The Half Birthday Rituals
Half birthdays could be an important opportunity to privately celebrate yourself, refuel and remind yourself of your goals and driving forces. I’ve always quietly recognized the day and have given myself a small internal hug and nudge to keep going down my path. It is also a reminder that you are exactly at the halfway mark within your own yearly revolutions. Half birthdays could be a time to reflect on how much progress you have made toward your goals in life, as well as celebrate the milestones you’ve reached over the past six months. Take this time to refocus, refuel and reset your mind. Use this time to restart any good habits and actions that your future self will thank you for. It is important to remember that the tomorrow ‘you’ counts as your future self, so you can make meaningful moves in just one day that can impact the rest of your life.
Take it one day at a time. The interesting thing about how the sun ‘rises and sets’ is that each day is just like the one before and will be like the one after. One day is a lifetime. We only exist in increments of one day at a time (of course some people stay awake for days on end, which is probably why they may feel like they are in some alternate reality). This leads me back to why taking some time to acknowledge your halfway mark is potentially beneficial. The days start to bleed into one another, so it is helpful to identify your halfway mark and create a ritual of sorts to set you up for the second half of your yearly revolution.
I personally have decided to create a small ritual for myself on this day. I will make a few lists, including milestones I have reached since my birthday. Even if very small, if it is something I feel is meaningful, I will honor it. I will also write out a list of things I wish to accomplish by my next birthday, which will be in exactly six months. Six months is a solid amount of time to accomplish many great things in life especially if done on a daily or weekly basis. What greater gift could you give yourself than to be able to look back at a list of goals you wrote six months ago on your half birthday to see that you’ve completed some or all of them. I will also mildly treat myself to something nice, something small. Perhaps a candle, a notebook, a cookie or a quiet bath and a movie. If it stops raining today I might leave out and go somewhere, but I’ll most likely spend the day cozied with my husband and babies. I told my husband and he warmly wished me a Merry Half Birthday.
Depending on when your half birthday is, you could decide to celebrate in the exact opposite fashion as you would on your actual birthday. For example, if your birthday is normally in the winter months (granted you live somewhere that experiences the extremes of weather cycles), you could choose to spend the day at the beach or a theme park on your half birthday if you want a more festive celebration. Go do a small act of kindness for yourself at the very least. If you want, you could prepare a more concise and detailed ritual that involves some serious visualization, preparation and manifestation. You can take this day as light or serious as you desire. Think of it as an opportunity…or you can just leave it as any other day, as that is what every day actually is anyway. We are the ones who decide if one day means more than another. We are the ones who give things meaning and life. It’s up to you.
If you want to know when your half birthday is, check out this site to calculate when yours would be. You can toggle between two different types of calculations, one based on months and the other days. I like the monthly calculations, which usually maintains the same birthdate, but six months displaced. There is also a cool calculation that tells you how old you are in months, days, and even seconds. I believe I will be approaching my billionth second sometime in the near future. I’m strangely interested in that moment. I’ll have to find some sort of countdown that will alert me to when that moment occurs.
However you decide to celebrate your half birthday, be sure that it is intentional, and remember to be kind and gentle to yourself. Nudge yourself gently forward and honor the distance you’ve come so far. Fix your mind to reset and visualize yourself standing at the next biggest milestone in your journey by your next birthday. That will be your gift to yourself. You have six months to prepare that gift. Life is a long marathon and we need more checkpoints to replenish and refuel our energy and intentions. Adding your half birthday to your list of reflective checkpoints can be as beneficial as you believe it to be.