Summary
In this video, Dr. Nammy explains how she reduces stress through her night time routine. It involves dental care, showering, cold water, and restorative meditation.
Dr. Nammy’s Nightly Routine for Lowering Stress (Video)
Hi, this is Dr. Nammy. I am delighted to share with you today about my nightly routine. I am so excited to share this because it is the number one most important thing that I do for my self-care.
Everyone talks about the 5 AM club and how they get started earlier in the morning and how productive they are, and it’s wonderful and I encourage it. In fact, I do it myself. But even more important than my 5 AM routine is really my nightly routine. And the reason why the nightly routine is so important is because my brain and body needs to wind down and I want to lower the amount of stress that my body is feeling.
Sleep Is Critical for Your Health
I want to lower the amount of cortisol that my mind is experiencing and my body is experiencing, so that I can have the best restorative sleep because sleep is so important. Sleep is when your body fights cancer, fights heart attacks, fights heart disease, and fights all sorts of problems.
So I want to make sure that if I want to maximize my day, I’m going to make sure I have a nice nightly routine. And it is just as important as your early morning routine. I’m going to share with you with what I do.
Dental Care and Rehydration
Of course, I’m going to start with flossing. I start my nightly routine with flossing, brushing my teeth. I love to take a shower. Water is really important. What water does, it resets our tone. Hydration is so key. When we are taking a shower, that water is being absorbed by our skin. We are getting rehydrated.
We’re 90% water, so it’s a great way to replenish our body and it’s a great way to disconnect from our day. After I shower, I actually do a couple things in the shower, which are really fun. The first one is I love to put some aromatherapy in there. Lavender is my favorite. And even using a shower bomb or something along those lines. If you’re a bath taker, I highly encourage Epsom salts and take a nice 20-minute bath. It is the best thing you can do for yourself.
Meditative Cold Shocks
And so, first thing, I take a nice shower about five to seven minutes or so, then what I do is I turn the water onto super cold and I stand in there for two minutes. What I do as I’m standing in there is I always have my palms together and it’s a meditative state, and I sit there and just breathe for two full minutes and just really allowing that cold water to go over my body and to take away all that cortisol and all that stress and replenish it.
The process of the cold water is super important. It’s kind of like a cold plunge, but I don’t want to do a cold plunge every day, so this is my mini cold plunge. And in those two minutes I can get hormesis, which means that I can allow my body to become stronger. And in those two minutes, as that cold water is going on my body, I’m hydrating myself, I am actually telling my body to start healing itself and activating my healing properties, which is so wonderful. That is my favorite thing to do in the shower.
Nightly Meditation
Now, after I get out of the shower, I like to meditate. I sit down, and my meditation’s in my bed. I feel like that’s an easy place for me to be able to do it. And I will sit down for 20 minutes and I will turn on a timer for 20 minutes and just breathe.
Breath is so important. It is the breath of life. I like to give myself that downtime, the 20 minutes to just breathe. I don’t think about anything. I don’t ask about anything. I just sit and breathe and I create space. When I create this space of breath, it is a great way for source to step in, it is a great way for my body to calm down, it is a great way for myself to be able to clear my thoughts and know what my next steps need to be, what my action plan’s going to be, or anything that needs to get done.
I call it really working smarter versus harder. And when we create that space, there’s space for resolutions, there’s space for healing ourselves, there’s space for healing our bodies.
And it really is a beautiful space for us to be able to be in charge of our own lives and to take total control. Just by taking those breaths we can set up our next day, things just go smoother. It’s almost like planning. Taking the time at night to kind of wash out the day and then create space for new.
When you start the 5 AM routine, or whenever you start the next day, you’re already starting on a win. You have set that up for yourself. And that’s why I like to do the nightly routine. Again, floss, brush your teeth, shower, and end it with a two-minute cold shower. It’s fantastic. Then 20 minutes of breathing and end it with gratitude and some love and self-care. It’s a beautiful way to prompt your body to heal itself. It’s a great way to tell your brain to find solutions for problems you may be having.
Stress Reduction and Self-Care
It’s a great way to be spiritual as a source for solutions, whatever you need. And most of all, it’s just the breath and space for yourself. And so, I invite you to try a nightly routine today. Even if you can’t do 20 minutes, do 10 minutes or five minutes, just do something where you’re creating that sacred area or that sacred time for yourself so that you can be more effective with your body, you can be effective with the work you’re doing, and you’re really honoring yourself. And that’s why I invite you to do so. Check it out, try it out. I’d love to hear what you think about it, or I’d love to hear how it goes for you, so keep me in the loop. Thanks.