Rituals: the new way to celebrate life's changes

What happened to Rituals:

Definition: A ritual is a set of actions, which often have symbolic value. Rituals are most well-known in religious practices.

Some of you may know that I follow a more eclectic spiritual path, but I grew up with a more traditional religion. ((Christianty wasn't my thing and I'm not religion bashing)) One thing that lead me to my current lifestyle was the fact that you are in charge of your life and it's repercussions. Another thing that intrigued me was the bells and whistles, the multitude of rituals.

Some 'rituals' we already have, in modern USA, are birthdays, weddings, and funerals. Each are special, but what about other more important individual rituals. For example, coming of age ceremonies, why don't we see any of those?

In our modern society, where jobs and money make up most of our time, we forget the smaller, more important things. We are so bound by work, responsibilities and electronic entertainment, that we forget the the moment, the things that are happening right now.

Rituals bring you into the present moment, they help you with transitions of life, to celebrate important milestones. Some are made up on the spot, while others are more planned out. I feel the more planned out ones make things more special, you took your time to make this happen. it will be better engraved into your memory.
You don't even have to follow any sort of religion to do them!

Types of Rituals and Ceremonies:
Here's a list of ritual examples and ideas:

Celtic Handfasting

• Coming of Age ceremony (child to teen)
• Coming of Age 2 (Teen to Adult)
• Becoming an Elder(wise one!, Adult to Elder)
• Motherhood ceremony (similar to baby shower, but not quite)
• Ritualistic Cleansing (of negativity)
• Seasonal changes
• New Friendship
• Loss of (body part) (transition from one to another)
• New Pet
• Moving out
• Death of a loved one anniversary

Most of these Rituals and Ceremonies are more or less celebrating life stages and events. Many times we just go through these stages with out much thought. One day we wake up and we finally realize the change.
What if we had more rituals in our lives to help us transition and celebrate the more intimate parts of growing up and living?

A good question people ask is 'Why do you need one?'. Why does this ceremony need to take place?
Like I said before, it's to celebrate life stages and events, and that pretty much happens on a daily basis all around the world.

How would I know I'd need a ritual or ceremony?
Here are a few questions:

• Are you changing in some way? (whether physical, emotional, mental or spiritual?)
• Is there something new that's coming into your life? (person, place, thing?)
• Is there something that needs to, or is, leaving your life? (person, place, thing?)
• Do you just feel the need to celebrate?!

If you said yes to any of these then yes, you can have a ritual/ceremony. Now, like all celebrations they should be safe and sane. We don't need anyone getting hurt or being sent into a mental institution.

How to go about making a ritual:
Links of love time! Here are a few resources to get you started!
RitualCraft: Creating Rites for Transformation and Celebration,(Highly recommended, despite religion)
Easy Cleansing Ritual Bath, (rituals can be as easy or as hard as you want them to be!)
Create your Ceremony, (a good basic guide, even though it's for weddings, you can change to your liking)

All in all, rituals and ceremonies are an important part of life that much of the modern age has forgotten or doesn't put much emphasis upon. Rituals and ceremonies can be what you make it, each special in it's own way. They can be a simple or as gradose as you want it to be. Single solitary intimate rituals, or grand annual traditions. Anything goes!
So what rituals are you going to incorporate into your life?

Catchy Songs: is there a science?

Catchy songs can be great! I mean that one good song over and over in your head for the rest of the day, or week, or two... it's the best feeling ever, right?
No not really. It can be a real concentration drainer, it can keep you up at night and it can annoy your loved ones.

What makes a catchy song?:
Don't have a song stuck in your head?
Don't be shy... go ahead and choose one!
Your welcome!

Pink Fluffy Unicorns

Pedobear

North, South, East and West

Surfin' Bird

Conga

The science behind catchy songs:
Technically, there is no science behind making a catchy song, but here are my findings on why songs can be catchy.

They aren't whole songs:

"The sticky songs we call earworms engage what psychologists call the Zeigarnik Effect: our tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about things we start and don't finish. A song's catchy hook or chorus is particularly prone to intrude your thoughts if you don't know the next verse, leaving them unfinished in your mind." - Lifehacker

More evidence!

The songs that get stuck in people's heads tend to be melodically and rhythmically simple, says Daniel Levitin, [...] It's usually just a segment of the song, not the entire thing from beginning to end... "What we think is going on is that the neural circuits get stuck in a repeating loop and they play this thing over and over again," Levitin said. - Lifehacker (again)

So if you create a song that is simple, has a decent, steady beat, and when played it feels incomplete.
Then you have a catchy song!

How to get rid of a song stuck in your head:
Now that you have a song in your head, let's try to get it out!
Use any of the following methods. Become your own experiment!

