Celebration is among our primary needs, to live fully with aliveness and passion.
Celebrate that you were born. Celebrate that you incarnated and can contribute to the miracle of life. Celebrate the many changes that you will experience in a lifetime. Each moment is precious... celebrate the blessings and the losses that emerge from moment to moment. Breathe deeply to fill yourself with celebratory joy.
Life is a celebration
I choose celebration in my daily life
Moment by moment...
I begin each day with celebration
Waking up is a celebration
I am gifted with another beautiful day
I am grateful
I take pauses throughout my day to savour and celebrate
Who I am
How I feel
My experiences and creations
At the end of my day
I celebrate and give thanks
For the wonders past
I enter dreamtime
Invoking celebration
Celebration is my birthright
Celebration is my inner lover
Celebration is my outer lover
With everything and with everyone...
“I just want to celebrate another day of living.”
This has become one of my mantras and practices each day. In reading this article I invite you to make celebration a larger part of your everyday life. Celebrate the small things as well as the special occasions.
The etymology of the word celebrate is: to come together, to gather and honour.
Some of the key words associated with celebration are: fun, enjoyment, happiness, communion, rites of passage, laughter, play, joy, humour, grief/sadness, honouring, creation, creation processes, sexuality, eroticism, individual successes, partnership and group successes, pleasure, generosity, gratitude and Tantra.
I celebrate my life by honouring myself, by honouring my family, by honouring my friends, by honouring my community and by honouring my colleagues. I celebrate nature and Great Spirit in her many forms. I celebrate the elements and how they are woven into the changing seasons. I celebrate humans and our evolution through rites of passage, honouring our accomplishments, successes, creations, transformational changes and completions. Most of all, I celebrate with gratitude for being alive. Celebration is the birth and beginning of everything in existence including your birth and your life. Celebration is your sacred birthright.
Why do people celebrate? Celebration is an ancient ritual. It gives us a way to feel good about ourselves and our accomplishments, as well as a process by which to learn from our losses. When we celebrate, we are reinforcing something important to us. Without intentional celebration, we tend to overlook our growth and accomplishments and simply fall into the pattern of maintaining the status quo. Celebration is an integral precursor for the success or favourable outcome of any activity, job or assignment.
Celebration is a primal need. It is a value. There is an inherent need within us all to celebrate the creation of life, dreams fulfilled, needs met and the many blessings that embrace our lives. To maintain balance within the Life/Death/Life cycle, it is also vital to celebrate the losses and lessons learned, grieve the loved ones no longer with us in order to heal and ready ourselves for the next cycle. Intentional celebration and ritual support our processes by helping us identify what is healthy as well as illuminating any unfulfilled needs or places that need healing.
Each morning at dawn and in the early evening at dusk, birds sing love songs to one another, celebrating life and another day as dusk turns into night. Make gratitude, giving thanks and celebrating this life a daily ritual. We are gifted with many blessings and learning losses each day. Celebrating is a natural and healthy way of sustaining wellbeing. We celebrate the cycles of our birth with birthdays. Why not celebrate other cycles? Celebration can be a foundational pillar for our living temple. All the relational fields incorporate celebration as a fundamental way people relate to themselves and to others.
Celebration is vital to a healthy life. Celebration needs to take place at the beginning, middle and end of any endeavour we engage within. We would be wise to begin all events, journeys, happenings, group meetings, projects, endeavours, with a celebration. In the beginning to honour each new birth step we take or to acknowledge significant moments on our life-path. Many times during your day, you would be well-advised to take time to celebrate and give thanks. Take
pauses in your day to celebrate what you have accomplished. Take pleasure from the successes and challenges that arise in working toward your purpose, your path, your journey. Once you have completed a project, rite of passage, event, stage on your journey, honour what happened with a celebratory ending. Toward the end of each day, celebrating the blessings and losses of that day would be an honouring completion and preparedness for dreamtime. Then sleeping is restorative, illuminating, and allows the imagination to prepare us for the next day and next steps on our lifelong journey.
