Categorizing and Illustrating People's Experiences

As I've mentioned before I started a new website and project called Rituals for Healthy Living or Rituals to Invite Balance and Well-being. I'm slowly posting over 40 rituals that people have shared with me.

Posting these rituals has been an interesting practice in and of itself. At the beginning, as I would reread the offering, I would listen for words that I thought best categorize the rituals shared. Those became my labels and now as I read, I figure out which categories to apply to the new ritual. This is my first real introduction to tagging. It's hard! Especially with the rituals, I wonder what other juicy words might be descriptive. I wonder how best to categorize.

Reading through them also is a sort of meditation... I read through the ritual, kind of try on the ritual that is being shared, notice what parts of me are drawn to parts of the ritual, and contemplate the words that come to me to categorize the experience that is being offered.

The other part of this posting practice that has been an adventure is picking a picture to accompany the ritual. If you find yourself reading any of the rituals over there, please feel free to share ideas for other words to categorize the ritual... or let me know if there is a different picture that would capture some of the essence that is being shared. This was my favorite picture so far!

photo source

Rituals for Healthy Living

Over the last couple of years, off and on, I have been experimenting with healthy living rituals. I tend to be a pretty spontaneous person, following what is most alive for me in a moment. I try to listen to what I need (my mind, my heart, my body, my soul, my relationships, the whole) and take action from what I hear. However, I recognize that I lack discipline in my life and that often I favor what my heart wants over what my body needs. Imbalance has a way of creeping into my sense of order, causing a lack of order. If I listen carefully I notice the sounds of disharmony inviting me to pay attention to some aspect of my being. I belive that rituals, activities that I do regularly and purposefully with the intention of adding value to my well-being, can help support me in maintaining balance... and so I experiment!

Some of my experiments have included meditation, dancing, toning, singing, yoga, journaling, walking, prayers, breathing practices, and practices to help me tune deeper into experiencing the moment. In this mode of exploration and inquiry, I realized one June day that I have an incredible network of people and I bet some of them do rituals to help keep their life in balance. I decided to inquire and find out. So far 40 different people have shared with me the activities they do to help nourish their life. What a gift! I couldn't keep these treasures to myself so I have started a new webl where I will be posting all of the rituals I recieve. Come have a peek...

Rituals for Healthy Living is the new site and it'd be great if you came and joined the inquiry that we're in over there! And if you have rituals of your own to share, please do.

Sweet Seattle Rituals

In Seattle, there are many residential roads where cars are parked on both sides of the street and there is only room for one car to drive through at a time. I sincerely treasure the norms that the citizens of this city have developed for this situation.

Drivers self-organize. One person chooses to pull over into an opening between parked cars while the other car drives through. The car who has been granted permission to pass almost always gives the other driver a wave of gratitude. The driver that pulled over often waves back. I love this ritual. There is often even eye contact during these exchanges.

Today I felt a real fondness for the guy that let me drive through. I thought to myself "I like him!" I then felt a little pang of sadness. When we're not adorned with our clunky metal armor, I often don't find people exhibiting the same willingness to extend oneself into another person's personal space in kind and friendly ways. hmmm... how can I start living this more fully?

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What is Your Morning Ritual?

Currently I am giving attention towards grounding my morning rituals. Do you have morning rituals? What are your morning rituals? How do you open into or invite in each new day? Thank you for sharing any of your practice.

Updated: I'm curious about the balance between discipline and listening. Training ourselves through practice and following our inherent flow and rhythm.