Weekends are always such a nice space to reset the system for ourselves and take the time to bring in clarity for the week ahead. So this Weekend Edition I wanted to focus on helping with that! Additionally, you might notice you are getting it a day ahead of the weekend. That’s because so much work goes into the Letters and this Weekend Edition even more, that I have decided to keep it to 5 Letters a week, not 6! So you’ll now receive the Weekend Edition on Friday, and you can read it whenever you please….
For this Weekend Edition, I wanted to focus on clarity and nourishment. As I have recently been ill with a virus and some other things occurring in life, you know the business of being a human being is hard going sometimes, isn’t it! It’s taken so much checking in with myself and turning down a hundred fun things to rest and nurture myself. I now feel utterly clear, healthy and with a new found resilience and so in this space, I have been considering all the tools I employ and how to share some of the simpler ones with you around our sacred evenings.
When it comes to rest, some of our days are filled with so much activity in the days, it’s a wonder we can even sleep at night. With anxiety, insomnia, and depression all on the rise, alongside stress-filled days that involve longer working hours, a deep restful nights sleep has never been more important. Given that 20 minutes of Vedic Meditation is the equivalent of 2-3 hours rest, naturally, that is the key thing to help you get through the day with energy, clarity, and focus. So if you are already meditating and want to ramp up the quality of your rest, or especially if you’re not meditating, and find you have troubled sleep, or simply feel like your not getting enough of it, follow these simple steps for a great nights sleep, to create the perfect Evening Retreat.
1. Eat Early
Your body cannot process all the food you ingested, and prepare you for an excellent nights sleep simultaneously. Dine earlier, so that you have at least 2-3 hours break before bed so that your digestion has time to settle prior to your getting horizontal. We eat so early it could be considered a late lunch by many haha…
2. Two Hour Digital/Media Break
If your evenings are filled with television, your phone, Instagram, your computer, emails and Facebook, and potentially all these things happening simultaneously – STOP. Your brain is too highly wound up with digital input to relax and release the natural sleep chemicals needed for you to rest and repair your mind and body overnight. Give yourself two hours of nothing digital before bed. If this sounds impossible, give it 7 days to see the results and you will swear by it.
Instead read, relax, stretch gently, take a walk after dinner, listen to music, and have conversations. hardly a wild proposition, yet we still never seem to do these things. You will be sleeping so deeply and much less, you will be waking so refreshed and be more productive and as a result, those two hours in the evening before bed will become a necessity for you to achieve more the following day.
3. Create A Routine
When you teach babies how to sleep, you do the same thing night in and night out. A very strict little formula that triggers all the sleep patterns needed for the bub to understand its time to go to sleep. Due to lots of adrenalin/caffeine/sugar and stimulants during the day, we can be quite of touch with when we are actually tired. We fuel ourselves with stimulants both physical and mental (social media included) to push through the days, and then wonder why we are so tired in the day. If you can’t alter your days too dramatically, then take the time at night to create a little sleep routine. Mine looks like this…I shower and apply a beautiful body oil, I drink a herbal tea, a cup of hot water, or an Ayurvedic sleep remedy – recipe below. I usually read. And I try as best as I can to stay away from digital technology for the hour before bed.
AYURVEDIC SPICED MILK
Serves 1
1 cup of raw organic milk or organic milk
1/2 cup water
2 cardamom pods (crack open a little)
1/4 tsp turmeric
a tiny pinch of ginger powder
a tiny pinch of nutmeg
a tiny dash of cinnamon
either raw honey or coconut sugar
Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and gently bring to the boil – and whatever you do don’t let it boil over! Simmer gently on low for 10 minutes and then add your sugar or honey. If you use honey, whatever you do don’t add it to hot milk as this creates ama (toxicity) in the body, and is a big no no in Ayurveda.
Some other inspiring or just plain fun things for the weekend!!
WATCH
So many people had recommended the TV series The Man In The High Castle to me, and finally, I found it here in Australia on Amazon Prime and cannot stop watching!! Check out the (average) preview HERE.
READ
I had forgotten how hilarious this book was until I picked it up again HERE and speaking of laugh out loud funny if you haven’t read this, you must – HERE.
I get asked all the time where to start with Japanese cooking, and this is usual recommendation HERE.
LISTEN
Some songs for a peaceful evening…A simply beautiful song HERE and HERE and HERE and for the numerous lovelies who DM’d me on Instagram a few weeks back when this was playing in the background of my stories and I couldn’t place the song – this is the one!! HERE
Sent with love,
Jac x