Whats a stupid ritual in your life that makes you happy?
Whats a stupid ritual in your life that makes you happy?
Having coffee, smth sweet and a followup cigarrete in the morning makes me happy to be awake. Or kiss goodbyes and hellos.
Every night when we go to bed, whoever gets up and leaves the living room first gets to wish the other one "good luck with the lamps!". As in, turning off the lights. I have no idea why it started but it's been going on for years and years.
If we're watching a TV show and the last episode of the night is ending the whole atmosphere changes, we get super tense and both start trying to get ready to go without the other noticing and then we'll spring up and run for the door to be the one who doesn't have to have good luck with the lamps. If we were lying snuggling together on the couch, we'll literally wrestle to be first one up. I got him a custom printed mug with it on, and our first lamp is like our relationship mascot. It's just a whole thing.
We are middle-aged marrieds.
I expect one day, hopefully far in the future, as one of us peacefully passes away while the other holds their hand and gazes tearfully into their eyes, regardless of which of us it is their last words will be "good luck with the lamps".
Every morning before I go to the kitchen for breakfast, I call out my bunnies, lie down in my bed, and have them jump on top of my chest to ask for food. I'd give them some pellets for breakfast right there and watch their little moufs chew for 10 minutes, then depending on their mood I'd either pet them for a bit, or watch them jump and zoom around the room.
This is almost always the best part of my day; every day I wake up half an hour before I'm supposed to, just so that I can do this :)
My nerdy dad liked to tell us to "watch out for orcs!" dropping us off places. I carried on the tradition, and even though he passed a couple years ago I get to enjoy his joke since my SO and I say it to each other all the time, or variations of it. If its a water related destination I like to evolve it to "watch out for orcas!"
We've been playing Baldurs Gate 3 lately so its been "watch out for mind flayers!" a couple times, but the point is just a silly reference to something we love, just to add some goofy fantasy to an otherwise normal day. I like to imagine Orcs popping up irl in goofy ways when I hear it, like one charging the car while I wait for the atm thinking its some great metal beast. Or taking all yhe ground beef at the grocery store for a "great feast!" Plus one box of twinkies. Dumb shit like that :)
Every morning my cat needs to play follow leader (she's the leader of course) for a few minutes. She leads me around the house to make sure I see all the things she rubs her face on. Then she'll jump up on the cat tree for pets and her morning pill. It's probably close to a 10 minute ritual we go through everyday.
I leave food and water out for the local birds, and sit outside under a beautiful big tree, and birds come up, eat the food, have a drink and a bath/splash around, then some of them land on me and we have a chat. I actually get a lot more sense out of those interactions than I do with any human where I am, so it really helps. One little goober gets a crazy look in the eye, then (most of the time) gently bites my finger and half rolls over. So I roll him/her over and tickle the belly. It's hard to stay grumpy when you start your day like that!
No matter how hectic her morning, if I make myself a coffee, i bring it over so my SO can have a sip.
She loves coffee but can't deal with too much caffeine.
I've been in a bad place lately and I kind of needed this. Thank you... At first I didn't know how to answer this question.
Going to bed and calling the cats in to sleep with us. Some one always goes in the 'leg basket'. When I wake up I pet anyone around, kiss the S.O. and start my day.
It's not everyday but I leave sticky notes around with sayings or love notes for the S.O. I enjoy everything about this.
When we drive over train tracks, we have to lift our feet so we won't get caught on the tracks. We'll be mid conversation and then both of us are lifting our feet all silly like.
Note the driver only does this when it's safe to do so. If traffic is slow or stopped on the other side, we're not just going to rear end anyone.
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I like my morning ritual a lot. After I brush my teeth, I shave, and then I have a coffee before I get dressed.
I used to hate shaving, just an annoying chore that gave me razor burn and bumps, that I had to do because I can't grow a beard. So I switched to an old style double sided blade safety razor. Yup, like your grandpa. Yes, they still make those. I also got a badger brush for lathering, and I make a ritual of it. When I start, it's like "ok, it's time for something pleasant that I can't rush, and I will do it, and I will enjoy it". And you know what? I do enjoy it. The old timey razor irritates my skin a lot less, the result is better and smoother, and I like how the brush feels on my face. I feel like I look good when I'm done.
