March 28, 2024 • 21 mins
In this episode of the Stress Less Living podcast, I'll be delving into
– The concept of power rituals & how they can be used to reduce daily stress & overwhelm.
– How to use Power Rituals to increase focus, productivity & happiness, so that can get the very most out of each day.
– Dive into how a morning routine can kickstart your energy levels and set your day up with positive momentum.
– Learn about evening rituals that focus on winding down and preparing for tranquility, providing closure to the day and promoting relaxation.
– How incorporating power rituals intro your daily routine can improve performance, efficiency, productivity, and happiness and the pursuit of a balanced life.
SHOW LINKS:
– Free Online Training on Meditation (IMPORTANT NOTE: Enter the code: SLLOFFER at checkout to enrol for free): https://mind-school.newzenler.com/courses/chaos-to-calm-finding-inner-peace-in-your-working-life-through-meditation?
– Watch Amy Cuddy's Ted Talk on Power Poses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phcDQ0H_LnY
Mind School Website: For more free content, check out my website: https://www.mindschool.net/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The word ritual originally came from religion. Apparently the first time the
term was used was way back in the 16th century in England and it meant the prescribed
order of performing religious services.
So the purpose of it was to provide a set of instructions that help people connect
with God or some kind of higher power.
Now in this episode of the Stress Less Living podcast we're not going to be
(00:23):
looking at how to use rituals for religious means, unless of course you want
to, we're going to be looking at how to use them to become more productive,
more efficient, to lower stress, and ultimately to help you get more of the
things that you want from life.
Hey there and welcome to the Stress Less Living Podcast.
My name is Stephen Burns and I've been a practicing coach, trainer,
(00:46):
and hypnotherapist for 25 years.
And one of my big passions is to help busy working professionals like you create
more more calm and balanced in your life through mindset, meditation and mindfulness.
Each week I'll share easily digestible, bite-sized ideas that you can immediately
put into practice so that you can live a more harmonious and balanced life.
(01:07):
On this podcast you can expect mindset advice, strategies for dealing with big
modern day problems like stress, overwhelm, burnout, perfectionism and procrastination
and also insights into tools like meditation and mindfulness.
So if you're looking for the perfect antidote for the chaos of modern life,
my friend, you are absolutely in the right place.
(01:27):
So let's get started. And today we're going to be taking a look at how to use
power rituals to reduce stress and increase productivity and effectiveness.
Because we live in a world where multiple sources are vying for our attention all at the one time.
So it does become difficult to concentrate, to
get high quality of work done and to focus
(01:49):
on the things that really matter so we
have to have a way that allows us to become more focused less distracted and
overwhelmed so that we can live a more stressless and fulfilling life so first
of all what actually is a ritual well it's something that we do regularly that
eventually becomes a habit.
(02:10):
And when something becomes a habit, it becomes automatic and we don't have to think about it.
And what I'd like to talk about in today's episode is I want to take a look
at two different types of rituals and they're both as important as each other.
We're going to look at morning rituals and evening rituals.
And the reason why I call these power rituals is because they empower you.
(02:34):
They take you into a good place so that you can focus, concentrate,
get high quality of work done and And as is the case with evening rituals,
allow you to smoothly go from work mode into free time mode at the end of your day.
So before we get to that, though, I'd like to just back up a little bit and
take a look at why morning and evening rituals are so important.
(02:56):
And there's lots of reasons, but the main reason is because of a psychological
principle called priming.
So priming is the idea that whatever you do in the run-up before an event will
carry over into the event itself So a classic example,
say you've had a stressful day at work Usually the stress doesn't end the second
(03:18):
that you clock out of your work or your office,
wherever you do what you do It usually carries over into your evening and it
could potentially negatively affect your personal life Maybe you come home stressed,
you can't really concentrate,
you struggle to sleep or you have an argument with your partner because you're
in a bad mood. Something like that.
To give you a funny example of this, so around about seven years ago,
(03:42):
my dad manipulated me into starting running.
So just to give you some context, my dad is a very good runner.
He's in his 70s, but he still runs many miles during the week.
And to paint a picture for you so seven years
ago this was Christmas Eve and we'd had a few glasses
of wine we were a little bit tipsy but we were
(04:03):
we were in the mood it was it was feeling pretty good and my dad suddenly started
to get a little bit emotional and he said to me son this coming year it's my
65th birthday I'm going to be running this race in the local town it's a 10k
race I would love it if you, my son,
I'm exaggerating for artistic effect here of course, but I would love it if
(04:25):
you could run this race with me on my 65th birthday.
