Read time: 3min

Last week we talked about ​Rituals​, and I shared how I stumbled into my own as a kid.

So this week, I'm actually daring to share a piece of writing that poured out during one of those candle-lit sessions on top of the dresser.

Now...this is a bold move at the beginning of our time together here - but isn't life all about bold moves?

The reason I'm sharing this doesn't have much to do with the writing itself.

It's about the moment. I can remember that night so vividly. My family was asleep, my candle burned, and I took my creative "vows."

I now read these oh-so-serious lines with deep joy and recognition in the seeds of thought that would eventually blossom into so much of how I've come to define a creative life (not exclusive to the life of a "creative"!)

So this Saturday – if you read my midnight manifesto below or not – don't forget you have a time machine!

Write yourself a letter.

Go back to that journal. Or go GET one. (​THIS​ is my current favorite).

Keep a note on your phone that can be the messy repository of thoughts that, for whatever reason, tapped you on the shoulder that day. They stopped by with a purpose.

Here's the magic - remember to look back at what you wrote.

Follow the breadcrumbs and see you've been walking yourself home the whole time.

"Why We Write"

In any given social situation, we walk away with the weight of a thousand unsaid words.

We deconstruct the conversation and find areas where improvement could have been made.

We agonize over the less-than-intelligent remarks that we utter and beg for a chance to redo what was done.

This is writing.

To take the feelings, thoughts, and struggles in our minds and translate them into a context that gives us closure or completeness that had not been there before.

Though you may not consider yourself a writer - you are.

Everyone rewrites the past to ease their minds, and in this lies humanity's secret, universal creative genius.

To be motivated to write means to be motivated to create change.

We write, compose, sketch, and paint to convey our perspective.

We write to demand the attention of a society that would rather change their clothes than change themselves. If this attention is not demanded, it will never be received – which is why our words are so vital and urgent.

Have you ever lied in bed contemplating your existence, desires, and beliefs? You cannot close your eyes because there is so much to consume that you may miss it if you blink.

That blanket of galaxy above reminds you how small you are but how big your thoughts have become.

This is writing.

Feeling the urgency of the night and capturing it onto a page so that you may finally sleep - safe in the knowledge that you have been heard. We write to end our spiritual insomnia and allow our tired mind, body, and heart to rest.

We write for ourselves and only for ourselves.

One idea we devised to end our suffering and sleeplessness can help the rest of the world end theirs.

Write with the intent to love.

The people who love us for who we are assure us that who we are and what we might express is valid and harbors merit.

We write with these people in mind so that when they read it, they might gain a more profound connection with a person they thought they knew so well.

Tell your stories.

Write them down and find satisfaction and clarity that you never knew existed. Above all, share your discoveries with the world - and change it.

We write as proof that we are living.

1999, Western Springs, IL

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Read time: 3min

“It’s vital to establish some rituals—automatic but decisive patterns of behavior—at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way." - Twyla Tharp

I would light a candle and turn out the lights.

Then I'd stand on my bed and precariously hoist myself up on top of a neighboring wooden dresser - just large enough to hold my 6th grade self.

From the top drawer I'd pull out a ratty notebook and a very particular pen I'd hidden under a pile of unfolded clothes.

Then...I would write.

And write and write and write.

The session would always end with me ripping out the pages, neatly folding them into a small square and "depositing" them into a gray metal cash box I had hidden under my bed. There was never any cash in there, just stacks of neatly folded pages.

The content of those pages ultimately didn't much matter as much as the ritual.

The science

There's a lot of research behind the power of rituals.

In fact, in one study done by Kathleen Vohs and Yajin Wang of the Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota, along with Francesa Gino and Michael Norton of Harvard Business School, they found that adding in a ritual even enhanced the enjoyment of food.

In one experiment, participants were asked to taste chocolate in one of two ways. In the first method, they had to split the bar in half without unwrapping it, then unwrap and eat one half before proceeding to the other. A little ritual. In contrast, the second group ate the chocolate as they usually would.

The group that adhered to the ritual claimed the chocolate tasted richer and they enjoyed it more. Moreover, they took longer to appreciate the flavor and expressed a willingness to pay almost double the price for more (heads up, my business folk!)

Wait, but Why?

The power of ritual is in its promise of transformation.

It becomes a lot easier for us to do the impossible – to make something out nothing – when it actually isn't us at all. It is this alter ego that waits for us on the other side the ritual.

Even as a little kid - I had this purple cape. When I wore the purple cape - I wasn't Billy any more (I went by Billy then), I was whatever I wanted to be.

The cape gave the Permission.

The cape was the Ritual.

We not only seek to transform ourselves in our ritual-making, but also our Environment.

My bedroom flickering by candlelight was no longer just my bedroom but an entirely new world - a world that only whispered What if... and YES!

What's your ritual?

If you've wandered away from your creative practice or perhaps told yourself you never had one to begin with - get thee to a ritual.

You don't even need the candle - I didn't need the candle! I just needed the ritual of lighting it.

And honestly, the simpler the better.

Whatever ingredients you choose, it's important that it feels different from anything else in your day-to-day. It exists to mark the divide between what is and what could be.

Want to know the real magic behind the ritual?

Once you find the key to the door, you learn that you didn't even need the key at all - the door was always open.

The more you create within a ritual, the more you foster Creative Permission to bring that state into the world outside of it.

Reply and let me know what your creative rituals might be, or what rituals you might want to create.

I'd love to know.

Want to go further?

Books: ​
The Creative Habit - Twyla Tharp ​​
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear - Elizabeth Gilbert​

Article: ​New Research: Rituals Make Us Value Things More - Harvard Business Review (Heidi Grant)

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