Some days in your everyday life will definitely feel as if someone activated the autopilot in the morning. A thousand things are done out of habit without you really thinking about them. That doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing; after all, we can develop habits that are good for us and make everyday life easier. But the days often fly by when we work through our lists non-stop and time seems to run by. At the end of the day, you may even have trouble remembering how you actually spent your time.
As you may have already seen, with Spirit of Eden we want to show you how you can bring more awareness into your everyday life without having to compromise yourself. The whole thing should feel natural and give you and your vision more space. Routines and rituals can help us to consciously do something for ourselves in many different ways. While we use routines to try to integrate habits that are good for us into our everyday lives, we use rituals to celebrate certain processes and strengthen our connection to the moment and our appreciation for ourselves.
The role of routines in your daily life
Supposedly healthy routines are flooding social media; for years people have been working on the seemingly perfect morning routine that is supposed to optimize the hours at the beginning of the day. This puts enormous pressure on many people and is constantly accompanied by the question: Have I failed if I don't have a routine or if I can't stick to it?
Regular routines should be good for you and don't have to be perfect, they just have to suit you personally. They correspond to the positive form of habits: you establish processes in your everyday life that have a positive effect on you in the long term.
Routines also free our minds in that we make decisions for ourselves. We pursue certain things and know that they are good for us without having to constantly think about them. A routine is also a commitment to yourself and your time.
It usually takes some time until the subconscious wants to follow the routines. Something uncomfortable, such as doing exercise in the morning or running barefoot through the cold grass, must first be recognized and programmed into the brain as something positive, instead of scrolling on your cell phone for 10 minutes in a warm bed.
To do this, it is important to first recognize what routines might be that suit you. What is good for you? Take your time and observe your daily routine. A few questions can help you.
- What habits do you have?
- Which ones might be totally good and which ones annoy you and feel like a waste of time?
- What does the next version of yourself look like? How would you like to behave?
- What small steps does it take that you would have to change in your behavior to get closer to this version?
- What are the routines you can develop for this?
Another way is to observe what makes you feel good when you have time off and are on vacation. What do you particularly enjoy? Do you see nature first thing in the morning and do you feel a little freer? Then try to incorporate this into your everyday life and leave the house briefly first thing in the morning. Or is a balanced breakfast good for you on vacation that you never take the time to do at home? Then this is your call to develop a little breakfast routine for yourself!
The power of rituals: Celebrate yourself
Rituals take consciousness one step further. While routines help you to do something for yourself regularly and almost automatically without you having to think about it, with rituals you take time specifically for yourself. You decide for a moment that you want to specifically perceive within all seemingly automated everyday processes. You're celebrating a moment, your being, and you're completely present.
Rituals can be of different intensity: You can decide during your sunny lunch break to prepare your food in a particularly beautiful way, to eat it consciously and without distraction and to enjoy every bite so that you can focus on it at the end of the day to remember and be grateful. Arranging your jewelry from time to time can also be a nice ritual that doesn't take up a lot of time, but shows appreciation for you and the items.
In the same way, you can perform rituals with others, do something nice or celebrate certain times of the year that are particularly remembered as quality time. An example of what this can look like is our Renewal Ritual , if you want to celebrate the new beginning of something with friends.
Routines and rituals: opposites or complements?
While our goal with routines is to create conscious moments on a regular basis, rituals are a small "brake" in everyday life to give you time to celebrate something in a targeted manner. Routines and rituals don't have to be opposites; both methods help you do something for yourself: in the long term or right now, when you need it.
What do I need right now? Routines vs. Rituals
When we think about routines and rituals, we often have the perfect, undisturbed moment in our head, but this is rarely the case in reality, after all, we have difficulty freeing ourselves from all influencing factors. Your dog is crashing your morning meditation? Okay, then maybe it will work next time, stick with it. Do you feel like the weeks have just passed you by? Then maybe now is the time to take a step back and consciously notice a moment. No matter whether that means having a long yoga session or tidying up for yourself before the TV marathon today, turning off your cell phone, making yourself extra comfortable and preparing popcorn: This can also be a ritual to celebrate time for yourself.
How to: Establish routines & stay flexible
As already said: Our everyday lives cannot always go according to plan and neither routines nor rituals have to be anything but perfect. We experience enough pressure from outside, we don't have to put it on ourselves too. When it comes to establishing routines or blocking time slots for a self-care ritual, you can always remind yourself that you want to do this for you. Sometimes this can lead to canceling something else or enduring something uncomfortable, but sometimes you need just that little push to make long-term changes to your habits.
To establish a routine as such, it can help to write down how you felt afterwards. Did you wake up restless and feel more balanced after a distraction-free breakfast? Does your back pain go away after you stretch on your lunch break? All the more reason to do it again, right?
The conversation with content creator Nerina Charlotte was also totally inspiring in this regard. She told us how routines work in different places, that you can always go back to routines and that reinventing and adapting routines has nothing to do with failure. This is also a reminder for you to remain flexible and to listen to what your gut feeling tells you at all times - whether it's about routines, rituals or your entire life. Trust yourself and create space in your everyday life for the special moments that make you forget time.
