Having coffee with a good friend recently, we were talking about that classic Autumn topic: back to the routine, and how I like to put this concept into practice at home by doing something related to Art.

Many of you come to The Healthy Art Club with the simple aim of bringing a sense of tranquillity and calm into your daily life. This is often the result of no longer being able to surprise ourselveswhich is why I have made this part of my routine. I want to incorporate surprise and the way we move through space and time with new eyesinto my day-to-day. I don’t believe in ‘the daily grind’, but that routines, with their sense of familiarity, allow us to see every day with new vision.

Anybody who knows me from my workshops or in my personal life knows that I love etymology. I think this stems from my father’s lifelong fascination with the Castilian language, instilled in me since my childhood. He would present words as treasure troves filled with surprise, which gave me the curiosity to explore its roots. It’s a fun thing to do, I highly recommend it. The word ‘routine’, for example, comes to us from the French, ‘route’, which begs the question: what do direction and habitual cycles have in common? To me, the response is crucial. A path becomes familiar when we make it ours,when it becomes personal, and when we see it with new eyes every time we tread it.

A path well-travelled often becomes routine, or ‘acquired habit’. But this is exactly what fascinates me: surely it’s important to inhabit your routine?. To embrace it with feeling until it becomes second nature?We are visually bombarded with newness all the time, and living like this causes us to lose our roots. We easily become so focused on what’s next rather than all the possibilities for progress given to us by living in the present.

I believe in inhabiting habit filling habit with presence and with my soul.

An illustrative example comes from my primary teacher in life: nature. I’m lucky enough to live close to some woods, and I often walk there. Sometimes I listen to a podcast while marching along lost in my thoughts and suddenly realise that I’ve forgotten to inhabiting habit, that my forest walk has become repetition without soul or colour. That same process of walking in the woods can also be experienced while living with my feelings of the moment such as listening to birdsong or admiring blossoms, bringing me a feeling of security and tranquillity. It means that I’m allowing myself to connect to my emotions from within, that I feel renewed from my routine, because I leave space for surprise.

Routines are not a negative concept. They can be space for rhythm and repetition in which harmony and transformation can thrive. Take swimming in the sea, for example, it’s the same body of water that you float in, but isn’t it true that diving into it is different every day? What’s important is changing our outlook and experience of life, where we allow every day to be special.

So talking about coming back to our routines in September, I suggested to my friend that she incorporate beautiful and nutritious routines into her daily life, something that can be beneficial to everyone. My invitation to you is to give yourself the gift of choosing one day a week to allow yourself an hour of alone time. In a calming space at home, create a soothing space by playing some music or lighting a candle. Whether it’s the written word or visual Art, choose a preferred medium and indulge in it. Painting in broad strokes, detailed drawing, or writing thoughts on Art or even simply reflection: allow yourself to discover previously undiscovered aspects of Art.

These kinds of recurrent exercises are easily implemented and positive habits. It’s not about attaining perfection but about space and time in the every day. Where we can apply ritual Lighting a candle, setting out our tools, or deciding on a work of Art to focus our attention on, is where we Inhabit our habits.