Rituals of Reconnection

supercharge your Source Connection with Saturday's Pisces New Moon

As those who come to visit us here in Hawaii know, every morning we sit on the front porch and have coffee with the creatures. It has become my favorite part of the day, which says something as I’ve never been a morning person!

John relaxed-ly works on his cube, while (the delightful kitten named) Bean, Magnus, and I attend to bird-watching and dispensing treats. John and I usually check in on how we slept, compare our sleep and readiness scores (we both have Oura rings), share notable nighttime dreams and sometimes even do full-on dream interpretations. And/or, we sit in silence, together.

This everyday ritual is grounded in 3 things: Presence/Awareness, Intentionality and Pleasure, so has become quite magical for me. There are so many opportunities to recognize that life has already provided daily ways for us to reconnect to Presence/Divinity. So many rituals. The sky’s the limit.

Recently, while talking to my sister, I found myself recommending that she create a ritual. She described getting frustrated by a habit of carrying everything on her shoulders. I suggested that she create a pretty space for herself featuring a Spirit Jar; every time she has the overwhelming feeling to give it up to God/Spirit/Goddess, instead. She’d write the thing down, put it in the jar, and release it to Source to take care of. Let go… and let God.

By textbook definition, a ritual is either a religious production, a frequent habit, or both; so, what you do habitually, regularly, may be considered a ritual. However, what distinguishes a mundane ritual from a Divine one - one where you are actually reconnecting to Presence and to your own Divinity - has more to do with what’s going on underneath the action.

Here are 3 key components that take the mundane to the magical.

Your Awareness

Awareness is an oft-overlooked thing …but is everything. Your Awareness has the capacity to be sitting in a cardboard box and think “this is the lamest thing ever”, or, be sitting in that same cardboard box and be thinking, “this is the coolest spaceship- and I’m going to the Moon!”. Your Awareness is magical, co-creative and powerful. It shapes your experience of life, entirely.

For instance, you can turn washing your face before bedtime into a reconnection ritual, by inviting more Awareness into it. Start by noticing the attitude that you bring into this. Are you feeling soft and kind toward yourself, or distracted by your day, in the past, or the future?

As a result of noticing, you might soften your gaze, and decide to be only here. Invite your Embodied Awareness for maximal joy: Notice the sensation of warm water rushing over your fingers as you prepare to wash your face and allow that to center you. Light a candle, turn the light down low. Have special oils and potions on hand. Take some time to gently massage your skin.

To turn a frequent or everyday habit into an opportunity to reconnect to Presence, invite all of your Awareness into it. Total presence to both what’s actually happening, right now… and what you most want to happen.

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Your Intentionality

Intentionality is your spiritual superpower. If I sit down to coffee in the morning with the intention to reconnect to myself, to be embodied -in my body- to notice where I’m at, and to receive Soulful insight into my day…it happens. If I do not set an intention, I may find myself at the end of my coffee without having ever remembered drinking it (always, so sad). I may find myself getting caught up in John’s work story, or whatever is comprising his awareness at the moment, never truly having had a moment, for myself – because I wasn’t fully “here”; I wasn’t intentional. Intentionality is the difference between having a life I co-create, or, being led around by the current distraction, crisis, of the moment, or by other people in my life.

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Your Pleasure

Truth: When I decided to make my own pleasure and comfort PRIMARY in my daily practices and rituals, I dialed in the secret ingredient that I had been missing! It makes sense when you think about it: The neuro-chemicals dopamine (pleasure) and serotonin (happiness) are hard-wired in humans. If we activate those, we will be drawn toward a thing, again and again.

When I began doing intuitive energy practices, I did so for two reasons: To clear and manage my energy, and to reconnect to the peaceful, calm, wise source of Divinity within. I soon found, though, that despite my best and good intentions, sometimes I resisted the practices. Or, I simply wouldn’t get what I wanted from them; I wouldn’t wind up in that calm, neutral place.

What to do? As an empath, I need energy clearing practices; non-negotiable. As I did some self-study around this question, I began to recognize that the difference between a great practice (feeling clear, and peaceful, relaxed) and a not so great one, relied on one thing: How much I: deeply enjoyed, became engrossed in, got turned on (!) while doing my practice.

On a practical level this might mean imagining warm caramel dripping over me as I inhale and exhale, and feeling that penetrate my muscles. Or, resting my awareness on my pelvic floor, which has now become the golden sand, at sunset. Or, becoming the Sun itself - feeling all melty, like that feeling you get at the beach when your muscles just melt. Ahh. I engage my imagination, what uniquely brings me pleasure, and I invite this into my practice.

…And, when “I don’t know” what will do IT for me, I figure it out. I make my bliss my business. Similar to making love, it’s up to me to figure out my zone. Somedays it’s all about feeling comfortable, and engaging my bodily awareness and alignment around this. But always, when I take the time to dial-in my pleasure, my experience is enhanced x 1000%.

Based on my own experience, here’s a theory: If you resist doing a ritual, one you just know that if you do it, you will feel more expanded, centered and peaceful – like go to yoga, do qi gong, or do an energy practice on your own -it’s likely because you haven’t dialed in your pleasure zone around it!

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Whether you want to up-level a habit into a ritual, or you’d like to start from scratch and design your own, these are the 3 key ingredients for successful reconnection ritual: Invite your full Awareness into it, use your Intentionality, and, finally, decide to make it Pleasurable (engage the “reward centers” in the brain) – otherwise, it is unlikely that you will keep it up.

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What rituals do you have, to reconnect? For instance, sitting at an altar, pulling cards, setting intentions, making offerings, or saying prayers? After reading this, do you have any bright or new ideas around turning the mundane rituals of your daily life into more magical ones? I’d love to know!

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Pic above-taken by my friend, Erica Wade.

Pics below- very sweet pictures taken during our morning coffee ritual.