What is Ritual?

Ritual to me is something I do that feels purposeful and special, done slowly and intentionally to help me feel great.

I have morning rituals, grounding rituals, gratitude rituals, bath rituals, moon rituals, menstrual cycle rituals, calming rituals, and more.

Most of the time these involve various elements of nature - flowers, being outside, connecting to the earth, and tuning in to the breath. Other tools I like to use are candles, incense, writing, crystals, cacao, sound, water, yoga, oracle cards, reiki...

Ritual can vary in time and depth and can be done anywhere - a 5 minute breathing ritual in bed, taking your tea into the garden and listening to the birds, 10 minutes strolling and admiring nature, a few minutes watching a candle or doing a visualisation exercise. To full ritual circles or long ritual baths.

What inspires the ritual for me is intention - such as manifesting, letting go, celebration, gratitude, rest, cleansing, energising, boundaries. And I often use the seasons and the moon to guide me.

I like to create beautiful sacred space as the container for my rituals - a space where I feel I can completely drop into, escape the busy-ness of day to day life and fully surrender and receive all that I need in that moment. And for me, this sense of space started in my outdoor bath!

The purpose of it all is connecting in with myself and the world around me. Feeling the magic, feeling the love, and welcoming it all in. It's about awareness, its about knowing myself, it's about understanding how I'm feeling and what I need to help me feel great. It's about time out, rest, being slow, appreciating, learning, feeling, being. Its about quieting the busy mind and slowing the doing body, and instead finding stillness, peace, relaxation, a sense of being. Its about creating space to feel the magic within and all around - that special place that resides deep within us all. Feeling in to our truest, highest self so that we can continually evolve into our truth and live a life in full alignment with our deepest desires and passions.

Ritual has been one of my greatest healing methods, and continues to teach me more and more about myself, and find connection to others. Its also fun, playful and creative! There's no wrong or right. Its about flowing and feeling into our intuition. Ritual is not something I set out to do - it found me over the years. From a place of feeling completely lost, disconnected, afraid, numb, dark, heavy - over the years I have discovered a whole range of tools and practices that have gently and gradually helped me rediscover myself and my light. For me, this started with bathing - especially outside - as it was the only place I could allow myself to stop, and actually allow myself to receive some love and nurturing. The more I did it, the more I felt the magic of that pause and sense of love. Ritual will always be a part of my life because of how it makes me feel and all that it teaches me - the journey and learning never ends! I will forever be grateful for this, and through Rituals by Rochelle I hope that I can share some of the magic I have discovered along the way.