A Simple Morning & Evening Ritual for a Spiritual Life

It’s all too easy to be pulled into the chaos of the world and its fearful thinking.

A short and sweet morning and evening ritual can help us stay connected to the deeper realms — not as an escape but as a way to remain stable and a way to harvest gifts of wisdom and weave them into our daily lives. I’d like to share the journaling prompts I take myself through each evening, and my simple morning ritual to do just that.

But first this poem by David Whyte, because the intention of the rituals is captured here:

WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN WAKING

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

For me, this poem speaks to the ongoing, reciprocal conversation between the Seen and the Unseen, or the Material Realm and the Dream Realm — a conversation made all the more powerful when we participate consciously.

I’ll start with the evening prompts.

EVENING

I see the evening as the beginning of the cycle. A time to bring closure to the day, to learn from it and let it go, and to then dip once again into the realm of dreams and night energies. How we close a day effects both our sleep and our dream life. And our sleep and our dream life sets the energetic and emotional stage for the following day. (Even if we don’t remember our dreams or know how to tend them, this is still true.)

So here are my three evening journaling prompts. These simple questions don’t take much time, unless you want them to:

1. What are one, two, or three things that went well today, and/or that you’re grateful for?

2. What are one or two things you wish you’d done differently? If given another chance, what exactly would you do differently?

3. As you prepare to sleep, what would you like to ask of your subconscious or your Dream Maker? Is there a problem you’d like help solving? Or a feeling you’d like help understanding or moving through? (Ask just one thing.)

MORNING

And then in the morning we emerge again.

Early mornings are a sacred time. Majestic and blooming with new beginnings. The life force starting to wiggle through us and all living things once again. As we sleep, our subconscious minds are busy making creative connections and solving problems. While our dream ego is exposed to impeccably curated images to help us find the answers to unresolved questions and unresolved feelings.

The first hour of waking is especially precious, because during that time we still have a couple of toes in the dream realm, so insights and solutions come through more easily, as does creative thinking. I find it so important to cherish that special time and not waste it by jumping onto a phone or a computer.

So in the mornings, while I enjoy my tea, I do one of three simple things:

- I do some stream-of-consciousness journaling,

- I tend a dream,

- or I read a poem.

This way, you can enter the day with a sacred quality, prioritizing things of soul and spirit. Rather than abandoning the mysteries upon emergence into waking life, you bring them with you, through the opening, ensuring your plans and your work are tinted by their colors.

After enjoying one of the above, I take myself through one journaling prompt, which is this:

1. Identify one quality you’d like to commit to for the day. (For example: presence, kindness, honesty.) Pick just one. And then, as you proceed into your responsibilities and activities for the day, infuse them with this one quality.

I do these things because I want to engage with the world rooted in these deeper places.

When I’m not rooted in these deeper places (especially in these chaotic times), it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when I am rooted in these places, I can participate with more grace.

I hope this helps you do the same.

Perhaps you want to try these prompts and routines, starting this evening?

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This article was original published on Julia’s blog here.