Blog Dis
Ritual vs Routine
2026-02-03
There's a difference between ritual and routine.
Routine is a mindless act that we carry out each day with no forethought or after though, such as when we shower and wash our bodies in the same manner each time — beginning with one arm, next arm, neck, back, torso, private parts, toes and legs. Whereas, a ritual is a prescribed order of actions, a ceremony, if you will, used by many to ground themselves in the here and now, to anchor their thoughts and feelings, and to connect to a higher state of consciousness. For many they'll perform a ritual of protection for all those they hold as dear.
Simply put: You fall into routines vs rituals that you willingly choose to step into.
I have more than routine, perhaps just like you. I begin a work-out at home, the same way, each time by way of beginning with deep stretching exercises. Oh sure. Sometimes I might make up small changes, by way of adding a new stretching technique, or to update one I'm already doing but for the most part my routine and the order of my stretching exercises have remained unchanged. Then, I have my rituals, by comparison, such as when I thank the Universe for my meals, whenever I sit down to eat, to recognize that living in a wealthy continent like North American means our food supply is pretty much guaranteed. This doesn't necessarily mean that the quality of our food is second to none, because it surely isn't top-rated. The North American farming production model is one that relies heavily on pesticides, you could call it their routine of spraying produce while it's still growing in the ground, only to be ripped out of the soil, prior to reaching its ripe stage, to ensure it can be transported via truck without spoiling.
But here is where my simple understanding of routine and ritual melt together. Does eating chocolate on a daily basis constitute a ritual, if it's ingested with great fervor, and reverence, to hold the highest regard for the Aztecs who had introduced this devilish delight to the world? Or, is my chocolate a routine, something I do mindlessly in the mornings to kick-start my brain? Knowingly, I reach for chocolate because my past behavior is the best predictor of my future behavior, and this act of eating chocolate is also one that I can view as a routine. Though, I prefer to think of eating chocolate as my ritual, a ritual that I choose to step into every hour of the day, if I could get away with it. Unfortunately, my body and brain realize that it's not healthy to eat too much of anything, and this includes chocolate.
So, and to answer my own rhetorical question, I shall draw an obvious comparison.
I've tried many times to give up coffee during the week. My experiment fails every bleedin' time. So in frustration, I tried the next best option, to reduce the amount of coffee being consumed, whittling it down to no more than two small espressos, using an espresso-sized thermos, and to ensure that I'd stop drinking coffee before Noon. I succeeded in reducing the amount but this only meant that I was still drinking coffee, only less of it, rather than being able to walk away from the dark, evil bean altogether. My routine of inhaling coffee is entrenched, hard-wired, one could say almost like a ritual, though maybe not precisely so, given that I didn't necessarily choose to step into the ritual of drinking coffee because the habit had begun slowly, unknowingly. I accepted my first part-time job at a delicatessen, when I lied about my age at 15 years, to tell them I was actually 16 years old. It was my manager who offered to buy me my first coffee. Thus began the routine. I'd arrive to work early on the weekends, the shifts that began at a God-awful hour, and coffee was essential in order to function properly at my job, which required serving customers and handling the cash register, at a time when math was required, to subtract the total of groceries from the amount of money being presented to me. Coffee helped a mathematically challenged person like myself to stay on track.
Hint: Counting up is the trick. Take the total cost of your bill and count up, to round it off to the nearest dollar, and then you can easily figure out the balance owed to the client.
Each Sunday eve, my busy-little-bee of a brain is hardwired to toss and turn, while falling asleep, in preparation for the work week. We can all agree that sleep is vital to our brain health, and our mental faculties, and this is the very reason why I introduced a new ritual into my bedtime: to utilize a breathing technique, as a form of meditation, to help me fall fast asleep. I heard about this routine when viewing a video of a Navy Seals instructor speaking about how all Navy seals personnel are taught to fall asleep in less than five minutes. Try it! It works but it takes time to find your rhythm. You breathe in for a count of four, through your nose, then hold your breath for a count of seven (I typically count the number of heartbeats), and you slowly release your breath through pursed lips for a count of eight. You repeat this process four times. Go easy at first, because if you're putting too much energy into breathing in and out, and to do so quickly, you just might make yourself faint. The exercise of using this breathing method will result in your brain being flooded with carbon dioxide, to help you fall asleep quickly, rather than to struggle falling asleep.
