2022 Self-Nurturing Rituals

There’s nothing like the start of a new year that can make you feel particularly bad about yourself. With inboxes and feeds full of posts about self improvement and New Year’s Resolutions…it’s really easy to get overwhelmed. And especially in our current reality (ahem, an ongoing global pandemic…), articles pushing countless ways to “improve” in the year ahead almost feel like science fiction! 

Rather than being motivating these “new year, new me” suggestions end up doing nothing but facilitating a defeatist mindset. Is the “Me” we already are not good enough?

We don’t know about you, but at Ritual Shoppe, we’ve decided we need to worry less about improvement and focus more on just nurturing who we are right here at this very moment.

“Nurture reflects a general attitude toward yourself, an attitude of believing you are worthy of tenderness, and able to provide it to yourself through your thoughts and actions.” - Dr. Jessica Michaelson 

We’ve found that when we truly believe we’re worthy of all the things we desire, the path to those things becomes a lot less frustrating, and much more clear. Rather than a laborious to-do list, there’s joy to be found in tending to the daily things that make us feel more like us. 

2022 Self-Nurturing Rituals 

All of these ideas are intentionally simple. They don’t require you to wake up at 4 AM to accomplish things before work, or even challenge you to be “better” than you were yesterday.

Most of these rituals take less than five minutes. They're meant to ground you in the here and now, and accept (and maybe even celebrate!) the present moment.

1. Read a few pages of this Self-Nurture book by Dr. Alice Domar (or some other book just for pleasure, nothing else)
2. Write down the name of three movies that make you laugh. Even if you don’t have the time or energy to watch one right now, even taking 5 minutes to think about them will make you smile in the moment.
3. Go look at the Moon. The Moon is related to our emotions, and even looking up at la luna for a few moments can connect you with your inner self.
4. Search “cute puppy” on Google (or cute *whatever your favorite animal is*)
5. Splash some water on your face. An even more luxurious option we love is to spray a rose water mist on our face (like this one)!
6. Pet your plant’s leaves. While you might be stuck inside at a desk, if you have a plant nearby, take a moment to touch its leaves, and even give it a “hello” and “thank you for existing” chat. Don’t forget it’s alive and helping you breathe cleaner air.
7. Listen to your favorite song and let yourself move without judgement. Even if you don’t have access to a paid streaming service, you can listen to tons of free music on YouTube.
8. ORGASM! We love Chakrubs intentional crystal products, which can be used alone, or with partner(s).
9. Pull a Tarot card. If you don’t have your own physical deck, there are free sites that will pull one for you and offer the description. Pull one here. If you’d like to pay for a more personalized reading, check out our in-house readers.
10. Lay down on the floor and put your feet up against the wall. This changes your blood flow and perspective, and can quickly change your state of mind.

These are just a few rituals that we regularly practice that we believe to be really accessible and nurturing. We hope you'll find that they are this year, too

What are some of your favorite ways to self-nurture?