Maybe you are a workaholic, or a student coming back from college. Maybe you are a stay at home professional or just a self care buddy, a night routine is difficult to establish.
Everyone talks about a morning routine to get up, take a run, make a protein packed breakfast, and meditate.
So many tips out there.
But what about night?
How do we end our day?
Let me go first.
Before that, let’s see what
- A night routine means
- Why it’s important to have one
- 3 Easy Steps before you sleep like a child and wake up like a warrior
- Conclusion
Back to my story,
This was the time during my college and exam days. I would come back home after studying for the exam, eat the home-cooked meal and just die on the bed which my dad would make for me.
That’s it.
Now few years into it,
- I sleep like a baby
- Get up refreshed
- Have my day all organised
- Achieve all my tasks and goals
- And, I’m healthy, productive, and happy!
Just with a night routine.
So, what is this routine all about, let’s find out.
What is a night routine?
When the sun sets, the time comes for us to reset.
Night Routine is a daily set of relaxing actions that you preferably do before going to bed.
It’s a routine that one needs to set in order to fully give rest and rejuvenation to your mind, body, and soul. This may not be taught to us or be a part of our family culture/society culture, it is certainly taking the importance in our day-to-day life.
Why its important to have a night routine?
Life has become complicated. We have started leading complex lives, lives that depend on a lot of things. It’s not that simple the way it was before. Maybe that’s my opinion, but currently, we are surrounded by a lot of mind-boggling things that don’t stabilize us.
Its the life that we all have started living.
In my experience I see,
- People coming late at home after work
- Have to travel hours with a difficult travel/commute
- Don’t get enough time to sleep, eat, or have time for self
- People living on survival
- Easily distracted and deviated people
- People not knowing what to do and how to make it better
- People not knowing how to slow down in a fast paced world
Even if we think we are growing in this fast paced world, the human body is same as it was 50 years ago. The functions are same. We need to respect what our body can and cannot do.
Sometimes, the best we can do for our body is relax, so that it can do all wonders when we want it to.
So, a night routine stabilizes your life, your tomorrow.
- It organizes your tasks
- Makes your mind handle what happened today and recharge to deal tomorrow
- Gives the most important thing, and i.e., a great deep sleep. If this is achieved, then we can achieve anything in life
- Gives a stress free mind, body, and soul
Now the next natural question is, what do we do this routine?
3 Step Night Routine is all you need
In my experience and knowledge, we have three temples in our body having a unique function.
Mind, body, soul.
These three are important in their own way and require a set of activities and rituals in our day to day life.
Let’s take them one by one.
Body Relaxing Step– In this step, what I want you to do this, shut your devices, take a shower and wear super comfortable clothes. When you will feel good, you will sleep good and act good. At the same time, keeping the electronics away is very difficult but certainly doable. You need to set a self boundary and a boundary for others that you won’t be available after a particular time online.
Then after doing that, a nice healthy and light dinner for the evening is good to go. Don’t go for food that are heavier to digest. Eat nourishing food and maintain a portion control. If you eat a lot, chances are the digestion will not happen and you will feel lazy and drowsy. Again to prevent this, I suggest a 5 minute walk in your house. This will help in digesting the food.
Post dinner, you can go ahead with some natural tea to fully relax. I would say green tea is an amazing option. You can also play light, soothing music at the background. This will really slow you down and help you reach a regulated state in your nervous system. Your nerves will calm and you’ll feel relaxed. Then just before you go to sleep, you should brush your teeth so that your mouth is clean from the entire day’s food intake. Before this step, you can also commit to a night skin care routine comprising of massages and skin care products recommended by experts. Following this, you can dim the light and set the mood.
2. Mind Relaxing Step– Once you come near your bed, you can keep a journal for yourself to see if you have achieved the items in a to-do-list. You can write about how your day went, what were the learnings and what you are grateful for. At the same time, you can create a to-do list for the next day at this time. To add to your relaxation, a book of your choice can be encouraging and helpful.
3. Soul Relaxing Step– In this step, I suggest that you do some soul reflection. Ask if you are travelling the right path in your life. See what do you want to achieve in life. Visualize them before sleep. Pray to God and the Universe that you want something in life. Set an intention, get closer to your destined path, and leave it to God.
By following these steps, you will be at peace and better align with your life path. This will make your life go towards intentional living.
Conclusion
The steps I mentioned can go the way you feel comfortable in. They need not be mechanical, but something that relaxes and adds meaning to your slow and intentional living.
I hope this helps!