Do you find that your life is in chaos from the moment you get up in the morning until the moment your head hits the pillow? Of course we all feel that way at times, but when we do, chances are we don’t find our lives meaningful that day.
James Gleick published Chaos: Making A New Science in 1987 exposing the non-scientists among us to the world of Chaos Theory. One of the principles of this theory is that dynamic systems have a sensitivity to initial conditions. That is, a small change in initial conditions can have an unexpectedly large impact on the outcome of the system. This is often referred to as The Butterfly Effect.
The flapping of a single butterfly’s wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month’s time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn’t happen. Or maybe one that wasn’t going to happen, does. (Ian Stewart,Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)
Our lives are a bit like The Butterfly Effect. If we can make a small change in the initial conditions of our morning we can have a large impact on the rest of our day. Taking a few moments for a morning ritual that calms us and centers us can have a tremendous effect on how we greet the circumstances that challenge us during the work day, such as being cut off in traffic, yelled at by the boss, or loosing that big account.
Now when I say ritual I do not mean it in the religious or even spiritual sense. Of course the ritual can be spiritual such as prayer or meditation, but it can also be as simple as having a cup of coffee and listening to some jazz, or doing yoga or an Eight Minute Abs workout. As always on this blog you decide.
Pick a morning ritual that will center you for the day, maybe just visualize a Monarch butterfly.
