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For Those Who Feel Like Their Lives Are “Out of Order”
6 Routines to Reclaim Some Semblance of Structure as We Continue Operating in the Day-to-Day
When’s the last time you had a day where you felt like things went “right?” Where, as you laid down to sleep, you looked back over the day and thought, “yes, that is how I wanted my life to turn out”?
Maybe a day is too long. When’s the last time you had a few hours like that? Or even just one hour?
It’s not being dramatic and it’s not being melancholy to admit that things feel a bit “out of order” currently. We’re entering year 3 of COVID-affected living. We’re on the doorstep of what feels like could turn into World War III between Russia, Ukraine, Europe, and the West. Inflation seems to be rising, along with depression, anxiety, loneliness, and fear.
Caring about things on a global scale feels like it’s never been more important, and at the same time, it feels as if it’s never been more daunting and exhausting to picture this type of ongoing, consistent, disruption.
Or maybe, for you, it’s something closer to home and more personal. Perhaps your feeling of “out-of-order” comes with the newly discovered 3 A.M. middle-of-the-night, wake-up when all you want is to have one night of uninterrupted, peaceful sleep.
We are in uncharted waters, trying to cross over a bridge we’ve been building as we’ve been walking, only to discover that where we thought we were going doesn’t exist.
So what do we do now? For me, I’ve determined six things, three that I’m trying to implement in my bedtime routine and three that come in my early morning moments. I hope these routines help bring some semblance of structure to this nearly constant feeling of “out of order.”
Bedtime Routine #1 — Unwind, Don’t Unplug
It was the fourth straight night of falling asleep watching my favorite TV Sitcom The Big Bang. I woke up at 3:26 AM with a kink in my neck and the lights all still on in our living room. I moved my stiff shoulders, sat up, and stumbled over to flip the switch and use the restroom before collapsing back on the couch to get a few more hours of uncomfortable sleep.
