Although I am a personal development blogger by profession, I am in no way a mental health professional. See my disclaimer for more info.
Are you feeling tired after a long day at work or school? Here are 17 self care night routine ideas to feel relaxed!
Sometimes we have those days where we come home feeling exhausted after a long work day. Maybe we had a stressful day mentally and need a way to decompress. Or maybe we just want to treat ourselves to a comfortable night in (remember, you’re allowed to do that!).
That’s when I like to have a self care night. When I do this, I like to eat a good meal, stay off my phone, and overall do things that make me feel good. I don’t have these days as often as I should, but I surely appreciate it when I do.
If you’ve had a long day and want to find some ways to relieve your stress, you’re in the right place. In this post, I’m going to talk about some of my favorite things to do to treat myself.
This post is all about self care night routine ideas.
What is self care?
There are a lot of things that you might think self care is or isn’t. Self care is:
- doing things that make YOU feel good
- taking breaks when you need to
- listening to your body
Self care is NOT:
- selfish
- doing things to satisfy other people’s needs
- constantly disappointing yourself
When you practice self care, you do things to show that you love and care for yourself. This could be many things like painting, taking a bath, or napping. Whatever it is, do what you enjoy and make sure you do it often.
This will give you a sense of peace in a world that isn’t so peaceful.
Today, we’re mainly going to talk about mental and physical self care. I believe these are 2 of the most important types of self love. We often neglect self care because we spend too much time making sure everyone else is good.
But what about ourselves? We can’t show up for anyone if we don’t feel mentally stable.
So let’s talk about 17 things you can do to take care of yourself. Whether you had a long day or just want to treat yourself, you’ll enjoy any and all of these activities. A good night routine is crucial for a successful day, so let’s get into it!
17 Self Care Night Routine Ideas:
Physical self care ideas:
1. exercise
Exercising might seem tiring, but it’s a great form of physical self care. Your body can’t function how it’s supposed to if you’re not exercising your muscles.
I’m not saying you have to hit the gym for an hour-long workout. Have you thought of:
- Following a 30-minute YouTube workout
- Going on a 45-minute walk around your neighborhood
- Dancing in your bedroom
These are all considered forms of exercise. Don’t think that you always have to go to the gym for a good workout.
It can be as simple as dancing to your favorite playlist in your bedroom. You could really break a sweat doing this (haha). I do this more often than you’d think and it’s super fun.
2. Eat dinner
After you finish your workout, you should treat yourself to a good meal. You deserve it!
This is where things get fun. You can either order takeout or cook a meal. Personally, I’d probably order takeout because I’m a recovering DoorDash addict, but you do you!
There really is something therupetic about cooking, though. I think it’s because you put love into every part of the process. That would make sense.
Either way, take this time to eat your favorite meal. Maybe you haven’t had it in a while and now’s your time to indulge.
If you choose to cook, spend some time scrolling on Pinterest to find the perfect recipe. Pinterest has all kinds of recipes, so it might take a while, but it’ll be worth it.
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3. Take a bath
Taking a bath is a great way to both literally and metaphorically wash the dirt away from the day.
Grab your favorite bath products like:
- Bath bombs
- Body wash
- Body scrub
- Bar soap
- Bubble bath
- Bath sponge
- Back scrubber
- Loofah
- African net sponge
This is going to be a nice, relaxing bath. Not one of those quick baths where you don’t even use bubble bath. What’s the fun in that?
Speaking of fun, here are some things you can do during your bath:
- Listen to music/a podcast
- Read
- Scroll through social media
- Call a friend/family member
- Meditate
- Watch an episode of your favorite series
- Reflect on life
- Pray
If you really want to romanticize the experience, you can use a towel warmer. This way, you’ll have a nice and warm towel when you get out of the bath. It’s not 100% necessary, but cool if you want to feel luxorious.
4. clean your environment
Cleaning may not seem fun right now, but you’ll appreciate it tomorrow. You don’t have to get on your hands and knees and scrub the toilet. That’s what dedicated cleaning days are for.
