Daily Habits, Rituals, Practices, and Projects

I never thought of myself as a very disciplined person. Addictive yes, disciplined no. And yet, when I started this blog and eventually realized the potential for the improvement of my writing skills, I committed to myself. Decided I was worth a regular writing practice. And so I was given an opportunity to be proud of myself for an accomplishment. A daily self-esteem boost. I’m not certain I ever have truly done that before.

Achieving my college degree felt rather useless when I realized I did not want to be in the Television industry. What was all that work for I wondered. Opening my shop, Bally Eden, that I was then forced to close when America had its non-recession recession was a stolen achievement and broke my heart. This blog and my writing is my accomplishment that no one can take away from me. This feels well-earned and purposeful. It’s a skill that’s mine and irrefutable proof that I don’t suck as much as I once thought I might.

I highly recommend starting a daily practice, ritual, project, devotion, or habit. There are two others that I have picked up and kept up with over the past couple years. One is posting a daily picture on Instagram. This practice has improved my picture-taking skills more than I ever imagined it could and has also brought me into close proximity with the greater world of like-minded people. Wonderful people whom I now consider friends and who have listened to my stories and supported and buoyed my esteem in unimaginable ways. All for a commitment to posting a picture a day. Well worth it.

And last year I committed to a Year of Making collecting daily pictures of my creativity, some of which made it to Instagram. And what I soon discovered was that I am a daily creative without having to be intentionally so. And I found that between the blog posting and the daily picture taking, I did a lot of creating even beyond those. That project allowed me to acknowledge what I already do. And to collect up the best of my pictures for later use. I’m still slightly behind with collecting my December pictures but I find it immensely satisfying to be able to shop from these pictures I took the time to organize. My recent photo collages on Instagram were a direct result of having my best in folders on my “desktop”. Here’s the roundup post of those pictures.

Weekly challenges are equally satisfying if you want to try something out and see how it feels. I adored doing the One Creative Week challenge with Crafting Connection’s Andrea and Danielle. And I loved the collages that came from that week. The Creativity Bootcamp month with That Curious Love of Green’s Jane Barry, from Day One to my Feelings Wrap-up , showed me again that any old-time I want to create, great stuff comes out. It’s only a matter of giving myself permission to do it without a challenge. Perhaps this month I’ll try a month-long personal devotion. To make me feel better, more confident, and to just play. Two intentions I’ve dangled out in front of me? A daily reading of my own work. And endeavoring to just read books again. Period.

Hope that I have begun to inspire you to consider starting a daily habit or ritual for yourself. My friend Sandra is following along with Tammie Bennett’s A Tiny Daily Habit project on Instagram . Sandra wrote this post on her Instagram feed which sums up so much about this practice.

“Day 4 of #tinydailyhabits – meditating for ten minutes a day first thing. Today was hard! Our water heater broke down yesterday so rather than be still & meditate, I was anxious to continue sussing out having it repaired vs replacing it, etc. But I did it – the meditation. Water heater repair situation still in process. @tammiecbennett posted a great Washington Post article about people who have done 100+ day projects. One woman made a tiny chair a day for a year. Another guy ate a taco a day for a year. I had a light bulb moment reading that article. Any one a day project is similar to meditation. Similar to a walking meditation. Just that daily repetition of the same thing – there’s something magical about it. And it’s the repetition, not the thing itself that does the trick.”

  Whether you are practicing hand stands, or in Tammie’s case, sprinting, it’s the daily devotion and ritual of it that seems to become more than the sum of it’s parts. The habits can be physical, mental, artistic, or spiritual. But they are guaranteed to change your outlook on you and your life for the better.

If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.