Making the bed
Every weekday morning, I make the bed. I straighten the sheets, pull the quilt up, plump the pillows and then step back to check that it looks like the kind of place that I would like to get into later on (it always does!)
Making the bed is a simple ritual that I employ to signify that rest is over and it’s time to go to work.
Our lives are full of rituals, procedures, quirks, call them what you will. Often, like with my bed-making, they are symbolic, often they’re not, they’re just things that happen.
Yet rituals matter far more than we might realise. These seemingly simple behaviours help us to navigate life's challenges with greater resilience and control.
Research on rituals shows that they genuinely work. Rituals performed after experiencing losses alleviate grief, and rituals performed before high-pressure tasks (like performing in public) do in fact reduce anxiety and increase people's confidence. What's more, rituals appear to benefit even people who claim not to believe that rituals work!
What's even more remarkable is that rituals don't need to be elaborate or traditional to be effective. According to research by Michael Norton from Harvard, participants who performed completely made-up rituals - like drawing a picture of their feelings, sprinkling salt on it, tearing it up, and counting to ten five times - still experienced reduced grief and increased feelings of control!
Norton and his colleagues even found that people who performed simple rituals before eating chocolate - like breaking it in half without removing the wrapper, unwrapping only half, eating it, then unwrapping the other half - reported the chocolate as more enjoyable and flavourful than those who simply ate it without ceremony.
Rituals help us often generate the emotion that we're looking for in that moment or in that context. That's why we use rituals for motivation. When I work with teams (not just sports) it’s an exercise we undertake to determine what we’ll do, how we’ll do it and why it’s important. The rituals extend from getting teams ready for performance or to celebrate success (of an individual or team). My favourite baseball team the Los Angeles Dodgers have a lot! Here’s a great demonstration of them and what they mean.
So when I make my bed each morning, I'm not just tidying up the sheets, I now know that I’m engaging in a practice backed by decades of research. That simple act of straightening sheets and plumping pillows is helping me transition from rest to work, giving me a sense of control over my day, and creating a moment of mindful attention that transforms an ordinary task into something meaningful.
What are your rituals and how do they help you prepare for your working day?
