Ready for a Restful Evening?

Do you ever find yourself lying in bed, unable to sleep, with hundreds of thoughts flying through your mind? Or, you fall into bed immediately after performing your last chore for the evening and passing out?

Neither one of these are exactly restful.

It’s time to change that. This week, I’m inviting you to try adding in an element of ritual to your evening. This could be long and involved, or as easy as turning on deep sleep music before getting in bed or adding Tibetan bowl music while you brush your teeth.

Here’s some ideas (for best results, combine!):

Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra translates to yogic, psychic or divine sleep, depending on who you ask. It’s an amazing guided journey of awareness of sensation. Technically you’re not supposed to fall asleep during Yoga Nidra…but good luck with that. If you’re tired and lying in bed at night, you may find this the perfect way to transition to deep, restful sleep. There are quite a few available for free on YouTube; I like this one and this one (specifically designed for sleep.)

Gratitude Journaling
Write out a page – or just three things – for which you feel genuine gratitude.

Sensual Massage
Give yourself – and your partner, if applicable – the gift of sensual massage as a way to transition to sleep. Spend ten minutes in loving touch of yourself or your partner – exploring the sensation of skin on skin – feeling the pleasure of being a sensual being. On some nights, this could simply be a way to relax and connect. On others, it might be a prelude to self-pleasuring or sex. Did you know orgasms are scientifically proven to aid in sleep? Enjoy.

Sound Bath
Light a candle (or not) and spend a few minutes closing your day with a sound bath. Try this Crystal Bowl Sound Bath, this Gong one or my personal favorite, this Tibetan Singing Bowl one. (By the way – half of the time with crystal bowls and gong baths, I end up thinking “turn that horrible noise off!” – even when experiencing it live. If you have an aversion to really intense noises, stick with the Tibetan bowls!)

Deep Sleep Music or White Noise
Add ritual to your sleep itself by adding music for deep sleep. Check out this YouTube playlist for a wide variety of options. Back in the day, I had to buy a white noise maker (which I still love) for background sleep sound. Now you can get just about anything on YouTube: 10 Hours of Rain, 10 Hours of Forest Creek, or 10 Hours of Ocean Waves for example.

Salt Bath or Salt Scrub
Salt is supposed to have many healing properties, including the ability to clear negative energy. See if it works for you – add bath salts (not the uber-processed chemical kind) to an evening bath, or (my favorite!) use a salt scrub in the shower with the intention of clearing off any negative energy from the day.

Restorative Yoga
Restorative yoga feels really amazing and relaxing. If you already own a whole bunch of yoga props (bolsters, etc.) you likely already know a few restorative poses. If you want to try it out for yourself but have no gear, check out this video for restorative yoga using just one blanket as a prop. As a bonus, the video features an adorable cat yoga companion.

Visualize Tomorrow
Spend five minutes envisioning exactly how you want the next day to be. Include feelings, experiences you would like to have, any impact you would like to make.

Foot Massage
This is pure heaven. It takes less than 10 minutes – here’s a great video you can follow to show you how to send your feet to the land of bliss.

Leave a comment and share your favorite evening ritual! Rest well, friends!

Click here for a downloadable PDF of some of these evening ritual ideas for your to print and keep handy. If you’d like access to my full library of tools and guides, please sign up below.