Everyday Moments As Ritual

You say you really want a certain outcome in your life, maybe feeling fit and healthy, or waking earlier to meditate, perhaps you want an amazing relationship without arguments, or to stop yelling at your kids so much. You sincerely do want this- and put time and energy and money into getting them. Maybe you join the gym, plan healthy meals, do the meditation course or buy the special meditation cushion and maybe even go to counselling.

You have a voice in your head telling you ‘You should really try harder, do better.’ This voice drives you to change. Depending on what your family were like when you were a kid- the voice might be supportive, ‘Come on, I’ll feel better if I am fitter’, or it might be really mean ‘I’m an out of shape loser, no wonder I don’t have friends’.

Perhaps you do stick to those changes for a while. You work hard to speak nicely to your kids and not snap at your partner, or to eat well and exercise. And then a different voice starts- ‘I’ve been so good for the last few weeks, no harm in having a day off (exercise / eating well / meditating)’. Or ‘I’ve been so calm to my partner, and they are still not pulling their weight around the house- I’m going to let them have it’.

You slide back into your old ways, then the critical voice starts up again- “I should try harder”, ‘I’ll stick to it this time’. Or maybe your self-critic is meaner “I can never stick to anything” / “I have no discipline compared to my friends” (add name calling. Putting yourself down).

Then you try again- this time with even more ‘rules’ that you give to yourself. Perhaps you succeed for a while, then the other voice starts that wants you to take a break, not be so strict, and around and around you go.

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) Model of Therapy calls this cycle a Polarity. The stronger the rule making, critical manager parts of your inner world get, the stronger the rule breaking, ‘take a break and relax’ parts, called ‘Firefighter parts’ of your inner system get. It’s like an inner fight, with one side winning for a while, then another side taking over and becoming even more controlling in response. It’s exhausting and confusing- Why do humans work against themselves so much?

IFS understands that all parts are trying to help you feel better or avoid pain. Critical parts want you to achieve, to feel better, to succeed. Firefighter parts want to help you relax, not stress and take a break. Luckily, they don’t have to just fight it out between them, because we all have at our deepest core- an authentic Self, that can lead us with compassion and clarity. This might be a surprise if you have been living from strict parts of you that have wanted to control your life. People that grew up in difficult situations may not have been safe to live as their true Self- and so their Self Energy remains buried while other parts try and manage life for them- but it is there nonetheless and can be rediscovered at any time.

When we learn to befriend our controlling manager parts- they can stop being so strict and critical, and instead help and motivate us with a friendly voice. And when we befriend our firefighter parts- they stop needing to be so extreme and provide us with balanced and fun ways to bring relaxation and playfulness into our lives.

Experience Internal Family Systems for yourself by booking a session with Ella for Individual Counselling, Ella also runs groups, supporting you to get to know and befriend different parts of you.

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I have a prayer for you, or really an invitation..

That you may deepen into the everyday moments- and turn them  into little pieces of ritual. Taking every chance to recognise the exquisite ecstasy available to us in this playground of existence.

Seize these little moments as mini-awakenings, snatched rememberings- a glimpse beyond the daily grind into the truth that we are literally made of dancing energy- and between these atoms of energy- just space!

A vibrating universe made of energy and space… made of love and of God.

Just take the little moments- make them tiny rituals… sitting by the creek, the way the breeze gently caresses the leaves til they so delicately dance, the water moving without compass- sparkling towards the ocean.. use it as an opportunity to reflect on the vibratory nature of the Cosmos.

Every meal

A chance to take a deep breath and for a moment consider the rays of sunlight sent from 150 million kilometres away to breathe life into the earth- bringing your body this nourishment.

 To take a moment to cultivate gratitude for all the many people & processes involved in your meal, and if you are so inclined- a moment to remember and thank Cosmic Consciousness for the unfathomable Gift of This Life. 

Greeting a Friend.

When you first greet a friend, a colleague or someone in the street- make a ritual of zooming out and seeing them as they truely are. For every Human Being is nothing but Divine Consciousness- Albeit incarnated into a limited form that has momentarily forgotten who they are. Forgotten so that the Oneness of Existence- the formless, limitless, unknowable, and boundless Love of the universe may experience itself- to play out the exquisite Cosmic Game of concealing and revealing this Mystery – to the rapture of the poets, the bliss of the lovers and the Samadhi of the meditators.

As you start and end the day, what tiny thing could you do to ritualise the end of one thing into the beginning of another?…

These sweet pauses – like the moment before the inbreathe becomes the inevitable out breathe…. can you fall into this infinity between your breaths?

 

When you lay down with your lover..

Does it start the same way every time? You do this, then they do that?

 What if you took each other’s hands for a moment first… took 3 slow breaths as One whilst gently meeting the gaze of this person who you love and trust enough in this moment to combine your energies with? And then to just let the energy take you… no routine, no plan… following the energy wherever it guides you?

A flower placed just so with presence..

A mindful breath between emails, a momentary tuning into the deep mysteries of nature and the workings of the universe  

These tiny moments, these little rituals, will take your life from routine and even boring, into a continuous play of heartfelt moments – moments that bring a tear to your eye, moments that make you so glad to be alive, moments where you feel so deeply connected to God.

 With love,

Ella  

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