Times of Day

[Jenett]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

[Jenett]

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

So, I've been thinking about this because:
- My job has set hours (more below)
- Traffic is horrible (so going in to work early is better)
- I'm naturally a night owl (especially when it comes to creative work)

I work 7:45am to 4:15pm - library work generally means someone needs to be in the library, and those hours were the best that mostly avoid the worst traffic but still have me here at reasonable times. I get home around 5pm, but then need to do 'sit down and recover' and 'dinner' (yay chronic health, yay med timing issues) before doing much else.

Which in turn means it's 7:30 or so before I can settle into anything in the evening (by which point I have been chatting to friends, doing other minor things, and don't want to stop to go do ritual) and where it's sometimes really hard to get myself going with writing or focused projects, either because I am out of focus for the day, or because I hit the 'but I'm going to have to stop in an hour' problem.

I've definitely learned some tricks over the years (if I'm going to exercise, it needs to be before work, which makes getting enough sleep tricky, but that's the way I am.) But I also can't do a lot of personal practice before work: the health stuff makes mornings trickier (including coordination: I don't trust myself with fire, breakables, or anything I might otherwise misjudge with hard-to-fix consequences.) Plus there's the hard time limit to get out the door.

My current routine seems to be doing longer stuff on Sunday mornings (when there are fewer people to chat to, and generally no other big commitments on my calendar) plus occasionally setting aside time for an evening thing, and then building things into the rest of my day, some of which are more portable.

(I have an office, but the door is usually open, so listening to some stuff that's personally meaningful is usually okay, but overtly Pagan stuff wouldn't necessarily be. That kind of thing.)

[Bluerose31]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

I love to pray to my Goddess at night and to be with her at night in mediation.

[shadowsiren]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

I'm a stay at home, homeschooling mom of 5... my life is hectic. I used to try and do a bit of ritual/meditation/tarot in the morning because I liked the idea of starting my day with that but all that led to was interrupted ritual time thanks to constant cries of "I'm hungry! Can we make pancakes?" "[Little Brother] is hitting me!" "Is it my turn on the computer?" etc, etc.

I've found that for things that I want complete privacy for I have to wait until everyone is asleep (so it's lucky that I'm a night owl!). For example, my Halloween/Samhain ritual was done between 11:30 and midnight. I do make spur of the moment offerings during the day when I feel inspired and frequently have a "cup of tea and meditate" moment in the afternoon when all the littles are down for their naps.

My husband usually does something with the kids for a while on Sunday mornings to give me uninterrupted time with my tarot cards as my current preferred deck seems to read easier in the morning hours vs late at night.

[Kylara]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

I am lucky enough to work from home, with a pretty flexible schedule most days.  Our son is now 18 and in his last year of high school, so not so much kid stuff to do.  I have gaming commitments (we have a group that sets up big events between 3-4 days a week, which typically take about 2-4 hours each), and then cooking which has to happen at specific times.

My personal work consists of freelance captioning and writing, so no specific times for that.  But, I have found (the very hard way!) that if I don't get my work done in the morning, it takes twice as long or doesn't get done (I don't have a hard set of work per day, it's more monthly/weekly or 'as I see fit').  Which is sort of horrible for me as I am SO not a morning person.

Further complicating things, typically after dinner my brain is mostly fried.  This makes doing any kind of deep work really hard.  And, while hubby and son are very accommodating, I don't actually like doing a lot of things while they are around/awake.  It's a personal quirk I am working on, but I'm not there yet.

So for me, it's all about finding time, in the morning or right after lunch, when I often have the house to myself.  Working around my personal work, so everything gets done.  I keep a pretty detailed calendar, to track my tasks for the day/week....so I don't forget stuff.  Because that is also a big thing for me...my intentions are often very good, but I easily forget stuff, even big stuff (and then stress out because I feel like I've forgotten something but can't remember what it is).  Hence the calendar, which I use as a daily checklist:  write down all the things I want to get done in a day in the morning, then as I do them (or as I'm trying to figure out what I need to do next), I'll look at it, check off anythings I have done, and pick what to do next.  I have check boxes for things like:  exercising, eating properly, spiritual work, personal work, appointments, gaming commitments, shopping....really anything.  Somewhat tedious, but it works and makes me much more productive...which means I have more time to do things that I want to do that would otherwise get pushed aside.

[MeadowRae]

 And, while hubby and son are very accommodating, I don't actually like doing a lot of things while they are around/awake.  It's a personal quirk I am working on, but I'm not there yet.

I am this way, too. Even though my SO is accommodating I would rather have alone time so that I can focus on my meditations/ritual/etc. the way I want to.

I am also fortunate to work from home. My hours are not so flexible, though. I drop my son off at daycare at 7:15, gym or running from 7:30-8:15, then I have to log on at 8:30. Unless it's a rest day, then I just come home and get some cleaning done. I pick up my son at 5:40. Then it's dinner, bath time, story time, a tv show, and bed before you know it. By that time I am exhausted (my son still doesn't sleep through the night) so I don't usually feel up to ritual. That's also the only time my SO and I get together, so we will talk about our day or whatever until we go to sleep.