Celebration is Integral to Relationships
Everything we do in life is comes down to relationships. Relationship with ourselves, relationship with nature and animals, the work we do, our creative expressions, the pleasures we engage with and most important are our relationships with other people. Human contact is vital for our psychological and emotional wellbeing. We need connection with other people—at least some of the time—whether it be through work or our daily activities. Togetherness invites reflection, understanding, compassion, gratitude, love, affection, healing, co-creation, pleasure and lots more. Relationships are the heart and soul of any community, organisation, institution, group or family dynamic.
Celebration contributes to the qualitative nature of all of our relationships. A qualitative relationship begins with a sustained friendship. A resilient friendship requires that you are curious and knowledgeable about yourself and your friend. Be curious about your inner process and the qualities you admire in your friends. You can foster a celebratory friendship through playfulness, dancing, singing, conversation, creating together, respect, honesty, and transparency. Make celebration and honouring a part of all of your friendships.
Celebration is Foundational to Community
Before I became a regular community member in the Väike Jalajälg, (Small Footprint) community in Mõisamaa, Estonia, I served as a facilitator, consultant, therapist and healer, doing whatever I could to help the community succeed and overcome the challenges they faced. I recognised that celebration was one of the fundamental needs to be met for any community to thrive. I soon realised that celebration was missing from their daily community life. So I encouraged the Väike Jalajälg community to recognise the importance and value of celebration for the wellbeing of their community. Unfortunately, work, resolving issues, and getting things done took priority. Cultivating and integrating celebration into an existing community culture takes considerable patience and time. What was successful were monthly celebrations led by the community children. I enjoyed these a lot. Celebration helps develop community resilience, members enjoy life more and recognise the beauty and attributes in each other. Celebration nurtures respectful relationships that thrive.
At the heart of a collective culture are celebrations, such as dancing, singing, drumming, playing music together, chanting, ohming, cheering, child-like squealing and/or howls of encouragement, collaborative working and playing together. Celebratory expression supports a person’s inner vibrational alignment and collective connection with everything in the world. Ritual and community celebration can be so healing that it actually invokes the body to release unwanted trapped energy and to experience a range of feelings, most notably the joy in feeling connected to others.
What is this new culture that I am dreaming into creation?
We are living at a crucible moment in history. We have a choice to co-create a culture of inclusion and diversity, of sharing and caring, of cooperation and collaboration, of pleasure and enjoyment, of celebration and service, of creativity and self-care. Celebration is a key element in making our lives more beautiful and meaningful. The survival of our species on planet earth is dependent upon us honouring our daily existence and that of all other living creatures and this planet. And what better way to honour one another than with shared celebration?
Community is a place where working together is for the common good. At the heart of any community is celebration, having fun together, enjoying the company of friends, family and loved ones. These celebrations become a process of nourishing oneself and one another. Community celebration builds connection and a sense of family and belonging. It becomes a cyclical opportunity to contribute to and develop compassion for the other as you celebrate their life passages and witness their growth.
For communities to thrive, it would benefit them to celebrate and appreciate one another and the process of their own development, from the conception of the community and all along the way as they grow and evolve. In the same way the sun rhythmically appears every day, each morning a community could gather collectively for meditation, yoga, and circle time. Whenever possible
this type of intentional gathering can be reinforced, such as at mealtimes, or other times during the day, and ideally at the end of a day as well. Celebration built upon gratitude and honouring is foundational to a wholesome community way of life. When practiced regularly and ritualised, our personal lives and our world become a happier place.
Practices to Facilitate Celebration
• Periodically spend time with young children. They are living in the magic-zone. Every moment can be a miraculous adventure worth exploring. Imagine it. Breathe into your body this sense of youthful delight and enchantment. Children are spontaneous and naturally spirited. Let their inherent capacity for living in the moment be an inspiration for you.
