How to make more intuitive decisions part six – rituals
Find out why creating simple rituals in our day can help us to make better, more intuitive decisions – and result in happier and richer personal and professional lives.
Over the past five weeks we’ve shared a series of articles by Katie Phillips from Daring & Mighty revealing the secrets to making more intuitive decisions in your life and work. This week we uncover the final secret – rituals.
Rituals have been around for centuries
Rituals have been used for centuries across many cultures to foster affinity with peoples’ spirits or the Divine. Personally I find creating rituals a very connecting experience for me in my relationship with my own inner self – a powerful way for me to get in touch with my own spirit and make better decisions in my life.
Some of the rituals I have created for my own life include burning a candle on my kitchen windowsill and setting my intention for the day, lighting a candle when I meditate, and burning frankincense to cleanse the energy of my home and consciously connect to my inner muse.
Why are rituals so powerful?
But why are rituals so powerful? I believe that they invoke a prayer-like state in which we are free to allow profound realisations, heightened awareness and transformative powers to come into our lives.
You can create your own rituals, and they can be whatever you like, for any reason. You may like to choose a specific time and place for your ritual – find some stillness and then focus and ground yourself.
Perhaps you may light a candle, burn some sage or incense or something to give the air some presence, and the space a hint of magic. Rituals can be created around moments of peace and calm, such as meditating, yoga or even just sitting in quiet contemplation first thing in the morning.
You don’t need to be spiritual to benefit from rituals
Some people create rituals around everyday activities like having a bath, and even cleaning – allowing the soothing ritual of the repetitive, familiar actions to take your mind out of your physical presence and into a deeper, unconscious realm.
You don’t need to be religious or spiritual to feel the benefit of rituals. You can create your own around any activity, for any purpose. You may simply stop under a beautiful tree on your walk to work or back from the school run every morning and take a moment to just ‘be’, look out quietly at your garden as you wait for the kettle to boil when making tea, or simply lose yourself in a piece of music you love.
Use rituals to set intentions
The point of a ritual is to develop a habit that brings you comfort and peace – a sense of reassuring calmness – and allows you to momentarily leave the worries and demands of your physical world and make contact with your inner self, your essence.
You can use that moment to act on an intention. Maybe you want to let go of something that is niggling away at you – a fear, a disappointment, a worry. Or perhaps you want to invoke something – a strength, the courage to make the right decision, or the wisdom to deal with a tricky situation.
At the end of your ritual, you can snap back into the ‘now’ and release your thoughts or intentions to your spirit, and let your unconscious do the work.
Small rituals like these can be an incredibly powerful way to stay connected to our true self – and help us to intuitively make decisions that will set us on the path to a life that is in line with our real desires, ambitions and needs. And help us to get closer to our goals in both our personal and professional lives.
Why working mums need rituals
As working mums, these rituals are probably more important for us than most. We spend so much of our life thinking about others – ensuring our children, partner, employer or clients’ needs are met. We have very little time to think about our own needs, and often don’t feel we can afford the luxury of time to spend on things that we enjoy. In fact, many mums can feel selfish even considering doing something just for them.
But by living such a physically present, hectic life, it’s easy to lose touch with our inner self – the person we authentically are and want to be. And as a result, we can find it harder to make the right decisions in our life. Out of touch with our intuition, we doubt or second guess ourselves, and make choices that take us further from the things that make us happy.
Taking a moment in your day to renew your relationship with your inner self, your spirit, will help you to make better decisions in your life – helping you (and your family) to be happier in the long run.
Start creating your own rituals today
So what’s stopping you? If you enjoy meditation or yoga – or even just soaking quietly in the bath when the kids are (finally!) in bed, intentionally create a lovely ritual around the process.
Or simply take a moment out of your hectic life to just stand or sit quietly for a moment or two and peacefully connect with your inner self. It doesn’t take much time or thought, but will reward you many times over with a richer, more personally fulfilling life. Try it today and see for yourself!
Katie Phillips is the founder of Daring & Mighty, an organisation committed to sharing the importance of having a healthy, loving and conscious relationship with yourself.
