Hello all!
I just got off of work and am gearing up for my first self-care night of the Fall. I believe that every good self-care night starts with something creative, so in an effort to not completely fall off of this blog, I’m sharing with you readers how I spend my luxurious evenings.
The Basis of a Perfect Self-Care Night
My self-care nights are built off how I picture my ideal self. It is almost like I’m cosplaying as myself if I was playing life in God-mode. Because of this, I only participate in activities that my highest self would do. It is an important baseline understanding that I would never expect this particular itinerary to be sustainable in any way. It involves more time than I typically spend, and more products than I would usually buy, but I love that every now and then I go a little crazy and choose to check off every aspirational box from my vision board.
The themes of these nights are Unplugging, Sensation, and Positivity. It is critical to maintain an intentional, positive mindset as you spend time with yourself, making your body feel good, and focusing on what is in front of you without the distraction of consumption. With these themes in mind, I’ll now walk you through tonight’s itinerary.
Creative Time
I always start my self-care nights with dedicated time to create something. I am writing this blog right now, so score! Double whammy, I’m making up some goofy harmonies to the songs that are coming on shuffle from my Autumn in Topeka playlist on Spotify.
Some other things I might choose to do in my creative time on other nights include doodling in my scrapbook, working on that paint by numbers I might never finish, or learning some dances off of YouTube in my living room. I’m in the early exploration phases of figuring out what it might look like to create more than I consume, so I like to be thoughtful and intentional with this time.
Dinner Time
After my creative juices flow, it is time to eat. This dinner time ritual requires some buy-in, but I promise it is worth it.
As a 25-year-old living alone who HATES to clean the kitchen and wash dishes, I’ve developed a pretty solid menu of classic, simple meals that use minimal ingredients and supplies to make. Believe it or not, I stick to this rotating menu, even on a self-care night. The thing that makes it special, sensational, and positive is the cooking experience. Here is how I set the ambience:
Jazz - listening to jazz is the ultimate ambience piece to this puzzle. It is so versatile, fast jazz, slow jazz, crooners, standards, Laufey, musical theater… the choices are endless, and they’re all a unique slay vibe. The only rule here is that it must be jazz.
Mocktail - Sipping on a cutesy little beverage is one of my favorite feelings. You could totally use wine or an actual cocktail for this if you wanted to, but I’m not really the type to drink casually or by myself. Mocktails capture the magic though, I promise. I like a Poppi in a wine glass or a strawberry lemonade.
Candles, String Lights, Lamps - Light every candle you can within reason. Turn on the year-round Christmas lights, use that funky lamp. As far as I’m concerned there is never an excuse to have your big lights on. Little lights supremacy!!!
With all this going on, you should be able to really romanticize this cooking experience. Some of my favorite romantic positive thoughts include:
How fun to be in one of the first generations of women who gets to live alone and know yourself this way!
Food doesn’t have to be pretty to be delicious!
I could literally make every dinner just like this!
I’m living in this moment!
It’s like I’m in a cute montage scene where the leading lady is being so independent and girlboss!
Movement Time
Moving is important on a self-care night. I notably did not say exercise… sometimes that isn’t the vibe. But tonight, we are moving.
One of the most interesting changes to my body since I’ve found a gym/exercise routine that I really jive with is that on days or nights where I’m lazing around, my body actually WANTS to move, stretch, or maybe even lift something really heavy. I’ve found it really helpful on rest days of care days like today to make my movement a TBD, spur of the moment decision. I make a very quick decision after cleaning up after dinner. Tonight, I am expecting to do Yoga, but who knows if a walk around the block will call to me…
Shower, Skin Care, Hair Care, Veg Out
After movement, we are getting clean and snatched. Straight to the shower!
I don’t care when my last everything shower was, every self-care night requires an everything shower. I’m shaving, I’m washing and conditioning my hair, I’m using the exfoliating sugar scrub I got for my birthday, I’m moisturizing. I’m doing it all because it feels good, and my highest self would always have this on lock.
After the shower, it is time to lounge around in a hair mask, a face mask, a tooth white strip, and some petroleum jelly slugged over my lips. This is also the first point in the night that I will interact with content. I love to spend this phase either watching some easy viewing on Netflix or scrolling on TikTok. Tonight, I’ll be watching How I Met Your Mother because it is my boyfriend’s favorite show, and I need to catch up.
Bedtime Routine
My favorite part of every night is bedtime. I have my favorite candles in my bathroom and on my bedside dresser. This is a simple routine, the same I follow every night:
start the 60 minute fake sunset on my sunset clock
brush teeth and floss by candlelight
wash face, hit the gua-sha
wash face again, moisturize
overnight lip oil on the lips
brush hair very dramatically like I’m a princess
write in my one-line-a-day journal
drift off, no phone.
Perfect 4 Me
This is my itinerary for tonight, perfect for me. I’d love to know if my readers agree or disagree that this is the perfect way to do self-care.