Now at the time I didn't really think too much about that, but then the next
day on Christmas Day, have a guess what he bought me for a Christmas present.
I'm sure you've probably guessed it, it was an expensive pair of running shoes.
So in that moment I had to start running, he had basically boxed me in and the
(04:47):
reason why it was so powerful was because he had primed me.
If he'd have just bought me a pair of running shoes it would be totally random,
I wouldn't understand why he did that.
But because he had that conversation with me the evening before then it did
have an effect on me and guess what, I started running and it was actually a
really good decision as well.
But this is an example of priming. If you watch stand-up comedians,
(05:11):
they also do something similar.
What makes a joke funny is actually not really the punchline,
it's the setup. It's what they do prior to the punchline.
So this is priming. And to go back to morning and evening rituals,
the reason why they're so important is because you're using them to prime your
mind and body for greater success, more productivity,
(05:33):
more focus, more happiness, and well-being.
So with morning rituals, what you're essentially looking to do if we start there
is you're looking to prime yourself to get the most out of your day.
Because a lot of the time when we get stressed, especially if we wake up stressed,
we can allow ourselves to get pulled into the chaos of day-to-day life.
(05:54):
And often what we do is we blame the outside world, don't we? Or we often do.
We blame our job or our boss or our partner or our lack of time or whatever.
And And hey, the world does have a case to answer for, there's no doubt about it.
But a lot of the time, when we get into a good mental state first,
we become a lot less susceptible to that chaos.
(06:15):
It's kind of like we become the eye within the storm, we just become much more
focused, much more calm, and we tend to focus on the things that really matter to us.
With evening rituals though, it's all about priming yourself so that you can
enjoy your downtime more, so that you can switch effortlessly from work mode into free time mode.
(06:37):
So many people struggle to switch off. I don't know if you're the same.
It's one of the big challenges that many people have, especially with work-life balance.
They just don't know how to switch their mind off at the end of the day.
They bring too much of the day into the evening.
So by doing an evening ritual, you're priming your mind and body for relaxation.
(06:59):
To disconnect so that you can be present, enjoy your evening,
whatever it is that you're doing.
So that's the main reason why you want
to include rituals in your life there is another reason though and
that is that it creates efficiency and i alluded to
this earlier on in the podcast that anytime you ritualize
something and you do over and over again it becomes a habit doesn't it something
(07:23):
that we do automatically and anything we do automatically will be much more
efficient in comparison to trying to think out all the steps before you do them
each time you do it And that's the whole point of habits, isn't it? To create efficiency.
Just imagine you had to plan out every conscious thing that you did in your
world, like eating or walking or talking.
(07:45):
It would be exhausting, wouldn't it? You wouldn't be able to function.
So we need to be able to put things into autopilot so that we can free up our
mind, our body, our energy to focus on other things.
And that is essentially what you're doing when you're creating these effective
power rituals. And the third and final reason why it's important to have morning
(08:06):
and evening rituals is that it creates consistency.
So consistency, let's be honest here, is one of these really annoying keys to
success in pretty much any walk of life.
When we create good habits, good rituals, what we're doing is we're actually
creating strategies that allow us to be consistent.
Consistent so if you have a way of getting yourself energized
(08:30):
and focused in the morning and if you have a
way of allowing yourself to you know switch from
work mode to free time mode in the evening and you don't have to think about
it much then you can get into that good place like i said really quickly and
efficiently but you can do consistently every day potentially of your life so
it kind of becomes like a positive trigger for you i think there's a lot of
(08:53):
talk about negative negative triggers,
what we're doing here is you're setting up a positive trigger.
So you're a busy person, you have a demanding job or a hectic lifestyle,
and you've heard that meditation is a great way to reduce stress and create
calm within the chaos that is your life.
But you've tried meditation a few times, maybe with an app or from a book or
(09:15):
a YouTube video, and it's just not really worked for you.
And you've maybe jumped to the conclusion that meditation isn't for you.
If that's the case, I just want to say that it's most likely not your fault.
A lot of the time when meditation doesn't really work that well,
it's because you're missing a couple of key steps.
And if you want to learn what those key steps are and some of the fundamentals
(09:37):
of meditation, then I have a free video training that you can enroll on.
