Being an introvert, I highly need to find energy again in some alone-time. You know, like a mask night with a warm hot chocolate, watching a movie. Who else can relate? So, here is a little list of ideas for your next me-time evening to recharge. Let’s go!

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Set the Atmosphere

A me-time to recharge means that we want to change the pace. For our mind to slow down, a great way to help is to make the environment slow down. And for that, we need to think of the 5 senses. So here’s how:

1. Listen to Calm Music

Instead of the busy city noise, put calm music. Make yourself feel at a spa, or by the water at a chalet far in the nature. Our fast-paced lifestyle often constrains us to the city. But our body definitely needs to reconnect with nature. And if we can’t actually take a real breath of fresh air, bringing the sounds to us already tricks our mind that we are over there. So that’s okay!

One of my fave track to listen to for me-time – and approved by the multiple people who got to accompany me in my relaxing nights – is this 3-hour-long one: HERE.

(I was thinking of adding more musical recommendation to my Youtube channel. What do you think?)

2. Dim the Lights

It is often recommended for a night routine to stay away from screens. The reason is that it projects bright white light to our eyes, which sends the signal to our brain that it is still the middle of the day. Therefore, our body still generates chemicals components to keep us awake, which is counterproductive, isn’t it?

So an easy way? Dim the lights if you can, or change it to more yellow lights. Sometimes, that may mean turning off your main source of light to turn on bed lamps, or candles. The yellow light is not as harsh on our eyes and sends the signal that we can relax.

3. Change the Scent of the Room

It has been well documented how much scents were having a direct impact onto our brain. Indeed, how our body detects this sense is so closely related to our emotions, just changing the scent may bring up our mood, or in this case, make us feel instantly relaxed.

If you used candles to dim the lights, why not kill 2 birds with one stone by choosing scented candles? This one is one of my personal favorite scent. It is light, yet so relaxing with Sandalwood scent – and at only $5.

You can find it on HM or click HERE. If you want to have cashback on your HM online purchases, you may know the drill but just in case, you can click HERE, sign up and get money for the purchases your were about to do anyway – and the best, at no extra cost to you 🙂

If not, what we like to use is essential oils. They don’t involve fire, so for the clumsy ones, that may be much better and bring you peace of mind 😉 There are different grades of essential oils, but if you are only to use them for their scent, the quality is not as important as if you were going to rub them on your skin or to eat them.

HERE is the pack that I got only for making my rooms smell better – $24. And it is proudly Canadian.

4. Make Yourself a Nice Hot Chocolate

How often do we take the time to simply make ourselves a hot chocolate? We are ready to go for coffee, or to buy our teas, but we rarely make hot chocolate for ourselves. How come?

Hot chocolate brings a warm feeling to our body. 1st because indeed, it is warm and truly physically warms our body. But 2nd, it is often associated in our minds and memories as those cozy winter days when we were younger, at a chalet or by the fire.

Here again, we want to put our body in a state that reminds itself of a situation which we were relaxed and calm, and trick it to accelerate the process. And it usually works!

This is one brand that I discovered a few months ago and that since, has been my go-to for hot chocolates: Botanica Health. They really focus in good quality ingredients to help our body feel better, allowing us to be top shape! And really, it is insane how it brings this cocoon feeling in the split of a second.

These are the 2 flavours I’ve tried:

• Reishi Hot Chocolate
• Tumeric Golden Milk Chocolate

You can use it with any type of milk, I personally tried in regular milk and soy milk and both were quite creamy! One tip, for me, the warmer the milk, the easier the powder was dissolving and thus creating a smoother texture. Depending, for the Reishi one, you might feel the coconut pieces in it and not get a fully creamy texture, but the taste is amazing and very quickly putting me in the same state as this cozy cat. 😉

That is it for Part 1!

Basically, if you think of changing all 5 of your senses, you will already have accomplished a giant step towards a successful me-time recharging night. So let’s slow down, relax so that we can kick into life the next day!

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we share our tricks of then, what to do to maximize your me-time night.