Ritual in Boxes
Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009
by Tony Brussat
http://qualiadelic.com
Ritual in boxes -- rituals within rituals -- is the secret to making every moment Qualiadelic and meaningful. This can happen in two, different ways. Either we use the same ritual again and again throughout the day, to open up other rituals, or we use a variety of rituals all aiming toward the completion of one, larger ritual.
Let's see some examples...
We all have our own Qualiadelic routines, just like prayer. We wash our hands throughout the day, not just to be clean, but because it gives us a sense of renewal with which to approach our next item on our agenda. Many of us change our clothes throughout the day. We change our location. We call someone. Each of these acts is a ritual in itself, yet each gives us a fresh start upon the problems or projects at hand.
Even simple courtesies, such as smiling and polite greetings, are rituals in themselves, but they prepare us for an interaction with the next person. And when two or more people meet, we are always ritualing.
Many such actions using one ritual to open the way to another are unconscious. We all have habits and tics that we don't think about. We brush our hair out of our face, perhaps, or look down self-consciously when we approach an attractive person.
The task of the conscious ritualer is to become aware of all such tics and habits, and to change them or evolve them, as becomes apparent through repeated ConsciousRritualing.
The second ritual in a box, so to speak, is when we have to unpack various rituals first, in order to accomplish one main ritual.
For instance, when we are preparing to do something, like cooking dinner. First we have to create a menu. Then we've got to see what we have in the cupboard (perhaps this ritual precedes creating a menu). Then we go to the store. Then we cook. The we serve dinner. Afterwords we clean up.
Each is a ritual, all related and directed toward a main ritual. We can expand this dinner ritual, too: making a guest list, choosing a day, creating invitations, figuring out seating arrangements. Add to this cleaning the house, dressing for dinner, perhaps doing some matchmaking among guests, steering conversations away from dangerous topics. This list could go on and on, ritualing ad infinitum.
So it is very important to be conscious of rituals, since they occur through out our day whether we pay attention or not. However, the best of us do pay attention to them, just as we pay attention to our choice of words when we speak. Conscious Ritualers know that people who pay attention speak and ritual more effectively than people who don't.
Ritual for success.
Be Qualiadelic. Be Conscious. Change the routine.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)learned a new word!(But,in prayer,religion teaches us to recite a rote catchecism, prayer repeated,as taught us,word for word,to pray without verbal,wordly variation,to repeat precisely that prayer, verbatim,as we were taught to;I shall take your advice the very next time thatI pray and insert more original,personal words;many thanks!PaulPaul, thanks for responding. There is plenty of room for spontaneity in prayer, as in all ritual. The great misconception about rituals is that they are routine, when in actuality they are tools of transformation.
It was a rude awakening for me when at one point in my life I realized that my prayers were a ritual and I was trusting it instead of God. Today I look to God and my prayers are much more personal. Good article. Welcome to Searchwarp.Linda D
Thank you, Linda -- I'm happy to be a part of this community.
Thank you, Linda -- I'm happy to be a part of this community.
As the above entries, I am also excited to add more originality and personal ritual to my prayers. Thanks Sabrina T.Thank you, Sabrina.Love, tony
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