If you want to check that out, I've included a link to it in the show notes
and all the information that you need.
So let's get down to the nitty-gritty
the how-to when it comes to creating morning and
evening rituals so let's take each of them one
by one because they both have different purposes so first
(09:59):
of all let's look at morning rituals so if you recall they are designed to prime
your mind and body so that you can get the very most out of your day so i'm
not going to sit here and tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing for
your morning ritual but however you do it you you want it to include two different elements.
First of all, it should create energy and secondly, it should create focus.
(10:23):
So it doesn't matter what you do in your rituals. You can do a silly dance if
you like, if that works for you.
If it includes both of these elements, then it's going to work pretty well.
So first of all, energy. You want to feel energised so that that then carries
over into your working day.
I don't know about you, but I don't always bounce out of bed and feel totally
(10:44):
energised first thing. In fact, if I'm being honest, most of the time it's the opposite.
So if I don't do something to
get myself energised, then that sluggishness tends to creep into my day.
I'm much less effective and I'm much more likely to get pulled into the stresses and strains of life.
So what I do is I have a process. I have a morning ritual.
(11:07):
So mine, I'm sure yours is going to be different, but I get up and then I go upstairs.
I live in an upside down house. I grab a
green juice so this is like a powder format so it's
like super healthy I put a slice of lemon in
it and I take it down to the shower and I drink that while
I'm in the shower I know it sounds weird please don't judge
me then at the end of the shower what I'll do is
(11:29):
I'll turn the dial to freezing cold for at least 60 seconds so this is taken
from the Wim Hof methods you know crazy Dutch yogi if you want to do that please
research it please do that safe But what it does do is it starts to kick in
my energy cells. It starts to wake me up.
Then I'll go upstairs, I'll have my breakfast, and then I'll do a very quick physical practice.
(11:53):
This might sound like it takes a long time, but it doesn't. It literally only
takes about five minutes.
So what I do is I engage in something called a power pose.
Now this is going to sound weird but please stick with me. So this is taken
from the work of Amy Cuddy.
So she has an amazing TED talk, I think it's called Power Poses but I will link to it in the show notes.
(12:15):
And what she says is that if you stand in a certain posture using your physiology
then you'll begin to activate different chemicals inside your body.
It will have a positive effect on your neurology and
one of the poses that she suggests is the
superman or the superwoman pose so this
is just like you are superman or superwoman you
(12:37):
have you know your hands rested on your hips and
you're standing in a very powerful position if you want to do a google search
for the image then check it out and if you stand in a position like this for
around about five minutes you'll start to feel more energized you'll actually
start to feel more powerful and confident too So I actually even take this to another level.
(12:59):
I walk back and forward in my living room in this really powerful pose for around about five minutes.
Again, I know it sounds super weird, but I close the blinds. No one can see.
If you do this, just make sure that your neighbours don't peer in and wonder what you're up to.
After those five minutes, I'm starting to feel really, really good,
(13:19):
super energized and ready for my day.
And that's when I then move on to the second part of a morning ritual,
and that is creating focus.
So this is where I look to set an intention for the day.
If you don't do this, then it can be super easy to get pulled into all of the
multiple different distractions that are vying for your attention at any given point in time.
(13:42):
WhatsApp messages, text messages, emails, you know, social media influencers,
apps, you name it, the list goes on and on.
So what I do is, now I usually have a to-do list written the night before.
You don't have to do this with a to-do list, but that's just the way that it
works for me. I also have one at the start of the week.
But the question I ask myself when I'm setting an intention to create focus is this one here.
(14:05):
What is the most important thing or
things that I need to progress today and that
then just allows me to focus in on the most important areas that I need to concentrate
on like I said if I don't do that I'm just going to get pulled into the hurricane
of modern life like some sort of you know powerless fragment so what this does
(14:27):
is it just brings your goals a little bit more to the the forefront.
And another question I like to ask is, why is this important?
And this is important because when you ask why, you start to tap into the motivation
behind your goals or the motivation behind the tasks that you're looking to complete.
And that gives you fuel, that gives you energy.
(14:47):
So again, it fits in quite nicely to that first step of the morning ritual where
you're looking to create energy.
And then I'll just take a few moments just to think about these inside my my imagination.
It doesn't have to be anything big. Sometimes I'll even do it when I'm driving down to my office.