I'm more of a morning person, and my son wakes up early. I try to distract him with a tv show or a toy in the morning so that I can light incense and say a quick prayer. If not, I take a moment in the car once I drop him off. I also try to take a break during my work day to meditate/draw cards/journal. I really need to get better at that. If it's a particularly important day for me, my SO will watch the little one so that I can have somewhat of a ritual, but I can still hear them in the house and it's really distracting.

[Oskar]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

Even though I am by no means a morning person I find that regular rituals just feel right to hold in the morning before the day gets complicated. I get up, have a cup of tea or coffee, wake up so to speak and then hold the ritual before breakfast. Four Quarter Day celebrations I hold mainly in the evening though.

[PerditaPickle]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

Darn it, I typed out a really long reply but when I hit post the site had timed me out (didn't think it did that anymore...) and when I logged back in my post was no longer there 

The short answer is: weekends.  The long answer is: I'm still figuring it out.

(Unfortunately I haven't the energy to type up the original post once again just now  )

[savveir]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

I am not great at making time to do things. With working full time in a school and the relevant meetings I don't really have time to do much until after dinner in the evenings. For a while I tried doing involved ritual and prayer which proved difficult to maintain, and often resulted in my doing nothing at all since I couldn't do that. After some thought and acceptance of my limits, I began doing little things, light a candle, make a pot of tea to share. As this evolved I made little deity jars (think spell jars but things relevant to deity), attached a candle to the top and I switch them out day to day as needed. I generally do all of this about an hour before I go to bed and I have an alarm to remind me to do so.
I really found that having a small and very achievable thing for my daily devotions made it much easier to do more than that, but didn't include the expectations and guilt from failing to do the extras.

(I hope that makes sense, I have not posted on forums in a long while)

[TransporterMalfunction]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

I have a horrible relationship with time. Especially when I am busy, my mind is often buzzing, worried about making it on time to wherever I need to be and it's hard for me to get into the space to do a ritual or the full 'bathe then purify then prayer then meditation' act. This can lead me to just 'going through the motions' rather than having a spiritual connection.

While sometimes my practice can definitely be just going through the motions, I try not to let that go one for too long. If it is, I need to step back and re-evaluate - what about my practice isn't feeling authentic? What can I add or take away that would make it more meaningful to me? When I implement these changes, how do the gods respond? It might also be that I need to get over my own hang-ups - my fear of time, my attitude, whatever.

For my own practice, timing is important. I am not really a morning person, so trying to perform anything meaningful before noon probably isn't going to work. Plus, the Ancient Greeks started their day at sunset, so for me that is the start of the religious day and has more meaning than the morning.

Something I aim to do is to pray to a deity every day. I have a set schedule for the Olympians and gods I feel are important in my life right now, but there are also a lot of days I don't have officially assigned that I use to try to make contact with other deities from the pantheon. What I used to do was do a little research in the morning regarding the deity of the day, and then say a quick morning prayer to them and then do a more involved prayer at night. But I found that it didn't ring true for me - my religious day begins at sunset, so why would I pray to Apollon during the morning, which is essentially the day before His scheduled date of prayer? I've replaced that with a general prayer to the Theoi upon awakening, and that is working much better for me currently. But that may change.

Sorry, I may have been a bit off-topic 

[Jainarayan]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

Ideally I'd do my personal worship (puja) in the morning before leaving for the day. It really only takes a few minutes to prepare and perform, but unfortunately I mismanage my time so badly that never happens. And I do mean never. When I come home in the evening I occasionally do it then, but that is also few and far between because I simply don't get the privacy or time alone to do it as I would in the morning. Instead I do what is called antharyagam or manasika puja, internal or mental puja. One thinks of the deity(ies) and envisions doing the ritual. I also mentally chant mantras, or play songs throughout the day. Our deities are so chill all they ask is to be remembered.

[TheGreenWizard]

Time, so very complicated?

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

(Especially if you've got things that have their own immutable scheduling?)

My own answers in a comment.

I'm struggling hard with this aspect.

My routine now is wake up at 6 AM to get to work by 7:30 AM (door to door is about 55 minutes... on a good day), and then use that half hour to get that day's lesson plans ready. Even with this routine, I find that I barely have enough energy by the end of the day... mainly, because I - like others - am a night owl. I have been waking up at 5 AM as of late, so I think maybe I could use that extra hour for either gym time, or for meditation.

That said, I'm starting to think evenings would be better for my workings. Mainly, I can meditate and be more relaxed for bed time, thus easier for me to get to sleep. But it would also work with my nighttime routine of feeding the rabbits and checking their water before bed time.

Right now, I currently do it when it strikes my fancy.

[Altair]

How did you figure out what times worked best for you for personal ritual or religious practices? Has that changed over time? How does that fit with other parts of your life?

I'm naturally an early riser, and first thing in the morning is when I have the most focus. So that has been the best time of day for my "daily" (hopefully) meditation. (Doing it late at night was always perilous, because I might fall asleep.)

But in the last 2 or 3 years I've switched to doing my workouts at the crack of dawn, instead of after work; it's just much more efficient (and less crowded in the gym). Unfortunately, that has adversely affected my meditation track record.

In fact, I think I'll get in today's meditation right now.