my morning ritual stone dial

 

I've been cultivating some variation of a morning ritual since 2015, back when I was an angsty, early 20s-something creative with a 9-5 day job in NYC, waking up feeling imprisoned by an "normal" life I didn't want, and didn't know how to get out of.

in the next nine years of radical and often violent life changes -- through moving countries, relationships, and identities -- my morning ritual has been THE mainstay of my inner and creative practice. following its rhythm is the one thing that has kept me sane, soothed, and in gentle forward motion -- even on days when I felt that I was drowning in my own psychic tsunamis, or on the days when I felt uninspired, bored and lost, like a blind person wandering the desert. my morning ritual -- which consisted of a few wellbeing and creative practices -- has always, without fail, recentered me, and connected me to life source.

 

a structure to hold fluidity and change

I think of a morning ritual as a deeply fluid, evolving structure of practices. my relationship to it has shifted with the years, the seasons, and even over the course of a week. in every major shift, I used to write and re-write the sequence of my morning ritual on a notecard, or in my notebook.

those structures felt too check-boxy, too linear, too constraining. I would follow it for a few days, and then abandon it again. then, a few days or weeks later, I'd do it again -- as if I were trapped on an infinite loop, trying to solve a problem that had no lasting answer. (how can you try to solve an equation where the variables are always changing?) obviously, the reason these systems didn't work is because it didn't account for the most crucial element of any practice: change. flexibility. ongoingness.

 

a few weeks ago, I figured out a modular, tactile system that captures the spirit of how I want to move through my morning ritual. it's a system that much more accurately represents my relationship with time, practice, and process.

I can't believe it took me 9 years to make this. just like my creative immersion card deck -- a life-changing invention for me -- this is a system that's been saving me countless thought/planning loops, and grounding me deeper and deeper, instead, in lived practice.

using the morning ritual stone-dial

I'm calling it a stone-dial, because it serves a similar function to that of a sun-dial, except that instead of moving through time, you move through each practice/processes in your ritual/routine, using stones to track your movement. it feels somewhere between a sundial and an elegant, artful game.

 

why I like this system

  1. tactility - feeling the weight of stones connects me to a lived experience
  2. movable/modular - I can decide to rearrange the order, add or subtract practices
  3. elasticity - I don't specify that a practice takes 5" or 30," which allows me to expand and contract practices according to time
  4. beauty - an opportunity to experience beauty in my day
  5. satisfaction - a pleasureful sense of visual accomplishment after completing my ritual
 

here are the 8 practices in my morning ritual:

  • meditation
  • yoga/run
  • walk luna (my dog)
  • breakfast
  • journaling
  • writing
  • visual
  • ideas

the first five are practices to center and nourish myself, and the order of these practices sometimes changes (if, for example, I wake up late, or feel extremely hungry one morning).

the last three are core creative practices that mark the beginning of my workday.

without this morning ritual, the practices that I'd do no matter what is only two out of eight: eat breakfast + walk luna. I can probably live like that for a week before getting extremely uncentered and grumpy.

using the morning ritual stone-dial

I'm calling it a stone-dial, because it serves a similar function to that of a sun-dial, except that instead of moving through time, you move through each practice/processes in your ritual/routine, using stones to track your movement. it feels somewhere between a sundial and an elegant, artful game.

why I like this system

  1. tactility - feeling the weight of stones connects me to a lived experience
  2. movable/modular - I can decide to rearrange the order, add or subtract practices
  3. elasticity - I don't specify that a practice takes 5" or 30," which allows me to expand and contract practices according to time
  4. aesthetic - an opportunity to experience beauty in my day
  5. satisfaction - a sense of visual accomplishment after completing my ritual

here are the 8 practices in my morning ritual:

  • meditation
  • yoga/run
  • walk luna (my dog)
  • breakfast
  • journaling
  • writing
  • visual
  • ideas

the first five are practices to center and nourish myself, and the order of these practices sometimes changes (if, for example, I wake up late, or feel extremely hungry one morning).

the last three are core creative practices that mark the beginning of my workday.

without this morning ritual, the practices that I'd do no matter what is only two out of eight: eat breakfast + walk luna. I can probably live like that for a week before getting extremely uncentered and grumpy.

if you make this, do send me a picture! I hope it helps you have more fluid, evolving practices.

 
creative practice, wellbeingKening Zhumorning rituals