Ritual Is How Women Come Home: How Daily Ritual Reconnected Me to My Body and Feminine Self

A feminine morning ritual: herbal tea, journaling, and slow presence. Rituals like this help women reconnect with their bodies, regulate their nervous systems, and return to themselves.

Growing up ritual was woven into everything.

I was raised in a Steiner family, the kind of childhood where the day began with intention, where meals were blessed, where the turning of the seasons was celebrated and enjoyed. We lived slowly. We lived cyclically. We lived close to the earth and all of mother nature’s changes.

Before every meal, we’d give thanks:

“Dear Sun, dear earth, by you we live, our loving thanks to you we give.”

This simple ritual before eating was a reminder that life was supported, held, sacred and connected to all.

Our home always had a seasonal altar - autumn leaves and warm tones as the light faded, spring blossoms and soft pastels as the world woke again. There were lantern walks for winter solstice, where we’d carry our handmade lanterns under the star studded sky all rugged up in our winter jumpers, coats and beanies. We’d sing songs to the invisible helpers who would guide us out of the depths of winter. The fairies were my friends and so were all the stories and myths. There was nature crafting, song circles, harvest festivals, candle-lit stories, and celebrations of solstice and equinox that aligned us with a rhythm far older than any Christian tradition.

Ritual was simply life.

And then, almost overnight, it disappeared.

When I was 10 years old, my parents abruptly became Christians - the kind where you’re not saved unless you can speak in tongues. Our childhood rituals were labelled “pagan,” and overtime so much of my childhood was erased - the crystals destroyed, dolls and paintings burnt, our seasonal altar smashed. The “dear sun, dear earth…” grace was replaced with a much longer Christian one. The seasonal celebrations were out, and church services, rules and doctrine came in.

And with it, something in me disappeared too.

My connection to the fairies.
My connection to nature.
My sense of inner rhythm.
My relationship to my body, my intuition, my soul.

Like many girls raised in fundamentalist environments, I learned, that the only safe place to be, was in my head. Logic was praised. Achievement was praised. Obedience was praised. Control was praised.

My body became… an inconvenience, the source of sin, something to cover, be ashamed of and feared.
A thing to manage, discipline, numb.

For 20 years, I lived without ritual. And without realising it, I lived without connection to myself.

I lived in chronic dysregulation, always in my head, always trying to “perform” or “achieve” my way into worthiness. My nervous system was exhausted. I drank to oblivion because it was the only time I felt like I could escape the relentless pressure to hold everything together. I felt unsafe in my own skin, and I didn’t have the tools to understand why.

It wasn’t until my early 30s , after heartbreak, burnout, sobriety, and the slow work of healing, that I finally understood something essential:

Women need ritual.

Not for aesthetics.
But for survival.
For meaning.
For embodiment.
For belonging.

The Jungian analyst Marion Woodman wrote:

“Ritual is the container for the soul. Without ritual, we live only from the neck up.”

That’s how I’d been living the last twenty years and how so many women I know, my friends, coworkers, family also live.

Woodman goes on to say:

“Since ritual is inherent in our nature, participating consciously in our own ritual journeys is a reliable way of recognising our own needs, our own destinies.”

Ritual was the thing that kept me connected as a child.
It also gave me belonging, body intelligence, connection to the cycles, seasons and nature.

Losing ritual wasn’t small.
It was a rupture.

And reclaiming ritual, as an adult woman, has been one of the deepest forms of healing I’ve experienced.

How I Returned to Ritual

It began slowly.

I attended my first Women’s Circle in January 2023.

Sitting in circle with other women, sharing, participating in rituals just as I’d done as a child, felt familiar and ancient all at once. And from sitting in circle with other women, I began slowly bringing it into my home and then my own women’s circles.

Sometimes ritual looks like:
Lighting a candle.
Journalling.
Pulling a card or two.
Some incense.
New Moon Releases.
Full Moon Manifesting.
Fresh flowers from my garden.
Music that soothes my nervous system.
A warm cup of tea between my hands.
Anointing myself with oils.

But the strongest shift came when I made one profound decision:

I began giving the first part of the day to myself.

As women, we are needed, asked for, reached for all day long — by partners, children, clients, parents, colleagues, the world. And once the day begins, it gets away from you and it’s virtually impossible to reclaim later.

So I started waking earlier. For me.

My mornings became sacred. Untouchable. A sanctuary.

My husband knows not to interrupt me (this is the time I choose myself before I choose the world).

I light a candle. I breathe. I put on a song, often one recommended by my teacher Michaela Boehm and I move my body in Non-Linear Movement.

