Why Have an Evening Practice
The way you end your day is just as important as the way you start your day because it is how you prepare you body to rest and restore while sleeping. In fact, the activities you perform up to two hours before bedtime have a huge effect on your sleep quality. So what are effective ways to help the body relax for bedtime?
Turn of electronics (cellphone, tablet, TV) at least an hour before going to bed as blue light has been proven to have an effect on brain activity and interferes with the circadian rhythm. By disconnecting, this allows your brain to focus more on relaxation rather than the events going on around you.
Incorporate a few minutes of quiet time (mindfulness/meditation) and simply be still. Stillness allows for our minds to think more clearly and let the answers we have been seeking come to us. With the constant daily chatter, we tend to ignore the messages that our bodies are trying to tell us.
Start a gratitude journal. Taking a few minutes to write down about the things we are grateful for that day allows us to see how blessed we are in our lives. Especially the little things we tend to take for granted. By journaling, we can also document what is going on in our life at the moment and later use as a reference of our personal growth.