Simple Ways to Unwind After a Stressful Day
A stressful day can ruin your evenings and subsequent sleep if you are unable to wind down and shake off the stress when you arrive home. Stress is more than just your mind working overtime; it can have physical manifestations and impact your life and health.
However, you can make a few deliberate changes to help signal to your body it’s time to wind down and calm the mind so that stress has an outlet and doesn’t sit in your mind overnight.
Step Away from the Screens
Phones and laptops keep the mind alert and reactive and just reinforce the same state you’ve been in during the day. If you’re spending time scrolling and checking for notifications that demand your attention, you’re not giving yourself time to wind down and relax. Stepping away from screens for an hour before bed and doing nothing or an activity that doesn’t require a screen, be it reading, listening to an audiobook or podcast, or doing a physical puzzle, etc can help you break the cycle that many people find themselves stuck in and give your body time to adjust and calm down.
Write Things Down
When everything is turning around in your head, it can be really easy to get stuck in a loop, and you’re not able to stop thinking about what is stressing you out or what you have to do, etc. A good idea here is to have a pen and notebook handy and write things down to get them out of your head. It might be that you need to organize the next day’s activities, or you might want to write down what upset you that day or what made you happy. It can be anything and everything, but getting things out on paper so you can see it in real life can give your brain the permission it needs to let go of it for the night so you can relax and get a good night’s sleep.
Try Calming Supplements
Not all supplements work the same for everything, but some people do find relief from taking calming supplements or using calming products to help them relax and unwind. It might be a case of using ashwagandha in your evening routine to help you build effects and relax, you can also try things like CBD or thc gummies to help you get into a more relaxed state after a particularly stressful day, start out with a low dose of your supplement of choice and then experiment with it over time to build up to a dosage that genuinely helps you and offer positive benefits.
Stack Wind-Down Habits
This isn’t going to be an instant fix, but if you find you’re struggling with stress for prolonged periods, then trying habit stacking could work for you. This is the act of stacking several small habits together into a consistent sequence to train the body to recognize that bedtime is approaching. It can always be dimming the lights right after you’ve had a hot drink before bed. It can be doing an hour of exercise, then having a shower and reading a book in the same order each night. The aim is to have things running predictably so your brain recognises the signs and starts to let go and relax before bed.
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy for schools and public bodies. Next to this I like a deep dive into educational gaming, and how finances influence our live. When I am not writing, I enjoy hiking in the Black Forest and experimenting with plant-based recipes.
