How do you Relax?

Do you relax?

Are you one of those lucky people, who after a long and busy day can switch off and fall asleep as soon, as your head hits the pillow? Or does your mind race and refuse to switch off, replaying scenario’s from your day’s activities and you wake up in the morning feeling exhausted?

How we behave during the day, including how we manage our stress levels has a massive impact on how well we sleep at night. If you are able to take as little as 10 minutes every day for yourself and develop a consistent ‘self ritual’ habit, it will help you to switch off at bedtime.

According to Tania Diggory, Founder of Calmer and Author of the book This is Calmer.

"Finding moments of calm in your day is essential for nurturing your overall wellbeing, particularly as a way of managing increasing demands on our time.

It can be easy to go day to day without considering what brings you happiness, centredness and a sense of balance. Whether it's a calming, creative or exercise based activity, spending time with loved ones, or something else entirely - when you start to take notice of what connects you to your sense of self, it can help to serve as a daily reminder of what's important and what contributes to helping you function at your best, so you can thrive."

Fantastic advice! Life is busy and demanding so it's important that whatever ‘self ritual’ habit you adopt is realistic enough to fit into your active day.

Here are 10 ‘self ritual’ suggestions lasting no longer than 10 minutes to help you to try and find ‘moments of calm’ in your hectic day

1. Go for a walk in the fresh air

2. Give yourself a facial massage

Massage one of our Organic Facial Oils, scented with neroli into your face. Both the act of massaging your face and taking in the uplifting scent of the neroli will help you to relax, as it can reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body.

3. Mindful meditation

The most basic way to meditate is to do mindful breathing. Simply focus your attention on your breath, the inhale and exhale. You can do this while standing, but ideally you’ll be sitting or even lying in a comfortable position, with your eyes closed. Regular mindful breathing will make it easier for you to do it when life starts getting crazy.

4. Give your hands and feet a massage

Massage your hands with our Organic Chia Seed Hand Butter, some of our customers also use it on their feet. The act of massaging combined with the uplifting neroli fragrance of the Hand Butter, will leave you feeling calm.

5. Dance

6. Be present in the moment

Put your mobile down and be present in the moment. That’s easier said than done. How often do you find you are not really listening to what someone is saying to you, as you're distracted by your mobile phone? We are all guilty of it – put the mobile away! Look and listen to the person you are speaking to and remember to smile at them, that always guarantee’s a smile back.

7. Give yourself a scalp massage

We hold so much tension in our scalp but just a quick 10 minute gentle scalp rub will calm you down and make you feel like the day is manageable.

8. Listen to some music

9. Write a gratitude diary

Spend time at the end of the day and think of one thing that happened that made you feel grateful and replay that in your mind and write it down. It will make you feel so much better.

10. Make time for your hobby

If you suffer from anxiety, doing repetitive rhythmic movements with your hands, such as knitting, sewing or gardening, are very good calming the mind as they release the happy hormone serotonin, which can lift our mood.

These are just some self ritual suggestions, I would love to hear if you do any of these or have your own.

Our Relaxation Products (fragranced with uplifting neroli)