The Art of a Slow Evening: How to Stop Crash-Landing into Bed

It felt like time had slowed to a crawl. Every time I looked at the clock, I recalculated how much sleep I would get if I fell asleep at exactly that moment, and then I worried about how I would feel tomorrow if I stayed awake even one more minute.

When I heard the alarm, it seemed like only minutes had gone by, but I realized I must have slept for two or three hours. And I knew that no matter how hard I tried, I was going to be late for work - again.

The Problem with Nights

That was a common experience during my young adult years. I didn't get enough sleep and then, I couldn't  get to work on time the next morning.

Have you ever had a problem morning and known
clearly that it was connected to a difficult night the night before?

Though it’s easy to focus on fixing the struggle with
mornings , the first thing to resolve is whatever is
going on during the nights before.
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You Deserve Slower Evenings:
​And So Do Your Mornings

Slow evenings can make mornings easier—but that's not the only reason to have them.

​There has to be a point when the demands of the day begin to end.

Maybe you turn down the lights. Change into something comfortable.

Make tea. Stop answering people. Put tomorrow's unfinished business somewhere it can wait for you.

The evening becomes a gradual letting go process rather than a crash landing.

​For years, I thought about evenings mostly in terms of what they did to the next morning.

Did I get enough sleep? Would I wake up on time? Would I be exhausted tomorrow?

But here's something I've come to understand since then - the evening doesn't only exist to get you successfully to tomorrow. It's part of the life you're living today.

You deserve to have evenings you actually enjoy.

And if you're sensitive or easily overwhelmed, you may need those slower evening hours for another reason.

You may still be carrying pieces of the day with you—something someone said, a problem you haven't resolved, too much noise or ​stimulation, feelings you haven't had time to understand yet.

​And if you're spiritually sensitive, you may also want time to clear the energy of the day — to let go of what you've picked up, reconnect with your own energy, and come back to yourself before you sleep.
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A slow evening gives you somewhere to put all of that. Not necessarily to solve it. Just enough room to notice what followed you home, process what needs processing, clear what you're ready to release, and begin letting the day loosen its grip.
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A Few Slow Evening Journal Prompts

I'm hoping these will help you plan the kind of evenings that will help you get enough sleep and enjoy your mornings...

(1) What are you usually still carrying with you when evening comes?

(2) What helps you feel like the day is actually over?

(3) If your evening didn't have to accomplish anything except being a part of your life you enjoyed, what would you want more of?

(4) What would make the transition from daytime to bedtime feel less like a crash landing and more like a gradual letting go?

​Maybe that's what slow living has been about all along.
Not making everything take longer. Not moving through life in slow motion (although that would be fun to watch).

Maybe what matters most is to make enough room in your life to actually experience it.

​Even the endings.

Wishing you slow evenings and softer landings.

See you in October!

Love, Jeanine
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