This practice has changed my life.

It helped me feel again without forcing, analysing, or fixing. Just moving with the loudest sensation in my body. Sometimes that sensation is anxiety. Sometimes grief. Sometimes joy. Sometimes exhaustion. But the practice gives allows it be seen, felt and often by witnessing it, it becomes less noisy.

After movement, I sit with my tea, Body, Eros, or Soul, depending on what part of me needs tending.

Body when I need grounding.
Eros when I feel flat, numb, disconnected from desire.
Soul when I need clarity, intuition, direction.

I sip slowly, and I do the practice associated with the tea (the Grounding Meditation, the Heart–Pelvis Connection, or the Soul Self Visualisation).

Then I journal.
Sometimes I pull a card.
Sometimes I just sit in the quiet and allow myself to just be, I do nothing (and it’s taken me a really, really long time to be able to do -NOTHING).

Ritual returned me to myself

It reconnected me to my body after years of disconnection, betrayal, perfectionism and numbness.
It reconnected me to my feminine wisdom.
It reconnected me to something ancient, cyclical and deeply human.

And it brought me home to the rhythms of my childhood, the parts of Steiner education that made me feel safe, curious, alive, and connected to the world.

Why Ritual Matters for Women (and Why It Heals Us)

Ritual is a felt experience.

A slowing.
A softening.
A shifting from survival mode into presence.

And this is what ritual gives us:

✨ A regulated nervous system
Ritual creates predictability and safety, calming the fight-flight response.

✨ Embodiment
Ritual brings us back into our bodies — the only place where intimacy, pleasure, intuition, and connection can actually be felt.

✨ Meaning
Ritual transforms the ordinary into the sacred.
It gives shape to the day and coherence to our inner world.

✨ Belonging
Ritual roots us in something larger - nature, seasons, ancestry, community, Self.

✨ Feminine purpose
Ritual is a devotional act- a way of tending to your inner life, not rushing past it.

This is the philosophy behind my teas, Body, Eros, Soul, and the practices woven through them.

Each tea is not just something to drink. It’s a portal into your inner world.

The Embodiment Teas for Ritual:
Body • Eros • Soul

BODY — Come Home to Your Body

A grounding, earthy blend of turmeric, ginger, tulsi, cinnamon, and lemon myrtle.
Designed to settle the nervous system, anchor you into your body, and help you feel safe enough to soften.

This is the tea for women who live “neck up,” who feel disconnected, anxious, overwhelmed, or untethered.

EROS — Reclaim Your Eros

A lush, sensual blend of rose, hibiscus, lavender, spearmint, and liquorice.
Designed to awaken sensual presence, soften emotional armour, and reconnect you to vitality, warmth, and desire.

This is the tea for women who feel numb, flat, or disconnected from pleasure.

SOUL — Befriend Your Soul

A bright, clarifying blend of lemon myrtle, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, spearmint, rosehip, and liquorice.
Designed to strengthen intuition, uplift energy, and reconnect you to your deeper truth.

This is the tea for moments of transition, growth, or inner clairity.

Ritual Is How We Remember Ourselves

I believe, deeply, that women are starving for ritual.
We are starving for slowness, softness, meaning, beauty, connection, intuition, and the sacred (whatever that means to you).

Ritual is how we reclaim those parts of ourselves.

It’s how we return to our bodies.
It’s how we soften into Eros.
It’s how we listen to our soul’s quiet wisdom.

A cup of tea can change your whole day.
A morning ritual can change your whole life.
And returning to ritual, in all its simplicity, is one of the most ancient ways women have ever healed.

If you’d like to explore these rituals through tea, guided practices, and embodiment, you can explore the Body • Eros • Soul Tea Rituals Below:

The Grounding Blend - Your BODY is waiting.
The Pleasure Blend - Your EROS is waiting.
The Clarity Blend - Your SOUL is waiting.

For the Woman Ready to Come Home to Her Body, Reclaim Her Eros & Befriend Her Soul

If you feel the pull to reconnect with your body, soften into your femininity, and experience the kind of healing that comes from being deeply witnessed, I invite you to join The Wonderfully Wilde Women’s Circle, a monthly online gathering opening in 2026.
Join the Wait List

If you’d like to explore deeper one-on-one support, you can learn more about Online Sex Coaching for Women here.

And if you want embodiment practices, rituals, meditations, and stories of feminine reclamation, you can explore the full Sabina Wilde Blog here.

With wilde tenderness,
Sabina Wilde xx