Our Daily Rituals

Posted on November 16, 2007
Filed Under Awareness |

We all have our daily rituals – but I am not talking about getting up for breakfast, taking a shower and all that lark. When I talk about rituals, I am talking about the way we act, the manner in which we talk and the things we do. In some respects it’s about repetitive behavior, but with these rituals it goes so much deeper.

What are your rituals? Here are some of mine:

• Wanting to influence change and awareness through writing on this site.
• Analyzing everything for deeper or hidden meanings.
• Seeking other people’s opinions, in order to validate my own.

As I said, these things are elements of our behavior; but just like rituals of ancient traditions they exist in an attempt to modify feelings, people or the environment. Generally our rituals are somewhat sub-conscious, in some cases we carry them out without even thinking, whilst in other cases, we put an extensive amount of effort and consideration into them. In either case though, we don’t tend to view them as a means of influencing or bringing about change for personal benefit, and this can cause us plenty of problems.

When our rituals are simply ‘something we do’, the outcome can be potentially very random. Or else we trigger a certain response we sub-consciously we are trying to attract. In my case when I go looking for other people’s opinions to validate my own – what I invariably find are opinions which actually contradict my own. If I follow-up with unconscious thinking – which I often do – a lengthy and mentally draining ‘debate’ or argument results. The crazy thing is – that deep inside on a sub-conscious level, my ego knows that this is going to happen. Although the argument may leave me feeling crappy it makes my ego feel great and purposeful when it gets all the attention – even if it is negative attention. And that’s how it goes.

But we can take our rituals in hand – and understand them for what they are: A means of self-nourishment (which then may or may not be used to help others). When we do this we get to purposefully guide the direction our rituals take, and we can do so with conscious and aware thinking. This makes a world of difference to the outcome; and that is how it should be, because rituals are meant to be undertaken with care, awareness and deep understanding.

Going back to my examples of seeking others opinions, when I do this with awareness it is a much different process. Firstly I make it clear to myself that I am seeking the thoughts of others in order to learn, and not merely for self-validation. That changes things right from the get-go – because I am then seeking information rather than opinion. And information can be very enriching – and if it turns out to be of no use to me, then it is very easy to discard without getting un-necessarily caught up in it.

So trying to identify our personal rituals is a great way to work towards understanding ourselves, and it is something that can be perfected continuously as we go.

Comments

3 Responses to “Our Daily Rituals”

Chris on November 16th, 2007 4:49 pm

Hmm a synchronicity. I was pondering this matter myself this morning. Your post falls firmly into the 3rd ritual I list below.

For myself, I’d have to say my rituals are:

1. Analyzing everything for deeper and/or hidden meaning
2. Reassessing my stance/postion with/towards the world around me
3. Spending time pondering questions/thoughts for which I have yet to find satisfactory resolutions.
4. Reading this blog on a daily basis as it seems to resonate along the same lines as my questioning.

Cheers and keep up the wonderful posts.
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Jake on November 16th, 2007 10:46 pm

I find your insight to be very useful and educational. please keep up the good work.

One funny ritual, I allow myself to get bored to remind myself why I like to stay occupied.
When I loose physical stimulation, my mental stimulation starts to loop. I see this a lot in “stay-at-home” types. They get bored and fall into paranoid loops of worry. Or sometimes they mix the TV world with reality too much -gossips, soaps, made-up drama, etc. Interesting how things in the spirit world go downhill when we allow our physical world to stagnate……
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Marcus on November 17th, 2007 2:10 pm

Thanks for the comments.

Interesting points from both of you! You know, I am wondering if these rituals could be viewed in two categories. I noticed that many of the rituals you guys mentioned (and my own) are introspective; looking inwards at our selves / thoughts. And then questioning, learning and interacting with the world around us based upon those rituals or to further our understandings.

For me, this puts a slightly different light on more traditional rituals. For example certain religious / spiritual rituals are usually externalized or physical actions / performances. The result of which can perhaps cause introspection.

I thought that an interesting division on how one type starts in our thoughts and affects our actions. Whilst the other type starts in our actions and affects our thoughts…
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