Instead, do some spot cleaning. For example, if you cooked earlier, wipe the counters and stove, and load the dishwasher. This way, you don’t have to wake up to a messy kitchen.
That will instantly put you in a bad mood, now you know you can avoid it!
5. do your dental hygiene routine
Yes, dental hygiene is self care.
Now is when you’ll start to wind down for the night. Whatever your dental hygiene routine is made up of, start doing those steps right about now.
Here’s what I do:
- Floss
- Brush
…and that’s it! No, I don’t use mouthwash too often because I’ve had some negative experiences with it. Let’s just leave it at that.
6. wash your face
Skin care is also an important part of self care! You actually might think of skin care when you imagine what self care is.
After you finish your dental hygiene routine, you should start your skin care routine for the night.
Throughout the day, dirt and grime will gather on your face. You don’t want to go to bed with this on your face, do you? I hope not!
You should use a good face wash to get all of this dirt off your face before you go to sleep.
7. Moisturize your face
Unless you have oily skin, you need to moisturize your face after you wash it. Otherwise, your face will feel dry, tight, and cracked over time.
I’m sure you don’t want that to happen, so you should use a facial lotion to prevent this. Your face loses moisture when you wash it because of the sulfates and other ingredients in the face wash. Right after you wash your face, use a lotion to bring that moisture back into your skin.
Here’s my favorite moisturizer.
RELATED POST:3-Step Simple Skin Care Routine for Dry Skin
8. Take your medicine
If you have medicine that you take every night, now’s a good time to take that medicine. You never want to miss a dose, so make sure you stick to your schedule.
Please don’t skip this part! I don’t want you to procrastinate and realize a few hours from now that you forgot to take your medicine.
9. Turn up the heat
It’s time to get cozy. Turn up the heat so you can get nice and warm. This will make you feel good both on the inside and the outside.
If you live in a warm state or don’t want to turn on your central heating system, I suggest getting a small space heater. This way, you don’t have to heat up your whole house and annoy those who don’t like the heat.
Here’s an affordable heater on Amazon you can buy for your bedroom.
10. Get in bed early
Lights out! It’s finally time to get into bed.
If you usually go to bed late (around 12 AM), I want you to try something different tonight. I encourage you to get in bed around 9-10 PM. I know you’re used to getting in bed late, but it feels good climbing into your warm, comfy sheets at an earlier time.
By doing this, you get more sleep and more time to reflect on your day. When I get in bed, I like to pray to God about how my day went and how I want tomorrow to go. If you like this idea, feel free to use it.
Or, you can simply talk to yourself about how you’re feeling.
Maybe you want to stare at the ceiling until you fall asleep.
Whatever works for you, do that.
I will say, though, try to avoid any type of lights — your phone, TV, and/or Kindle. Bedtime is your time to wind down and give your eyes a break. It’s probably the only time that your eyes and body will truly get some rest.
We’re so busy throughout the day as we fulfill our needs and other people’s demands. A lot of this business is done on our devices, so we hardly ever get a break from looking at our phones or computer screens.
Please don’t waste your bedtime by scrolling through TikTok or watching an episode of your favorite Netflix series. Save it for tomorrow!
If you need some kind of sound for stimulation, you can turn on:
- A small white noise machine
- A box fan
- A thunderstorm video on YouTube
Mental Self Care Ideas:
1. Watch TV
No, you’re not lazy for enjoying a good TV show. Don’t let people call you lazy for doing things you enjoy. We all need time to relax at some point in the day!
Watching TV is a great way to stimulate your mind. It can boost your creativity, critical thinking skills, and attention span.
Here are some of my favorite series/TV shows:
- Abbott Elementary
- Never Have I Ever
- Ginny & Georgia
- Blood & Water
- The Kardashians
2. Scroll through Pinterest
If you’re not on Pinterest, what the heck are you doing?
One of my favorite things to do is listen to music and scroll on Pinterest. I like to look for dorm decor, recipes, outfit ideas, motivational quotes, and so much more.
