Making Rituals
We can all list habits that we want to kick, that we know intuitively don’t serve our greater purpose or goals. The familiar is comfortable, it feels automatic and non negotiable. Change seems like it’s for other people, or next week, next month. It’s easy to forget that change and adaptations to your lifestyle is possible as soon as the thought flashes into view. You can infuse your everyday decisions with joy, intention and purpose by showing up for yourself.
Every time you do something you promised yourself you would, you build self trust. Every time you do the opposite, ie cancel that class you’ve been trying to get to, snooze past the earlier alarm, or reach for food and drinks that you know lead to decisions not aligned with your goals, you teach yourself self doubt. By keeping promises to yourself, you show your future self love and compassion.
Ritual – noun
A ritual is a set of actions or behaviours performed in a prescribed or customary way, often with symbolic meaning, and typically done at regular intervals. Rituals can be religious, spiritual, cultural, or personal.
Whether you consider yourself a creature of habit, ruled by non negotiables, or chained to consumption for dopamine fixes, you already have many rituals in your day-to-day life. What if they became daily opportunities to swap in an option that fills you with peace instead of anxt, expansion instead of restriction, space around your to-dos?
The first morning coffee, can you be present for it? Savouring each sip and noticing how it makes you feel? Can your morning scroll be replaced by a chapter of that book you’ve been staring past every single day? The dreaded commute that you tend to zone out from, now made interesting with a podcast? The evening wind-down-wine a soothing Trip drink? Cooking nutritious meals (my new favourites are found in Joyfull by Radhi Devlukia-Shetty) instead of ready meals?
The extra thought for how our rituals impact our self esteem, productivity and happiness enables so much more compassion and patience. Daily movement has become a ritual for me that guarantees a clearer and calmer headspace.
That’s why Swim Run Yoga Girl came to be. This acknowledgement that ‘rest days’ don’t work for me, my mind and body need intentional movement in whatever form it comes, however possible, every single day. I’m fascinated by Ayurveda, an ancient system of natural medicine that originated in India over 3,000 years ago. The word comes from Sanskrit: ‘Ayur’, means life, ‘Veda’ means knowledge/science, together they make ‘the science of life’. Rituals, routines, recipes and leaning into my unique needs throughout the day is helping me to understand the power of intention, whether it’s a swim, a run, or a yoga class, each is infused with presence and gratitude in a way that I hadn’t imagined was possible.
I feel so inspired and encouraged by these Ancient practices and ideas that I’m slowly weaving throughout my day, my teaching and my lifestyle. Rituals that work for me, for my dreams, and the world around me.