Rituals Upgrade My Daily Life

My Own Utopian Experiment #2: Adding New Morning Rituals to my daily rituals, reading and journaling

Do you have rituals that re-center and balance you from daily activities and responsibilities? For me, my oasis has been journaling and reading books.

Reading is one of the calm activities I love. I often do not know where time goes. I am in the zone with a good book. I mostly reflect my inner feelings and thoughts. I enter my inner words and listen to my own voices. I meet the authors and face stories heart to heart. I nod in agreements, startled with disbelief, surprised of the comforts and I examine my life and myself. I sometimes write my thoughts and feelings in my journals along with reading. It is very intimate process. It helps me to be calm, learn, reflect, re-examine, grow and have fun. It is truly one of the best friends I have. It is always there when I need it in my room.

I write journals. It is also calming and tunning into myself. I reflect and process my inner works. I often let things out and remind myself on important things before all evaporate next day. I do not separate gratitude and journaling. They co-exists. I am a firm believer that happiness is my ability to appreciate on what I already have. Happiness is contentment to me. It is very important for me to remind myself and savor anything I am grateful for. I write a lot about them to “feel” it rather than just list them. Journaling also helps to see things from another perspective in more objective ways. It is hard to write anything before you process first yourself. Once you write on paper, you are reading physically as if you are reading someone else’s writing. It helps me a lot. This is also very intimate process with myself. It is nothing more important than listening to myself.

I am attempting to add one morning ritual that gives me a good start daily. I love to walk in the morning for 15 mins before I get sucked into my busy schedules. The winter is brutal where I live (IL in US) so it is really depending on the weather. I picked stretches, breathing exercise and positive affirmation via a quick journaling when I can’t walk.  I get to pick one depending on my mood that day. I am a sensitive person. What I do, feel and think in the morning greatly matter. Good morning is essential to have a good day for me.  When I have a good day today, tomorrow will be the same. I believe I live the way I lived yesterday because changes take time and efforts. If I want to be happy tomorrow, I have to be happy today. I want this to be habitual so I do not even think about it. Do one thing that lift you up in the morning! That’s the rule I set myself up going forward. This isn’t something that takes time but do it for 30 consecutive days to make a habit of it. I get a bit grumpy as default when it is too cold, raining or snowing outside in the morning. I don’t allow myself feel that way with these backup plans. It is my active decision to live here, IL in US so I should not be grumpy about winter. Weather can get bad anywhere. I do already have everything to be happy. I just need to remind myself every morning via habitual rituals. If you already have rituals that work, please share. Otherwise, I hope this gives a little inspiration to start thinking about it. Sending my love as always.