Life can get chaotic fairly often.  It seems we find balance specifically to have it disrupted. This is true in a way and doesn’t warrant any negative response. With out the chaos how could we appreciate peace? Here are four rituals or practices that are guaranteed to help you hold on to your sanity!

Practice Gratitude

Setting the practice of gratitude is rewarding and very revealing about your priorities. Starting your practice is as easy as making a list of elements in your life. Try to write ten or fifteen things your grateful for one day and add to the list the next day by ten or so. At the end of the week look at your list and recognize how these things effected you this week.

Create Intentions

I do this everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. When you wake in the morning,  whether you lay in bed wiggling your toes in glee or regretting your decisions from the night before, or even bracing yourself for the day to come, set an intention. It can be whatever you like and applicable to any situation. I like to keep my first intention of the day fairly broad, ‘To accept all things as a sign of love’. As my day gets more trying I may before a stressful meeting say to myself, ‘I will exhibit all sides of myself and love myself for it’. I try and broaden my focus with every intention.

Embrace And Love Those Around You

Love is the most powerful and productive energy available. If you are having trouble loving yourself spoil someone else! Nurturing love towards someone is the similar to loving yourself. It is such an infectious energy that once you start nourishing it, the effect will ripple out in beautiful and surprising ways. As you strive to actively love those around you you will learn volumes about yourself and others. This will lead to more natural avenues of love and compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh, A Buddhist spiritual leader, says it perfectly,

‘Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself- if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself- it is very difficult to take care of another person. In the Buddhist teaching, it’s clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice.’ 

Label Negative Thoughts

This practice is crucial to ending the vicious cycles we put our selves through. The ability to acknowledge a thought for what it is isn’t enough. You must develop the skills to accept it, forgive yourself for any subsequent negative emotions and release the thought back into your mind. It’s important to not try to fight whatever your mind is doing. This will only give the unwanted formation more energy and focus. The key is to lovingly rise above it.