from the director's desk(top): habits and routines

I think everyone has special routines, or habits, or rituals (whatever you want to call them), that they do to feel comfort, or to cheer themselves up, or to treat themselves. Whether that's a lucky pen you keep with you for exams, or buying a specific candy to celebrate something good, or maybe a certain song you play when you really miss your dad. But habits and routines aren't just for feel-good purposes: sometimes our habits are ones we want to break out of, nervous ticks we find we can't stop, or routines we are forced to continue doing. We both create and are defined by the habits and routines that we do.

I am a stickler for routine. I love indulging in skincare, or self-care, or carefully planned to-do lists. I genuinely enjoy cleaning every part of my room before exam season starts because I feel like it gets rid of all the bad energy in my room that's hiding under a thin layer of dust. In high school, after a bad day, I would make sure to undo my tie so I could tie it the next morning, because I felt like the knot could carry the previous day's shittiness in it if it remained tied. Paranoid? One hundred percent. But comforting? Also one hundred percent.

This week, we're exploring some of our own routines and habits; good, bad, weird, you name it. We'll be discussing some of them on our upcoming podcast (click here to listen to our last episode), and we encourage you to share your own thoughts with us as well throughout the week, Tweet us @MuseMagazine, or shoot us a dm on Instagram @musexqueens. Make a habit of it.