Embracing Celebrations and Rituals
photo credit: kier…in sight/unsplash
Through the month of December, many of the world’s people will observe cultural and religious rituals and celebrations. While these calendar-related events create their own space and reminders for engagement and observance, finding ways to celebrate and create rituals around things of meaning, impact and joy that are important to you, your family, or your organization are also important. Consider celebrations and rituals as necessary components of wellbeing, capability. and community.
Imagine for a moment that you are deep into a project or task—something with deadlines, lots of moving parts, or a significant impact. How do you maintain the mental and physical energy to stay focused on what’s needed? Do you notice and pay tribute to the accomplishments as they are made? What if at the beginning you scheduled in celebrations along the way? These intentional milestone observances can make all the difference in your mood, your capacity, and the final outcome or deliverable as well. Consider the following:
Celebrating provides a pause in the action and allows some reflection on what was accomplished, building your resilience capabilities.
Scheduled celebrations provide something to look forward to, to anticipate with joy, which by nature spurs optimism and energy.
Celebrations provide balance, an offset to hard work and increased or sustained effort.
Celebrating elevates individual and group creativity that will have positive impacts beyond the celebration itself.
Celebrations can be scheduled, formal and procedural, or more spontaneous and flexible. In general, there is no right way to celebrate—whatever can create the mental and physical pause, lift in mood, and recognition for what’s been going on or accomplished. Celebrations can be customized to the situation, location or participants. There really isn’t a “wrong” way to celebrate, as long as it is done in the spirit of positive recognition and inclusion.
Rituals are a bit different. While they can also be celebratory in nature, there tends to be a more prescribed and repeatable format or flow to them. A ritual might be the way in which you celebrate a loved-one’s birthday (cake, singing, games), how you recognize someone’s achievements (public recognition, presented award), start a meeting (review the agenda, assign meeting roles, take a moment of silence to focus and become present), or prepare for a sporting event (eat a specific type of food, listen to certain music, wear lucky socks). Each of the components is more prescribed, however there can be flexibility to how, when, where and by whom they are carried out.
Life can get busy, heavy or even hard at times—we can get bogged down in the must dos, the looming projects, the difficult roads. By taking time to stop and celebrate the good or important stuff we can reset and renew our ability to adapt when things are tough and overall improve our mental and physical health. And, we can have some fun and create joy while doing it.
