On Living Ritual with Tracee Stanley

Every Monday morning, as the sun is coming up, I walk down my friend's garden path to her house for tea ceremony. 

Gentle music. Incense. Bowls of tea. A handful of women from my little town, sitting together in silence. There is some kind of alchemy there I cannot fully explain. What I walk away with is always more than the sum of its parts.

My guest today on the podcast has just written a book exploring rituals just like this.

Tracee Stanley (she/her) is the author of the bestselling books Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self, and her new book, Living Ritual: Infuse Each Day with Purpose and Spirit, is out this August. 

Tracee has been a student of Sri Vidya Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan Masters for over thirty years, and she is devoted to sharing the wisdom of yoga nidrā, rest, meditation, self-inquiry and ancestor reverence.

In this episode, we talk about ritual as something far bigger than incense and candles.

We explore:

• The difference between internal ritual, external ritual, ceremony and rite of passage
• The sandhyās, the sacred transitional points of the day in Hindu philosophy, and how to weave micro rituals into a busy, householder life
• A threshold practice for marking what you're leaving behind, what you're present to, and what you're walking towards
• Tea ceremony as a portal, including the five vāyus (subtle winds) and how different teas can be felt moving differently in the body
• Ritual and rite of passage as tools for marking life transitions such as divorce, menopause or grief, and the value of sitting in liminal space
• Reclaiming attention from devices, including Tracee's analog cocoon practice and her yearly six-week break from social media
• The four aims of life (puruṣārthas), artha, kāma, dharma and mokṣa, reframed away from grasping and towards nourishment and support
• Tracee's own morning ritual, from mantra and chanting through to tea and mind mapping

This conversation left me thinking differently about the small transitions in my own day. I hope it does the same for you.

Connect with Tracee Stanley at https://www.traceestanley.com/

Join the Australian 2026 hybrid Mental Health Aware Yoga training at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/hybrid

Join the online Mental Health Aware Yoga training in September at https://www.mentalhealthawareyoga.com/online 

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