Why a ritual?
I like the idea of setting an intention for the day. To start the day off as I mean to go on. I will be honest though and say it has taken some work from my end to bring it all together. It’s really only been the last three months that I have added a few more elements to the existing ritual and felt like it was more complete.
One of the main reasons for that is I made myself accountable to another person to report in once a week to see how I was getting on. I found after a month that my morning ritual was embedded into my day.
What I have discovered is that my morning and evening rituals serves two different purposes. My morning ritual allows me to create meaning and purpose to what I do at the start of the day. While my evening ritual is a signal to myself that I am winding down and preparing myself for sleep.
How do I create a ritual?
After trying to work out what it was or what I should be doing or I realised that the awesome things about rituals is that they are personalised and should suit the person involved and no one else.
In other words you determine what you would like to do for your ritual and when and where. For example I like to perform my morning ritual on my own with no one else around. That way I don’t get side-tracked and don’t feel pressured or rushed to get through it.
Therefore my biggest advice is to listen to what your intuition is saying or guiding you to do. Ask yourself what you would like to do and what would add value to your day?
The next thing to work out is how often you want to perform your ritual and how long you will dedicate to it. Be REALISTIC about this. At the moment I have plenty of time on my side, so I allow forty minutes in my morning. However my evening ritual is made up of several small moments throughout the evening. The last part of my ritual is saved for bed, when I listen to a guided meditation. The meditation I play varies from 10 minutes to half an hour depending on how tired I am. If time is an issue I still perform my rituals, however I prioritise and leave out certain elements to create shorter rituals.
What do I do?
You personalise your ritual to what suits you. What suits me may not hold the same space for you. If you need some inspiration on what you can do, take a look at the What Do I Do handout and see if any or a combination of the ideas below speak to you or inspire you to create your own meaningful rituals.
Where to create your ritual?
Depending on whether you have a morning or evening ritual or both will depend on where you want to do this. For example I do my morning ritual in the reading nook of our home and my evening ritual starts off in the lounge when I shut down my devices and then have a cup of herbal tea. Then it is completed when I head to bed to bed and listen to a guided meditation.
Decide what space in your home will work for you. Maybe your morning ritual occurs in one part of the home and your evening ritual in another room.
Start Now
- What would give you the most benefit right now? A morning or evening ritual? Or both?
- Define how much time you have to carry out your personalised ritual? Will it be 10 minutes or 20 minutes a day? Or 45 minutes three times a week? Define what works for you.
- Chose what you would like to do? Will it be one thing or several e.g. will you start the day off with some stretches in the morning or journaling? Will you prefer a herbal tea in the evening as you fill in your gratitude journal at the end of the day.
- Choose a place or space to carry out your ritual.
So what will you choose to do first? A morning or evening ritual?
If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line via the contact page or leave a comment
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