Something I've realised, recently is that I really miss ritual. I used to be a catholic, and I really miss the daily ritual of prayer and the weekly ritual of Mass
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(1) Football matches. Same set of people, watch an event you can't control, sing songs together, drink beer together.
(2) Hashing, we run around Cambridge then have a small circle where we reward/punish people, sing the same song, drink beer. Then it devolves into more general chit chat in a pub. Same time, same place every week, open invite. It's a lot like a church service with coffee for socialising afterwards but louder, rather more fun and probably better for you.
Create your own rituals? Lots of people do? Work out what about the ritual you're missing, and take those elements and make someone new and personal out of them?
I think asking other people what they do for rituals, and editing them to suit my needs might be a plan! I'd like to hear from people, because never having done this before, they might have better ideas :).
If you have time in your day for meditation of some sort, then you might enjoy the ritual of settling yourself on the floor (or a stool) and being quietly with yourself for half an hour.
I'm doing meditation anyway, as part of mindfulness CBT stuff, but I'm looking for something with more of the trappings of traditional religion (or indeed alternative religion - paganism etc), so prayers, ritual objects etc.
Elaborate and lengthy rituals performed with (or to) a group of people are the province of an organised religion.
Short, simple rituals pervade the martial arts - the more formal ones, like Kendo, Aikido, and Eaido - but it"s fair to say that most of them are there for safety and convenience; others, like the formal bow towards your practice partner and the careful folding of your hakama when practice ends, are contemplative 'speed bumps' to dissipate nervousness or impatience, which can otherwise contaminate your practice with carelessness or dangerous aggression.
But they are rituals and you may well find them valuable.
Your first sentence is quite inaccurate. Lots of elaborate hours- or days-long rituals happen all over the world without any organised religion being involved. However, they don't happen _here_, which is more germane.
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Some sort of CBT (erm, as in cognitive behavioural therapy, not the other one...) or self-affirmation thing?
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(2) Hashing, we run around Cambridge then have a small circle where we reward/punish people, sing the same song, drink beer. Then it devolves into more general chit chat in a pub. Same time, same place every week, open invite. It's a lot like a church service with coffee for socialising afterwards but louder, rather more fun and probably better for you.
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Short, simple rituals pervade the martial arts - the more formal ones, like Kendo, Aikido, and Eaido - but it"s fair to say that most of them are there for safety and convenience; others, like the formal bow towards your practice partner and the careful folding of your hakama when practice ends, are contemplative 'speed bumps' to dissipate nervousness or impatience, which can otherwise contaminate your practice with carelessness or dangerous aggression.
But they are rituals and you may well find them valuable.
Other ideas? Look up toastmasters.
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