When Little Rituals Have Big Meaning

We all instinctively have little rituals we perform throughout the day - things that centre us and ultimately, become habitual in our day to day. For so many of us, we conduct these with very little consciousness - it could be said, it is our subconscious attempting to ground us in the daily mess of life. Now when we say daily mess, this is not with any real negativity. Rather the ‘daily mess’ is an homage of sorts to the rampage of phone calls, meetings, supermarket queues, traffic congestion - everything and anything we have grown accustomed to ”fitting into” our busy as ever schedules.

So what then if we started thinking about our little rituals with more consciousness - what would they do for us in terms of providing bigger meaning to our everyday? 

We’ve taken a moment to think about some of those things we do - small rituals - that work to create bigger meaning in our day to day when we truly focus on them as moments in and of themselves. While everyone will cultivate and come to their little rituals differently, these are just some that work wonders for us:

Breathe in, breathe out.
Sounds simple, right? Perhaps - but taking long, conscious breaths in and out isn’t just for the yogis… and paying attention to the way you breathe is actually, no walk in the park. This doesn’t mean getting up at 5:30AM for a yoga class (although, kudos to you if you do), we’re simply encouraging you to open your back door and step outside and then… inhale and exhale. Listen to your breathing, earth your feet into the ground and stretch those limbs like you know they need to be! Even if for 5 minutes, that moment is where we become truly conscious of our breathing. You might just find that the rapid fire breathing is keeping you alive, but it isn’t letting you LIVE! It may be imbued with haste and a level of anxiety that you hadn’t recognised. Breathing and paying attention to our breath, in so many ways, calms us, restores us and puts us on an even keel for… you guessed it - news feeds, email, traffic, queues!

Taste your coffee.
We hear you - of course, you’re tasting your coffee. But we mean, really taste it. Let’s add another layer to that - taste your coffee, while sitting down. Coffee, for centuries, was an art, a ritual. It was that moment you stopped to really enjoy the many notes of a coffee bean. Nowadays, it is purchased on the fly - a habit to get a hit before you “face the day”. Taking an extra 10 minutes to sit and enjoy your favourite  cup of java is as much about the coffee, as it is about the reclamation of your time - a moment to truly say ‘hold that thought - I’m taking a minute to enjoy this perfectly brewed beverage’.

Two words. Gua. Sha.
It’s 9PM and you’re in bed. Once again you reach for your phone (who knows what’s happened in the last 5 minutes?). We want you to note this movement and, dare we say, obsession. Put the phone down and pick up your gua sha instead. Learn how to give yourself a little face massage - this process will not only work to still the mind, the benefits to the skin are also a force to be reckoned with. Practice repetition and long, sweeping movements across each part of the face (read more about gua sha here). This process becomes almost meditative and really forces you to focus on… well, you.

Taking simple moments and turning them into rituals stimulates focus - it forces us to cultivate a space - not only physical - for thought and reflection. You may find you become clearer on your goals and paths, on those things you have long thought, but never really forced yourself to go “deeper” on.

Want to know exactly how MO+ Founder, Barbara, cultivated space to forward plan and future proof her business? Read more below for her ritual making moment that helped her refocus her energy and ultimately, drive MO+ forward:

“It was during a time when I didn’t know how to move forward in my life - in my relationships and in my business. I had already used up my little bag of tricks that had taken me so far in a personal and professional business environment. I found myself stuck in the daily grind, wondering “is this all there is?”. Not dissimilar to Jack Nicholson in ‘As Good As It Gets’.

I had read somewhere to start a journal, recording positive experiences and to use this technique to refocus my attention on positive, uplifting aspects of my life rather than continuing to relive - over and over again in my mind - those parts that were, in effect, the daily grind. So I did it - I purchased a beautifully bound red fabric covered book with exactly 365 pages, and made a commitment to writing something positive in my journal everyday for the next year.

Not every entry was a mind-blowing reflection of self discovery. In fact, they were mostly daily activities that I had overlooked in my busy goal oriented lifestyle. However, it quickly surfaced that there were activities and encounters that added to my enjoyment and pleasure of the every day. The journal entry could have been as simple as noticing that my favourite fruit, the humble avocado, was on sale and I could pick up a few extra that week. It was nothing earth shattering, but it was a bonus and it made me appreciate little moments I so often took for granted.

The ritual kept me going - at the end of each day I took the time to write one or two sentences to refocus and remind myself of all the wonderful experiences that were in my life that made each and every day worthwhile. It became a behavioural act that changed the way I viewed the world around me. A small simplistic ritual changed my emotional mindset from ‘I’m at a roadblock' to opening up a world of previously unrecognised possibilities”.

We’re going to leave you there, with these words ruminating and to identify where little rituals can become your daily habit of consciousness.