Hello Nature Writers,

I heard from many of you that last week’s blog was beneficial. Here’s another post that may help you with establishing a ritual to improve your writing – and your life.

Realizing Your Love for Nature: Daily Rituals

As in any exploration of any topic, daily rituals come into play. When looking into writing about, in, and for Nature daily rituals are no exception. Think about it, when you want to get in shape, you’ll need to lift weights, run/walk a certain amount of miles per day, and eat a certain way. When you want to lose weight, you’ll find yourself counting calories, eating only protein or carbs, spending more time selecting the type of foods you’ll eat and when. When your goal is to complete a course of study, you need to find time to complete the assignments, finish the course load, etc. These are daily rituals that help you reach a goal. There are other daily rituals that are part of life such as brushing our teeth, keeping our homes tidy, checking in our loved ones, bathing, being polite to others, and so on and so forth. 

As we become more aware of the Nature that surrounds us it is often the simple act of HAVING a daily ritual that completes the exploration of the topic. Think of meditation. Meditation seems like it is a fairly simple thing to do – you only need to calm yourself for a period of time to gather your senses. This could be for as little as 5 minutes or as long as an hour per day – even a full day, depending on your level of mediation practice. In reality, this is not always a simple task. Many find meditation to make them even more antsy than they may be feeling – and that’s fine, if that happens, mediation isn’t for you, or, you could work on finding a way to make it work for you. This is the type of realization that you’ll arrive at as you explore the many types of daily rituals found within the exploration of all things metaphysical. (By the way, meditation is actually a way to grow your creativity and your writing beyond your wildest thoughts). 

Within many of the world’s established religions, prayer and mediation is often part of their ongoing rituals on both a shared and personal level.  Established religions offer this as a way to slow down, give thanks and rest. It’s not a bad thought at all. The world is rushing by us, often at speeds that we as humans cannot even grasp. How often do you drive someplace and later that day do not remember that drive at all, you couldn’t recall any details about the actual driving? In today’s multi-tasking world, it is often good to stop every once in a while to calm down, observe, process, and then proceed. Some say that looking up from our smartphones would be a good place to start becoming more present and many say that one of the best ways to do this is to keep a journal either in the morning or at the end of the day that reflects your life’s events that day. Those that do this report a higher awareness of their daily thoughts and reflections. 

These journals sometimes come in handy when you look back at your life after a year or years have passed. As someone who recently read 30 years of my own journals, I can tell you that the experience was humbling. The reading of those journals was at times exhilarating, full of sadness, full of joy, and never boring. I learned so much more than I thought I knew about myself, recalled many details and aspects of my life that resulted in me being who I am today. I thanked my younger self for taking the time to “write things down”. 

So you may ask why should you take the time to do a daily ritual? The reason is that the repetitive gesture brings peace to your life, it grounds you, it gives you a base from which to operate. It doesn’t matter what daily ritual or rituals you choose – do a few and see what works for you. Within a month’s time it would be best to embrace a daily ritual or two that best suits you as you continue on your path of metaphysical exploration. It is said that if you repeat something for 40 days it becomes part of your life. 

The following is a brief list of some daily rituals that many people find to be useful in giving them faith in their lives, in helping them to be grounded, and in helping them to be calm and to figure out their lives. 

See if any of these resonate to you. Let me know of your questions regarding any of these items as you get started. There are resources available for you for all of these topics and remember, you can have any number of daily rituals (weekly and monthly rituals also).  The key here is to begin. 

–   Writing morning pages

• Selecting a tarot card to set the energy of the day
• Consulting Fairy (or any topic) Oracle cards – select one a day
• Meditating 
• Setting intentions for the day
• Yoga practice
• Walking and hiking daily 
• Cleaning your jewelry on a weekly/monthly basis
• Reading a passage of a favorite book, reading poems or reading Zen koans
• Pondering upon the select Page-A-Day calendar page of that day
• Being grateful upon waking
• Being grateful while approaching sleep
• Praying
• Saying a rosary, meditating with prayer beads, reciting affirmations and mantras
• Listening to birds and surrounding wildlife
• Blessing your household, setting the energy for peace, harmony, and safety
• Grounding cord for yourself, family, co-workers, co-community
• Saying hello to your angels
• Saying hello to your fairy folk
• Spend an hour a day without any screens (in the morning or before bedtime perhaps)
• Being silent one day a week
• Do not use social media one day a week
• Writing in your diary at the end of the day 

Writing Prompt: Have you established a daily (weekly/monthly/yearly) ritual in your life? If so, what is/are those rituals.

How have these rituals served you so far? 

Which of the above stated topics do you find yourself gravitating toward? Are there any other rituals that you know about that you would like to explore?