The Rituals by Natalie MacNeil

Author:Natalie MacNeil [MacNeil, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2019-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

EMBRACE IMPERFECTION

THIS RITUAL IS PERFECT FOR: Deepening your love (for your partner, friends, family, and yourself), celebrating and accepting what is.

We are all perfectly imperfect. Accepting that fact about ourselves and others can eliminate a lot of frustration and save a lot of energy. This ritual invites you to see beauty in imperfection and deliberately seek out reasons to embrace and adore what you perceive as flaws in yourself and those around you.

This practice is embodied in the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi. While there’s no direct translation from Japanese to English, essentially it refers to the practice of appreciating authenticity rather than perfection. It’s the belief that there’s beauty in a chipped vase, a cloudy December landscape, aged wood, or a rusted piece of metal. It’s the practice of looking at something that seems, at first, ugly or dismissible and finding its beauty.

When it comes to your relationship with yourself and others, it’s important to recognize flaws as expressions of our existence as human beings. Recognizing this, and practicing how to appreciate authenticity, can open new doors for connection, appreciation, and love.

When someone close to you does something that doesn’t meet an expectation you had or triggers you, take a moment before you react and ask yourself, “Is reacting to this really worth my time and energy right now? How will I feel after reacting, and how would I feel instead if I chose to accept this?”

Find three things you love and appreciate about that person—three things about them that make you happy—and hold these in your mind as you take a few breaths. Extend this love to them in your heart and then, and only then, act and share from a loving place what’s coming up for you.

You can introduce this concept to your perception of yourself, to what you see in the mirror: Embrace your imperfections. They are beautiful, too. In our heavily Photoshopped and social media–edited culture, embracing imperfection can be a revolutionary practice of radical self-love.

Begin by standing in front of a mirror. What do you see? Hold yourself authentically; don’t pose. You are witnessing the beauty of your own being.

Look into your own eyes and hold your gaze. Focus on breathing deeply. After you’ve taken eight deep inhalations and exhalations, take your gaze to the rest of your body. Pause in the areas you find difficult to accept. Perhaps it’s your scars, your freckles, your belly, your arms, a facial feature—we all have our little insecurities.

Now, instead of judging what you see, flip the script: Say, “I love that perfectly imperfect part of me” and “I appreciate my journey.” Place your hands on whatever part of your body you are focusing on and find something to love and be grateful for about that part of you.

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