Danielle, the fix for me wasn't a warm-up ritual, it was writing the querent's actual question on an index card before I touch the deck - just the question, five or six words, in their phrasing not mine. I keep it face up on the table the whole read. Sounds stupidly simple but it stopped me answering last week's client, because my eyes keep landing on it instead of drifting back into my own head. I read on a fold-out card table in the spare room and the card just sits next to my deck bag, so it's right there in the shuffle. For a three-card pull I'll write it after the first shuffle, not before, so I'm not priming myself with my own summary of what they said.
