At SWAKE, we love to lift up the lifeletes and the women enduring the daily 9 to 5, however, once the daily duties are over and it is time to wind down, how do you do this? In order to clear your mind and body of the day's stresses and prepare to wake up fresh in the morning, at SWAKE, we love and value a good nighttime routine.
Some ways to do this...
1. Take a break from social media. Blue light from electronic devices can disrupt your sleep and diminish your natural melatonin. Social media can lead to excessive comparison, anxiety, and negative thoughts, and putting your phone away until the next day can allow you to keep out negativity.
2. Take time to reflect. It can be so easy to go through the motions and be so busy that by the end of the day you pass out without sitting down to reflect. Reflecting on your day can look different for many people. One good way to do this is thinking of something or someone you are grateful for today, something nice you did for someone or how you want to help someone tomorrow, and what is bringing you the most joy right now. Whether you journal these thoughts or just think them, this will give you an opportunity to seek out what is important in your life right now, it can give you time to acknowledge and celebrate your successes, and overall increase your awareness of how you are feeling, thinking, and overall doing.
3. Read or listen to something inspirational/ uplifting. Whether you read a few pages of a good book, read a daily devotional or a good quote, or listen to a podcast, have the last thing you see or hear for the night be positive.
4. Drink some hot tea. When you're at the store next, grab a box of tea bags whether it's lavender, magnolia, chamomile, green tea, etc. and make a cup of tea with some honey to sip on while you relax and wind down. Just make sure there is little to no caffeine!
5. Take a hot shower or bath. This can give you time to reflect on your day and naturally reduce stress, and what's better than going to bed clean? Don't forget your nightly skincare routine and rumor has it a SWAKE moisturizer might be coming out soon?! :))
5. Elevate your legs. Elevating your legs against the wall may sound silly but I have found the best results from doing it! This can reduce swelling, improve blood flow and circulation, help with bloating, and overall relaxes your body.
6. Listen to a winding down playlist. If you are on Spotify, you can easily look up "playlists to wind down to" and boom, there are so many to choose from. Or you can make your own! Choose chill songs that are relaxing that you love... nothing better than curating a good playlist.
7. Splurge on some good pajamas! Until recently, I would always wear a t-shirt and old pajama shorts or elephant pants to bed, however, this summer I splurged on some Lake pajamas (highly recommend) and will never go back. Having a cute, fun pajama set makes me feel weirdly more put together and confident and I swear I sleep better in them.
8. Stretch, breathe, relax. If you do not have much time to designate to your nighttime routine, set out 5 or 10 minutes to just breathe and stretch and it can make all the difference.
Sleep hard tonight so you can sweat hard tomorrow!
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