In my mind, the word “ritual” conjures religious overtones. Today, I choose to use it in a much more mundane way. Here, let ritual mean any activity you engage in that captures your attention on a daily basis. I’m talking about ingrained habits, like walking the dog in the morning, watching TV after work, reading the Huffington Post at lunch (me), or posting on FaceBook after putting the kids to bed. We all have rituals we devote precious allotments of our time to every day.
Thoughts and feelings come to reflect whatever are our cumulative preoccupations. Capturing attention as they do, rituals lead to habitual emotional states. And, emotions felt habitually, eventually grow from states into temperaments. That is how mundane rituals mold us over time.
If you want life to be better, consider examining the effects of your mundane rituals. How are you ritually prioritizing your time each day? You may discover that some rituals are not serving you. Giving yourself over to them is costing rather than adding to your life.
If you decide you’d like to replace some of your rituals with a daily meditation practice, I’d like to offer you a quick lesson on how to get started. Just click here to gain access to a free webinar that explains the basics of how to use meditation for stress relief. On the webinar page, you’ll be able to watch a video and also receive free downloadable audio meditations. These are the same meditations that come with the first month of my 13-month guided program. Enjoy them. They’ll get you started.
My mission is to help as many people start a meditation and mindfulness practice as possible. The reason, I want the world to be a better place. So, if you’ve been thinking about taking up the ritual of meditation, go for it. I assure you, you’ll gain more happiness, mental and emotional clarity, compassion for yourself and others, more creativity, confidence, grounded sensitivity, peace, a sense of purpose, deeper sleep, and a better memory. If you want to improve as a parent, to be less impulsive and reliant on medicating substances and behaviors, to develop increased tolerance for distress, then begin to practice the ritual of meditation and mindfulness. IN ALL THESE WAYS AND MORE, THIS RITUAL WILL MOLD YOUR LIFE INTO SOMETHING WORTH CELEBRATING. I’m here to support you if you’d like to get started. Please share this newsletter with anyone you want to be happy.
As always, I wish you peace, health, and happiness.
Mark
Did you watch it? If so, now’s the time to act! Go get yourself a teacher and start learning how to meditate. Your partner, spouse, kids, family, colleagues, community, nation and the world needs you to be at your best. YOU need YOU! And don’t worry, if you need support, I’m here to help. The important thing is that you get started. Let’s do this.
Solving the problem of addiction requires investigation into the multiple causative factors–poverty, the relative support one receives through relationships, family of origin dynamics, education, employment status and perceived opportunities, mental health issues, etc. As you can see, addiction is a complex problem that will only be solved through a greater awareness and amelioration of these many drivers. Everyone wants to feel better, even addicts. But sometimes, getting high seems like the best and only option. As a society, we need stop doing two things. First, we must stop over simplifying addiction by telling addicts that they have a disease. Although right intended–care givers want to communicate the seriousness of the problem–the disease explanation often gives addicts the very thing they’re looking for when life gets tough, a good excuse to act out. Second, we need to stop treating addiction as if it were an isolated problem that exists solely within the addict him or herself. Rather what we need to do is educate everyone about the true nature of addictive thinking and behavior, and then provide access to more healthy options. The research says that when people are supported they start to feel better, which then results in less medicating behavior. Addicts mostly recover by themselves when they gain a broader perspective on themselves and their life. That’s why recovery starts by helping people reconstruct happy and productive lives.