If you remember Batman played by Bruce Wayne, you know he is a businessman by day and a savior of Gotham City by night. He can help others more during the night than the entire police force during the day. Although he has his shortcomings, he is a great superhero at par with Superman.
Looking at this character and comparing him to yourself. You may work by day and exhaust most of your waking time. However, the last few hours before bedtime can be put to productive use every single day to enrich your life positively.
In this regard, we want to share with you 7 evening habits to enrich your life this year.
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10-Minute Stretch
Think of your body as a huge mass of rubber. It needs to be stretched periodically to ensure it is fully elastic and functional for the next day. Although the analogy isn’t perfect, we know you get the point. It is the reason why you should stretch every evening before bedtime.
Taking the time to stretch out your body helps your body become relaxed. This leads to improved flexibility and endurance. And you know the more relaxed you are, the better you can function properly in the world.
In a study, they discovered that doing just a few minutes of stretching relaxes your joints and keeps you in tip-top condition. In addition, if you know David Goggins named the toughest man alive, he stretches for a whole 2 hours every night. If you find it time-consuming, apply the concept of atomic habits. This is where you simply take a habit and do a simple mini version. A 30-minute workout becomes a 5-push-up routine and so on.
Related Content: Atomic Habits To Lose Weight
So, at the end of every work day, before you take a bath, give yourself a break and do a quick ten-minute stretch.
Practice Gratitude
Gratitude has been known to alleviate stress and anxiety. It is a tool for feeling more thankful for what and ignoring what you don’t have. In short, it makes you calmer and relaxed.
So, in the evening, start by listing all the things you are grateful for. I mean all. Even what you deem insignificant like having a pet. Nothing is to left out.
Do this for a couple of nights and you start focusing on the positive side of life. This of course leads to better physical and mental health.
Write In Your Journal
Your life is full of rich and inspiring moments. There are times of the day when you are actively productive and have lots of great ideas.
These ideas can be turned into something productive if you remember them. This is why it is important to jot down all your ideas in a journal during the night before going to bed. It will give you a solid place to store all your insights and work on them at a later date.
To get started, get yourself a small journal and quickly record any idea that comes to mind during the day. Then, in the evening transfer them into your evening journal for the next day.
You will start building a plethora of insights and ideas that you can use to solve most of the problems in your life.
Check our journaling page for more solid ideas.
Writing Your Intentions For The Next Day
After you have written down all your insights and interesting ideas, take a few minutes to write out how you can use those ideas.
It might sound simple but doing so gives you direction. It helps you focus on solving problems rather than just thinking of ideas.
You can start with your evening journal and create a section for those intentions.
According to research, having a specific action plan for your ideas increases their likelihood of execution by 80%.
Don’t ignore this process.
Drinking Water
Taking water every night before bed according to research studies avoids dehydration and keeps your body at the optimal temperature. Consequently, this leads to improved sleep and better overall functioning.
We all know sleep is a major factor in helping us function properly which affects almost all the areas of our life.
So how do you add this habit to your daily evening routine?
Get yourself a water bottle and place it by your bed or in your living room. This will serve as a cue to help kick in the behavior.
Consequently, drinking more water is a good habit to have for a healthy life.
Physical Exercise
We know this is a general and vague term. But what we mean by physical exercise here is this. Any kind of physical movement that can help raise your heart rate for a few minutes.
It could be brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling, or even plain old pushups and squats.
Exercising every night before bed puts your body in a state of relaxation and helps you sleep better. Just make sure not to overdo it. Physically exerting yourself to the point of hurting yourself is out of the question. Something to help you sleep better, optimize your brain for quicker learning, and improve your body overall.
The healthier you are, the wealthier and happier you are.
10- Minute Meditation![Evening Habits - Meditation](//hobbysprout.com/wp-content/plugins/a3-lazy-load/assets/images/lazy_placeholder.gif)
The world’s most successful people are avid meditators. They meditate every single day without fail.
People have a problem with relaxing and staying present with their thoughts and emotions. And the solution they hop on to is meditation. This is evident among successful people like Katie Perry, Russel Brand, Hugh Jackman, etc. They attribute most of their success to continuous meditation.
We might have named this section a ten minute but a five minute is a great way to start. Start building the habits and work your way to 20 or 30 minutes when you internalize the behavior.