Rituals

Rituals anchor us to the person that we want to be. Routines are meaningful activities that support our mental, physical, and emotional health. 

People struggling to form routines often turn to rituals to change their perspective on the tasks that need to be done to support themselves. 

A ritual takes a look at the tasks you need to do and changes it into an intentional moment that feeds your spirit. 

The basic difference between a routine and a ritual is that routines are a checklist of things that need to be done. Rituals incorporate mindfulness and calm into a task. 

Creating rituals is a little bit different than creating a routine. With routines, you engage your logical mind and make a list of the things that need to be completed and follow the list. This can be a daunting process with many steps and can be completely overwhelming. When creating a ritual there are a few steps. 

• Take a look at the task you wish to accomplish.
• What are the barriers to accomplishing that task?
• Incorporate playfulness and mindfulness into that task. 
  

For example, if you want to create a ritual of brushing your teeth every day, you have to ask yourself what are the barriers that are stopping you from doing that task. Do you not like the flavour of toothpaste? Maybe try changing up the toothpaste to a different flavour. Do you forget because the toothbrush is not visible and that extra step of opening the cupboard to get the toothbrush allows your mind to forget the task? Is it boring? Whatever the barrier is, change the space to work better for you.  

Once the barriers have been taken down, create some way to make it fun or mindful. When you brush your teeth, how can you make it engaging? You can set a challenge for yourself to count how many times you brush a particular tooth. You can challenge yourself to use your non-dominant hand, and see how long it takes you to become proficient. You can use that moment to reflect on what your goal is for the day, or how you are feeling in that moment. You can take a moment to concentrate on feeling the floor under your feet and taking stock of how your body feels. 

Creating small moments to be in your body and in the moment allows us to pause from the distractions of the day and move forward with intentionality.

Make a ritual that supports you. Maybe it’s having a cup of coffee and taking a moment to appreciate the smell and the process of making that first cup of joe to wake you up in the morning. Maybe it’s making your bed before the day starts so that you can feel like you accomplished something before you even started your day. Whatever the small moment is, making it fun and mindful changes how you view the task, transforming it from a checklist, into a moment of calm, in an overwhelming world.