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Rituals – Directing Your Orchestra

Aviv Shahar — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:43:04 +0000

The human is a bit like an orchestra. There are many parts, each playing its own score. Your brain needs its food and plays its musical score. Your stomach wants its food and plays a different musical score. Your emotions have multiple voices like the orchestra has oboes, clarinets, trumpets and trombones. But that is not all. You have a body, a mind, and a soul. You have desires, hopes and needs. Then it gets even more compound, you have multiple roles: you are a parent, a spouse; you have your professional roles and community roles and many more.

You are the totality of all the parts and roles. Your orchestra is made up of all these parts and the tune that they each play. If each part plays without listening to other parts the result is a total cacophony. That is why your orchestra has an orchestrator. That’s the job of your soul. But it’s not enough to have an orchestrator. The orchestrator needs a musical score. Part of the score is given at the start, before birth, such as: survive and thrive. Your soul will do whatever it needs to keep you alive and to thrive. The other part of the score is not given at birth. It is not automatic. That part of the score is up to you and your choices. You write this score with your choices. You instruct your soul with your awareness and your consciousness.

What do rituals have to do with this? Rituals are how you bring to focus and attention your choices. They are a way to practice your desired musical score. Rituals are your way of telling your orchestrator, the soul, how and what you want it to conduct the orchestra to play.

Rituals – Part Three

Aviv Shahar — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:37:33 +0000

Opening the door is a ritual. Shaking hands is a ritual. Taking your vitamins can be a ritual. A family dinner can be a ritual. Showering is a ritual. Counting your blessings is a ritual. Saying “thank you” is a ritual. What makes all of these a ritual is the intention in your action.

There are many kinds of rituals. Rituals serve and help you move from working for tomorrow to engaging with where you are now. Rituals help you transition from climbing the mountain to recognizing the mountain is inside you. You engage in a ritual to bring yourself into the presence of what it is you want to be with.
© Aviv Shahar

Rituals – The Magnifying Glass

Aviv Shahar — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:16:03 +0000

Remember how you played with a magnifying glass as a child and directed the sun’s rays to focus on a piece of paper until it caught fire? The magnifying glass brought the rays to a point of concentration. Concentrated light rays brought enough energy to cause heating and a change of state of the paper. A ritual is a magnifying glass you use to bring you to a point of focus so you can change your state.

Rituals – What Are They For?

Aviv Shahar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:35:25 +0000

You create rituals to help you stay focused on what’s important and to remind you of your intentions and values. Rituals help to bring forward alertness about a decision you made and direct you into action.
© Aviv Shahar