Routine, Regimen or Ritual?
They all mean the same thing but they also mean different things to each of us. Routine: something we do regularly but flexibly - warm-up, long tones, flexibility exercises for example but we might use different books or exercises depending on how we feel. Regimen: feels a lot stricter, the word itself feels very militaristic - 0900 Lip Buzzing, 0902 Vizzutti Mouthpiece Buzzing, 0905 Frink Integrated Warm Up part 1 and so on. Ritual, however, feels far more spiritual, more reverential, more time-honoured.
We all have our routines, regimens or rituals in our practice sessions which we’ve either spent months or years honing or we’ve taken from our favourite book or we’ve been given by our teacher. For a number of years I had a ‘Therapeutic Daily Routine’ put together for me by Noel Langley, my teacher at the time. I also, after a lesson with Roger Ingram, use a pre-warm up stretching and buzzing routine that he gave me. I still use both now and again but not religiously.
I may talk about my practice routine (although one could argue it’s not practice if it’s a routine) in a later post but it won’t be today. This post is going to focus on routine outside playing, daily routines, that help keep us on the right path… we all have them, even if we don’t realise it, and I bet most of us feel a little bit ‘out of sorts’ if we don’t perform it.
I’m going to spend the next part of this post talking about what my routine is, how it came into being and what benefits it has for me:
I set two alarms 10 minutes apart but I don’t snooze either of them. That 10 minutes is where I roll over and (I’m not ashamed to admit it) I cuddle Mrs J. We don’t see each other a lot in the day so it’s a few minutes of connection - even if she’s still asleep.
The very first thing I do after getting out of bed is to go down the two flights of stairs to the kitchen, warm up Little Miss J’s milk and head into the garden to do some simple breathing exercises. I normally inhale through the nose for 4 seconds, exhale through the mouth for 6 seconds although I’ll sometimes inhale 4, hold 7, exhale 8. I find the fresh air and controlled breathing are great for my mental health (more on that later) and they start to build my energy levels up. It can also be quite invigorating if it’s raining!
Next, I complete my Duolingo daily quests - all three of them - to start engaging my brain. At this point it’s not do much about learning French specifically but about using language learning to improve my cognitive skills.
Following Duo, I use the ‘Balance’ app for guided meditation. It might be 10 minutes, it might only be 5, but it’s always there, focussing on positivity, loving-kindness or self-esteem depending on where my head is at that day.
Once I’ve woken my head up, it’s time to move on to waking up my body. After meditation I’ll jump in the bath. Sometimes I will have a really hot bath (benefits include improved circulation, enhanced mood and enhanced flexibility) and sometimes I’ll ‘Wim Hof’ it and have a cold (not quite ice yet) bath - I’m doing cold every single day of July - as this can improve mood, increase energy levels and increase focus and concentration.
Moving on, I do a series of stretches (I’ll outline these in a follow up post) followed by a 60 second plank and 30 squats to work on my core strength and maybe burn a few extra calories. My morning ritual concludes with a breakfast of at least four fruits (normally strawberries, grapes, apple and tangerine), some yoghurt - often with granola- and a mug of freshly ground black coffee (see my stunning photography below)
This ritual came into being while I was on Shared Parental Leave with Little Miss J and developed over the months into its current state. It was originally to help me to lose a bit of weight - or at least not put it on - and generally improve my health. I’ve adapted it to fit around work too. It’s really come into its own recently after I was diagnosed with depression - sometimes just getting through my ritual can stop a low mood in its tracks which can make a massive difference to my day, especially if I’m in the classroom.
Whatever your routine, regimen or ritual is, it will have its benefits for you even if you’ve never stopped to think about it. Perhaps that’s something you should explore…
While my routine isn’t centred around playing, it certainly impacts my playing - from building my core strength and helping my lungs to being focussed on what I’m practicing, performing or teaching - and there is a lot of value in that.