Everyday Tasks Become Rituals
You deserve to be honored; to be celebrated every single day. How often do you perform rituals to honor the amazing being who is You? Too often, you fill every second with responsibilities to other people saying, you’ll get around to your own wants and needs someday. Sad to say, far too many reach old age, without having found their someday.
It’s a common misconception that honoring your own needs has to be a complicated, lengthy process, and taking the time is the worst of all behaviors; selfishness. In truth, it needn’t be more complicated or time consuming than your nightly routine of washing your face, and brushing your teeth before bed. It isn’t what you do, but how you treat yourself while you’re doing it.
If you’re like most of us crazy, busy, nurturing, women (and probably many men too), you use things like teeth brushing, or cleaning up dinner dishes to make mental lists for the next day, week, or month. Why not use that time, instead to focus on enjoying the moment, or repeating a positive affirmation or two. Make them rituals by taking few moments giving yourself some love and support. Contrary to popular opinion, it won’t take away from everything you think you need to do. In fact, it can make all those To Dos a lot more joyful because you remove a little of the overwhelm you allow to creep in when you spend too much time beating yourself up for not doing more.
Make Yourself a Priority
You are a Divine Being having a Human experience, yet you treat yourself like an afterthought. I was there myself until I woke up one day and realized not only was I completely miserable, but had nothing to show for all my hard work and dedication. I continued to fail everyone around me one way or another. My epiphany told me my failure was a direct result of trying to please the wrong people; meaning everyone but me.
In time, I learned the only way to help anyone else was to honor my own wants, needs, and dreams first, by creating rituals. My happiness was, and is, the only thing I can truly control, but if I approach everyone else from a place of happiness rather than duty, I bring more to the table for them than simply task completion.
Making other people happy is a laudable goal, but it’s also an impossible one. No matter how much you do for other people, they’ll always demand more because they haven’t learned themselves they have to do their own work if they want to find happiness. After swimming around for years in the sewage pit of everyone else’s unmet expectations, I realized all my efforts were doing everyone a disservice. Only when I began focusing on meeting expectations I set for myself, and making myself happy could I set boundaries on what I could, or would do for others.
Taking a Leap of Faith
Granted, it took time to realize what worked and what didn’t. I slogged along for a few more years trying to meet expectations I know now were always a moving target, and intentionally set beyond my reach. Too many of the people I thought I needed to please didn’t have specific goals at all. They simply wanted as many people as possible saying “how high?” when they said “jump”.
My biggest, scariest, and greatest gift to myself was taking one final jump off the misery merry-go-round so I could give all my attention to the one person I could please…and I’ve never looked back. By the time I leapt, I’d unconsciously put a few of the rituals I mentioned earlier in place. I’d set healthier habits for myself, and learned to take the time to appreciate not only the process, but the progress I’d made.
Whether it’s less stress, more energy, greater flexibility and strength, or pages written, I learned it all shows in the face I see in the mirror. That face thrives on praise, rewards, and time spent honoring everything that went into making it what it is today with small rituals. Little things like taking the time to cleanse and moisturize my face show external results right away, but it’s the internal ones which create the inner glow.
Make Your Own Light Shine
Looking at my grandchildren, I see the spark in their eyes. It’s equal parts curiosity, excitement, and knowing they’re loved, honored, and accepted. They don’t question any of it, nor do they expect more of themselves than to keep learning and growing. At what point did I, and so many around me lose that spark? I only know when I was ready to see mine again, it was there, waiting patiently for me to notice, and fan it back into a flame.
In bringing my own spark back to life, I realized the greatest gift I could give others was to fan that flame, and allow it to be an example instead of trying to be anyone’s missing piece. I’m reminded of the Biblical quote:
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
Happiness is like anything else in life. You can’t give it to someone else, nor expect anyone to give it to you. It’s a lifelong lesson, and like a flower, it needs water, sunlight, and nutrients to thrive. You give yourself what you need by honoring the amazing being you are with rituals of love, appreciation, and encouragement. Unless it comes from your own heart, you can, and often do swat it away. You have to believe in yourself; love yourself; and most of all, believe you deserve to be happy before you find and traverse the road to your own happiness.
It all starts with something simple like washing your face, or brushing your teeth without allowing yourself to think, or worry about someone else’s needs.
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri 
believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income.
If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.
