Rituals & Spirituality Archives - Page 8 of 9

Eight Preemptive Strikes for Peaceful Family Holidays

Susan Newman, Ph.D.

When I am trying to make sure the turkey doesn’t dry out or the potato casserole doesn’t burn, the last thing I want to hear is my daughters arguing about a ten-year-old slight or difference.

Whether you are the host or a guest, family holidays resurrect memories and emotions – both happy and troublesome. The added stress that comes with the holidays increases most everyone’s sensitivity. Your daughter announces she is spending the holiday with her in-laws; your brother claims the distance is too great to spend the holiday at your house. Divorced parents? With which one do you celebrate? Even if you worked out these details years ago, another issue will crop up to raise your hackles and test your mettle. Holidays touch a nerve and in the process your expectations can get squashed or dented. […]

Some Traditions Should Be Changed

by Maggie Lamond Simone

The holidays are upon us once again, the season of family, of gatherings, of traditions. The season, in most people’s lives, of hope.

Our tradition at Thanksgiving had been for many years to head to a lodge in the country with my mother’s family; aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews would converge and catch up and try to store up enough memories to last for the coming year. One year, however, a favorite aunt was no longer there, and the tradition gradually died with her. It simply wasn’t the same without her, and so things changed. […]

How To Use Grace and Compassion When Facing Hard Times

by Cyma Shapiro

In times like these: floods, drought, earthquakes, extreme hot weather, extreme cold, power outages, downed electricity/cable/telephone wires, we are plunged into circumstances that we sometimes cannot overcome. And, to add, we must handle whatever comes our way with our children in tow. I fear that the “same old, same old” is about to be the “new normal” – that is, that nothing as we’ve experienced in our lifetime(s) will be the same for our children. […]

Food for Thought: The Digestion Process

by Aleta St. James

You probably haven’t given your colon a great deal of thought, unless you’ve ever had to prep for a colonoscopy. Now, I’m going to ask you to look at your colon in a whole new way. It’s the key to experiencing true emotional digestion. So what’s emotional digestion? […]

Truth About Consequences: Letting Children Learn from Reality

by Linda Anderson Krech

“If we allow a child to experience the consequence of his acts, we provide an honest and real learning situation.” Rudolf Dreikurs, M.D.

There we were — my four year old daughter and I, along with her twin friends and their mom, waiting with antsy anticipation for the small-town extravaganza parade to begin in Vermont’s sweet little town of Bristol. We had arrived at the town green an hour early due to a misprint in the local newspaper calendar and had spent about 45 minutes swinging, sliding, and spinning around the gazebo and playground. Energy was high, spirits were even higher, and all was well until . . . my daughter began the look-at-what-a-brat-I-can-be performance. […]

Little Things

by Valerie Gillies

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Breault

Full of intentions, I bought a small blank book about a month ago. It travels everywhere with me, because at any moment, I need to be able to open it up and add another entry. And I have had so many brilliant, inspired entries, you would be proud of my work. Well, maybe not, because none of them have actually been written down in the book. They swim in my mind, appearing randomly when they feel the moment is right. […]

Hidden Beauty in Relationship?

by Jamie Walters

Is there a deeper purpose and beauty in relationship than what we might have been conditioned to see? Traveling back to ancient times, we may find a clue.

What we may know of Aphrodite-Venus is that she was the Goddess of Love and Beauty. In more recent times this has taken on a kind of greeting-card quality, where love or relationship is the romantic fantasy, all rose-colored lenses, chocolates and flowers. And that’s lovely enough. […]

Cyma’s Picks: How Do I Love Me? The 31 Days of Self-Love Challenge by Daylle Deanna Schwartz

Day 1: Begin the New Year with Self-Love
Day 2: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
Day 3: Self-Love Habits
Day 4: Law of Attraction in Action: Self-Love
Day 5: “I Love Me” Tip: Buy a Brand Name Product
Day 6: The Right Best Friend–YOU
Day 7: What You’re Not vs. What You Are
Day 8: “I Love Me” Tip: Say “I Love Me” As Often As Possible
Day 9: Boost Self-Love with Self-Care
Day 10: Why We Stay Stuck
Day 11: Law of Attraction in Action: Your Body
Day 12: Losing Weight with Self-Compassion
Day 13: “I Love Me” Tip: Say Schedule a “ME Day”
Day 14: Do You Choose to Be a Victim?
Day 15: “I Love Me” Tip: Self-Hugs
Day 16: Using Meditation to Fall in Love with You
Day 17: Self-Love Tip: Learn from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Day 18: Law of Attraction in Action: Resistance
Day 19: Lowering Resistance Part 2
Day 2: Finding Self-love in a Challenging Life
Day 21: “I Love Me” Tip: Let Faith Support You
Day 22: Stop Being So Hard On Yourself!
Day 23: “I love me” Tip: Take a Break from Stress
Day 24: “Why Am I Choosing to Do This?”
Day 25: Law of Attraction in Action: Jealousy
Day 26: Unstoppable in Stilettos–Interview with Lauren Ruotolo
Day 27: How Do I Love Me? Here Are Some Ways
Day 28: Redefining Love Life
Day 29: Be Your Own Best Diplomat
Day 30: […]

Ripe

by Valerie Gillies

Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach the far horizon? Hal Borland

Here I am, sitting at the computer trying to write something coherent, while inches away my thirteen year old is melting down at the prospect of the first day of school tomorrow. The ostensible issues: backpack size and choice of clothing for the morning. (Truth: nervous beyond belief.) Another, down the hall, is supposed to be packing for a year abroad, but has abandoned a room that could land me with a health code violation, in order to help her friend pack up for school. And, in the room vacated by my eldest daughter are the beginnings of a wedding gown that I should be working on. […]

At 53, I am a woman – a midlife Bat Mitzvah journey

by Ilana DeBare

Last month I became a woman.

Four years after my daughter did.

No, this isn’t one of those “I’m my own Grampa” riddles, even though it may sound that way. It’s the story of how I became a midlife Bat Mitzvah at the age of 53, four years after my daughter went through the ritual at the more common age of 13. […]