Instagram and TikTok are great and all, but Pinterest is the most peaceful social media app. It’s technically more of a search engine than a social media platform. That’s what makes it so great.
You go on Pinterest to learn and be inspired, not to casually compare yourself to your peers. There’s good vibes all over Pinterest.
I will say, though, there are a lot of ads on the home feed. That can get kind of annoying, but you get used to it after a while.
3. Read a book
I don’t know anything more enjoyable than sitting down and indulging in a good book. To some, that might sound lame. But it’s a dream evening activity for others.
I love reading because it helps to boost my:
- Attention span
- Focus
- Imagination
- Vocabulary
- Creativity
- Mood
A big part of self care is being secure in your opinions, values, and beliefs. Many times when we go on our phones and scroll through social media, we end up comparing our life to others.
You can do this less by reading a book.
When you read, you’re imagining how a character’s life is, not an actual person’s life. No matter how great or horrible their life is, there’s a sense of reassurance in knowing that they aren’t real.
Also, if you’re trying to spend less time on your phone, reading is a great way to do this. You’ll be shocked how far you can get in a book before you even think about TikTok!
4. PUT YOUR PHONE ON DO NOT DISTURB
Putting your phone on DND lets you focus on what you’re doing and live in the moment.
When you have all these notifications coming in, it’s hard to prioritize what’s important. But, with DND on, it’s almost impossible to know when you get a text or someone posts on Instagram.
I challenge you to put your phone on DND and see if you notice a change in your mood.
5. Color or paint
If you loved coloring or painting when you were younger, you can make your inner child happy by doing a little artwork. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You could download a drawing app on your phone fulfill your inner child.
Or, grab a notebook and let your hands and drawing utensil do the magic. This is a great option if you want to avoid going on your devices.
6. journal
I can’t say enough good stuff about journaling. It’s sort of a creative outlet that let’s you get your thoughts out of your mind and onto paper.
Whatever you’re feeling, write about these emotions so you can visualize them. Visualizing your emotions really helps you realize that they’re actually real and have value, power, and weight.
You can choose to write in a bullet journal, free write, or even do some art journaling! Choose whichever form works best for you. It might take some trial and error, but you’ll eventualy find your groove.
I encourage you to end your night on a good note by journaling. If something or someone has been bothering you lately, it could be really healing to write about it. Maybe something exciting happened today!
Write about this moment so you can come back and reflect on it later. Hopefully at that point, you’ve grown from this experience (that’s the goal!).
Professional self care ideas
1. Make plans for tomorrow
If you want tomorrow to be successful, you should plan how you want your day to go. For the most part, you can’t just go into the day without any plans. In that case, you’re setting yourself up for failure!
You need to have a plan in mind.
Decide:
- What time you’re waking up
- What you’re eating for breakfast
- What your goals for tomorrow are
If you have school tomorrow, make sure you know what classes you’re attending and what times they’re at. Are you planning to meet up with a friend for a study session? Do you have a project you need to work on? Are you meeting with a professor during office hours?
If you have work tomorrow, make sure you know what time you need to clock in. Do you need to pack a lunch or are you eating out? What are you doing after work? Are you meeting with a colleague for a project?
Having a plan will give you a piece of mind and prevent stress and anxiety.
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Let’s recap!
We made it to the end of the post!
Today, we talked about 17 self care night routine ideas so you can relax after a long night:
- Exercise
- Eat dinner
- Take a bath or shower
- Clean your environment
- Do your dental hygiene routine
- Wash your face
- Moisturize your face
- Take your medicine
- Turn up the heat
- Get in bed and get comfortable
- Watch TV
- Scroll through Pinterest
- Read
- Put your phone on Do Not Disturb
- Color or paint
- Journal
- Plan for tomorrow
Please remember to take time to take care of yourself!
Self care doesn’t have to cost a penny. In this economy, I know it can be hard to find affordable things to do. That’s why I made this list of 7 free self care activities. They cost absolutely nothing and are fun to do!
In the midst of chaos, don’t forget to smile,
DeMarcus – your self care buddy
Pin it for later!
This post was all about self care night routine ideas.
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