Routines and Rituals

Do you get up in the morning and have a shower, breakfast then head to work? We all have a morning routine, whether we pay attention to it or not, it’s ingrained in us and we just do it. For example, your alarm goes off at 7.00am, you get up, shower, dress and have breakfast. You don’t think anything more of it, you just do what you do.

However, think of this another way, your alarm goes off but before you jump out of bed, you lie there for a few minutes and spend time meditating to help set the tone for the day. Once you have finished, you get up and shower but whilst you are moisturising your face, you look into the mirror and say ‘Today will be a great day’ and you repeat this over and over until you have finished with the mirror and the lotions and potions. The mantra will help you have a positive mindset for the day. You make yourself a cup of tea and breakfast, sitting down to eat, you mindfully chew each mouthful slowly whilst reading the news on your phone. You take your time enjoying this quality time with yourself before you head to work and continue with your day.

You’ve created a ritual out of your morning routine. Instead of rushing around and going through the motions you enjoy your start to the day and set yourself up with positivity. The ritual becomes a focus for you and something to saviour and enjoy. But I would say, you have to be realistic for the rituals you choose. If you are going to find them a chore you will never do them, they need to fit in to your day naturally for you, so you move graciously between your ritual and routines.

A routine is something you do or have done regularly, it’s habitual and ingrained into your life. Whereas rituals are something you may perform in a specific way, its often thought of in a religious manner, however this isn’t always the case as seen in my example above. It’s about setting yourself space to do something positive for you, it may not be done daily but could be weekly.

Another way to look at rituals is to think about your favourite sport or a situation where you want luck on your side, such as watching your favourite team play or when you have to sit an important exam or go to a job interview. Have you noticed anything you do specifically for these times? Such as wearing your lucky socks or favourite top when you have an interview or do you just have to wear your tatty old t-shirt whilst watching the game to make sure your team win?

These rituals often come about when our team won or you got the job and you attributed it to the item of clothing or the random statue you touched before hand. Going forward you think in order to get the same positive outcome you have to follow the same behaviour pattern and so the ritual is born. And the likelihood is you wouldn’t call it a ritual or possibly even noticed you do it. So has it become a routine/ritual mixed?

You have routines in your day that you wont likely think anything of, but could you incorporate a positive ritual into it, which can give you a lift or inspire you. Look at your routines, what do you do throughout the day that you could also incorporate a positive ritual in? For example, could you use your lunchtime to meditate or do yoga and get you into the right frame of mind for the afternoon. Or maybe a walk to help refresh you and give you the creativity you need for the rest of the day.

Rituals are part of our everyday life, they can be something you do before you begin your day, such as meditation, or having your early morning coffee or maybe something done before an important football game or sporting event, like wearing lucky socks or touching a trinket for luck. The idea being it will increase your chances of winning or being successful in what you do. Meditating and yoga for example will relax you and start your day off in a positive way as will most exercise. Choose what works for you and start incorporating some rituals into your day.

Start small by adding in one thing a day and doing this for a week and see how you get on, think about what can help to improve your mindset and your day, do what feels good for you.

Have a great week, be kind and look after you!

Love Emma xx 😍