Deepen Your Moments by Keeping Your Routines and Rituals Fresh

Routines and rituals help you be more efficient and effective with your time. But when they become rote, they lose some of their unique power and you lose your connection to your moments.

In fact, when a ritual becomes rote it is no longer a deepening experience and is more like a routine.

So putting in the effort to keep your routines and rituals alive for yourself is a challenge that’s well worth the time it takes.

Why? Because your engagement in the moment and your follow-through over time are enhanced by your connection to your rituals and routines. 

So how can you keep things fresh for yourself?

One of the things that I often think about when looking at my routines is this wonderful quotation from Heraclitus:

You cannot step into the same river twice.

No action or moment is ever exactly the same as anything that preceded it. And it’s never the same as anything that will follow. So, looked at from that perspective, even the most routine of tasks is absolutely unique.

Try it on for size today.

You can arrive at each of your moments fresh, with eyes and heart fully open. When you do the dishes this morning, take in the reality that this is an entirely different act than doing them yesterday was — or doing them on January 31st, 1989.

Indeed, looked at in this way, our most routine acts are ALWAYS fresh and new.  When undertaken mindfully, each represents both a brand new moment and a small anniversary. And approached this way, a daily routine becomes a small-yet-significant ritual.

We can, in our mindful routines, simultaneously celebrate a new beginning and commemorate all of the other times that we have performed that same task.

Our routines and rituals become rich benchmarks or touchstones.

Why?

Because they mark where we stand in this moment, as well as how we have changed and how our circumstances have evolved as we look back across time.

When you perform routine tasks over the coming days, try pausing to be in the moment and connect with its uniqueness as well as its history in your life. What impact does that have on your sense of time?  On your attention and energy?

Drop me a line – I’d love to know.

What if you could find another hour every day?

You can.

I invite you to sign up and download The Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s my gift to you.

And when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my complimentary, weekly Finding Time Tips and my complimentary, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine.

Let’s explore time together …