Learn the lyrics:
Find the song by using Shazam or Soundhound,
Write down the lyrics,
Write down a different songs' lyrics,
Talk out the lyrics,

Distraction Method:
Play a different song,
Do a puzzle (specifically, anagram),
Stop your own thoughts (try to not think),
Earwurm,
Unhearit.com,

Other:
Give in and listen to the song on repeat,

My experiences:
I got a song stuck in my head while doing this post! So here's what I did.
First I decided to read all the lyrics. Done, It's still in there, but with all the lyrics.
I listened to another song, it worked, but now there's another song in my head.
I read some research on how to get songs out of your head and the songs went away, for now...
It's an endless loop!

Here's some food for thought:
What if songs are always playing in your head whether you are aware or not!?

What is the most annoying song that has gotten stuck in your head?

How to feel like a Goddess

I'm a big advocate to feeling good, sexy and just plain awesome, regardless of whatever size you are. I love how we are more and more becoming accepting with our body types. 'Fat-equality' is just as important as gender-equality, marriage-equality, and geek-equality (I'll talk about this another time).

They didn't care about size, so why should you?

Even quotes that advocate to loving your body:

"Please, please remember that if you didn't hate yourself, they couldn't sell you anything to fix it. Don't believe any of it! I would never question your worth and I don't think you should either!"
-April O'Peel

How to become a Goddess:
Feel free to change 'Goddess' to something you would prefer, like Siren, Pirate Queen, Queen, Overlord. You know, something that makes you feel really good!

"Should I wear my hair up or down?"

Dress: 
To me flowy fabrics, leather, and lots of colors work best. It feels like I am a Greek Goddess. Maybe you're more of a modern business casual kind of Goddess. A leather-clad Amazonian perhaps?
It can be as much or as little as you'd like. Do what makes you feel good.

Scent:
Smelling good and being around scents that make you feel good are important. Did you know that scent and memories are closely linked?

[...] [T]he olfactory bulb is part of the brain's limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling, [...], smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.
The olfactory bulb has intimate access to the amygdala, which processes emotion, and the hippocampus, which is responsible for associative learning. - Howstuffworks.com

So use associative learning to your advantage. Feeling good & smelling good = other's will associate your scent with good feelings (and of you being happy). Then, scent = others feel good around you.

Inner thoughts:

When you think about yourself in a positive light, you'll feel confident. When you feel so good, so positive and confidant, you just shine, you'll glow! You'll naturally attract similar people to you. You may even *gasp* attract a man into your life!

Don't worry, shes got this!

Some of you may not know what I am talking about and that is okay, here is an exercises to do to get you started.

This can be an emotionally hard exercise to do, but well worth it when you succeed!

Believe you're pretty exercise:

Look at your face in the mirror, do you like what you see?

Smile. Look again in the mirror. How about now?

What are you feeling? What thoughts are flowing through your head?

If they are really negative, literally tell yourself out-loud, "Stop" (did it work?)

Tell yourself, preferably out-loud, "I'm so (pretty/beautiful/gorgeous/etc...)"

Now say "I love you"

Do you feel good when you say it, when you see yourself saying it?

You feel happy? Then congrats! Keep doing it whenever necessary!

If not, repeat the exercise over and over again, for many days, until you are happy with yourself.

I'm not really here to be a self-help guru. I just want women, and men, to being okay with themselves, and loving every inch! Flab and all!

So go ahead, don't cut yourself short, be free to shine!

There seems to be a pattern here:

Do what makes you feel good!

Men can do this too!

I know you guys are like "I don't do all that frou-frou stuff".

Well, how about this. Do you want tons of women (and/or men) to be attracted to you? Do you want to feel confident about yourself? Do you want to be seen in a positive way?

Becoming a God:

Now you may not actually become a god that can throw down lightning bolts, but you can have the feel of one.

Smell Manly:

"He smells like he just did the laundry, Omg that's so hot!"

When you guys smell really good, we ladies just can resist you. It's a serious turn-on, whether or not we voice our opinions, if you smell good, we notice!

Feel Confident:

"Women don't go after bad boys,they go after confident men who know what they want"

It's that simple. Find the things that make you feel confident. It might be an article of clothing, a signature cologne, or just a picture you see everyday. When you are confident others will notice, and may even respect you, more than before.

Would you respect a guy who's a doormat? No not really. He's a pushover, so why should you respect him when he doesn't feel confident in himself to not let others walk all over him.

Now don't be cocky-confident, that's just being a jerk! I'm talking about the guy how just has this bounce in his step. He knows he's awesome and shows it in his body language, in his eyes.

Think Positively:

No one likes a confident asshole, so think happy thoughts, you know, those guy thoughts that make you happy. Whatever those are. I don't know cause I'm not a guy. Drink beer, hot chicks, some other stereotypical guy stuff...

When you exude positivity, you attract like minded people. You might even  *gasp!* get the woman of your dreams!

Wait a minute, this kinda sounds like the stuff you said before.

Well, that's because it is! Just formulated for guys to handle. You don't do that frou-frou stuff remember?

So ladies (and gentlemen), there you have it. To feel good both inside and out. Don't be afraid to shine that inner light of yours. It starts with loving yourself and ending with feeling and looking awesome inside and out!

So what do you got to lose?