• Identify celebratory honouring days. Birthdays, completions, beginnings, change in seasons, astrological transitions, transformations, accomplishments, and any life changing experience. Create rituals to honour these days or moments in your life.
• Celebrate the beginning of your day. Celebrate moments during your day. Celebrate at the end of your day, just before dreamtime.
• Make mealtime and eating a celebration. Remember what you are grateful for and acknowledge what is nourishing you in your life. That’s at least three times a day to invoke celebration.
• Participate regularly in events, classes and festivals.
• Find and join or initiate a family and/or community Heart Circle gathering. This would be an intentional heart-sharing circle that includes some type of celebration at the end.
• Re-pattern your process, emotionally and mentally, by celebrating both life and death, the blessings and the losses. Celebrate challenges that are resolved and upsets that are released. When you celebrate the end of an experience, journey or relationship, the ensuing feelings of sadness and grief become the gateway to rebirth. Your life can then be renewed and you are ready for the next birth.
• Non-verbal movement and connection with others creates a mutual celebration that supports and honors another’s presence. By relating through dance or martial arts, we can share our lives, experiences, and energies in a spontaneous movement dialogue that is full of appreciation, gratitude and a sacred way of being and co-creating together.
• Celebrations can be planned or spontaneous. Show up and bring your magic to another’s celebration. Invite others to co-create a celebration with you. Consider how you can contribute to a celebratory event as a helper, initiator, or leader. Make a celebration happen!
• Be in service to a community celebration. Community celebrations build connection, develop a feeling of family, deepen understanding between people, and foster a sense of belonging. Explore a variety of ways that you can contribute to and participate in celebratory events to let the light shine on you and others. You could grow and offer items from your garden, support in the kitchen or serve food, contribute your skills with: building and renovating, cleaning and maintaining, recycling, administrative duties, education and/or artistic expression. You could take on a leadership role to support the organizer. And you can bring your sense of joy, playfulness and fun to brighten and bring celebration to any event. Community is a place where working together is for the common good. There is a joy in serving ~ make serving a part of your life.
• At group events, suggest a future celebration. Volunteer to lead and ask if there are any others who would like to join you to make a celebratory event happen.
• How do you express celebration? Are you child-like? Playful? Serious? Affirming? Appreciative? Creatively engaging of others? Do you celebrate with food? Dancing? Singing? Performing? Games and ritual? Gifts and timeless enjoyment with oneself or in the company of other people? Explore and identify your unique ways of celebrating and share them with others to uplift your community.
• Enjoy creating a Puja—a ritual celebration of the Divine in each of us. Let this experience open your eyes and your heart.
• Create ceremonies that include ritual practices that are honouring of others. By honouring another, you are meeting another’s fundamental need to be acknowledged and validated, to be seen and heard. This in turn fosters self-esteem, confidence and self-worth, thereby supporting another in their empowerment. Ritualising your celebrations engenders sacredness.
• Celebrate self-love, self-discovery, self-realisation. Honour yourself through celebration. You can celebrate alone and together. It takes only one for a celebration. More people are a bonus.
• Celebrate a relationship. Whether it be with a partner, or a friend, create a celebration to focus on why you chose and continue to choose this person in your life. Take time to share your attention, caring, kind words, and loving touch. There are thousands of ways to receive and give pleasure that can honour your beloved.
• Bring a sense of beauty to everything you do, including your celebrations. • Practice Loving-Kindness and Loving-Presence in all your celebrations.
• Even sitting in stillness, meditating can be celebratory and euphoric when your intentions are focused on gratitude and appreciation.
Commit today to making celebration a bigger part of your life. Celebrate yourself, your lover, children, family, friends, animals, trees, the elements, seasons and more. Begin right now with a warm smile, send out love in every direction and start planning to put celebratory events in your calendar and make celebration a part of your daily life.
To sustain celebration, stay in your heart, honour with gratitude all that crosses your path. Then celebration will be with you forever, from one moment to the next.