And I got a nice coffee machine, and good coffee, and I take the time to enjoy it before I leave for work.
Having free time to cook something decent for myself. That and experimenting on dishes and succeeding of course lol. Even if it fails, I still learned something.
I always make time to sit outside at night during a full moon. It’s one of the most peaceful sights, for me at least.
Jerking off every morning to get me going.
When my fiancée goes to work, she leaves at 6am. I'm usually asleep still so she wakes me for a kiss goodbye. I reply with sleepily with "drive safe, I love you". If I'm to sleepy to say drive safe I worry 'what if today she is in an accident, and I didn't say it'. So I bought her a key tag thing that says it, so I know ive got myself covered incase I'm too sleepy
Coming home from work, having a little snack, a glass of tea, sitting in my chair, and playing a few games of euchre on my iPad
Making coffee and or tea. Organising my tool box.
Letting my hair air dry with a morning walk after showering.
Stretching before sleep and then again in the morning.
Enjoying some tea and good food while catching up on YT.
Combining booze and difficult games.
Putting my bracelet on that my family gave me every time I leave the house. It makes me feel as if they're with me.
Eating M&Ms by color - it has absolutely no purpose and they're bad for me, but oh so satisfying.
Whenever we cross state lines we raise our hands and go "whoop, whoop." I have no idea when this started, but it brings us joy whenever we're on a road trip.
Every day when I come home from work, I kneel on the top step of our stairs and call our dogs over. They sit on the landing and put their front paws on my shoulders while I scratch their sides and pet them. My wife has taken to calling this ritual "motivation." The dogs really love having a couple minutes of solid attention when I come home and it's a good way for me to switch gears into home-brain, since my work is very stressful and tends to take over.
Organizing. Monk from the TV show could get a lesson from me, the dude is amateur hour compared to my compulsive habits. i call it 'managing my mind palace' from Sherlock. Each tool, sprocket, wrench, shim, test lead, and whatever else has a place, purpose and also acts as a mnemonic device.
My wife has to sometimes stop me, I'll get a mental tire spin and end up sorting the same items over and over into various patterns. kinda like a sorting algo to find the most efficient use of space, access and feasibility when needed or in use.
I used to do art as a distraction but the inherent free spirit blank canvas of it all didn't help. i ended up just painting scenes of gratuitous violence. started giving myself event horizon vibes so i moved onto computers and trade craft because i didn't like looking at myself in the mirror of art
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Put a smile to my face to see so many cats (and dogs) involved.
When I get up and do my morning business on the toilet, the cat comes and rolls around on the bath mat in front of my ear scratches and cuddles included. Turning on the bidet (yes, hidden flex) is the audible clue that business is concluded, he gets up, wait patiently in the door frame while I start brushing my teeth. I then walk downstairs (while brushing my teeth), cat as added tripping hazard on every step. He again waits patiently while I start the coffee maker, and only when I open the door of the cat food and treats cabinet, he starts being agitated until I put food in the bowl and put it down for him. And then there's always this glance back, blinking before he digs in, and this very moment is my treasure for the day.
Watching memes and weird videos with my kids and wife every evening before bed: Daily Dose of Internet, People are Awesome, Failarmy, pwnisher, 131216, You Suck at Cooking, Kotte Animation, etc.
After I shower I will blow dry my hair for 30 minutes (they are dry after about 5). I need that time somehow.
I make a point to name files and folders in a goofy way pretty often. "BigListOfSerialNumbersIGuess", "SurveyStuff", "RandoDocs".
Somehow I keep it all straight, much to my colleagues' dismay 😂 good thing cloud-powered search is friggin quick
I always hit a button before on my watch that doesn't do anything before I start when I'm timing my runs.
I had an old watch where the top right button was the "start" button but that changed to the bottom right on the new one. Now it's become a pre-race ritual I do everytime I run.
Making tea gongfu style almost daily makes me happy.
It's a relaxing ritual for me. And I get to enjoy good tea.
It's also nice when my partner and friends join me, so that we can enjoy it together and have conversations over tea
Making iced tea during my breaks. I make this bombing-ass iced green tea with lemon. Haven't found an equivalent in store that tastes nearly as delicious.