How starting my day with a Novena changed my daily routine

Growing up, praying was never a daily habit of mine. But as time went on, I observed how fervently my dad used to pray. Now he never pushed me to follow him or anything. Earlier on, I could see how easily my dad would get irritated by the most simple of things. As he got into praying more I could see he was also getting much calmer and I think that probably got me into it.

I remember back in the day when my dad got me into doing a Novena with him on the weekend. Honestly, being a teenager, sitting at one place praying for around 20 minutes was a challenge I must admit, unless it was time spent in-front of a TV playing my favourite video game. But as time went on, I loved that time I spent with him as it was less about praying and more about some quality father-son time with him which was a win as he worked pretty hard back in the day and we did not see him much some days.

Fast-forward to today, with the hustle and bustle of the modern we live in, for quite some time I lost the interest of doing the Novena or for that matter of fact, praying in the morning. There is a point I believe in everyone’s life where you know it’s time you take a step back and do some self-introspection. I felt I was on an aimless journey with no real sense of where I wanted to go. It was then that I got myself back into saying the Novena.

I do it now as a daily ritual and it is my own kind of meditation. Every morning for around 20 minutes, saying the rosary is quite a blissful experience. You get a very surreal tranquility within. It has helped me focus and gather my thoughts before my day starts which helped me focus on what’s important. The calmness makes me go through the day without being irritated or agitated by things that happen around me. You get this feeling that your inner-peace should not be dependent on external factors that are out of your control.

Now I understand depending on our religious beliefs, this might not be that useful to you. That is not the point of this post though. The essence I would like you to take out of this is that it is not about doing a Novena to make sense of life, it is about finding your own little solitude in something you like doing that helps you be in that moment and not think about anything else just for a few minutes. If that is meditation, a blissful walk alone, listening to your favourite music in your own fortress of solitude, I say do that. You would be quite surprised by the inner peace it brings to your soul.

I leave you for now with one of my favourite quotes from the Bible;