And by the time I get to my office, I'm just fully focused, energised,
(15:08):
and I'm good to go. So that's the morning ritual.
How do you then do an evening ritual?
Well, if you recall, the evening ritual serves a different purpose.
The morning one is about creating energy and focus.
The evening one, though, is about the opposite energy.
It's more more about letting go. So again, there are two things that you want
to include in your evening ritual, however you want to do it.
(15:31):
The first is you want to use it to create closure for your day.
You're looking to disconnect. You don't want to be thinking about all of the
various different projects that you're involved in, all of the emails and the
unfinished tasks when you're in your evening activities.
You want to just leave all that behind so that you can enjoy your free time.
(15:51):
And the second thing you're looking to do is you're looking to create relaxation
and a feeling of letting go so that you can enjoy your downtime and get that
high quality rest you need.
So how do you do that? well for me what I
do is I have a closing down ritual at the
end of the day so I'll spend maybe 15 or 20
minutes just addressing any emails that I maybe missed during
(16:13):
the day then I'll close down all of the files on my macbook and then what I
do is I'll make a list of tasks and projects that are ongoing so things that
I am progressing but I've not yet completed and then I'll also make a list of
tasks that I have completed during
that day and then what I'll do is I'll look at the first first list,
the tasks that are ongoing but not yet completed,
(16:35):
and I'll acknowledge the progress that I've made, the milestones that I've reached.
And what this does is it just kind of gives you a mini sense of closure.
You're not going to close the task off completely because it's still ongoing,
but it just makes you feel like you have progressed so that you don't have these
open loops or open thoughts floating about inside your mind.
(16:56):
And then I'll take a look at the other list, the tasks that have been complete
and I'll acknowledge the sense of completion.
This is really important. Usually when we keep
on thinking about our day when we go into the evening it's because we feel like
something is incomplete and when we have an open loop like that it kind of drives
the brain a little bit nuts and it tries to complete it by providing us with
(17:20):
ruminating thoughts so that we can create that sense of closure.
It's basically what's called the Netflix effect.
You know when you watch a box set on Netflix and they always finish with a cliffhanger.
What they're doing there is
they're opening up a loop and it makes you think about the next episode.
Could be. So it's kind of the same thing. So we have to close down the loops inside our mind.
(17:40):
So acknowledge the progress, the milestones we've reached, and also the sense
of completion in the tasks that have been finished.
So that's one part that I do at the end of the day.
And again, it sounds like this might take a long time, but trust me, it doesn't.
You can get it down to five to 10 minutes if you're very quick with this.
The second thing I like to do, and I don't always do this every night but I
(18:03):
try to do it as much as I possibly can and that is meditation.
Meditation is one of my favourite ways to let go of the stresses of the day
but also to enhance things like focus, concentration and overall levels of happiness.
Now if you don't know how to meditate or you'd like a little bit of help with
this then I do have a free audio meditation called Banish Stress.
(18:25):
I'll include a link to that in the show notes. It's completely free for podcast listeners.
You can check that out if you like. But other forms of relaxation could involve exercise.
I know some people like to use exercise to energize themselves and they do it
in the morning at like 6am.
That doesn't work for me. For me, exercise is more of a relaxing activity.
(18:46):
So I would do that more as a closing down ritual. But whatever works for you.
Other things you can do is go for a walk in nature.
Maybe you do a forest bath or maybe Maybe you just go and socialise with friends
if you're more of an extrovert.
Or maybe you like to dance. I like to do Latin dancing.
I love to go to a dance class at the end of the day. It helps me let go,
(19:07):
disconnect, and it's a lovely way to bookend my day.
So that's how you do evening rituals. You want it to include two things,
create closure, and secondly, some form of relaxation.
And again, however you do it is entirely up to you, but you want it to include
these two elements. So there you have it, how to use power rituals to get the
(19:27):
very most out of your day. Let's do a quick recap.
So first of all, the reason why you want to have power rituals in your life
is it helps you prime yourself for better performance.
But also what it does is it creates efficiency.
Anytime we habitualize something, then it becomes second nature.
It becomes something automatic, something we just do.
(19:50):
And thirdly, it also helps you create consistency.
It's one of these annoying keys to life, we have to consistently perform up
to a certain level in order to accomplish any goal that's meaningful.
So what you're doing with rituals is you're creating strategies that allow you
to create consistent results.
And what you're looking to do
is you're looking to include two different types of rituals in your life.
