My New Love…The Thorn, Bud and Rose Ritual

I practiced this beautiful ritual with a lovely family during the holidays over dinner. We had three generations sharing their moments from the day. It was so beautiful to share around the table with a wide range of ages from 10-year-old children to 72-year-old adults.

So what’s the big deal with rituals?

It creates new healthy habits, connection, improves our quality of life and ta-da will help you sleep better. Come on! What do you have to lose?

We are always wanting more happiness, less work, more gratitude, less “have to do’s”, less lists of things to do, more sleep, less stress. Right?

So, I want to share my Thorn, Bud, and Rose for 2016.

My thorn was still feeling a sense of loss around the holidays. I am still processing my parents being gone and my family being disconnected and it brings me sadness, still after so much work around this.

My Bud is looking forward to 2017 and expansion. That is my word for the year. That means more vacations on the books, deeper relationships, an extraordinary relationship, and to grow my business by helping twice the number of people I helped last year.

My Rose for 2016 was the holidays with a chosen family who took me in and loved me unconditionally. They made me laugh, cooked gluten free (no kidding!), and opened my heart to depths that I didn’t even know existed on a daily basis. Forever grateful.

You can view this as mindset, gratitude, deep connection, inner child, family, or mindfulness work.

Whatever you want to call it, here’s what it does:

• It brings your awareness to gratitude.
• You begin to appreciate all the good things that happen to you daily
• You validate your positive experiences which will energetically call in more positive experiences
• It changes your mood. Let me repeat – it changes your mood
• Life slows down, it changes your speed of the day
• It produces hormones that make you feel good…freebie
• It exercises your muscle for mindfulness
• You will sleep better

Here is how you dive in:

You can do it with your family or friends around a table or in a group setting up to 10 people allowing 5 min per person. The time cap keeps people from reliving their “thorns” of the day and keeps things moving.

You can even do this solo in your journal as reflection at the end of the day – my favorite choice for journaling.

I prefer to start with the thorn because it assures that you end on a positive note, but use it however it feels good.

Start at one end of the table and give each person 5 minutes.

Here are the questions you want to ask yourself:

1. What was my Thorn for the day, my biggest challenge?
2. What is my Bud, something I am looking forward to?
3. What was my most joyful moment, my Rose of the day?

If you want to bring more joyful moments into your life, your home, or your family, try this sweet ritual to deepen your connections.

I would love to hear your Thorn, Bud, and Rose for 2016.

Please share below…