Ritual to Greet the Day

• Let the ritual be sacred. Let it have a feeling of elevatedness, transcendence, and spirituality. If these aren’t your norm, maybe try them out—this may be exactly what your day needs.
• Start small and go slow. You don’t need an hour-long ritual—perhaps just something that takes a few minutes, at the start. Keep it simple. As you progress do so slowly.
• Practice how you want to be during the day. Don’t rush through the ritual, like yet another obligation. What do you want to feel during the day? Some ideas are wonder, joy, playfulness, slowness, spirituality, and love. Choose one and practice this as you do the ritual.
• Incorporate elements of beauty and purpose. Some examples (but don’t do all of them) are flowers, a candle, music, a notebook, and nice pen, and incense. Read a text that connects you to wonder. Remind yourself of your deepest purpose.
• Gratitude, wonder, prayer. These are three elements we miss out on in our day. How can you incorporate them into your ritual? Prayer, by the way, is something that many of us non-religious people reject, but we miss out on the humbling nature of asking for something you feel you can’t do on your own, from something bigger than you (even if that’s family, community, the universe, etc.).

Another important idea is to start imperfectly and let it evolve. That means creating new versions as you go through the ritual regularly and adjusting based on what you discover. Don’t try to make it perfect—even if you just pause for a moment in the morning to think of five things you’re grateful for, that’s an amazing start.