(20:14):
First of all, the power morning ritual.
And that's all about creating energy and focus.
And secondly, you also want to have an evening ritual as well.
And this is about aiming a different type of energy
at your experience of life it's about creating
closure and also producing relaxation so
however you do both of these you can do it in your own way of course I recommend
(20:37):
that but you want it to include these elements you won't go wrong if you do
so that's how to incorporate power rituals into your day if you've enjoyed this
episode I would love it if you could leave me a review and also click follow
or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
It really does help. So thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.
The word ritual originally came from religion. Apparently the first time the
term was used was way back in the 16th century in England and it meant the prescribed
order of performing religious services.
So the purpose of it was to provide a set of instructions that help people connect
with God or some kind of higher power.
Now in this episode of the Stress Less Living podcast we're not going to be
(00:23):
looking at how to use rituals for religious means, unless of course you want
to, we're going to be looking at how to use them to become more productive,
more efficient, to lower stress, and ultimately to help you get more of the
things that you want from life.
Hey there and welcome to the Stress Less Living Podcast.
My name is Stephen Burns and I've been a practicing coach, trainer,
(00:46):
and hypnotherapist for 25 years.
And one of my big passions is to help busy working professionals like you create
more more calm and balanced in your life through mindset, meditation and mindfulness.
Each week I'll share easily digestible, bite-sized ideas that you can immediately
put into practice so that you can live a more harmonious and balanced life.
(01:07):
On this podcast you can expect mindset advice, strategies for dealing with big
modern day problems like stress, overwhelm, burnout, perfectionism and procrastination
and also insights into tools like meditation and mindfulness.
So if you're looking for the perfect antidote for the chaos of modern life,
my friend, you are absolutely in the right place.
(01:27):
So let's get started. And today we're going to be taking a look at how to use
power rituals to reduce stress and increase productivity and effectiveness.
Because we live in a world where multiple sources are vying for our attention all at the one time.
So it does become difficult to concentrate, to
get high quality of work done and to focus
(01:49):
on the things that really matter so we
have to have a way that allows us to become more focused less distracted and
overwhelmed so that we can live a more stressless and fulfilling life so first
of all what actually is a ritual well it's something that we do regularly that
eventually becomes a habit.
(02:10):
And when something becomes a habit, it becomes automatic and we don't have to think about it.
And what I'd like to talk about in today's episode is I want to take a look
at two different types of rituals and they're both as important as each other.
We're going to look at morning rituals and evening rituals.
And the reason why I call these power rituals is because they empower you.
(02:34):
They take you into a good place so that you can focus, concentrate,
get high quality of work done and And as is the case with evening rituals,
allow you to smoothly go from work mode into free time mode at the end of your day.
So before we get to that, though, I'd like to just back up a little bit and
take a look at why morning and evening rituals are so important.
(02:56):
And there's lots of reasons, but the main reason is because of a psychological
principle called priming.
So priming is the idea that whatever you do in the run-up before an event will
carry over into the event itself So a classic example,
say you've had a stressful day at work Usually the stress doesn't end the second
(03:18):
that you clock out of your work or your office,
wherever you do what you do It usually carries over into your evening and it
could potentially negatively affect your personal life Maybe you come home stressed,
you can't really concentrate,
you struggle to sleep or you have an argument with your partner because you're
in a bad mood. Something like that.
To give you a funny example of this, so around about seven years ago,
(03:42):
my dad manipulated me into starting running.
So just to give you some context, my dad is a very good runner.
He's in his 70s, but he still runs many miles during the week.
And to paint a picture for you so seven years
ago this was Christmas Eve and we'd had a few glasses
of wine we were a little bit tipsy but we were
(04:03):
we were in the mood it was it was feeling pretty good and my dad suddenly started
to get a little bit emotional and he said to me son this coming year it's my
65th birthday I'm going to be running this race in the local town it's a 10k
race I would love it if you, my son,
I'm exaggerating for artistic effect here of course, but I would love it if
(04:25):
you could run this race with me on my 65th birthday.
Now at the time I didn't really think too much about that, but then the next
day on Christmas Day, have a guess what he bought me for a Christmas present.
I'm sure you've probably guessed it, it was an expensive pair of running shoes.
So in that moment I had to start running, he had basically boxed me in and the
(04:47):
reason why it was so powerful was because he had primed me.
