A clearing out process is recommended before you bring in something new. It’s the purge that makes your path open and your mind, body, soul prepared to relaunch. Using a ritual to commemorate the process sanctifies its importance and clarifies your intentions. This is what I’ve learned from my trips to Ghana, where rituals are embedded in all their ceremonies. It’s what I will include in my workshop, Clear and Relaunch on Oct 23-24*. Here’s why.
I just finished clearing out American style – with a yard sale! That sounds funny because it has none of the ceremony, but actually serves a similar purpose. Surprisingly I found myself feeling very emotional about it, like I’ve experienced in African ceremonies, and wishing I’d done a ritual. It helped me reflect about what’s involved in the clearing out process at a deeper level. I’ll explain this further.
Here are the components of using ritual to clear something out. See if this process would be helpful for you.
WHAT’S INVOLVED IN A RITUAL
If you are seeking change either personally or professionally, consider the power of a ritual to dignify the importance of the transformation you are making. Rituals operate on an energetic level – they help you shift from one energetic place to another. While the shift starts mentally, it operates internally and externally to affect all aspects of your life, mind, body and soul, whether you recognize it or not. This was clarified for me in the African rituals, which are based on the ancient wisdom traditions from Egypt, where it is understood everything operates on many levels at once. We Westerners are often oblivious. A ritual helps you highlight the significance of the change you seek, ensuring that it really takes hold.
Here are some examples of ways rituals are helpful: If you are seeking a change in a relationship, it helps you release the energetics of something that hasn’t worked for you in preparation for something new that will. Changing a pattern of behavior, habit or thought process requires that you clarify why it has been harmful and gives you the seriousness of mind to embrace new behaviors. If you need to release a past experience or loss, it helps you discharge the toxins and pain and helps you also appreciate what you learned so you can live with more ease. Changing a career often means clearing out the energy of past work environments, recognizing why It’s important to prepare to be more present and energized for something new.
In all these examples, a ritual involves a process that gives respect to the change you seek. It includes the following steps.
- CLARIFY YOUR CONSCIOUS INTENTION
A ritual starts with clarifying the intention of what you want to release. You are essentially creating a rite of passage mentally that says you want to move from one state of mind to another. The more specific the better.
In my yard sale, I was releasing a lot of memorabilia from my past and wasn’t prepared for the emotion that came up. I hadn’t clarified my intention and the shift in mindset that letting go would require. I was awake for hours ruminating over it. I needed a ritual to clarify the “why” of letting go, because in reality this happens at a much deeper level than just clearing out stuff. I wasn’t prepared or fully ready to let go of the “energy” of those memory filled things from my past. A ritual would have prepared me to embrace the change with a glad heart.
- HONOR THE IMPACT OF WHAT YOU ARE RELEASING
One of the most significant aspects of a ritual is honoring what you are clearing out. This was why my yard sale sideswiped me emotionally. I hadn’t primed myself mentally and I didn’t honor the things I was releasing. In fact, I ended up feeling I had dishonored my past.
To honor something, you give thanks for what you have learned, what it has given you; even if it’s pain, there are lessons involved that have moved you forward in life. It involves recognizing the impact it had on your mind, body and soul. Whether you are recognizing the negative aspects of what you are releasing or acknowledging its overall impact, the process helps you honor its importance and the why of your clearing out process. I’m now doing this after the fact, which doesn’t feel as respectful. I recommend writing all this out, as we will do in the workshop, or having symbolic things you will release.
- CREATE A RELEASE AND PURIFICATION CEREMONY
The previous steps of clarifying your intentions and honoring what you are clearing out brings you to the actual release. This too is an orchestrated process that honors the rite of passage you are creating for yourself. You can have what you want to release written out, or you can have actual things to let go. The release is done in a fire ceremony, where you watch the smoke carry it away or a throwing away process, where you imagine it being carried away, like petals in a stream. It slows down the process mentally so you can focus on the “what and why” of this rite of passage.
In the African ceremonies, there is often a journey, where you carry what you are releasing a distance and then let it go. This is followed by a purification ceremony, where you bath yourself in holy water that has been charged with herbs and blessed and prayed over to signify the cleansing of the old and the readiness for something new. In the workshop all the materials for this cleansing ceremony are provided for you to do it privately at home. If done online, you’ll be given directions for doing this yourself. It marks the line you cross from the old to the new. In keeping with the African tradition, there is also a change in clothes – from wearing black and/or red at first to symbolize the sacrifice you are making to let something go, to wearing white and/or blue to signify the purified state of starting over.
In day one, the clearing out stage of the Clear and Relaunch workshop, you will go through a structured process to initiate a ritual of letting go in preparation for something new. It will include clarifying your intentions for clearing out, honoring the “what and why” of the release from a mind, body and soul perspective and finally preparing a clearing and purification ceremony that you do at home. This is a profound and highly effective way to launch any change you seek in your life. I’ll write more in the coming weeks on the day two, relaunch stage, so stay tuned!
Are you interested? See more details on my website, www.spectrumtransformation.com . You can register online at Clear and Relaunch 2021 or call Centered at 859-721-1841. I’d love to include you in this Transformation Workshop October 23-24 from 1-4. Let me know if you want to know more.
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