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Wondering how to wake up early and not be tired? If you’re rolling your eyes at me right now, please don’t.
Continue reading “How to Wake Up Early {11 Habits To Wake Up At 5 AM & Not Be Tired}”
Sleep is an important aspect not only of your life but also of your overall health. In order to be productive and stay healthy, you need a good sleep every night. Losing sleep when you have a busy schedule the next day, will add to your stress and overall frustration. It is important to fix your sleeping problems before they become chronic insomnia. Insomnia is a sleep disorder that requires professional treatment. However, you don’t have to get there if you apply the following tips to get a better sleep every night!
What you do before you go to bed will determine the quality of your sleep. If you’re scrolling your phone or watching Netflix right before going to bed, you most likely have trouble falling asleep. On top of that, when you do fall asleep, you don’t get enough rest. If this is the case, you might even wake up more tired than you went to bed.
Having a ritual helps training certain behavior. The same applies to the bedtime routine. Consistency is key here as well. You can enjoy a cup of tea that has no caffeine in it – herbal tea or even fruit tea. Try aromatherapy and use your favorite scented candles to help you relax. Disconnect yourself from distractions and maybe use the last hour of the day to read an interesting book. All these things will help you relax before bedtime and look forward to a peaceful night of good sleep.
Related: 6 Productive Things To Do Before Bed
Writing your thoughts down has a true therapeutic effect. All you need to empty your mind of these worrying thoughts is a notebook and a pen. You can simply write down your impressions about the day that is just about to end.
Use your notebook to write ideas that will help you get where you want in life. And you can also put down things that you need to do the next day. Journaling and planning help to manage your time better. You will have fewer worries and you will be able to disconnect easier before going to bed.
Taking a bath will definitely help you unwind and find a state of deep relaxation. Light your favorite candles and turn on your favorite music. You can use bath bombs, salt or a relaxing shower gel. If you don’t like to take baths, you can take a shower. The warm water will help both your body and mind relax.
Falling asleep after a warm bath or shower is usually a lot easier. Plus, the quality of your sleep will be much better as well. This should become a part of your bedtime ritual too.
Related: 30 Self Care Ideas
By watching TV or scrolling the feed you’re influenced by the information you consume. Your brain doesn’t relax when you do that. And if you stay away from gadgets at least one hour before going to bed, you’ll see the difference. Trust me. Ideally, it should be 3 hours. But you can always start with 1 and increase this time.
It is a good idea to disconnect your WiFi as well. Thus you won’t be bothered by any notifications and you won’t have the temptation to grab your phone.
Your bed might be comfortable but you should save it for the main purpose it was made for: sleeping. If you like to take your laptop in bed to do some more work or check your emails, know that this is a very bad idea. It will interfere with your sleeping schedule and most likely you will stay awake longer than you need.
Your mind should be able to associate your bed with your hours of good sleep. If you get this habit going and you maintain it on a constant basis, you will feel sleepy naturally the moment you get into your comfortable bed.
Related: Easy Ways To Create A Relaxing Home
Apply the tips to find the best bedtime ritual that works for you. But keep in mind that if you are not consistent, none of the ideas above will work for you. It takes several days and even weeks to develop a bad habit and it works the same for a good habit too. But the quality of your sleep is something you should definitely invest in! Share your hacks in the comments below.
Is it sometimes hard to switch off from a hectic day? Do you find yourself staring at the ceiling thinking about work when you should already be sleeping? I’ve been there, my friend 🙂 And I’ll give you a precious hint: watching Netflix or scrolling down Instagram feed are not gonna help! Now that we got that out of the way, let’s look at some productive things you can do before you go to bed!
Disconnect from all your devices at least 3 hours before going to bed. This will increase your melatonin level and will help get ready for a calming and relaxing sleep. If you are used to falling asleep checking your social media accounts, know that this is not working in your favor at all. As a matter of fact, it prolongs your daily stress into your night sleep.
Taking care of your skin should be a part of your self care night routine. Make sure to remove all the makeup off your face as you clean it every evening before bedtime. Use a good moisturizer that will nourish your skin during the night. You will see that you feel more relaxed as you take care of your skin. It’s a sort of meditation for me personally. Not to mention that you will postpone aging signs and other skin conditions that you can avoid by simply having a good skincare routine. When your skin looks good, you feel more confident and therefore, you are able to focus on other aspects of your life.
Related: 30 Simple Self-Care Ideas
Reading is a great way to unwind and disconnect from your hectic daily schedule. If you read for at least half an hour before you go to sleep, your mind will relax and you will be able to reduce your stress level significantly. You will also fall asleep easier as you help your brain to disconnect. Reading in the evening can also improve your memory. When you are reading try to read an actual book, because of the melatonin level, as mentioned earlier.
Before going to sleep, try to focus on your next day. Try to visualize your next day without putting any worries into it or fear or any other negative energy. Simply go with your mind through what you expect your tomorrow to be like. Projecting a good future will definitely help you relax and drift into a peaceful sleep knowing that everything will be fine. If you want to have an ideal day, the first step is to visualize it before bedtime.
