Self-Care Rituals to Help You Relax
Unfurrow your brow and lower your shoulders; relaxation is on its way…
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Self-Care Rituals to Help You Relax
Unfurl your brow and lower your shoulders; relaxation is on its way…
By: Laura Kennedy
It’s that time of year. Your schedule is jam-packed. Work isn't letting up. Everything is just a bit more stressful. We all have obligations to work, family and community to navigate, but when you can find the space during the summer now is the time for mindful hibernation – investing in creating an atmosphere and daily rituals to help you to relax, unwind, and live in the moment.
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Write the Day Away
There is plenty of evidence to support the idea that keeping a journal helps us with mental wellbeing and reduces stress. Writing things down helps us to work out our priorities, make notes, monitor our mood, make our to-do list more manageable, and get in touch with our creativity. Whether your journal is the notes app in your phone, a collection of scraps of paper squished into a pocket in your bag or an elegant Liberty notebook, it’s a helpful way to relax and process the day.
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Perfect the Art of Showering
The morning shower is often rushed and stressful – a job to cross off the list rather than the joy it could be. Making a ritual of showering can help us to reconnect with our bodies, unwind and relax beneath the warm, soothing water, and begin or end the day feeling less tense and distracted. It’s the forgotten element of a good bodycare routine. Elevating every element can help – soothing, fragrant shower products inspired by aromatherapy and an abundantly proportioned, fluffy cotton bath towel are musts. It's the first step in any how to run the perfect bath
Find Serenity Through Skincare
A skincare routine is a twice daily ritual most of us are engaging in anyway. It’s about preserving and caring for our skin and taking some time alone to nurture ourselves, so why not do it mindfully and maximise the benefit? A proper, thorough cleanse at the sink with warm (not hot) water and an efficient, spongy flannel is essential to remove every trace of the day’s makeup and SPF. Paying special attention to delicate areas of the face that are impacted by the weather most – like eyes and lips – restores comfort to stressed skin and helps protect its natural barrier.
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Refine Your Bedtime Ritual
So often, we climb into bed mindlessly, the day’s stress undissipated. The body is in bed, but mentally we’re still at the office, or on the commute home, or saying what we should have said to that person who was rude to us in the queue at lunch. Creating a pre-bed ritual can help situate you in the moment. If you find CBD supplements helpful, add them to your pre-sleep ritual. Ensuring that your bedside table is neat and gives you access to everything you’ll need is also a gamechanger. When the last area you see or interact with before sleep is chaotic or necessitates getting out of bed to get a glass of water or your lip balm, it’s harder to part with the day’s stresses and settle down. If you can, put your phone in a drawer or leave it downstairs, and read a good book instead of scrolling. A great night's sleep awaits.
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Set the Scene for Sleep
Bed is one of the most wonderful places to spend such a vast chunk of our lives. You’re in there for hours every night, so why accept mundanity? Our beds should be as beautiful, sensorial, and cosy as we can possibly make them. Everything about your bed – and what you wear to climb into it – should signal rest, warmth and total relaxation to ensure the best possible sleep. This is constructive relaxation – recharging you and generating great quality sleep to fuel you through tomorrow. Silk pyjamas help regulate fluctuating body temperature as you sleep, while a blackout mask and ear plugs will help ensure that you drift off and aren’t disturbed until alarm sounds in the morning.
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