ritual – Chloe J Sayers

Disclaimer: This is not a review or promotion of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg although it has made my semester reading wish list.

I believe in Habit. I believe in having habits just for the sake of having habits.

I like going to the gym. Not because I really enjoy straining and sweating on grimy machines to an odd mixture of Christmas country songs and ESPN but every morning that I drag myself out of the bed, is a day when I strengthen my habit of staying healthy.

Ritual, the second-cousin of Habit, also needs a seat at our table. In my experience, modern technology and the speed of life has stripped us of the humanizing rituals that used to mark individual existence. Everything must be new, exciting, and efficient in order to hold onto our shrinking attention spans for a nanosecond.

I’ve been studying Ellul this semester (to a very undergraduate and unimpressive degree) and his accusation that modernity has turned efficiency from a means to the highest ends and good struck a cord.

Because I’m all about efficiency.

I’ve mastered the three minute prep routine. I can read, grade, and sort tests while listening to a podcast. I flashcard while I elliptical and I eat while I walk while I talk.

I want my humanity back.

Five Rituals For My Life

I will make my coffee with a french press and not a one-press machine.

I will write with a pencil that needs sharpening and a pen that needs dipping.

I will talk with those around me and not those on the other side of a screen.

I will walk whenever possible.

I will make meals from scratch, not boxes. I will heat my food in a pan, not plastic.

What changes would you like to main to create humanizing rituals in your life?