If he'd have just bought me a pair of running shoes it would be totally random,
I wouldn't understand why he did that.
But because he had that conversation with me the evening before then it did
have an effect on me and guess what, I started running and it was actually a
really good decision as well.
But this is an example of priming. If you watch stand-up comedians,
(05:11):
they also do something similar.
What makes a joke funny is actually not really the punchline,
it's the setup. It's what they do prior to the punchline.
So this is priming. And to go back to morning and evening rituals,
the reason why they're so important is because you're using them to prime your
mind and body for greater success, more productivity,
(05:33):
more focus, more happiness, and well-being.
So with morning rituals, what you're essentially looking to do if we start there
is you're looking to prime yourself to get the most out of your day.
Because a lot of the time when we get stressed, especially if we wake up stressed,
we can allow ourselves to get pulled into the chaos of day-to-day life.
(05:54):
And often what we do is we blame the outside world, don't we? Or we often do.
We blame our job or our boss or our partner or our lack of time or whatever.
And And hey, the world does have a case to answer for, there's no doubt about it.
But a lot of the time, when we get into a good mental state first,
we become a lot less susceptible to that chaos.
(06:15):
It's kind of like we become the eye within the storm, we just become much more
focused, much more calm, and we tend to focus on the things that really matter to us.
With evening rituals though, it's all about priming yourself so that you can
enjoy your downtime more, so that you can switch effortlessly from work mode into free time mode.
(06:37):
So many people struggle to switch off. I don't know if you're the same.
It's one of the big challenges that many people have, especially with work-life balance.
They just don't know how to switch their mind off at the end of the day.
They bring too much of the day into the evening.
So by doing an evening ritual, you're priming your mind and body for relaxation.
(06:59):
To disconnect so that you can be present, enjoy your evening,
whatever it is that you're doing.
So that's the main reason why you want
to include rituals in your life there is another reason though and
that is that it creates efficiency and i alluded to
this earlier on in the podcast that anytime you ritualize
something and you do over and over again it becomes a habit doesn't it something
(07:23):
that we do automatically and anything we do automatically will be much more
efficient in comparison to trying to think out all the steps before you do them
each time you do it And that's the whole point of habits, isn't it? To create efficiency.
Just imagine you had to plan out every conscious thing that you did in your
world, like eating or walking or talking.
(07:45):
It would be exhausting, wouldn't it? You wouldn't be able to function.
So we need to be able to put things into autopilot so that we can free up our
mind, our body, our energy to focus on other things.
And that is essentially what you're doing when you're creating these effective
power rituals. And the third and final reason why it's important to have morning
(08:06):
and evening rituals is that it creates consistency.
So consistency, let's be honest here, is one of these really annoying keys to
success in pretty much any walk of life.
When we create good habits, good rituals, what we're doing is we're actually
creating strategies that allow us to be consistent.
Consistent so if you have a way of getting yourself energized
(08:30):
and focused in the morning and if you have a
way of allowing yourself to you know switch from
work mode to free time mode in the evening and you don't have to think about
it much then you can get into that good place like i said really quickly and
efficiently but you can do consistently every day potentially of your life so
it kind of becomes like a positive trigger for you i think there's a lot of
(08:53):
talk about negative negative triggers,
what we're doing here is you're setting up a positive trigger.
So you're a busy person, you have a demanding job or a hectic lifestyle,
and you've heard that meditation is a great way to reduce stress and create
calm within the chaos that is your life.
But you've tried meditation a few times, maybe with an app or from a book or
(09:15):
a YouTube video, and it's just not really worked for you.
And you've maybe jumped to the conclusion that meditation isn't for you.
If that's the case, I just want to say that it's most likely not your fault.
A lot of the time when meditation doesn't really work that well,
it's because you're missing a couple of key steps.
And if you want to learn what those key steps are and some of the fundamentals
(09:37):
of meditation, then I have a free video training that you can enroll on.
If you want to check that out, I've included a link to it in the show notes
and all the information that you need.
So let's get down to the nitty-gritty
the how-to when it comes to creating morning and
evening rituals so let's take each of them one
by one because they both have different purposes so first
(09:59):
of all let's look at morning rituals so if you recall they are designed to prime
your mind and body so that you can get the very most out of your day so i'm
not going to sit here and tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing for
your morning ritual but however you do it you you want it to include two different elements.
First of all, it should create energy and secondly, it should create focus.
