Being blocked can become a vicious cycle because longer you are blocked, more difficult it becomes to believe in yourself.

When you encounter a block in your life, what you are facing is actually doorway to next stage in your soul's journey. The mere awareness of your "stuckness" is a call from within to live more fully. Yet, how do you break out of this state? A lot of people say answer is to follow Nike's advice and "just do it." But if you've ever been blocked, you know it's not quite that simple. If you could bring yourself to "just do it," you probably would.

Sometimes we need a starting point. Some way of shifting our gears, to get our momentum going.

When I was in Kindergarten, we made Christmas presents for our parents in school. I still remember what we made for our dads, because it was a source of light humor for moms: coffee cans filled with sand. We lived in Indiana where there was always a lot of ice and slush in winter. The coffee cans included instructions for dads to keep can in their car and throw some sand behind their wheels, should they happen to get stuck.

Sometimes we need a little sand behind our wheels, spiritually speaking. A ritual can be just that. We use rituals all time, to mark transitions, to honor endings, to celebrate new beginnings, to rejuvenate ourselves and to remind ourselves of what's important to us.

Here are six rituals that can help you break up ice and slush in your life and get lift you need to move ahead:

1. Create an Altar You can use anything from a small table to a milk crate. Cover it with a nice cloth and place your favorite spiritually uplifting objects on top. Use crystals, candles, figurines, dolls, bells, bowls, feathers and pictures that inspire you. You can use your altar as a place for prayer, meditation, worship, creativity, sending or receiving healing, or just relaxing.

2. Purify Your Body Inside Fast for a day. Drink only pure water. If you need to, drink vegetable and fruit juices. Save money you would have spent on food and give it to charity of your choice. After you're finished with your fast, replenish your body with super-healthy power foods like sprouts, beets, broccoli, sweet potatoes and oats. Avoid anything processed or pre-packaged. Make sure you get plenty of sleep at night and stretch your body when you wake up in morning.

I agree that most of today’s unhappiness centers on important people in our lives not cooperating with us. Can anyone relate to that? Have you ever had a child who makes a decision that puts them in serious danger? Have you ever had a significant other decide to relocate or make an employment decision with which you were not in agreement? Did one of your parents ever say something critical to you that rocked your confidence? Ever had a supervisor who micromanaged your work and never gave credit for your good work performance? I think you get idea. Any one or combination of these things can be a source of unhappiness for us and I’m sure you can add several others to list.

While we are in situations such as these, it sure feels like if others in our life would just cooperate and be way we want them to be, and then our lives would be so much better, happier and more fulfilling. While this may, in fact, be true, what I also believe is this. While we are busy trying to get those significant others in our lives to do things our way, behaviors we typically engage in to move others in our desired direction are exactly those behaviors that damage, and ultimately destroy, our relationships.

You know behaviors I’m talking about: punishing, guilting, complaining, nagging, threatening, criticizing, “the silent treatment”, and if we are particularly savvy, rewarding to control, otherwise known as bribing.

If you are one of those people whose first choice of action is to negotiate and open doors of communication, then you are rare. Ask yourself what do you typically resort to when negotiations fail?