I’ve now been living in Kargicak, Alanya for over three weeks, the longest time I have spent in one place since leaving the UK at the beginning of August. Before that I spent three weeks working on an eco-farm, and before that five days holiday with my friends from home in Marmaris. In between each stop I have been reunited with Shurly Anne, my trusty steed, to enjoy the simple pleasures of unencumbered bicycle travel. If you’ve been following the blog you’d already know this, so why do I bring it up again?

Well, I was reading a blog post from one of my favourite authors and bloggers, Tim Ferriss. In it, he introduces a book called Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, which caused me to reflect on my own daily rituals, and how much they have changed during the course of this year. Some, however, have remained the same.

Before leaving my job, my daily rituals were pretty fixed; Get up at 5:45am, go to work, get home for around 5:00pm, exercise for 30 minutes (3 -5 times/ week), eat dinner (usually mass produced at the weekend – the joys of single life!), relax into a book, music, something on the iplayer, a film, etc for a couple of hours, then meditate for an hour, lights out before 10:00pm (I know, rock n’ roll).

It’s a pretty regimented way to live, and I’m sure most of you have similar time blocks filled with different and probably much more interesting stuff. These daily rituals were the building blocks which enabled me to save the money I needed and go on this extravagant world tour.

Preparing food at the weekends stopped me from buying comparably expensive sandwiches for lunch; it also allowed me to control the type and quantity of food I was eating, in turn controlling my weight. Exercising every other day (or more often when I felt like it) was a great way to maintain momentum and stay fit; the workouts were short, meaning I could always make time for them. More importantly though (for me anyway), exercising has a direct impact on your frame of mind by releasing endorphins, which make you feel good.

Daily meditation helps me build self-awareness which, in turn, helps me notice when my thoughts and behaviours are running off track. Focusing on what you want (instead of worrying about what you don’t want) tells your unconscious mind what to go about creating in your reality, not to mention the mental health benefits associated with daily meditation.

My linchpin rituals are food, exercise and meditation. I know that if I keep these things in check, I’ll feel good about myself, and everything else I aim for is infinitely more likely to materialise. These daily rituals have also remained constant regardless of whether I’ve been cycling, farming, holidaying or writing. Although, they haven’t always been easy to maintain; food is usually the first to go, then exercise, although I rarely miss meditation. If I’m not feeling myself it’s usually always because one or more of these linchpin rituals has fallen out of my routine.

I can’t vouch for the book yet, I haven’t finished reading it, although I will let you know how I get on. It contains the daily rituals of 161 brilliant minds: philosophers, artists, painters, scientists, and discloses how they went about producing their best work.

What are your daily rituals? Are you aware of your linchpin rituals? Do share, I find it rather fascinating…

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