Mental Health Evening Routine
Don’t Carry the Stress & Worries to Bed
There is a saying that talks about not going to bed angry with your spouse and I think the key point is to not hold on to any negativity when you are ending your day. This is really important because if we are holding stress or tension within we can struggle with getting a good nights sleep and even worse we can wake up with that anger, resentment or frustration that we were holding on to. One of the worst ways to start a new day is with yesterday’s problems on your mind. So in order to start tomorrow fresh and energized we need to end today in the best way possible, which can mean a few different things depending on how your day was.
So now that we understand why it’s important to not carry the stress and worries to bed we need to determine how to do this.
There are 5 things that I believe are important in wrapping up your day in order to position yourself in the best way for tomorrow.
Reflect on the day & try to understand any discrepancies, conflict, problems, or challenges that may have arisen.
Figure out the best way to move forward from said challenges. For example do you need to change your mindset, or a particular situation.
Release any negative emotions/thoughts/actions you may have experienced today.
Allow yourself the space to heal.
Honour your path & have gratitude for your growth.
Now how can we implement each step without taking hours out of our evening? Because we all know that we just want to relax at the end of the day, but I believe in order to truly relax we need to move through these steps and shift away from any chaos, stress, or dysfunction of life.
Reflect & Understand
This is a great time to journal if you do or meditate with these thoughts and questions in mind.
Look back at your day in phases - morning, midday, late afternoon, evening.
What main emotions did I experience in each phase?
What lead me to experience said emotions?
How did I feel through that experience?
Why do I think these emotions came forward?
This can include good & bad.
2. Changes
Now is when you need to do the internal reflection, again use your journal if it will help you.
How can I move forward in life in order to not experience the negative emotions?
Did a person do or say something that caused these emotions to come forward or was it a situation?
Can I change the way I think about this situation or person (and truly change in order to move forward)?
Do I need to make a bigger change in order to shift forward?
3. Release
Once you have decided what changes need to be made if any you need to release the negative emotions and thoughts you were experiencing.
You have moved through the process to recognize and understand the emotions/thoughts/actions so you have learned from them and in order to grow you need to let go of the stress, worries or tension you may be holding on to.
Use meditation, journalling, breath work, visualization - whatever you need to in order to practice that release.
4. Heal
Once you have practiced the release step you need to give yourself the space to heal. Releasing can be a big energetic practice and we need the time and space to heal from that growth we made and the release we experienced.
This may just be 60 seconds of breathing, or spending time in the bath tub (or even having a shower). Using water is a sacred practice of washing away anything you have released.
This step doesn’t need to be big any fancy, it is just allowing yourself time and space with the intention of healing.
5. Honour & Gratitude
Finally in order to truly gain from this experience you need to step in to self love for all that you just learnt & grew through.
Honour your day, how you processed everything, each emotion you experienced and the time and space you gave to yourself for releasing and healing.
Have gratitude for your journey & being open to evolving and continuing to become the best version of yourself.
The more you practice these steps the more they will become second nature. Some days this process may take longer than other days depending on what you experienced and that is ok. Just remember when you are open to growing you are able to honour your journey as each lesson comes forward.
Learning to practice mental health in the evening will help you disconnect from stress more easily and connect back to your truth & peace.
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