Create Your Communication Ritual

This is Lauren between takes. It’s been a long day, the stakes are high, she’s prepared for many weeks. She’s breathing, engaged, and ready. She is what we refer to in Nia (a movement technique) as Raw: Relaxed, Alert, Waiting. What can we do to create that Raw?

In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear gives simple directions to help us integrate healthy habits. Think of our morning ritual—wake, drink water, brush teeth, wash face, apply sunscreen…we do these things without thinking, probably in the same order and with very little energy every day. James Clear helps us build small habits by layering them into already established processes. Maybe we add a sun-salutation or ten minute meditation between brushing teeth and morning tea.

This week we create and “layer in” a tiny ritual to practice before any heightened, challenging, difficult, high-risk, high-expectation, anxiety-provoking, deeply meaningful, presentation or interaction. The goal is to integrate the ritual in the way James Clear outlines so that it is automatic. In my life, I use the same ritual before any client interaction. I set up the space, check my tech, and without thinking, I stretch (body warm-up), make strange noises (vocal warm-up), and center myself with a few deep breaths.

For your own ritual, include a little bit of each of these:

1) Stretching—body, face, tongue, mouth

2) Vocalizing—sighs, hums, if before a presentation, over-exaggerating key phrases, technical words, jargon, names.

3) Breathing—noticing our breath and a few deep belly breaths

Then, decide where in your day the ritual lives…Just before big events? In the minutes between clients? Once every morning between arrving at work and opening your computer? Find a realistic place for your ritual and layer it in. The more frequently you do it, the more automatic it will become. You might even find yourself stretching or breathing deeply throughout your day!

My own tiny ritual can be found here.

Let me know what your ritual looks like!