Would you regard this breathing technique as a routine, if done with regularity, or as a ritual if you're choosing to step into this routine? I call it my new routine because it is perfunctory to me, rather than ritualistic which has an undertone of reverence and worship, such as my deep love of dark chocolate.
Nor do I view coffee and the partaking of this dark, sinful bean as a ritual. My grandiose plans to take control of this habit had surely failed. Perhaps I would have been more successful if I had developed a ritual around my coffee routine, to weigh one against the other, to enlighten myself on why I cannot break the coffee habit. Coffee is a drug, like so many other addictions we nurture, such as digesting chocolate. For me, however, the elevation of my reverence for chocolate is on a whole different level than coffee. So, even when I stopped drinking coffee, for that brief period of time, I couldn't conceive of giving up my love of dark chocolate, and the ritualistic act of selecting just the right brand of dark chocolate, to satisfy my happiness, if only to indulge in a few squares each day.
Chocolate is a ritual. Chocolate means life is motoring along on its regular course, rather than to hit those speed bumps that send you careening off the road onto the shoulder. We know that women's brains respond differently to chocolate.
Coffee is a routine. Coffee means life is moving along on its regular course, rather than to hit your head on the kitchen cupboard, because your faculties haven't quite woken up, to pay attention to what you're doing.
I thank the Universe for my routines and rituals. When I eat chocolate I thank the Heavens that it still exists. When I drink a freshly brewed espresso I thank God for my warm cup of goodness. And, if you were to ask me: Who and What is God? Well, my chocolate loving, coffee slurping friends, God is gravity, without which there would be nothing held in place on Earth, and this includes chocolate and coffee.
You may take it from here, to arrive at whatever conclusion you wish.
Routine is a mindless act that we carry out each day with no forethought or after though, such as when we shower and wash our bodies in the same manner each time — beginning with one arm, next arm, neck, back, torso, private parts, toes and legs. Whereas, a ritual is a prescribed order of actions, a ceremony, if you will, used by many to ground themselves in the here and now, to anchor their thoughts and feelings, and to connect to a higher state of consciousness. For many they'll perform a ritual of protection for all those they hold as dear.
Simply put: You fall into routines vs rituals that you willingly choose to step into.
I have more than routine, perhaps just like you. I begin a work-out at home, the same way, each time by way of beginning with deep stretching exercises. Oh sure. Sometimes I might make up small changes, by way of adding a new stretching technique, or to update one I'm already doing but for the most part my routine and the order of my stretching exercises have remained unchanged. Then, I have my rituals, by comparison, such as when I thank the Universe for my meals, whenever I sit down to eat, to recognize that living in a wealthy continent like North American means our food supply is pretty much guaranteed. This doesn't necessarily mean that the quality of our food is second to none, because it surely isn't top-rated. The North American farming production model is one that relies heavily on pesticides, you could call it their routine of spraying produce while it's still growing in the ground, only to be ripped out of the soil, prior to reaching its ripe stage, to ensure it can be transported via truck without spoiling.
But here is where my simple understanding of routine and ritual melt together. Does eating chocolate on a daily basis constitute a ritual, if it's ingested with great fervor, and reverence, to hold the highest regard for the Aztecs who had introduced this devilish delight to the world? Or, is my chocolate a routine, something I do mindlessly in the mornings to kick-start my brain? Knowingly, I reach for chocolate because my past behavior is the best predictor of my future behavior, and this act of eating chocolate is also one that I can view as a routine. Though, I prefer to think of eating chocolate as my ritual, a ritual that I choose to step into every hour of the day, if I could get away with it. Unfortunately, my body and brain realize that it's not healthy to eat too much of anything, and this includes chocolate.
