Routines & Rituals
On Morning Rituals
Our lives are filled with routines.
For most of us, what we do today will be very similar to what we did yesterday.
That can be comforting, but it can also be dull. Days may blend into one another and we can start to feel more like robots than people.
Our favorite way to avoid this is to make routines into rituals.
The most important aspect of this is to be intentional and conscious of the activity in question. Don’t just make the coffee in a half-asleep state. Take a moment to address your ingredients, to thank the sun, the plants, and the people who made the drink possible. Then purposefully perform the task thinking consciously about each step.
It helps to be a little bit . . . extra. Our coffee maker is a colossal pain. It takes forever to prepare, to brew, and to clean, and it only makes two cups of coffee. But every use also feels like we’re doing mad science. Forcing ourselves to wait and to observe the wonders of physics helps us to savor the result.
Finally, be protective of your ritual time. You don’t have control of every aspect of your day, but you can find a way to carve out five or ten minutes here and there for activities that you refuse to be distracted from. Turn off your phone. Tell your partner to find their own socks. You deserve to be able to focus on your own thing for a moment.
We love this little book on coffee magic. While it has some spells, it is really a reminder that much of enchantment is a decision to find the miraculous in everyday existence.
It reminds us that rituals don’t even have to be “magical” per se, they just have to be things that you elevate above the level of “task.”
We are stretched a bit thin with daily life this week so our hours are limited, but we look forward to seeing more of you in the rest of August.
For most of us, what we do today will be very similar to what we did yesterday.
That can be comforting, but it can also be dull. Days may blend into one another and we can start to feel more like robots than people.
Our favorite way to avoid this is to make routines into rituals.
The most important aspect of this is to be intentional and conscious of the activity in question. Don’t just make the coffee in a half-asleep state. Take a moment to address your ingredients, to thank the sun, the plants, and the people who made the drink possible. Then purposefully perform the task thinking consciously about each step.
It helps to be a little bit . . . extra. Our coffee maker is a colossal pain. It takes forever to prepare, to brew, and to clean, and it only makes two cups of coffee. But every use also feels like we’re doing mad science. Forcing ourselves to wait and to observe the wonders of physics helps us to savor the result.
Finally, be protective of your ritual time. You don’t have control of every aspect of your day, but you can find a way to carve out five or ten minutes here and there for activities that you refuse to be distracted from. Turn off your phone. Tell your partner to find their own socks. You deserve to be able to focus on your own thing for a moment.
We love this little book on coffee magic. While it has some spells, it is really a reminder that much of enchantment is a decision to find the miraculous in everyday existence.
It reminds us that rituals don’t even have to be “magical” per se, they just have to be things that you elevate above the level of “task.”
We are stretched a bit thin with daily life this week so our hours are limited, but we look forward to seeing more of you in the rest of August.
