There are certain things we do so often that we hardly think about them anymore. We make the coffee, wash our face, brush our hair, take a shower, get dressed, and straighten the kitchen before bed. They are simply part of the rhythm of our days.
But every once in a while, one of those ordinary things becomes something a little more meaningful. Maybe it's the way you make your coffee before the rest of the house wakes up, sitting on the porch for a few quiet minutes at the end of the day, or washing your face slowly instead of rushing through it because, for those few minutes, you've decided to give yourself a little attention.
That's where I think the difference between a routine and a ritual begins, and lately, I've been thinking a lot about that difference.
A Routine Gets the Job Done. A Ritual Gives It Meaning.
A routine is familiar. It's something we do regularly, often because it needs to be done. A ritual can look almost exactly the same on the outside, but there's something different happening underneath it: intention and meaning.
Psychologists who study routines and rituals have described routines as actions centered around what needs to be done, while rituals carry additional meaning and emotional significance. In other words, a routine can simply be a repeated behavior, while a ritual is a repeated behavior that means something to us.
Think about dinner. Eating dinner because you're hungry is part of a routine. Sitting down around the table, lighting a candle, saying grace, talking about your day, and enjoying that time together can turn that same meal into a ritual. The food hasn't changed; the meaning we've attached to the experience has.
I think we can bring that same idea into the way we care for ourselves.
Your Skincare Routine Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
The beauty industry has a funny way of making us feel like we're always missing a step. There's another product we should try, another ingredient we need to add, another trend we should understand, and another routine that promises to give us better results.
But I'm not convinced that more is always better.
Sometimes we can become so focused on doing skincare "correctly" that we forget to actually enjoy taking care of ourselves. Your skincare doesn't need twelve products lined up on the bathroom counter for it to be worthwhile. You might simply wash your face, mist your skin with a botanical toner, and massage in a little facial oil.
Those three steps can certainly be part of a routine, but what happens when you stop treating them as three more things to check off your list? What if you take a moment to notice the scent of the botanicals, feel the oil warming between your hands, take a breath, and actually enjoy the process?
Those few minutes aren't going to transform your entire life, and they don't need to. They can simply become a small, intentional moment in your day that belongs to you.
That's the beauty of a simple ritual.
Why Rituals Can Change the Way We Experience Something
There is actually some interesting research behind this idea. In a series of experiments published in Psychological Science, researchers found that people who performed a simple ritual before eating tended to become more engaged in the experience and reported greater enjoyment of the food afterward. Similar effects were observed across several different foods, including chocolate, lemonade, and carrots.
Now, that doesn't mean performing a ritual is going to magically make your skincare work better. That's not what the research shows, and it's not what I'm suggesting.
What it does suggest is that the way we approach an experience can influence how we experience it. When we slow down and become more present, something ordinary can feel a little more special.
And I think most of us could use a little more of that.
We spend so much of our days moving from one thing to the next that sometimes we don't even notice the things we're doing. Ritual gives us a reason to notice. It creates a small pause in the middle of all the doing.
The Ritual Doesn't Have to Be Fancy
This is probably my favorite part. A ritual doesn't have to look like a perfectly styled bathroom on Instagram, and it doesn't require expensive products, an hour of uninterrupted time, or a house that is completely quiet. Real life rarely looks like that anyway.
Your ritual might be five minutes before everyone else gets up, or it might be your evening skincare after the kids are in bed. It could be washing your hair on Sunday morning and taking your time with it instead of treating it like another chore. Maybe it's a warm bath with mineral salts, making a cup of tea and sitting down long enough to actually drink it while it's hot, or stepping outside with your coffee before the day gets busy.
For someone else, it might be reading a few pages of a book before bed, spending time in prayer, tending to a garden, or simply sitting quietly at the end of the day.
A ritual doesn't have to look meaningful to someone else. It simply needs to mean something to you.
From Routine to Ritual
Sometimes the difference doesn't require changing what you're doing. It simply requires changing how you approach it.
Instead of thinking, I need to wash my face, you might think, I'm going to take a few minutes to care for my skin. Rather than treating hair care as another chore to hurry through, you might give yourself permission to slow down and enjoy the process. And instead of seeing your skincare as something you need to check off before moving on to the next thing, you can begin to see those few minutes as time you've intentionally set aside for yourself.
The actions haven't necessarily changed. The intention behind them has.
I think that's an important distinction because self-care shouldn't become another obligation we feel guilty about not doing perfectly. Research on self-care similarly emphasizes that meaningful self-care doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive; it needs to be individualized, accessible, and realistic enough to become part of everyday life.
This Is Part of What "Roots in Symmetry" Means to Me
This idea of ritual fits so naturally into what Roots in Symmetry means to me. It's about balance, being intentional about what we bring into our lives, and making thoughtful choices about what we want to carry forward.
It's also about going back to simple things and remembering that they can still be valuable.
That's part of why I love working with botanicals. Plants don't need to be complicated. A rosemary plant is a rosemary plant. A flower is a flower. A seed is a seed. An oil comes from a plant that grew somewhere in the earth, and many of these plants have been part of human traditions for generations.
There is something beautifully grounding about working with ingredients that existed long before we started turning everything into the latest trend. When those ingredients become part of something as ordinary as washing your face or caring for your hair, I think there's an opportunity to slow down and appreciate the process.
Not because skincare is the answer to everything—it isn't—but because how we care for ourselves can be part of how we live our lives.
Maybe We Don't Need More. Maybe We Need to Notice More.
I think that's the part I've been coming back to lately. We're constantly being encouraged to add something: another product, another habit, another goal, another thing to the schedule.
But maybe sometimes the answer isn't adding something at all. Maybe it's taking something we already do and being a little more present while we're doing it.
Maybe the morning coffee can become a moment instead of something we drink while scrolling through our phones. Maybe skincare can become a few quiet minutes instead of another item on the to-do list. Maybe a bath can become a chance to breathe, or dinner can become time around the table with the people we love.
The little things don't have to become bigger to matter. Sometimes we just have to slow down enough to notice them.
Create a Ritual That Belongs to You
So here's my challenge for you this week: don't add another thing to your list. Instead, choose something you're already doing. Something ordinary. Something that happens almost every day.
Then ask yourself whether you could slow down for it a little. Could you be more present? Could you enjoy it instead of simply getting through it? Could this become a small ritual that helps you feel a little more grounded?
Maybe it will be skincare. Maybe it will be your morning coffee, prayer, a walk, cooking dinner, reading, gardening, or sitting outside at the end of the day. Whatever it is, make it yours.
I don't think intentional living is about creating a perfectly balanced life where everything happens exactly the way we planned. I think it's about noticing what matters and making room for it.
And sometimes, that starts with something as simple as a few quiet minutes and a little intention.
That's the kind of ritual I'm interested in: simple enough to fit into real life, meaningful enough that we look forward to it, and rooted in the things that matter to us.
What ordinary part of your day has become a ritual you genuinely look forward to?
