ADHD and...Daily Rituals

If you search the web for information on how daily rituals can help with your ADHD, you’ll end up with a lot of search results about habits and routines.

Yes, habits and routines are helpful for ADHD brains! But much of the internet is confused, because a daily ritual is NOT the same thing as a habit or routine.

Daily Rituals vs. Habits and Routines

What’s the difference between daily rituals, daily habits, and daily routines?

Routines = structure

Habits = automation

Rituals = meaning

Although they’re different from each other, routines, habits, and rituals can all work together to help you manage and enjoy your days.

For example, let’s look at your morning routine. You probably have a few things you do to get yourself up and moving in the mornings, such as making breakfast, making coffee or tea, and brushing your teeth. The fact that you do those things together most mornings makes it a routine.

Let’s say you also take morning pills. To remember to take them, you put them right next to the coffee maker. Now, every time you make coffee, you automatically grab your pills. This is a habit.

Then, when your coffee is done, instead of bringing it straight to your computer to get to work, you take 5 minutes to mindfully sip your coffee while gazing outside and thinking about your day before any hustle and bustle begins. This is a ritual.

What are daily rituals?

A daily ritual is something you do on purpose, with intention, in order to bring more mindfulness, gratitude, and joy into your life.

It’s not just something that happens because it’s efficient, like a routine.

It’s not something you do on autopilot because you’ve wired it into your brain, like a habit.

Instead, it’s something you do to mark a moment and actually enjoy it.

Rituals can help you transition from one state to another, like:

• asleep → awake

• work mode → home mode

• chaos → calm

• today → tomorrow

The action itself is usually small and the time it takes is short, but the meaning behind it is what makes it so awesome.

Not a ritual: Drinking coffee isn’t a ritual.

A ritual: Drinking coffee while sitting quietly for five minutes and thinking about how you want to show up that day

Not a ritual: Closing your laptop isn’t a ritual.

A ritual: Closing your laptop, writing down tomorrow’s top 3 priorities, and physically saying, “I’m done for today”

A ritual is a deliberate way to enjoy a mindful moment, mark the passing of time, and ground yourself in your day.

Without rituals, you might just rush from one thing to the next and then everything just kind of runs together. And if you have ADHD, you already know how easily that can happen.

Why Daily Rituals Help ADHD Brains

I first heard about the concept of daily rituals for ADHD in a podcast that I’ll link to in the Recs section below.

The whole episode is great in general, and helped me feel better about my lack of resolution setting.

But the one nugget that really stuck with me from the episode was daily rituals. The host suggests one in particular that I decided to try: lighting a candle at night before bed and blowing it out to signify the end of the day.

Sounds simple, right? And maybe even a little woo woo. But here’s why I fell in love with it:

Having an end-of-day ritual where I have a brief reflection about what happened and then let it all go by blowing out a candle has been SO helpful for me in marking the passage of time better.

When you have ADHD, you also tend to have time blindness. Time blindness makes it incredibly hard to grasp the concept of time, understand its passing, and keep tabs on your days.

I found that my days kind of blobbed together, making them just fly by and recede into the recesses of my brain.

But when I light a candle and actually take the time to sit there and think about my day, smile at the good moments, and then say goodbye to it all while looking forward to tomorrow, I feel much more in touch with my days and my life in general.

I also started journaling every morning, even if it’s just a couple of sentences, and I find that just writing the date at the top of the entry helps me think about my day and mark the passing of time in a way that I didn’t before.

Convinced you need to add a few daily rituals into your life? I have some ideas for you 🎉 

Example Daily Rituals

Ready to add a few rituals to your day? Naturally I researched the heck out of daily rituals when I became interested in the concept, so I’ve got a bunch of ideas for you! Pick and choose just one or two to start with and add more slowly, if you want.

1. Wake up and breathe: Before picking up your phone even crosses your mind, gently move yourself into the day. Take a couple of big, deep breaths, yawn, and stretch your whole body. Say to yourself something like “it’s [day of the week] and I’m ready to tackle it.”

2. Journal: Even if you just write the date and one sentence down each day, I swear it helps me feel like my days are actual days, not just a big blob of time. If you journal in the morning, here’s a question you could answer to set yourself up for the day: “What would make today great?”

3. Mindful morning beverage: Instead of pouring your coffee or tea or smoothie or whatever it is you like to drink in the morning and then just jumping right in, take a few minutes (or if you have kids, let’s be honest, 30 seconds tops) to mindfully take the first few sips, maybe even close your eyes, and envision the day going really well.

4. Transition to work: Especially if you work from home, try a quick work transition when you sit down at your desk. Maybe light a candle, start a favorite playlist, take a couple deep breaths, and write down your top 3 goals for the day before even opening the deluge of email and DMs.

5. Mid-day reset: Come up with something you can do to mark mid-day and feel ready for the afternoon. Maybe it’s a quick walk without headphones in, some stretches while your lunch heats up, a couple sun salutations…whatever would help you mark and transition through that time.

Your rituals should be unique to you. They’re for your own mental health, after all! Come up with your own or find inspiration from others.

@grandadjoe1933

Go for a walk they say 🙄 #mentalhealthmatters #humour

ADHD Rec #7: Podcast Episode w/ Rituals