Do You Have Ritual in Your Life?

Every morning, the first thing I do when I get up is ‘gong’ my singing bowl. It makes the most beautiful ringing sound and I let it drift off into silence.

With this action I create the intention of having a wonderful day. It doesn’t take long, once the gong is done I spend maybe 30 seconds expressing gratitude for my life and well being, and putting positive thoughts into my mind.

That’s the start of my daily routine.

We all have them, regular actions that we consistently follow, day in and day out. For the most part we don’t think about them very much. Activity abounds! We move from one project to the next, struggling to keep our lives in balance between the details that make up our hectic, action filled days.

Do these actions give us meaning? For the most part NO!

Rather than feeling connected with the world we often feel alienated, lonely, out of touch. We interact superficially with ones we love and don’t realize the deterioration of relationships until it becomes a serious issue.

Now action does have meaning when it becomes a ritual. And an action becomes a ritual through intent. For instance – my daily affirmations and gratitude moment with my singing bowl.

That is a ritual. There is personal, internalized intent behind my action.

Ritual is important. Action with intent can help address our need to feel connected –to ourselves, our families, to each other and the world.

There are two aspects of ritual, heart and hand or you could say intention and action. They work together and focus our minds on the implications of what we are doing.

When we pay attention to both what we are doing and why, that brings us to being fully present in the moment. We can create that quality of being called “mindfulness”. We are fully experiencing our Now. We understand the meaning to our action.

I use ritual, symbols and words within ceremony to mark moments and milestones of transition in the lives of individuals, couples, families, communities, organizations and businesses.

Whether paying respect, moving forward in life, accomplishing a major goal or creating a change in direction; when you honor that experience with personalized meaning that represents your individual beliefs and convictions, you bring more to your quality of life.

Endeavor to put ritual into your life.

Think about how to do this – I’ll carry this notion on in future blogs, examples for ceremony and in everyday life. Create mindfulness!!

Welcome to Life Celebrated!

Welcome to my blog, Your Celebrated Life… Let’s have fun!
I am a Celebrant and my job is to help people celebrate important moments in their lives.

My blog idea is to talk with you about my job and experiences in hopes that they will spark ideas for you! I want to discuss ritual and ceremony. Why should these two words be important in your life? How can you incorporate them into your day or week or month?

Celebrate your life! Take time to recognize and honor important moments. Acknowledge change: value your past and embrace the opportunity to look ahead.

Celebrants create personalized ceremonies and officiate at all types of life events. Whether paying respect, moving forward in life, accomplishing a major goal or creating a change of direction, a celebrant can help you design a service which speaks your voice.

Here are some common celebrations that I can develop and officiate for you:

• Wedding – Traditional or Non-traditional
• Funeral or Memorial Service
• Baby Naming or Adoption
• Commitment Ceremony
• Elder Honoring
• Renewal of Marriage vows
• Career Change or Retirement
• House Blessing
• Military Homecoming
• Illness Survivor Gathering
• Divorce Party for Healing and Transition

Or other meaningful life passages for you or your family. Let these moments speak personally for you with a unique celebration that honors your personal beliefs and principals!

Celebrating milestones in our lives is important to me. I feel that here (in the United States) that we are good at celebrating with gift cards and presents, but do we celebrate with significance? This is a subject matter that I hope to explore. I hope to hear from those of you with meaningful rituals that play important parts in your lives.

Is substance in our life important? If so, how do we achieve it?

I want to look at what is important to you, and you, and you. When a significant achievement or pivotal event occurs in our life, is it imperative to acknowledge? I think yes, but how about you? How do we acknowledge? Your feedback and comments will help give us all guidelines on when celebration is exceptionally important and when simple recognition might do.

As this blog grows I hope for feedback from you. I will want to know – what do you think? How do you feel? I hope you will share your stories and experiences with me.

Here are ways you can reach me. If you are on Facebook, please join my fan page, Your Celebrated Life. You can also reach me via email patty@yourcelebratedlife.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

I hope you enjoyed my first blog. I'll be posting additional articles about twice per month.

All The Best,

Patty