When the world feels heavy – a ritual of softness
Some days, the world presses down.
It’s in the news, in our timelines, in the unspoken spaces between conversations. The heaviness can feel like stone in the chest — too much to carry, too little to release.
In moments like these, I don’t search for grand solutions. I return instead to the smallest rituals. The ones so gentle, they could almost be overlooked. The ones that remind me: softness is still possible.
The art of softness
Softness is often misunderstood. It isn’t weakness, nor avoidance. It’s a quiet rebellion against a culture that tells us to be hard, fast, and unyielding.
To be soft is to let yourself breathe. To unclench. To place your hand gently on the table and feel the grain of the wood beneath your fingertips. To let your brush move without expectation. To light a candle, not for ceremony, but simply because flame feels like hope.
Softness is what lifts us when heaviness roots too deep.
A ritual for heavy days
Here is a ritual that has held me, and perhaps it can hold you, too:
Choose a simple object of lightness – a feather, a small stone, a leaf. Place it before you as a symbol of what you wish to release.
Breathe deeply, once for yourself, once for someone you love, once for the world.
Imagine the breath rising like silver threads above you.Create a mark on paper.
It doesn’t matter what: a line, a spiral, a color. Let it carry what feels heavy, without needing to fix or explain.Whisper a phrase of softness.
For example: “I allow myself to be light again.”Leave the object where you can see it for the rest of the day — a reminder that even in weight, there is lift.
This ritual can take five minutes. Or it can open into an entire afternoon of painting, journaling, or simply resting. It doesn’t demand. It offers.
For therapists & space holders
If you hold space for others:
This ritual can be adapted into a session by using natural objects or art materials clients already have at hand. Encourage participants to focus on the gesture, not the outcome. The act of choosing softness is itself healing. It’s not about productivity, but presence.
For artists & seekers
Your canvas doesn’t need to be large. A notebook page, the corner of a letter, even the back of a receipt will do. What matters is the gesture — the decision to mark heaviness with color, to honor it, and to set it down for a while. Art becomes a way of saying:
“I am still here. And softness is still mine to choose.”
Ritual objects – when art holds the reminder for you
When I created the Silver Feathers Rising series, each painting became more than pigment on paper.
They became ritual objects — anchors of softness in days that felt too heavy. Each original work comes with an affirmation card, echoing its imagery in words. Together, they serve as reminders that even when the world presses down, you can rise gently, silver-threaded, soft.
The world will always have its weight. But we are not required to carry it alone, or all at once.
Softness is not a retreat — it’s a form of strength. A whisper that says:
“Even now, I can breathe. Even now, I can rise.”
