There is Beauty in Routines

Have you noticed a pattern that your mornings and evenings follow? Have you noticed the pace at which you start and end your day? Do you like it? Or do you wish it felt more intentional not just overwhelming or mundane?

I’ve come to realize, I’ve unintentionally developed morning and evening routines that dance to a rhythm lacking productivity and intentionality. Truth be told, it’s easy to fall into this space. It’s easy to let time slip between my fingers not grasping it tightly and making the most of it. It’s easy after a long day to just want to kick my heels up and lounge binging Netflix shows. It’s insanely easy to waste time, to not invest in myself daily.

I remember when I first quit the 9-5 grind to pursue teaching yoga full time and how my days fell into a pattern. I often felt either busy and unproductive or slow. That’s when I learned about morning routines or rituals. I was reading about morning rituals, and I was challenged to create my own. I felt a need to create a home base; to develop a way to utilize and invest my time well without becoming overwhelmed or stressed out.

That’s what brings us to this post today. I’ve fallen away from my routines mainly because I just stopped being intentional. Trust me, I’ve journaled many ideas, but I haven’t implemented them. I realize time isn’t waiting for me to get it perfect. Honestly, perfection isn’t the point. Living life fully is and that often doesn’t look picture-perfect. I believe a key to finding joy in the mundane is creating a routine or ritual that gives room to invest in yourself and what matters to you.

A routine or ritual is not a schedule, but rather a pattern you develop to protect what matters. It’s a rhythm you set in motion that allows you to find a constant during the inconsistencies life often brings. It’s not a rule or a law, but a boundary. Your routine is an act of you setting a boundary with your time and space. It’s you telling life, your day, and those around you, “hey this time is my space to pause, reflect, and invest in what matters in order to be my best self”. Do things go as planned? Absolutely not. A routine isn’t about set times and regimented tasks. It’s about discovering the flow in which your life falls into and making it intentional and purposeful.

Okay, Jennifer, that’s fine and all but why does this matter? What’s the point?

It matters because YOU matter. Your well-being and personhood matters. Too often we go through the motions day in and day out to simply just get things done. We find ourselves being busybodies, but never finding and knowing when to rest. Developing routines matter to your dreams and passions. A lot of people feel they can no longer dream or pursue dreams or their passions because of time or responsibilities. All valid. All real.

But I often think, we are unable to pursue dreams and discover our passions because we don’t make room for them. Having a routine that starts and ends your day gives you permission to invest in yourself and what matters to you. It allows you to get creative on what investment looks like for you in the season you are in. It shows you that pursuing your dreams and investing in your passions and yourself does not have be relegated to one set time or moment, but it gets to be a daily act you make in the littlest things.

As I write this, I speak to myself. I think of all the values and passions I desire to pursue, protect, and develop and sometimes feel overwhelmed as if it’s not possible to do it. I realize that every little bit counts though. How I start my day matters. How I end my day matters. What I do with the time I’m given matters so much.

Investing in myself, giving space and room for my dreams and passions, doesn’t have to be placed on hold for a crazy opportunity. No. How I live out and manage each day is the ultimate investment in my dreams and passion. How I do life here and now determines how I will do life when the dreams are coming true, and my passion pursuit is the main thing. Because you see, when we make time to discover the patterns our life follows and create routines that protect what matters, we instill values in our foundation that we won’t waver or become inconsistent when life happens in all its glory.

So, all that to say, for the next month, I’m embarking on a journey to finding and developing a routine for my mornings and evenings again. I created a workbook to help me pinpoint the things I want to do and values I want to protect. The workbook helps me visualize what I want and need my routines to look like. It also gives me room to dream up how I want to start and end my day.

Since I’m taking on this routine journey, I want to invite you to join in journey! Let’s figure out how to make the most of what’s in front of us together; let’s endeavor to learn how to invest in ourselves on the daily not just once every few months. If you’re interested, you can join the monthly membership to gain access and download your copy of the workbook here. I want to help celebrate with you!