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How Do You End The Day ?
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
As you can tell by the title it's a follow on from @zenguitar 's "How Do You Start Off The Day?" thread http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/21875/how-do-you-start-off-the-day#latest
My 'normal' day (one with no evening appointment scheduled) winds down with preparing the evening meal> cushion time> cook and eat the meal> a bit of study in the form of book or youtube clip> perhaps more forum time(which I look upon as Dharma study)>then perhap a bit of tv on demand or youtube movie (sometimes about Buddhism)...Then I watch the self unwind as it goes to sleep...
How about you all ? How do you wind down ? (Some might be inclined to 'wine" down...Each to their own)
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my pills make me feel horrible and I restless go back and forth between bed and kitchen and couch for two hours until the bad feeling disappears and I fall asleep.
Sorry to hear that @Jeffrey...Do you get much sleep ?
I don't really have an evening routine. I usually try to meditate for 15-20 minutes around 3 PM (though the time is not set in stone.) If I've had a trying/tiring day, I'll probably listen to some soothing music. If I'm feeling intellectually curious/stimulated, I may read some Dharma books. I may play an hour or three of video games. Dinner may happen at 6PM or 9PM, or maybe not at all. I'll probably end the day by staying up late (unless I'm really tired.) I hate staring at the ceiling for a couple of hours waiting to fall asleep.
@Shoshin I get a lot of sleep because when I wake up if I wake early I am very drugged like slurring my words, confusion, and out of balance. I don't work so I just sleep through the drugged state. I sleep 12-14 hours a day. Sleep is very important to Schizoaffective disorder.
It's good to hear that you do get enough sleep....
Despite my routine start to morning, our evenings are pretty chaotic. My husband usually makes dinner after he gets home from work. After that,homework,kids activities, bath/shower (we have 5 people and one bathroom so we split people up into evening and morning shower times), bedtime stories, ferret play time, other pet duties, sometimes a tv show or movie, and then bed. I like to read before bed so I usually retire a bit before my husband so I can read without disturbing him once he is ready to sleep. I don't get to settle in until around 10pm, sometimes it's later. Right now I could be relaxed with a nice cup of bedtime tea, but I have to pick up a kid in 90 minutes. I rarely get in meditation in the evening, but sometimes yoga and almost always a quick mental review of the day to see how I kept my development of bodhicitta flowing, and how I can do better next time. I usually fall asleep fast, but if not, I do a meditative body scan and that works well.
One of the best times of my day.
In bed, luxuriously reposing upon each breath, into sleeps embrace.
I end the day with some aromatherapy oil in a diffuser that shuts off when it gets too low (so no mishaps when/if I fall asleep), some background meditation music (again on auto shut off) and I try to chant at least three rounds of malas. I then do a session of mindfulness meditation and do a stocktake of my day. For all the unskillful actions, I make the sincere vow to try not to repeat them. At first I thought I was just paying lip service but as time has gone on, I can see a slight improvement, which is better than none at all.
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I tend to be a bit OCD, so my last thought before going to sleep is usually something like "Did I turn the gas fire off?"
I try to drag myself away from the computer, take a magnesium capsule or two, have a small glass of water on the bed table, listen to my little radio on the headphones (see if anything interesting on Geo Noory's Coast to Coast and do some mindfulness to calm myself of any potential anxieties.
Evening, after we put our son to bed, is last round of malas of the day for me, and cuddling with hubby on the sofa to watch series -NCIS, CSI, Homeland, Mr Selfridge, Elementary, etc.
I usually doze off halfway -despite the litres of matcha green tea I drink per day- and when I wake up at eleven, I naturally don't feel like going to bed anymore.
So I pick up some Dharma material to read, do some Lojong or some guided meditation from the Buddhify2 or Insight Timer apps, and if I'm not too tired, I log in here, which I have not done in days, except for one comment now and then.
I don't know why, but the evening hours open up my Dharma appetite.
It's usually the best time for me to read some sutta or the Dhammapada.
Its funny how we function(the odd hours we keep) ...Some are early birds, functioning best in the morning, some in the afternoon, and others of an evening/night 'night owls'.... I guess 'time' as we know it is irrelevant ....
yep
The day ends?
Then what?
One enters the dream world within the dream world within the dream world of sorts....
It's all just a dream within a dream apparently.
How do you end the day?
By being out paced by the earths own shadow.
Oooh, how poetic. Not quite as evocative for some poor insomniacs (like yours truly)....
Ideally reading a book in bed, then drifting into sweet dreams.