Make your life a celebration...
Celebrate that you were born. Celebrate that you incarnated and can contribute to the miracle of life. Celebrate the many changes that you will experience in a lifetime. Each moment is precious... celebrate the blessings and the losses that emerge from moment to moment. Breathe deeply to fill yourself with celebratory joy.
Life is a celebration
I choose celebration in my daily life
Moment by moment...
I begin each day with celebration
Waking up is a celebration
I am gifted with another beautiful day
I am grateful
I take pauses throughout my day to savour and celebrate
Who I am
How I feel
My experiences and creations
At the end of my day
I celebrate and give thanks
For the wonders past
I enter dreamtime
Invoking celebration
Celebration is my birthright
Celebration is my inner lover
Celebration is my outer lover
With everything and with everyone...
“I just want to celebrate another day of living.”
This has become one of my mantras and practices each day. In reading this article I invite you to make celebration a larger part of your everyday life. Celebrate the small things as well as the special occasions.
The etymology of the word celebrate is: to come together, to gather and honour.
Some of the key words associated with celebration are: fun, enjoyment, happiness, communion, rites of passage, laughter, play, joy, humour, grief/sadness, honouring, creation, creation processes, sexuality, eroticism, individual successes, partnership and group successes, pleasure, generosity, gratitude and Tantra.
I celebrate my life by honouring myself, by honouring my family, by honouring my friends, by honouring my community and by honouring my colleagues. I celebrate nature and Great Spirit in her many forms. I celebrate the elements and how they are woven into the changing seasons. I celebrate humans and our evolution through rites of passage, honouring our accomplishments, successes, creations, transformational changes and completions. Most of all, I celebrate with gratitude for being alive. Celebration is the birth and beginning of everything in existence including your birth and your life. Celebration is your sacred birthright.
Why do people celebrate? Celebration is an ancient ritual. It gives us a way to feel good about ourselves and our accomplishments, as well as a process by which to learn from our losses. When we celebrate, we are reinforcing something important to us. Without intentional celebration, we tend to overlook our growth and accomplishments and simply fall into the pattern of maintaining the status quo. Celebration is an integral precursor for the success or favourable outcome of any activity, job or assignment.
Celebration is a primal need. It is a value. There is an inherent need within us all to celebrate the creation of life, dreams fulfilled, needs met and the many blessings that embrace our lives. To maintain balance within the Life/Death/Life cycle, it is also vital to celebrate the losses and lessons learned, grieve the loved ones no longer with us in order to heal and ready ourselves for the next cycle. Intentional celebration and ritual support our processes by helping us identify what is healthy as well as illuminating any unfulfilled needs or places that need healing.
Each morning at dawn and in the early evening at dusk, birds sing love songs to one another, celebrating life and another day as dusk turns into night. Make gratitude, giving thanks and celebrating this life a daily ritual. We are gifted with many blessings and learning losses each day. Celebrating is a natural and healthy way of sustaining wellbeing. We celebrate the cycles of our birth with birthdays. Why not celebrate other cycles? Celebration can be a foundational pillar for our living temple. All the relational fields incorporate celebration as a fundamental way people relate to themselves and to others.
Celebration is vital to a healthy life. Celebration needs to take place at the beginning, middle and end of any endeavour we engage within. We would be wise to begin all events, journeys, happenings, group meetings, projects, endeavours, with a celebration. In the beginning to honour each new birth step we take or to acknowledge significant moments on our life-path. Many times during your day, you would be well-advised to take time to celebrate and give thanks. Take
pauses in your day to celebrate what you have accomplished. Take pleasure from the successes and challenges that arise in working toward your purpose, your path, your journey. Once you have completed a project, rite of passage, event, stage on your journey, honour what happened with a celebratory ending. Toward the end of each day, celebrating the blessings and losses of that day would be an honouring completion and preparedness for dreamtime. Then sleeping is restorative, illuminating, and allows the imagination to prepare us for the next day and next steps on our lifelong journey.
