From small to those bigger ones, we perform rituals every day. They are in our daily lives and not only in the spiritual from but the business and leisure one too. Some are even habitual and we do not think about them. Let's do that now. Let's talk about our rituals and why are or aren't they important to us.

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Sometimes we are eager to proclaim how someone is a creature of habit and say how someone else is completely unpredictable. Where do you see yourself on that scale? As for me, it all depends on what part of my life we are talking about. There are areas where rituals are important to me and those where doing something the same way over and over again seems like a nightmare. It just proves that we are multilayered beings and labeling or putting us in little boxes is never a good thing to do.

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My mornings are always the same, except when there is hardfork happening that is lol. When I get up, the first thing I do is put some water on the stove for my coffee and while the water is heating up, I do everything I have to in the bathroom. When I am done, so is the water and I can make myself that magical cup that turns me from hater to lover of things. I was never a morning person. I need at least an hour (sometimes much more) to become normal.

Coffee is magic...

I need my cup of magical liquid to get into my happy zone. I meditate, do yoga and exercise but coffee comes first. People who know me are smart enough to realize there is no use in trying to talk to me before I have had my first cup. Back when I was not allowed the drink coffee due to stomach problems, I was having tea but that quiet time with the cup was equally important. It was actually never about the type of liquid. It is about that ritualistic getting to know myself and the world each day and restarting my brain. I need that time. It is like my body gets up but my mind needs a bit more time to join the party.

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I have mentioned brain synapses in my posts before and how they are responsible for our ability to learn new things. Let's shortly recap what we have talked about. Whenever you repeat a certain action, it becomes easier to do that action in the future. This works not only for your actions but for your thoughts and opinions too. First, you were having trouble tying your shoes but it became easier and easier until it was normal for you to do it.

Repetitio est mater studiorum.

We are learning and growing by repeating things. We are repeating action and thoughts until they become habits or natural subconscious knowledge that we do not have to think about, we just do it automatically. Ritualistic behavior can help with that. Just try to think about why do you think like you do or do things like you do. It is because you have convinced yourself that is the way to go and it has nothing to do with it being right or wrong. It is right and or natural to you because you have learned it that way. Strong synapses are hard to break, not impossible but hard and whenever you see in yourself or others troubles to change certain things, it is because the repeating process of new things is yet to come while those things you are familiar with are easier, we already have them in our knowledge.

Change does not need to be hard.

We often hear how change is hard and learning new things is even harder. Some even reject the notion of expanding their horizons and learning. Even being stubborn is a learned and repeated behavior. Change does not need to be like that, it can be fun if we make our rituals fun. Imagination and strong determination help. Make rituals work for you and not the other way around.

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Every religion and every spiritual path has some kind of ritualistic practice. Some are rigid and strict and some more easy going, but rituals are there. There is a reason for that. Rituals not only help with remembering things and putting them in our subconscious, they strengthen our focus too.

Repeat a thought or action enough times and it becomes the truth to you.

Many religions are well aware of this brain thingy and they have been exploiting it since the beginning of time. There is nothing wrong with you having an opinion or a habit as long as you are in control of it and aware of how it got there in the first place. Your strong opinions once started as ideas or observations and gradually grew into your character traits. Rituals in spiritual practice can be beautiful and beneficial but they can also be harmful if you are not thinking and paying attention. Remember what I always say?

Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.

There is a reason for you having both those organs, do not favor one over the other. We need both. We need our emotions and spiritual growth just as we need our rational thinking. They are not opposites. We have turned them into opposites because saying no is often easier than saying yes. Think about that for a moment. How many times have you discarded something just because you are trained to discard things? How many times has our conditioned behavior stopped us from developing and growing? Ritualistic behavior just like anything other in life can be good or bad. It is extremely powerful. Nothing is just black or just white, it all depends on what we do with it. Life is about color, so much color and about including, not excluding things. Do your rituals help you with including or excluding?

Until next time, KEEP YOUR SMILE ON!

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Image sources AND LICENCES in order of appearance:

- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- title pictures are made by me using the CC0 images from pixabay that can be found here and here
- my bitmoji avatar was created on https://www.bitmoji.com/, visit the site to create yourown

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