The Power of Rituals in IC

When you think about it, all healing involves rituals   If the doctor gives you a pill for high blood pressure, you make a point during the day(preferably the same time every day) to take the pill  If you want to change your nutritional format to heal your IC, you put into place things that you do on a regular basis to change your pattern of choices

So painful bladder flares are no different than any other disease in responding to planned ritualistic behavior

But why does employing rituals work?

Rituals and Healing

Rituals are a way to grab our attention  When someone gets married, a wedding is held to grab everyone’s attention about the significance of a happening in two familys’ lives as well as the couple getting hitched  When you brush your teeth, it’s done out of a ritual that you’ve created called “getting ready for the day”  But when you think about it, this concocted ritual is really important for your health  It not only sets the tone for the day but there are health advantages such as clean teeth and bodily hygiene  The holidays that have just passed is another great example of ritualistic behavior

Some people create rituals around various health activities such as exercise

The characteristics of a ritual are: 1 they are done consistently, 2 usually best done when they are at the same time of day, 3 as above they are done to grab our attention that something important is being done

Hey,  Pay Attention

I’m sure you’ve experienced the “well worn rut” in your life where you feel that something has to change but instead of doing something different you continue on the same path as yesterday

A ritual has the power to break up the “same old” behavior patterns that may not be serving you very well and asks the bodymind to “Hey, wake up, pay attention to what I’m doing here…..it’s important!”

And the beauty about rituals is that they are done as a matter of a habit….just like the old habits that didn’t serve you very well  Think of it as replacing one habit with another  But the habit being replaced is usually not a well thought out pattern of behavior but something that has crept into your day somewhat by accident not by your permission

Things To Know About Rituals

Probably the hardest thing that you do in life is change behavior patterns that don’t serve you very well  This is why rituals can be so powerful

Many of the healing techniques in the energy science realm are those suggesting a shift in behaviors, such as eating differently(avoiding coffee, carbonated drinks, use of spices) going to bed early and getting up early to start the day, morning oil massage, use of mono diets on occasion based on your energy makeup, etc

But there are some things that you should know about rituals employed for health

1 Not a quick fix  It’s about the proverbial “drip on the forehead” that over time has the physical capability to make a groove in granite  So it’s the persistence and consistency that pays off with any health ritual  You may know of the consistency of exercise and its rewards but it’s the establishment of the exercise ritual that does the magic

2 Real healing takes time   Actually a corollary to the above is that any energy healing requires time and patience  This is particularly difficult to believe if you’re experiencing pain  After all the whole reason that you’re taking on the ritual to begin with is to reduce the pain that is causing havoc in your life

3 Ritual adaptation  At times the ritual may need to be adapted, modified, or altered to get the best result  This doesn’t mean that the ritual is dismissed but rather it is changed as it is experienced  For example, if you find fatigue with your new exercise ritual, instead of doing it every day in the week, reduce it to 6 times per week

Good luck in your ritual planning for 2014!   Love DB