Sometimes Small and Simple Things Add Up to Very Big Things When We Make Them into Rituals.
The Power of Ritual In Everyday Life
It’s hard to believe that the global pandemic with COVID-19 started spring of 2020 well over six years ago now. Many things might feel or look different for us today because of that consequential experience. But I feel like some things have remained just as true and consistent for me now as it ever was before, during or after the pandemic.
One of those things is the power of ritual. And to be honest, it took me being stuck at home for all of those months for me to realize that true power. Rituals too often get coupled with spiritual or religious performances. Those kinds of rituals carry powerful impacts. But even if we don’t have set religious observances, there are so many other ways of incorporating the power of ritual into our lives.
How Simple Rituals Help Us Appreciate Each Day
Perhaps, like me, in the thick of the pandemic, the days seem to melt together with no significant variation or things to look forward to and since my days weren’t punctuated with anything significant enough to mark my days, weeks went by without my really noticing. Good things happened practically every day, but I realized I wasn’t paying enough attention to those good things.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with going with the flow, but I realized that I had been coasting from day to day without giving each day the kind of thanks it deserved. Marking each day with simple rituals has helped me break out of that coasting mode and get a bit closer to celebrating every day for its own merits. And I bet if we look at our lives in a certain way, we will realize how many rituals we have already incorporated into our lives.
Turning Everyday Routines Into Meaningful Rituals
I’d bet that, although we might not be conscious enough most days to call them rituals, our morning routines are very much just that. Do you flip on—or I guess more appropriately these days, ask Alexa to turn on the radio to catch up on news while you’re making and eating breakfast? Do you go for a jog, looking forward to listening to a favorite podcast or audiobook? Using the word ritual to refer to these morning routines matters. What we call something can either become commonplace or approach sacredness, depending on how we choose to look at our actions. What happens when things once considered routines or habits become important rituals? The very same actions take on completely new and inspiring meaning.
How Rituals Can Bring Comfort During Difficult Times
Simple rituals can make even the hardest of circumstances a bit more bearable. I recall visiting a dear elderly neighbor who was nearing the end of his life, as well as his wife, who visited him daily in the hospital. On one occasion, I noticed a friendly, leafy, green plant propped up on the windowsill that seemed to be doing very well. My neighbor’s wife told me that she gave the plant a little drink each morning when she visited her husband. She first took care of the plant because her husband had always loved gardening, but in time, it mostly gave her a way to make things a bit better for her husband. She also recognized that her husband was wavering in and out of consciousness at the time, so it had become important for her too totally separate from caring for her husband. It had become a way for her to manage her days by making simple, concrete, helpful actions consistently day after day.
Planting Seeds, Practicing Gratitude, and Finding Meaning
For me, one ritual that became very significant for me was planting a tree seed each day and watch the seeds grow and progress. This ritual holds added meaning for me because once the seeds are nestled in their pots, I take a minute or two to visualize the seeds. I imagine roots first breaking out of the seeds’ shells and grasping hold of the nutrients in the soil. And I like to think about the joy of seeing the seeds sprout above the soil and experience sunlight for the first time. When I think about the growth of these seeds—all the immense potential that each has to become massive trees—I think about how I can grasp a hold of good things that can help me and others grow as well. This was only one small (but significant for me) action that I took every day. It, as well as a couple of other rituals, including mindfulness exercises and writing in a gratitude journal every night, helps me to make better sense of and to mark my day.
The Deeper Meaning and Power of Ritual
So where does the added meaning and sense of connection come from? Meaning and connection come, in part, from the power of ritual. We choose to label a routine as a ritual. We choose to go through those rituals even when (maybe especially when) we don’t feel like it. The true power of ritual comes when we are willing to perform the action even when we aren’t super excited to do so. Then, when we are on the other side of those harder times, we have a new sense of connection to our rituals and a greater appreciation for their balancing effect, making it easier to perform them in the future and setting us off on a virtuous cycle that could lead us to finding greater meaning and relief even during the hardest times in life.
Discover More Ideas For Finding Meaning In Everyday Life
To explore more insights like these, check out Moments of Joy: Fifty-Two Ideas to Nurture Greater Meaning from Life.
Chris Bentley is a District Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. He received his Master’s Degree from Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Chris has written four books to date—Running on Merit, Moments of Joy: Fifty-Two Ideas to Nurture Greater Meaning from Life, Soybean Revolution, and When a Tree Falls in a Forest. He lives in a small town in the mountains of Southern Idaho where he loves hiking and biking among the beautiful peaks and trees.
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