Celebration is Integral to Relationships
Everything we do in life is comes down to relationships. Relationship with ourselves, relationship with nature and animals, the work we do, our creative expressions, the pleasures we engage with and most important are our relationships with other people. Human contact is vital for our psychological and emotional wellbeing. We need connection with other people—at least some of the time—whether it be through work or our daily activities. Togetherness invites reflection, understanding, compassion, gratitude, love, affection, healing, co-creation, pleasure and lots more. Relationships are the heart and soul of any community, organisation, institution, group or family dynamic.
Celebration contributes to the qualitative nature of all of our relationships. A qualitative relationship begins with a sustained friendship. A resilient friendship requires that you are curious and knowledgeable about yourself and your friend. Be curious about your inner process and the qualities you admire in your friends. You can foster a celebratory friendship through playfulness, dancing, singing, conversation, creating together, respect, honesty, and transparency. Make celebration and honouring a part of all of your friendships.
Celebration is Foundational to Community
Before I became a regular community member in the Väike Jalajälg, (Small Footprint) community in Mõisamaa, Estonia, I served as a facilitator, consultant, therapist and healer, doing whatever I could to help the community succeed and overcome the challenges they faced. I recognised that celebration was one of the fundamental needs to be met for any community to thrive. I soon realised that celebration was missing from their daily community life. So I encouraged the Väike Jalajälg community to recognise the importance and value of celebration for the wellbeing of their community. Unfortunately, work, resolving issues, and getting things done took priority. Cultivating and integrating celebration into an existing community culture takes considerable patience and time. What was successful were monthly celebrations led by the community children. I enjoyed these a lot. Celebration helps develop community resilience, members enjoy life more and recognise the beauty and attributes in each other. Celebration nurtures respectful relationships that thrive.
At the heart of a collective culture are celebrations, such as dancing, singing, drumming, playing music together, chanting, ohming, cheering, child-like squealing and/or howls of encouragement, collaborative working and playing together. Celebratory expression supports a person’s inner vibrational alignment and collective connection with everything in the world. Ritual and community celebration can be so healing that it actually invokes the body to release unwanted trapped energy and to experience a range of feelings, most notably the joy in feeling connected to others.
What is this new culture that I am dreaming into creation?
We are living at a crucible moment in history. We have a choice to co-create a culture of inclusion and diversity, of sharing and caring, of cooperation and collaboration, of pleasure and enjoyment, of celebration and service, of creativity and self-care. Celebration is a key element in making our lives more beautiful and meaningful. The survival of our species on planet earth is dependent upon us honouring our daily existence and that of all other living creatures and this planet. And what better way to honour one another than with shared celebration?
Community is a place where working together is for the common good. At the heart of any community is celebration, having fun together, enjoying the company of friends, family and loved ones. These celebrations become a process of nourishing oneself and one another. Community celebration builds connection and a sense of family and belonging. It becomes a cyclical opportunity to contribute to and develop compassion for the other as you celebrate their life passages and witness their growth.
For communities to thrive, it would benefit them to celebrate and appreciate one another and the process of their own development, from the conception of the community and all along the way as they grow and evolve. In the same way the sun rhythmically appears every day, each morning a community could gather collectively for meditation, yoga, and circle time. Whenever possible
this type of intentional gathering can be reinforced, such as at mealtimes, or other times during the day, and ideally at the end of a day as well. Celebration built upon gratitude and honouring is foundational to a wholesome community way of life. When practiced regularly and ritualised, our personal lives and our world become a happier place.
Practices to Facilitate Celebration
• Periodically spend time with young children. They are living in the magic-zone. Every moment can be a miraculous adventure worth exploring. Imagine it. Breathe into your body this sense of youthful delight and enchantment. Children are spontaneous and naturally spirited. Let their inherent capacity for living in the moment be an inspiration for you.
