The moment between work and home. Between sleep and waking. Between one task and the next. In that sliver of time, you choose who you will be for the next chapter. Something ends, the next begins. How can we be again, via these rituals, somebody that inspires, accepts, loves, shares, and then witness the reciprocity of good intentions. For yourself, and others.
Tuning into this feedback loop, five minutes at a time, is a way to construct your superpower—and your life.
Five conscious breaths. One line of poetry. Often, for me, it’s Mary Oliver’s ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.” A mantra serving you like lightning. Conjurable. Returnable. A hand on your heart.
Or, a spontaneous act of kindness, gratitude, or recognition. This morning, I ran upstairs to tell my wife how beautiful she is and how much I appreciate, and see, her accomplishments and hard work. Further, I recognize I’ve neglected my duty to her in deference to the kids or this project even, go figure! Sometime the five minutes need to be spent for someone we love.
These tiny rituals are not indulgences—they are the gateway drugs of a life lived mindfully. They are the habits that become you. Mindful Wayfinding. You take the breath and the hieroglyphs become common tongue. And this common tongue speaks to us in hints of wisdom we can return to.
One of my favorites is the science of a smile where not only can the physiology, the act of smiling, precede joy, but it can also help you pull away from a bad decision. I’ve been using this to avoid getting pulled into futile online frays, or while driving to avoid succumbing to all the tension on the road. When I remember, it works for me, and I’d love to know if it can do the same for you.
These tiny rituals grow, they amalgamate, they become something more.
My ritual repertoire has been growing for years, and this growth has been anything but linear. I call it my stumbling path, my imperfect partner, but still an integrated part of who I am.
A mix of thought, action, and motion. Daily movement and mindfulness. The gifts it provides can be profound: clarity, peace, direction. Sometimes, I hit a wall that requires a pause, something new or just a deeper rotation of the most meaningful and effective parts of the practice. I’ve also learned to accept that some days nothing seems to work, and this too can be a sign that we use to be at peace with life’s uncertain flow.
Lately, I find myself recommending my current favorite: physically grounding or touching the earth. I’ve received much from this practice, and, like this project, my goal is to share and learn.
This is the prism of practice. Many colors. Many paths. Some widening, some shifting. Some fading, while others appear. Some things work well for many, some for a few. The key is to find your mix, and there are bounties to explore. If you take these steps with Superpower Mindfulness or other mindfulness maps, you will surely find new ones, some of your own making—infinite permutations of presence.
I suffer from anxiety—over the future we will hand our children both environmentally and economically. I feel the pull of regret for past mistakes, failures, and missed opportunities. My daily practice is the thing that brings me back and it’s the only thing I’ve found to be nearly foolproof. As such, it’s become non-negotiable.
But sometimes, I only have five minutes.
The key is making that enough.
Five minutes of deep thought, five of moving, five of being still and letting all but the senses go. Tap into the feedback loop of what this does for you and you may decide to make more time for it. Make it something you are—not something you do. Make it something that journeys with you and forms you as you form it.
What would a year of this type of presence do for you? This is a question we will come back to.
Start with five minutes and see where it takes you. What starts as ritual will craft your reality, then the reality that unfolds around you.
The Exercise | Name Your Ritual
Take five minutes right now. Not later. Now.
Write down the single most important micro-ritual you already have—the thing you do, even subconsciously, that brings you back to yourself. Maybe it’s the first sip of coffee in silence before anyone wakes. Maybe it’s the way you pause at your car before driving home. Maybe it’s three deep breaths before you walk through the door after work.
Name it. Describe it. Honor it.
Next time you perform your micro-ritual take it one step further. Pay attention to one thing that comes to you when you perform it: the birdsong with the breaking dawn, the warm joy of heading home, the blink of the firefly and recognition that you are not alone.
Then ask yourself: what would happen if you did it on purpose? Every day?
The Question
What would it take to protect your moments of presence from the noise?
The only requirement for Superpower Mindfulness: the willingness to begin.
And begin can be heard as Be + Again. In life, each moment is an opportunity to be again. To be present again. To be peaceful again. To be purposeful again. Just like at the start.
The goal is simple, but not easy: to bring one million more people into the mindfulness fold, exercising their superpower to first change themselves, then the world around them. It all starts here, each moment, each step. It starts with you.
Next Up: Downshifting from the Noise
-Ken
