were published years ago in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Family Psychology. Their 50-year study showed the “connection in a ritual-rich lifestyle to greater marital satisfaction, academic achievement, self-worth, and stronger family bonds.” There is ample research supporting the value of having some sort of recurring ceremony in your life. The evidence also shows that simple and consistent rituals around special events (major holidays as well as daily routines) are linked to stronger immunity, shorter recovery time from colds and an improved overall health in children.
What Ritual (s) do you most enjoy? How do you include Rituals in your daily schedule?
As we enter this Autumn season and prepare for several weeks of holidays and special events, think about the rituals you currently practice and how/why they affect you. In our current unsettled world, I believe keeping rituals will bring comfort and healing in many ways.