The world is made of stories. This is a primary filter I invite you to integrate. It is an idea that what we know, see, hear, understand, believe, ponder is all made of stories. There might be rock that exists independent of our stories. There might be an ivy that grows without our narrative helping it along. There might be an entire universe “out there” that has no relationship to human beings, but my point is that we will never really know. Because our entire existence is constructed in stories.
Once we live in that paradigm (where I live), then the universe becomes a little more like a game, like a mystery or comedy depending on how your stories line up.
And if you are like me, you will sometimes desire something that you currently don’t “have.”
Examples might be:
You would like a job more in alignment with your passion.
You would like a new hybrid camper van.
You would like a partner who shares you love of traveling.
You would like to make more money to afford your love of traveling.
You would like to feel more confident.
Many of us approach achieving these goals or acquiring these things through hard work, dedication, list-making, and visualization/manifestation exercises. All solid choices. This essay is about another route to creating your life the way you want it to be: rituals.
Rituals are the physical extension of storytelling.
They exist when you put a story into action—when the sacred text meets movement. This, I believe, is how church happened and why it continues to happen: there are stories we hold sacred, and rituals help us “move through” the stories. Weddings do the same thing and so do birthdays. We turn a date into an event through a ritual (party, cake, singing happy birthday, and such)
Brushing our teeth is also a ritual that takes the story “I need to take care of myself” and sets it into action. We wouldn’t brush our teeth without that story. Other animals don’t brush their teeth because they don’t have that story. They just eat stuff that happens to keep their teeth clean.
When you think about it, much of our day is ritualistic. We have coffee. We remember our phone and wallet and keys before going to work. We take breaks. We text our kids. We have pizza on Thursday. We walk with friends Saturday morning. We meditate. These are obvious rituals. But so are these:
We say good morning to our kids.
We get in line at the grocery store.
We feed the cat.
We check our teeth in the mirror before leaving the bathroom.
All day long we do rituals that may or may not seem sacred—but they are. All of them sacred, because without them our reality would be very different.
We manifest our lives through ritual.
Yes, our understanding of the world is made of stories, but we create our lives through ritual.
In my opinion, rituals are different than habits. Where are habit is developed to improve your life through a measure of struggle, a ritual is created out of conscious storytelling. Conscious storytelling sounds complicated but it isn’t. It is complex, to be sure—but only because it is very close to doing magic. But it isn’t complicated.
Here’s how you create a ritual using conscious storytelling:
Be aware of something you wish to change/eliminate/manifest. Soak in it like a bath. This is less of an intellectual thing than it is a sensorial thing.
Tell a 3 minute story to yourself—out loud—that shares the same feeling, the same vibe, or basic gestalt of #1. The trick here is to just talk and don’t worry about it making sense of being a “good” story. You are simply putting words to images. “Once upon a time there was a fox…” and take it from there—3 minutes.
End the story and sit with it. Was there anything about the story that seemed important or relevant? A particular image or turn of phrase? “The fox was hungry but continued forward”. This might be the phrase you choose, but choose something to focus on.
Put the impulse into an action. If your goal is to lose weight and not snack as much, repeat the moment in the story “The fox was hungry but continued forward” and close the pantry door and walk outside. Done.
Other examples might be:
You want to make more money and the 3 minute story included a baker who made flour out of magic beans. Putting that to action might look like creating a ritual that with every bit of your morning toast, an idea will come to you—just like the magic bean flour manifested wealth for the baker.
You might want to attract a partner that loves to travel and the 3 minute story included the phrase, “The sea foam tickled her toes”. Putting that to action is to open the dating app and imagine the sea foam before reading a profile. Imagine the toes being tickled before looking at a face.
You get it - it makes it playful, theatrical and occasionally fun. Rituals feed you in a way that habits don’t. Habits are solid choices and good for you, no question. But rituals sustain because you want them. You enjoy them. You need to do them or you don’t feel quite right.
So ring a bell and call out the Owl Maiden’s name before eating your breakfast.
Turn around three times imagining you are dancing with a bear as you dial your mother’s phone number.
Put a nickel in your pocket before you go to work because the Prince will certain need it to pay the hairy wood ogre at the gate.
And may your day be filled with magic, delight and manifestation!
You are invited to learn more storytelling tools and strategies through this free series:
Thanks David.
I needed this today.
Matt