Contemplating: Habit & Ritual

Joan commented on my Saturday post:
Nicky, what's the difference between a personal ritual and a habit? or is there one? could seeing a habit (good or bad) as a ritual of one's choosing help in creating/maintaining healthy ones and ridding oneself of unhealthy ones? I wonder!

These are great questions. I hadn't thought about this before - the differences and/or similarities between habit and ritual - and I'm grateful Joan brought it up (thanks, Joan). I haven't had much time to really sit down and think about it but my students are off working independently on some Social Studies questions, so I took a moment to look up what The Free Dictionary defined as habit:

n.
1.
a. A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.
b. An established disposition of the mind or character.
2. Customary manner or practice: a person of ascetic habits.
3. An addiction, especially to a narcotic drug.

Just noting the first definition, I would have to say the difference between habit and ritual is awareness and meaning. A habit may not necessarily have either - i.e. nail biting. I have so much more to contemplate with this and want to take more time to explore all of Joan's questions but I had a moment and wanted to get just a quick jot down.