You don’t even need to have a planner, get a piece of paper and simply write down your tasks for the next day. Doing so will help you clear your mind and fall asleep with a more peaceful mindset. Put your ideas on paper and get back to them in the morning as you wake up. Once you see how beneficial this habit is, you will most likely want to keep it. You will not have to worry about forgetting important tasks and your mind will be free to enjoy other thoughts before bedtime. I personally write down 3 most important tasks that I want to accomplish the next day.
One of the things you can do to be productive before bedtime is also getting your clothes ready for the next day. Doing so will save you time in the morning and you won’t have to worry about what outfit to wear to work. Setting up your clothes in the evening also brings more peace to your sleep as you take one more item off the list. It is one of the best things you can do to not only ease your evening anxiety but also take some anxiety from the next morning!
For some evenings, these things will have to be a matter of discipline. However, the more you do them, the more you will get used to doing them. They bring a lot of benefits not only when it comes to the quality of your sleep but also the quality of your life. Studies suggest that it takes 21 days to implement a healthy habit, so be patient with yourself. Before you know it, you will have a healthy and productive bedtime routine that will improve your life at many levels!
There you are at a certain period of your life, sitting and wondering how did I get here? Why haven’t I done more? Why does it feel like I am stuck in some perpetual idle moment in which the only thing that seems going forward is time?
At the same time, deep in yourself, you know that you could and you still can do more. You know it, all your friends know it, yet there you are.
Bono said it best – “Stuck in a moment that you can’t get out of”.
Bono might be the epiphany of cool and success, but that doesn’t mean his lyrics are all there is to it. On the contrary, with some deliberate effort and strong determination, you can increase your self-confidence and live up to your fullest potential.
Don’t worry, you don’t need a life coach, a psychologist, or someone else to help you shine again. You can be your own guru and put yourself back on the fast track of success without anyone’s help.
After all, no one knows you better than you.
But that doesn’t mean you need to figure out everything on your own. To make things easier we’ve assembled a list of things you can do to increase your self-confidence.
Consider this your blueprint, the one-way path that leads only in one direction – success!
Here we go.
One of the best ways to start building up your self-confidence is by demonstrating real ability.
For example, if you are a good cook, start throwing dinner parties for colleagues and friends. Or maybe you were a good runner at some point. Regardless of your age, you can start training again and start competing.
In short, find something that you are good at and start building on that. Success in one area attracts success in another area of your life. You don’t need a high paid psychiatrist or a life coach to tell you the effect of success over self-confidence.
Being self-critical can further lower our self-confidence. The biggest drawback is when our self-critical inner monologue starts. That’s when whatever left self-confidence we got left in the tank goes in the drain.
To battle this, and you must do, is to replace your self-criticism with self-compassion. Imagine that you are talking to a friend, not yourself. Approach the matter from a compassionate point of stand and not from a point of criticism.
Ask yourself, what advice would you give to a dear friend of yours if they were in your shoes? The thing is when it comes to friends, we tend to be much more compassionate then we are to ourselves. That is why you need to act like that.
It is a proven method that has been tested over and over in practice. Many people claim it helped them to go through some difficult times. There is no reason why it wouldn’t help you as well.
Don’t aim big, make it a small challenge that you can accomplish by yourself. Something that takes you a step from your comfort zone, maybe something you haven’t done before.
For example, invite your colleagues for a drink after work, even that you haven’t done it before. Maybe take a yoga class, learn to knit, learn to cook a dish, things like that. These are all small wins that can bring big gains and that can restore your self-confidence before you know it.
Being fearful and not trying new things go hand in hand, and has a lot to do with low self-confidence.
Being afraid to try new things only reaffirms your inner critic that keeps on repeating that you are not good enough for any of those things. It is what keeps you in your “so-called” safe zone which is nothing but a point of stagnation – the thing that doesn’t want you to move forward.
However, if you don’t try new things, if you don’t find the courage to step out of that comfort zone, you will never know how far you can go in life and what you can achieve ultimately.
Again, the trick here is starting small and work your way to the things that scare you most. One win at a time and you will find yourself knocking down your fears and realizing your true potential.
That’s the true recipe for growth!
Soon you will realize that in most cases, the fear of falling was unjustified. Yes, sometimes you might fall flat on your face. But you will not see it as the end of the world type of experience, but rather just another experience.
This is an exercise that has proven quite effective in reviving self-confidence after suffering a blow.
Create a list that contains qualities of yours that are relevant to the situation you got yourself into.
For example, you didn’t get that promotion you were hoping for. Make a list of all the qualities that make you a valuable employee. Maybe you are responsible, maybe you got some unique set of skills no one has in the company, you have strong working ethics or stuff like that.
Then use one of the points on your list to write a short essay (not more than two paragraphs).
Write about why that particular quality is so valuable and why it will be appreciated in the future. The next day chooses a different item from your list and write down another one. Repeat the exercise every day until you cover all your qualities listed there.
By the time you are done writing, your self-esteem should get a much-needed boost.
The bottom line is that increasing your self-confidence is not an overnight kind of thing, but something that needs a bit of work. It requires developing healthy emotional habits through proven exercises and devotion.
But if you are doing so correctly, you will experience a great psychological and emotional return on your investment.