• Identify celebratory honouring days. Birthdays, completions, beginnings, change in seasons, astrological transitions, transformations, accomplishments, and any life changing experience. Create rituals to honour these days or moments in your life.
• Celebrate the beginning of your day. Celebrate moments during your day. Celebrate at the end of your day, just before dreamtime.
• Make mealtime and eating a celebration. Remember what you are grateful for and acknowledge what is nourishing you in your life. That’s at least three times a day to invoke celebration.
• Participate regularly in events, classes and festivals.
• Find and join or initiate a family and/or community Heart Circle gathering. This would be an intentional heart-sharing circle that includes some type of celebration at the end.
• Re-pattern your process, emotionally and mentally, by celebrating both life and death, the blessings and the losses. Celebrate challenges that are resolved and upsets that are released. When you celebrate the end of an experience, journey or relationship, the ensuing feelings of sadness and grief become the gateway to rebirth. Your life can then be renewed and you are ready for the next birth.
• Non-verbal movement and connection with others creates a mutual celebration that supports and honors another’s presence. By relating through dance or martial arts, we can share our lives, experiences, and energies in a spontaneous movement dialogue that is full of appreciation, gratitude and a sacred way of being and co-creating together.
• Celebrations can be planned or spontaneous. Show up and bring your magic to another’s celebration. Invite others to co-create a celebration with you. Consider how you can contribute to a celebratory event as a helper, initiator, or leader. Make a celebration happen!
• Be in service to a community celebration. Community celebrations build connection, develop a feeling of family, deepen understanding between people, and foster a sense of belonging. Explore a variety of ways that you can contribute to and participate in celebratory events to let the light shine on you and others. You could grow and offer items from your garden, support in the kitchen or serve food, contribute your skills with: building and renovating, cleaning and maintaining, recycling, administrative duties, education and/or artistic expression. You could take on a leadership role to support the organizer. And you can bring your sense of joy, playfulness and fun to brighten and bring celebration to any event. Community is a place where working together is for the common good. There is a joy in serving ~ make serving a part of your life.
• At group events, suggest a future celebration. Volunteer to lead and ask if there are any others who would like to join you to make a celebratory event happen.
• How do you express celebration? Are you child-like? Playful? Serious? Affirming? Appreciative? Creatively engaging of others? Do you celebrate with food? Dancing? Singing? Performing? Games and ritual? Gifts and timeless enjoyment with oneself or in the company of other people? Explore and identify your unique ways of celebrating and share them with others to uplift your community.
• Enjoy creating a Puja—a ritual celebration of the Divine in each of us. Let this experience open your eyes and your heart.
• Create ceremonies that include ritual practices that are honouring of others. By honouring another, you are meeting another’s fundamental need to be acknowledged and validated, to be seen and heard. This in turn fosters self-esteem, confidence and self-worth, thereby supporting another in their empowerment. Ritualising your celebrations engenders sacredness.
• Celebrate self-love, self-discovery, self-realisation. Honour yourself through celebration. You can celebrate alone and together. It takes only one for a celebration. More people are a bonus.
• Celebrate a relationship. Whether it be with a partner, or a friend, create a celebration to focus on why you chose and continue to choose this person in your life. Take time to share your attention, caring, kind words, and loving touch. There are thousands of ways to receive and give pleasure that can honour your beloved.
• Bring a sense of beauty to everything you do, including your celebrations. • Practice Loving-Kindness and Loving-Presence in all your celebrations.
• Even sitting in stillness, meditating can be celebratory and euphoric when your intentions are focused on gratitude and appreciation.
Commit today to making celebration a bigger part of your life. Celebrate yourself, your lover, children, family, friends, animals, trees, the elements, seasons and more. Begin right now with a warm smile, send out love in every direction and start planning to put celebratory events in your calendar and make celebration a part of your daily life.
To sustain celebration, stay in your heart, honour with gratitude all that crosses your path. Then celebration will be with you forever, from one moment to the next.
Make your life a celebration...
