Rejoicing in your Day – An Evening Practice

Last week, I wrote about rejoicing in your day by starting a morning mediation practice. Although many of us have heard about meditating in the morning, we often struggle with actually doing it regularly. Some people like to meditate at the end of the day too. While others find maximum benefit in doing both.

Have you ever tried using meditation to rejoice in your day … at the very end of it?

How to meditate at the end of the day, is something I recently read about and tried myself. I found it to be a great way to bring closure to the day, regardless how it went. Without judgment. By creating a space to learn from the past day. And maybe even be more intentional the next day. I is also immensely relaxing. In fact, I often find myself falling asleep before I complete it. Not bad for someone who sometimes struggles slowing down the wheels in my head to fall asleep. Research shows that many people struggle with this, as do many of my clients, so I thought I would share the routine I have recently adopted. It is a practice of reflecting on the events of the day.

This practise helps you notice if you have fulfilled your intentions for your day. And how you wish to “be with” the next day in the journey of your life.

At the end of your day, either lying in bed or sitting in a comfortable space, take a few deep cleansing breaths before going through the following sequence:

Step One: Reflect on your day. During this first step, consider important experiences, emotions, thoughts and reflections you had during that day. Don’t get bogged down in the details by focussing too much on what you did or did not do. Simply make a note of the major features. Then, consider whether your day was in alignment with the intention you had for it at it’s outset.

Step Two: Pay attention to your emotions. And instead of judging yourself, accept your experience. What emotions came up through the day? If negative feelings arose, just be present with them. Don’t try to push them away by only focussing on the positive. It’s very cathartic to just be with those emotions. And accept them as part of the human experience. During this step, you simply acknowledge what happened on an emotional level during the day. If you find yourself to be disappointed, put your hand on your heart and say: “I accept myself as I am – flaws and all, like every other human being.” Notice where you have fallen short on your intentions. It is natural to feel disappointed, but instead, try to use this to grow and learn.

Step Three: Feel gratitude. The most important quality about this practice is to deeply feel gratitude for what you have experienced. Yes, that includes what felt hard. As per my point above, this is the stuff which really allows you to learn and grow. As per a previous post, Change Anything (click here to see it) – turn bad experiences into good data. If you have a journal, this is great place to write down your thoughts and hold on to them for later reflections.

Step Four: Identify something to feel good about. Pick something you did during the day you feel good about. Maybe it was something “big”; maybe it was something “small”. You helped someone. You stayed calm in a difficult situation. You took the high ground when you were in conflict with someone.  You stayed true to yourself. If you can’t think of anything, rejoice in the very fact that you are doing this practise now.

Step Five: Look to tomorrow. Finish by looking to the next day by setting your intention to how you wish to face it – challenges and all. If we make happiness conditional on having a “perfect day”, we set ourselves up to be disappointed. Instead, trust that you will be able to handle whatever the next day brings. Release your concerns for the night as you go to sleep. With the insights you gained during this evening practice, you will be a better version of yourself yet again tomorrow.

And there you have it! A complete closing day practise. Try it out for yourself. If you need to change something to make it work for you, go ahead and experiment a little and make it your own. And be sure to leave a comment in the section below and share this post with friends.

Namaste,

Simone