Evening routine..

Writing yesterday’s blog about the morning routine made me think how much we emphasize to mornings but we hardly ever talk about evenings.. Do I have evening routine? What is it?? Fall into bed and watch endless stream of netflix or TikTok.. mmhh, yeah that as well but what else.. What am I actually doing evenings?

So, I paid attention.. First time in nine years (thats how old is my daughter) I paid attention. And the things I found myself doing amazed me. Indeed I had routine, but I never really paid any significance to it. Now, if you are into elbow deep in self development and spirituality (as I claim myself to be) you should have very solid routine on place as it will make sure that you would have great night of sleep. But until you actually realise on your own patterns, you won’t be able to make it matter and significant for you. So here is list what I do..

1 Dinner

Yes, I did not realise that my evening start with dinner. Whatever it is: including take away. The whole process of setting my brain up for the last meal of the day, switches me off from the buzz from the work day. I might still reply on few messages or email while I am preparing for it, but as soon the food hits the table – work goes away. This is time for myself, my home and my kids and partner.

2 Tidy up the days mess

Doesn’t always happen but would happen most days. The moment after dinner is when I clear the kitchen, turn on the dishwasher and washing machine and tumble dryer. They would all be finished by the time I get to bed, but I know then that I have clean bowls or mugs for breakfast and clean school uniforms if it is a must. As during the day, trying to do as much as home office as possible can get overwhelming when you also try to mix it with the household duties, then it makes more sense to leave it for after hours.

Other thing we do, is we pick up everything from the floors. I have this Incredible investment called: Ilife! It is robot hoover what also mops the floors. Saves me so much time.. especially as I have two cats and a dog. BUT to make it work well, you better pick up your socks, jocks, crafty bits and anything what you do not want to get eaten up. This is something we do together with kids.. what brings me to the next stop for the evenings.

3 Homework/downtime with kids

It is roughly half an hour before I get to my next point of the evening: yoga. Getting kids also calmed down now after dinner, finding out how they have done in school or do they need any help (after clearing up the floors with me) is literally best part of the evening. We are all ready now to close the day.. who wants the bath, who wants to tell me worries in school. This is part where we share stuff. Obviously if there has been chats during the day about some situations, then here we discuss it and try to get it out of our chest. It is also part of the evening when we make plans for the next day.

4 yoga, shower and pj’s

Yep! If I haven’t worked out for the day, then I will do it here. Many times my kids join in with me.. I never thought I would raise that type of family, but here I am! They love the release of the workout for the evening. I also have found that we all sleep so much better these evening when we haved moved around a bit before we wash and dress for the night. We all go bed together, I don’t come back down after they have gone to their bedrooms unless it is for switching off lights. Everyone retreats to their bedrooms and the energy in the house calms down for the night ahead.

5 reading and soft drink

Under soft drink I do not mean fizzy drinks or water, I actually wouldn’t drink glass of water before bed time. I mean herbal tea or sometime at the weekends glass of wine (or two). Why I wont drink water before bed is because there is 85% chance that I have to get up 2am to go to toilet. I drink my water during the day, so my last glass of water would be with dinner and flushed out of me before I get to bed. I have found that for my body chamomile tea helps me the most to wind down, also helps my kidneys and bladder by removing toxins during the night. This suggestion was given to me when I was 15 by homeopathy and I have never had any UTI or kidney infections since.

6 movie or bit of social media

I don,t do it often. Because I work in social media and lot of my business is ran by online, watching screen all day, I try to avoid it in the evenings. It does happen tho time to time, and especially when kids are off. We have Netflix and Disney Plus, also Youtube.. So if there has been something that they want to watch, we do a screen in the evening. But as I said, not always.. I think it does come down to having the balance. There is nothing wrong to watch tv in bed when you are cuddled up together and have a great time. I do not care how “unhealthy” it suppose to be. I love it, they love it and we are all together – in love with good movie (and maybe some midnight snacks).

7 journaling and meditation

As I have mentioned before, I am not great on journaling. I’m more visual I guess, than the one who would write it out. But I do set intentions for the next day, I sum up my day in my head. I much more prefer to do some pranayama and meditation. As reiki practitioner you will find me doing some reiki for myself, pranayama exercises and then meditation before I turn over and fall asleep… That’s it! Lights are out.

Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew, and does not patter us like hailstorm.

Jean Paul

With this post, I don’t want you to think that you need to set up yourself some evening routine – ou no no! I want you to have the same discovery as I did: find your pattern. Because even if there is an unhealthy pattern, you can then change it. For me for years was to have sneaky cigarette at the back door as soon my kids had fallen asleep. It was the culmination of end of my day as parent and I felt I can be bold, irresponsible child again. Because that what cigarette meant for me. It always did, where ever I worked in retail or hospitality. End of the day meant cigarette and leaving the work. And funny part for that was also that I was able to drop it, without actually getting any cravings. It wasn’t the cigarette – it was the end of the day as single parent who’s responsibility was now sound a sleep upstairs. My work day was done.

So I hope it helped you, I hope you enjoyed this, Leave me comment to tell me what you do for the evenings before you head to bed.