Rituals To Celebrate Achievements
Rituals are an excellent way of honouring what you’ve achieved in your life. They remind you that you are worthy of your own tenderness.
It’s important to remind yourself that you don’t have to wait for the big stuff.
Whilst it feels good to commemorate the significant milestones with a ritual celebration, it’s also important to create your own ritual to recognise and acknowledge the small but nonetheless important achievements in your life.
This allows you to appreciate just how far you’ve come and how well you’ve done.
This is my personal favourite:
Celebrating My Sobriety
Each year on or around the 5th November, I organise a special treat day out or event to help mark the achievement of reaching another anniversary of my sobriety.
When everyone else is celebrating the burning of Guy Fawkes with fireworks, I am acknowledging another year of staying sober and all those who’ve supported me along the way. This has not been an easy journey, so it’s worth having a ritual to remember it by.
When I first attended a meeting of AA – I thought I would buy the book, the video and any other recommended ‘how to’ bits of literature, go to a few meetings to pick up a few tips and in couple of months I’d have cracked this and be on my way thanks very much. I’m a quick learner, I said to myself, so no point in hanging around for the sake of it!!!
I sat next to a woman who had arranged to meet me. Assuming that everyone was like me – first day of stopping drinking obsessively – I asked her – her name was Valerie – how long had it been for her since her last drink. ’14 years’ she replied. Bloody Hell – I thought to myself – poor thing – she must be a very slow learner.
I even thought of swapping seats, as I wanted to be associated with the top dogs – those that succeeded not the losers. Such was the magnitude of my arrogance on 5th November 1988, and the enormity of my ignorance at just how hard this journey of releasing myself from this addiction and the hardest bit of all ‘staying stopped’ would be.
Suitably humbled after listening to all the generous people who shared their story of hitting ‘rock bottom’ as we call it and the long climb back into sobriety, I began to realise this was to be a mammoth voyage.
So I did things properly, attended meetings, became tea monitor, stacked chairs, read the ‘Big Book,’ found myself a sponsor who had years of sobriety under their belt and basically did what I was told would work.
And here I am reminded every year with the lights and the bangs (which I personally do not like) of how grateful I am to be sober. The sound of the fireworks reminds me what I left behind – the pickling of my organs in malt whiskey and red wine, and occasionally the odd bottle of Nicaraguan rum. My did that go down well!!!!
I make a card for myself each year – and buy myself a present and Jonny and I have a treat day out together to celebrate. This is my way of saying ‘Well done Eva.’
By having a ritual celebration, I remind myself of where I’ve come from, what I chose to leave behind, and how I need to keep on keeping on in my journey of sobriety. As they say in the rooms, “we’re all just one drink away from a drunk!!!!”
This year - 5th November 2021 - I celebrated 33 years of sobriety, the letting go of addiction to alcohol, which I achieved by following the 12-step programme of AA. This is one huge elephant of an achievement, worthy of a special day out. We went to Westonbirt Arboretum, amongst the brilliant red acers and delighted in the healing energy of such splendid trees.
Whatever achievement you want to acknowledge, make a card for yourself, maybe buy yourself a present and have a treat day out to celebrate. Marking the event with a ritual helps you appreciate the progress you’re making. Your positive achievement list (see blog 1st Sept 2021) will help you identify those special moments in your life, big or small that deserve a ritual being created to mark how well you’ve done.