Description: This week, Dr. Boogren challenges her listeners to develop sacred evening rituals that provide purpose and intention to that window of time between work and bed.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 46 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This week's invitation is to establish a sacred evening ritual. I know we've talked about our morning routine before, but I don't think we've ever specifically talked about setting up an evening ritual. And, even if we have, let's revisit it, right? I think that revisiting old strategies with a new lens can be really, really helpful. So, the evening ritual, just, this is something that you have that you establish that is something that you look forward to. ... That really marks ... To me what's so important about it is it marks a couple of things. It's your own personal thing to do. It really marks a sacred time. Something that you can really dive into and just sink into ... And, that feels just delicious. It's ... it's that space between you're ... you're done with the workday, right? And, you are not in bed yet. So, it's this little kind of window of time that I want us to treat like a gift.
So, think about what is your evening ... First of all, think about what your evening ritual, what your evening routine, I should say, looks like right now. How do you feel about it? What pieces do you want to hold on to? And, what pieces do you feel like you could let go or change? And, maybe that is where you're going to drop in your sacred evening ritual. Maybe this is a hot cup of tea. Maybe it's doing a meditation. Maybe it's doing some time to journal or do something creative. Maybe this is your workout time. Maybe this is when you call a friend and check in. Maybe this is that very specific TV show that you just love to sit down and watch no guilt, fully present for it. Maybe it's listening to a little bit of music, you know ... All of these different strategies that we've talked about for the out the different weeks. You know, maybe one of those strategies is what you want to hold onto and grab and put down as your good evening ritual.
Maybe it's just lighting a candle. Maybe it's your, your kind of skincare routine, or maybe it's just even, Oh, when you ... that feeling of changing out of your work clothes, putting on your jammies, getting cozy, and then what can you do in that moment that feels really, really good? Maybe it's reading. Reading a novel ... Maybe it's reading some poetry. Maybe it's reading, getting caught back up on your multiple issues of The New Yorker that you need to catch up on. That's me. Right? So, I love thinking about people's different evening rituals and being really, really intentional and purposeful about them. I love to ask people about these. This is almost as great as hearing about people's kind of morning routine. So, I want to know what is like that one piece that is just sacred, that feels like this is an essential component of your evening, that if you aren't able to do this, it just doesn't feel good. And, I want it to be just juicy enough that you kind of look forward to it all day long, that even if you've had a really bad day or a really hard day, you think, Oh, but I still get to do this tonight, whatever that piece is for me.
As many of you know, it's not going to be a surprise part of my evening, ritual that I love when the weather changes is an evening walk outside. Just a slow walk ... I have a couple routes that I typically take so that my brain just kind of shuts off. I sometimes talk to a friend while I do this. I sometimes have silence. Sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I listen to podcasts. There's just something about getting done with dinner, putting on the tennis shoes, getting myself outside that feels like such a nice closure to the day and just puts me in this really calm state of being when I get home, then ideally a perfect night for me is when I am able to not turn on the TV. When I get home from my walk, and I get ready for bed. And, I pick up my book like that is such a wonderful routine that I have in the evening. And, the ritual part of that is the walk. Oh, that just makes all the other pieces kind of fall into place.
So, play around with your evening routine and decide which part of that is going to be the part that just feels more like that ritual, that sacred piece that you don't want to miss, that you actually look forward to. We'll share some ideas over in the Facebook group and think about as we move towards the end of the school year. And, I know things are hard having this really valuable thing that we have. That's part of our lives ... It's just simple. Such an easy something that we can do just might be the key to help carry us through the end of the school year.
As always thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do. And, as always, thank you to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. May you find the most delicious evening ritual this week!
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