So, and to answer my own rhetorical question, I shall draw an obvious comparison.
I've tried many times to give up coffee during the week. My experiment fails every bleedin' time. So in frustration, I tried the next best option, to reduce the amount of coffee being consumed, whittling it down to no more than two small espressos, using an espresso-sized thermos, and to ensure that I'd stop drinking coffee before Noon. I succeeded in reducing the amount but this only meant that I was still drinking coffee, only less of it, rather than being able to walk away from the dark, evil bean altogether. My routine of inhaling coffee is entrenched, hard-wired, one could say almost like a ritual, though maybe not precisely so, given that I didn't necessarily choose to step into the ritual of drinking coffee because the habit had begun slowly, unknowingly. I accepted my first part-time job at a delicatessen, when I lied about my age at 15 years, to tell them I was actually 16 years old. It was my manager who offered to buy me my first coffee. Thus began the routine. I'd arrive to work early on the weekends, the shifts that began at a God-awful hour, and coffee was essential in order to function properly at my job, which required serving customers and handling the cash register, at a time when math was required, to subtract the total of groceries from the amount of money being presented to me. Coffee helped a mathematically challenged person like myself to stay on track.
Hint: Counting up is the trick. Take the total cost of your bill and count up, to round it off to the nearest dollar, and then you can easily figure out the balance owed to the client.
Each Sunday eve, my busy-little-bee of a brain is hardwired to toss and turn, while falling asleep, in preparation for the work week. We can all agree that sleep is vital to our brain health, and our mental faculties, and this is the very reason why I introduced a new ritual into my bedtime: to utilize a breathing technique, as a form of meditation, to help me fall fast asleep. I heard about this routine when viewing a video of a Navy Seals instructor speaking about how all Navy seals personnel are taught to fall asleep in less than five minutes. Try it! It works but it takes time to find your rhythm. You breathe in for a count of four, through your nose, then hold your breath for a count of seven (I typically count the number of heartbeats), and you slowly release your breath through pursed lips for a count of eight. You repeat this process four times. Go easy at first, because if you're putting too much energy into breathing in and out, and to do so quickly, you just might make yourself faint. The exercise of using this breathing method will result in your brain being flooded with carbon dioxide, to help you fall asleep quickly, rather than to struggle falling asleep.
Would you regard this breathing technique as a routine, if done with regularity, or as a ritual if you're choosing to step into this routine? I call it my new routine because it is perfunctory to me, rather than ritualistic which has an undertone of reverence and worship, such as my deep love of dark chocolate.
Nor do I view coffee and the partaking of this dark, sinful bean as a ritual. My grandiose plans to take control of this habit had surely failed. Perhaps I would have been more successful if I had developed a ritual around my coffee routine, to weigh one against the other, to enlighten myself on why I cannot break the coffee habit. Coffee is a drug, like so many other addictions we nurture, such as digesting chocolate. For me, however, the elevation of my reverence for chocolate is on a whole different level than coffee. So, even when I stopped drinking coffee, for that brief period of time, I couldn't conceive of giving up my love of dark chocolate, and the ritualistic act of selecting just the right brand of dark chocolate, to satisfy my happiness, if only to indulge in a few squares each day.
Chocolate is a ritual. Chocolate means life is motoring along on its regular course, rather than to hit those speed bumps that send you careening off the road onto the shoulder. We know that women's brains respond differently to chocolate.
Coffee is a routine. Coffee means life is moving along on its regular course, rather than to hit your head on the kitchen cupboard, because your faculties haven't quite woken up, to pay attention to what you're doing.
I thank the Universe for my routines and rituals. When I eat chocolate I thank the Heavens that it still exists. When I drink a freshly brewed espresso I thank God for my warm cup of goodness. And, if you were to ask me: Who and What is God? Well, my chocolate loving, coffee slurping friends, God is gravity, without which there would be nothing held in place on Earth, and this includes chocolate and coffee.
You may take it from here, to arrive at whatever conclusion you wish.
