italic textCottagecore culture values peace, slow living, and mindfulness. But some of us live in busy urban environments or have so many daily demands put on us that the idea of slowing down to burn expensive incense or do a 45-minute meditation session is unfathomable -- and impossible!
Enter: rituals. The idea behind ritualizing your day is that you can complete a few small things for yourself that are quick and easy, but will connect you to that cottagecore dream of living mindfully and practicing self-awareness.
This blog post will show you how anyone and everyone can enjoy rituals and invest in mindfulness no matter what your budget or schedule might be. The ideas here are quick and cheap or free, using household items or nothing at all. This blog will also show you how these rituals will connect you more deeply to cottagecore culture as you practice mindfulness, slow-living, self-awareness, and sustainability.
A Word about the Word “Ritual”
For many people the word “habit” is associated with bad habits or with habits that they don’t want to start. Habits are hard to make and hard to break.
However, the word “ritual” feels different -- it evokes a strong feeling of connection between you and the task at hand.
Ritualizing is the cottagecore, romantic version of a habit. It’s the idea that a cup of coffee isn’t just something you drink every day -- it’s a tingly and transportive experience. It reminds you of a vacation morning in the desert before the sun rose, when the June air was still cool. Rituals bring in mindset and mindfulness.
Another key with rituals (like habits) is to do them consistently. Rituals should bring you the security of a daily habit and the joy of a romanticization. The following ideas are cottagecore rituals that can be done quickly and easily every single day.
Poetry in the Morning
Don’t leave yet! This might sound pretentious, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a few key things to consider when you are looking for poetry:
Finding Poetry
- It should be accessible -- something you can read and understand. It shouldn’t feel like school work!
- It should be super zen and relaxing (basically meditation even if you don’t have time to meditate!)
- It should be a book that you really connect with
Try Mary Oliver’s Devotions. They’re easy to read, all about nature, and thoughtful without getting too philosophical. Plus, being able to name-drop Mary Oliver to your friend group later is a huge bonus!
Reading poetry first thing in the morning is the perfect way to wake up without demanding too much of your brain or body. You can spend 30 seconds reading one poem, or 10 minutes reading a few pages. Quick and easy, but a true gift to yourself and the ultimate cottagecore version of mindfulness -- using art to meditate and reflect.
Health Tracker
As it turns out, a health tracker is a strangely personal way to get to know yourself better as a whole -- body, mind, and spirit, as it connects your body and mind to your daily tasks. This is where the cottagecore value of slow-living comes into play -- by taking just a few moments to track your health, you are taking a few moments to breathe, slow down, and deeply invest in yourself.
A health tracker can be kept digitally on the notes app on your phone or on paper in any old notebook. Cheap or free.
If you feel stuck with how to begin, here are a few quick things to consider:
Daily Health Tracking
- Food (include vitamins and drinks)
- Your body’s reactions (BMs, tiredness or alertness, sore muscles, anything!)
- Sleep from the night before
- Movement (yoga? A walk? Chase a toddler around the house?)
- Any notes (felt stressed, had more energy, had less energy, etc)
In the same journal, you can also keep a list of plants you get in your diet weekly. In her amazing interview podcast, Ella Mills discussed how you need 30+ different plants in your diet each week (this includes herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, grains, etc).
Getting in touch with your health this way allows you to slow down and think about your body in a new way. Our bodies do so much for us -- getting to know them better will help us care for them better.
By simply taking note of what you choose to do for your body and what it tells you about those choices, you can begin to strengthen how much you value your body and improve how you care for it.
Journaling
Like the health tracker, you can journal in the free notes app on your phone or in an affordable notebook. It still counts, it’s still valid -- you will still learn a lot about yourself and get stressful things off your mind as you connect to the cottagecore value of building self-awareness and personal peace.
Here are some simple journaling goals that you can do today (and everyday! It IS a ritual, after all):
Ideas for Journaling
- the one page goal -- simply fill one page with writing
- sign off -- pretend you’re writing a love letter to yourself
- no rules! — random thoughts, your plan for the day, a complaint from yesterday. It doesn’t have to make a ton of sense, you don’t have to have any epiphanies.
There are very few things as mindful as journaling. If you still feel like you have no idea what to write, consider the following tips:
Tips for Journaling
- write in the first person (“Today I will run errands and work in the garden”)
- visualize something that you are dreading -- this will help ease the dread and make you realize that you can do it! (“I’ll wear that outfit that I feel really good in... I’ll walk in the room confidently... When it’s my turn, I will go through my Google Slides just like I practiced. I’ll talk slowly and confidently so I don’t get flustered. They’ll think it was just fine, and I’ll sit back down.” Something like that!)
- find prompts online (Your Dictionary, Medium)
Cottagecore culture values sustainability, which even goes beyond environmental sustainability. Set up your rituals in a way that they can be sustainable for you, whatever that means for your life (once a week, every day, anything).
And remember to be self-compassionate along the way. If you miss some of your rituals, you can always come back to them. It doesn’t mean you failed. These are practices that you do for yourself when and how you can. Let them evolve as you yourself evolve.
You deserve to indulge in the cottagecore values of slow living and peace. You can find those values every time you practice these rituals, whether that’s for three minutes on the notes app on your phone, or for thirty minutes with a candle lit and soft music playing.
Leave a comment below about your favorite rituals or your plans for how you will implement these rituals!
all opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any of the linked authors this blog did not contain any affiliate, sponsored, gifted, or paid advertisement material
©2021 Laura Seabourne
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