(10:23):
So it doesn't matter what you do in your rituals. You can do a silly dance if
you like, if that works for you.
If it includes both of these elements, then it's going to work pretty well.
So first of all, energy. You want to feel energised so that that then carries
over into your working day.
I don't know about you, but I don't always bounce out of bed and feel totally
(10:44):
energised first thing. In fact, if I'm being honest, most of the time it's the opposite.
So if I don't do something to
get myself energised, then that sluggishness tends to creep into my day.
I'm much less effective and I'm much more likely to get pulled into the stresses and strains of life.
So what I do is I have a process. I have a morning ritual.
(11:07):
So mine, I'm sure yours is going to be different, but I get up and then I go upstairs.
I live in an upside down house. I grab a
green juice so this is like a powder format so it's
like super healthy I put a slice of lemon in
it and I take it down to the shower and I drink that while
I'm in the shower I know it sounds weird please don't judge
me then at the end of the shower what I'll do is
(11:29):
I'll turn the dial to freezing cold for at least 60 seconds so this is taken
from the Wim Hof methods you know crazy Dutch yogi if you want to do that please
research it please do that safe But what it does do is it starts to kick in
my energy cells. It starts to wake me up.
Then I'll go upstairs, I'll have my breakfast, and then I'll do a very quick physical practice.
(11:53):
This might sound like it takes a long time, but it doesn't. It literally only
takes about five minutes.
So what I do is I engage in something called a power pose.
Now this is going to sound weird but please stick with me. So this is taken
from the work of Amy Cuddy.
So she has an amazing TED talk, I think it's called Power Poses but I will link to it in the show notes.
(12:15):
And what she says is that if you stand in a certain posture using your physiology
then you'll begin to activate different chemicals inside your body.
It will have a positive effect on your neurology and
one of the poses that she suggests is the
superman or the superwoman pose so this
is just like you are superman or superwoman you
(12:37):
have you know your hands rested on your hips and
you're standing in a very powerful position if you want to do a google search
for the image then check it out and if you stand in a position like this for
around about five minutes you'll start to feel more energized you'll actually
start to feel more powerful and confident too So I actually even take this to another level.
(12:59):
I walk back and forward in my living room in this really powerful pose for around about five minutes.
Again, I know it sounds super weird, but I close the blinds. No one can see.
If you do this, just make sure that your neighbours don't peer in and wonder what you're up to.
After those five minutes, I'm starting to feel really, really good,
(13:19):
super energized and ready for my day.
And that's when I then move on to the second part of a morning ritual,
and that is creating focus.
So this is where I look to set an intention for the day.
If you don't do this, then it can be super easy to get pulled into all of the
multiple different distractions that are vying for your attention at any given point in time.
(13:42):
WhatsApp messages, text messages, emails, you know, social media influencers,
apps, you name it, the list goes on and on.
So what I do is, now I usually have a to-do list written the night before.
You don't have to do this with a to-do list, but that's just the way that it
works for me. I also have one at the start of the week.
But the question I ask myself when I'm setting an intention to create focus is this one here.
(14:05):
What is the most important thing or
things that I need to progress today and that
then just allows me to focus in on the most important areas that I need to concentrate
on like I said if I don't do that I'm just going to get pulled into the hurricane
of modern life like some sort of you know powerless fragment so what this does
(14:27):
is it just brings your goals a little bit more to the the forefront.
And another question I like to ask is, why is this important?
And this is important because when you ask why, you start to tap into the motivation
behind your goals or the motivation behind the tasks that you're looking to complete.
And that gives you fuel, that gives you energy.
(14:47):
So again, it fits in quite nicely to that first step of the morning ritual where
you're looking to create energy.
And then I'll just take a few moments just to think about these inside my my imagination.
It doesn't have to be anything big. Sometimes I'll even do it when I'm driving down to my office.
And by the time I get to my office, I'm just fully focused, energised,
(15:08):
and I'm good to go. So that's the morning ritual.
How do you then do an evening ritual?
Well, if you recall, the evening ritual serves a different purpose.
The morning one is about creating energy and focus.
The evening one, though, is about the opposite energy.
It's more more about letting go. So again, there are two things that you want
to include in your evening ritual, however you want to do it.
(15:31):
The first is you want to use it to create closure for your day.
You're looking to disconnect. You don't want to be thinking about all of the
various different projects that you're involved in, all of the emails and the
unfinished tasks when you're in your evening activities.
