it’s 2024. I haven’t been as consistent with weekly blogging through the last quarter of 2023, and we are now a full week into 2024! Maybe I am just getting older (!) but the time is flying by!

What are you claiming as ritual for 2024?

I love a good ritual and I am rediscovering what that means to me. One of things I do, is claim a word or a phrase, or both, for the year. I find that the focus of that helps me drop into my day, my moment, my activity.

Instead of chasing goals, I change the language to claiming a word or phrase that motivates me into action, or slows me down to discover what I need to see/hear/accept.

This year, I am actually rediscovering paper planners and using them along with my digital calendars. There’s a ritual to actually putting pen to paper that I have missed.

Rituals don’t have to be woo-woo, if that’s not your thing. They can be very practical as well.

As an example, how do you prepare to practice? That’s a ritual. Claiming it as yours gives it specificity and structure and presence. It belongs to you and with you.

There is ritual in how you approach learning music, or learning a role.

There is ritual in how you enter a class or a voice lesson.

There is ritual in preparing for an audition, a table read, meeting castmates for the first time.

There is ritual in walking onto stage.

How present are we when we do those things? Are we aware of that ritual? Are we claiming it fully, or are we moving past it so quickly that dismiss something that could be incredibly life changing on a regular basis?

Here’s my ritual: I have a word for the year. Before I begin anything that has gravitas or meaning to me, I breathe that word out loud. I simply take that 5 seconds to inhale, speak the word and exhale. It drops me into being present in my body, in my mind, in my spirit and in my circumstance. Whether I am getting ready to drive into City, getting ready to meditate, preparing to write or edit, or walking into the studio to teach - I claim that ritual that is unique to me, and make it real.

It seems so simple, and it is. However, what I have discovered in the action of claiming it, that is truly profound and continues to focus my energy, and my intention.

So, woo-woo or not, explore what you might be gravitating toward as ritual, and fully claim it. I would love to hear your discoveries and thoughts and what it reveals to you!

with fondness & fierceness,