How Rituals Can Boost Your Wellbeing: Your Guide to Building Supportive Practices This 2023
When we think of rituals, milestone life events or religious celebrations may be some of the first that spring to mind. However, daily self-care rituals can also play an important role in bringing moments of joy or peace into our lives. But what exactly are they and what’s the difference between rituals and routine?
While routine habits such as brushing your teeth are often done on autopilot, wellbeing rituals are done with intent and awareness. Sprinkling them throughout your day and repeating these rituals often can boost feelings of wellbeing, helping you to feel more grounded, calm and centred.
Whether you include them when you wake up or wind down, we breakdown everything you need to know about incorporating more wellbeing rituals into your life this year.
Why are Daily Rituals Important?
Rituals that are integrated into our daily routine provide us with structure - this can help to anchor us during times of uncertainty or provide moments of peace during busy days.
In today’s increasingly connected world, performing daily rituals provides us with an opportunity to pause and reconnect back to ourselves and intentions. In turn these micro-moments can help us to re-align with our personal values and actions we need to take.
Self-Care Ritual Ideas:
- No screen time before 9am
- Listening to a short meditation when you wake up or on your lunch break
- Practising a yoga asana or breathwork on certain days of the week
- Taking a daily walk and listening to a podcast
- Making a herbal tea in the afternoons
- Daily journaling
- Reading a few pages of a book each day
- Screen-free Sundays
Rituals To Support
Rituals should support your daily life, not overwhelm it. An easy and effective place to begin is to look at your morning routine. Our mornings can often set the tone for the day ahead - so be intentional about how you spend yours. Look at your current routine and start from there. If reaching for your phone as soon as you wake triggers a stress reaction (hello, email alert from your boss) - why not limit your screen time or begin with a short meditation? Perhaps you try some simple yoga stretches or read a couple of pages from a book?
Your rituals don’t have to be drawn-out or time-consuming - a 5 minute meditation or 10 minutes of yoga won’t take up much of your morning but will have a big impact on your mood. Once you’ve settled into your morning rituals, perhaps you look at what rituals could support your evening routine to help you let go of the day.
Try A Month of Micro Rituals
Ready to experiment? Why not check out a month of micro rituals on the Fable Yoga Instagram page this January. We're bringing you a selection mini breathwork practices, meditations and sound-healings that you can save, re-play and repeat at a time and place that supports you. And the good news is, each practice is under 5 minutes - so it's manageable to slot into even the busiest of days.
Looking to commit to your yoga practice? Check out our range of sustainable (and stylish) props and mats to help support you in your practice. Or not sure where to begin in your self-practice - find a free library of yoga styles from yin to Vinyasa on our YouTube Channel here.