You want to just leave all that behind so that you can enjoy your free time.
(15:51):
And the second thing you're looking to do is you're looking to create relaxation
and a feeling of letting go so that you can enjoy your downtime and get that
high quality rest you need.
So how do you do that? well for me what I
do is I have a closing down ritual at the
end of the day so I'll spend maybe 15 or 20
minutes just addressing any emails that I maybe missed during
(16:13):
the day then I'll close down all of the files on my macbook and then what I
do is I'll make a list of tasks and projects that are ongoing so things that
I am progressing but I've not yet completed and then I'll also make a list of
tasks that I have completed during
that day and then what I'll do is I'll look at the first first list,
the tasks that are ongoing but not yet completed,
(16:35):
and I'll acknowledge the progress that I've made, the milestones that I've reached.
And what this does is it just kind of gives you a mini sense of closure.
You're not going to close the task off completely because it's still ongoing,
but it just makes you feel like you have progressed so that you don't have these
open loops or open thoughts floating about inside your mind.
(16:56):
And then I'll take a look at the other list, the tasks that have been complete
and I'll acknowledge the sense of completion.
This is really important. Usually when we keep
on thinking about our day when we go into the evening it's because we feel like
something is incomplete and when we have an open loop like that it kind of drives
the brain a little bit nuts and it tries to complete it by providing us with
(17:20):
ruminating thoughts so that we can create that sense of closure.
It's basically what's called the Netflix effect.
You know when you watch a box set on Netflix and they always finish with a cliffhanger.
What they're doing there is
they're opening up a loop and it makes you think about the next episode.
Could be. So it's kind of the same thing. So we have to close down the loops inside our mind.
(17:40):
So acknowledge the progress, the milestones we've reached, and also the sense
of completion in the tasks that have been finished.
So that's one part that I do at the end of the day.
And again, it sounds like this might take a long time, but trust me, it doesn't.
You can get it down to five to 10 minutes if you're very quick with this.
The second thing I like to do, and I don't always do this every night but I
(18:03):
try to do it as much as I possibly can and that is meditation.
Meditation is one of my favourite ways to let go of the stresses of the day
but also to enhance things like focus, concentration and overall levels of happiness.
Now if you don't know how to meditate or you'd like a little bit of help with
this then I do have a free audio meditation called Banish Stress.
(18:25):
I'll include a link to that in the show notes. It's completely free for podcast listeners.
You can check that out if you like. But other forms of relaxation could involve exercise.
I know some people like to use exercise to energize themselves and they do it
in the morning at like 6am.
That doesn't work for me. For me, exercise is more of a relaxing activity.
(18:46):
So I would do that more as a closing down ritual. But whatever works for you.
Other things you can do is go for a walk in nature.
Maybe you do a forest bath or maybe Maybe you just go and socialise with friends
if you're more of an extrovert.
Or maybe you like to dance. I like to do Latin dancing.
I love to go to a dance class at the end of the day. It helps me let go,
(19:07):
disconnect, and it's a lovely way to bookend my day.
So that's how you do evening rituals. You want it to include two things,
create closure, and secondly, some form of relaxation.
And again, however you do it is entirely up to you, but you want it to include
these two elements. So there you have it, how to use power rituals to get the
(19:27):
very most out of your day. Let's do a quick recap.
So first of all, the reason why you want to have power rituals in your life
is it helps you prime yourself for better performance.
But also what it does is it creates efficiency.
Anytime we habitualize something, then it becomes second nature.
It becomes something automatic, something we just do.
(19:50):
And thirdly, it also helps you create consistency.
It's one of these annoying keys to life, we have to consistently perform up
to a certain level in order to accomplish any goal that's meaningful.
So what you're doing with rituals is you're creating strategies that allow you
to create consistent results.
And what you're looking to do
is you're looking to include two different types of rituals in your life.
(20:14):
First of all, the power morning ritual.
And that's all about creating energy and focus.
And secondly, you also want to have an evening ritual as well.
And this is about aiming a different type of energy
at your experience of life it's about creating
closure and also producing relaxation so
however you do both of these you can do it in your own way of course I recommend
(20:37):
that but you want it to include these elements you won't go wrong if you do
so that's how to incorporate power rituals into your day if you've enjoyed this
episode I would love it if you could leave me a review and also click follow
or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
It really does help. So thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.
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