Rituals are a powerful thing. Like habits, rituals are a practice that provide consistency and grounded-ness in our lives. They help move us forward by giving us solid ground to build off.

And the thing about rituals is that they are also incredibly personal. What comforts you may not comfort someone else; what centers you may not work for your best friend, your boyfriend, or your mother.

Everyone is different, with their own unique needs.

But one thing that’s the same about rituals for everyone is how important they are. According to Psychology Today, rituals are “actions that support the deepening of our spiritual and emotional connections. They bring extra brightness and fulfillment into our lives.”

Rituals help us create fulfillment and meaning in our own lives – whatever than means to us. If you don’t currently have rituals in your daily life (or if you can’t recognize them), here are four suggestions for personal rituals that you owe it to yourself to make time for every day.

1. Creative Rituals

All too often, we get caught up in doing the things we have to do – to make money, to keep our job, to feed our family, and the list goes on. And those things are incredibly important. Furthermore, we are constantly bombarded via social media, texting, calls and more with reminders of all these things we need to be doing, and the unwelcome reminder that we’re not doing enough.

For these reasons, it’s crucial to make time to disconnect from the constant “ping” of technology and the outside world, and to get in touch with our creative side.

Creativity is proven to be good for your health – it relieves stress, increases and renews brain function, improves your mood, and so much more.

So make time to color, journal, dance, express yourself creatively, write ANYTHING – it’s all good for you. Try to embrace a personal creative ritual for at least 15 minutes per day, and see how your mood improves as a result.

2. Affirmation Rituals

Reciting affirmations, or conducting the daily practice of talking to yourself in a positive, productive way, is one of the best things you can do for both your mental health and your self-esteem.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: our brains are more powerful than we give them credit for in manifesting what we feed them.

If you tell yourself something enough times, or if you get told something enough times, you will eventually believe it to be true. Unfortunately this works with negative talk just as well as it does with positive talk, but the good news is, it’s just as easy to believe you’re awesome, capable, confident, deserving, AMAZING as it is to believe you’re not. It’s all a matter of what you choose to believe.

Bottom line: What we tell repeatedly ourselves is what we will inevitably think.

This is why affirmations are such a powerful tool for change.

Through vocalization, affirmations bring up related mental images into the mind, that inspire, energize and motivate… and fulfill any number of desired purposes, both automatically and involuntarily.

And, affirmations can be ANYTHING you want them to be! Here are some of my favorites:

I am bright, brilliant, and beautiful.

I am beautiful, strong, and capable.

I can do anything I put my mind to.

I deserve this.

Good things happen to me every day.

Go ahead and repeat one of those out loud right now. Repeating affirmations and repeatedly being exposed to the resulting mental images affects the subconscious mind, which in turn influences behavior, habits, actions, and reactions, and helps create positive, lasting transformation.

Create a personal daily ritual of affirmation for yourself. You’ll be happy that you did.

3. Gratitude Rituals

I know I bang the drum about gratitude a lot, but that’s only because it truly is one of the most impactful adjustments you can make to shift your perspective and become a positive, confident, bombshell of a person.

Not only that, it’s so easy to practice gratitude. And it lends itself so naturally to ritual practice.

If you are a religious person, and practice prayer, then you’re already well acquainted with expressing gratitude in a ritual way. If this isn’t something you’re currently doing, find a way to practice gratitude daily. My favorite way to do this is by making a mental list in my head of at least 5 things I’m grateful for before I even get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes I’ll say them out-loud (since we know how powerful spoken words are!)

Give the mental gratitude list ritual a try when you wake up tomorrow.

4. Self-Care Rituals

One of the best ways to practice self-care is by physically taking care of your body. Doing yoga, doing a workout, and just generally getting the body in motion – these are all great ways to take care of yourself.

But self-care doesn’t always mean “working out.” What self-care really means is “mindfulness” – listening to your body and your soul and being able to tune into what you need at that moment in time.

This is one of the rituals that’s the hardest to regularly practice, because maybe we feel like we don’t “deserve it.”

Maybe we feel like we haven’t done enough work that day, or logged enough hours, or accomplished enough to merit some self-care time.

Repeat after me: self-care is always deserved. 

At least once a day, take some time for yourself, to give YOU whatever it is that you need. You deserve it <3

Need some help jump-starting your self-care, gratitude, or affirmations practice? Join the #35DaysofConfidence Challenge!