In this wellness vlog, Ayurveda health coach Hadlee Garrison walks viewers through her evening routine designed to improve sleep quality and morning refreshment. She begins by emphasizing the importance of removing the phone from the bedroom, likening it to tucking a child into bed, and explains how this simple change supports nervous‑system regulation. She then demonstrates lying on a foam roller to align the spine, a practice she learned from teacher Katie Silcox, describing how the hard surface raises body awareness, opens the chest, and relaxes the hips, thereby calming the nervous system. Next, she shares a quick self‑foot massage using season‑ and dosha‑appropriate essential oils, noting its benefits for both falling asleep and staying asleep, and references a deeper dive video with Dr. Caine. She creates a sensory ambiance by lighting a candle, using a stone diffuser with essential oils, and ringing a singing bowl, which she sometimes pairs with a brief (2‑minute) meditation focused on gratitude. Hadlee also incorporates journaling to surface suppressed emotions and extract lessons, followed by low‑stimulation reading—preferably memoirs, poetry, personal‑development books, or even Ayurveda textbooks—to wind down without over‑stimulating the mind. She mentions adjusting the routine seasonally (more practices in fall/winter) and encourages experimentation to find what works individually. Finally, she promotes her "Happy Healthy Habits" coaching program for a comprehensive health transformation and directs viewers to related videos on Ayurveda‑based sleep improvement.
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Join me for my Ayurveda-inspired evening routine. If you've been having trouble staying asleep or falling asleep at night, or maybe you're just not feeling refreshed in the morning, then this video is for you. If you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, hit the subscribe button and the bell to be notified every time I post a new video about creating a happier, healthier mind, body, and life. I've been an Ayurveda health coach for the past 4 years, and I am so passionate about helping people get the sleep they really need. It's really the foundation for everything else. We can't really achieve that much other success in our health if we don't have this foundation. So join me in my evening routine to wind down, regulate your nervous system, let go, of any stressors from your day, learn to really integrate whatever lessons the day brought you, and then get the sleep quality you need to wake up feeling rested and refreshed and ready to take on the next day. The first and perhaps most important thing I do in my evening routine is to put my phone away. Sometimes I like to think about it as, you know, like Tucking it into its own bed, like a parent tucking in their kids and then getting some time to themselves. And so having a home for my phone outside of the bedroom has been an absolute game changer in my health and just in my life in general. And lying down on my foam roller is another major life hack that I learned from Katie Silcox of the Shakti School, and she's one of my teachers, and it's an absolute Absolutely life-changing practice. Now, I'm not talking about rolling out my muscles, though I do love to do that as well, but this is just a practice of aligning my spine with the foam roller and allowing my body to soften on top of it. So this practice in itself, it already starts to allow your body to relax and release tension. As well as regulating your nervous system. So the hardness of the foam roller actually brings your awareness to the back of your body, which often doesn't get that much attention, right? We don't often think about our back. And so it also gives you awareness of where your body is in space, which your nervous system really loves. That makes you feel really safe. And by placing your spine along the roller, gravity also starts to pull the muscles of your back down off of your bones. It also opens up your chest and it relaxes your hips toward the earth. And so whenever I'm feeling like I'm holding a lot of tension in my body, or I feel like my thoughts are kind of flying every which way, lying down on my foam roller for a A few minutes pretty much always does the job. So this practice is a little life hack, and it is giving yourself a foot massage before bed. So I'm a big believer in self-massage for so many reasons, and you can totally give yourself a full body massage before bed as well, but foot massage is quicker and it's often more accessible for people. So foot massage is definitely helpful for falling asleep, but the real magic is that it also helps you stay asleep. And that makes it especially helpful for people who wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep. So I love to do this with oil and add some calming essential oils based on the season, based on the The dosha that you have going on. And if you want to learn more about self-massage and the different oils that you can use for your dosha and the seasons and all of that, then definitely check out my video with Dr. Caine all about self-massage. Then one of my favorite things to do when I'm getting into bed is light a candle, drop some essential oils on my stone diffuser, and ring my singing bowl. And these things just make me feel really yummy and cozy, and they bring all the warm and fuzzy feelings that just make my life a tiny bit better each day. If you're needing some extra nervous system regulation or time to wind down, you could also meditate here. So sometimes I just do a really short meditation here, even just 2 minutes, and I allow myself to really sink into the sound of the singing bowl and just feel gratitude for the day. And other times I meditate when I'm hanging out on the foam roller. Again, I allow my evening routine to change based on my needs. Journaling is another really helpful practice, especially if I've got recurring thoughts that just keep circling through my mind. So usually it comes down to journaling about number one, what emotions am I suppressing? And number two, what is the lesson behind those emotions? And then last, I sometimes like to end my night with some reading once I've journaled all of my thoughts onto the paper and I feel like I might not be quite ready to fall asleep yet. I'm not quite tired enough to fall asleep. So one caveat to this is that I don't really read books that are very stimulating. So typically that means that all fiction is off the table. So I love reading inspiring things like memoirs or books of poetry, personal development books, and my husband Todd also sometimes makes fun of me for being a nerd because I sometimes like to read my Ayurveda textbooks right before bed. But hey, a textbook is a surefire way to fall asleep really fast. And then once I feel my eyelids getting heavy, that's when I know it's time to put the book down and fall asleep. And honestly, I often skip reading if I'm tired by the time I'm done journaling. I'll skip any number of these bedtime routine practices Actually, if I'm already feeling regulated and I'm feeling ready to fall asleep. I also tend to do more of these practices in the fall and the winter versus in the summer when the sun is setting so late in the summer. So remember that each of these practices are just tools to help you. So experiment with them, see what helps you fall asleep and stay asleep. See how you feel the next morning and see kind of what practices you did the night before and and experiment with it and just take what's helpful for you and leave the rest. If this resonated with you and you want a complete transformation in your health and how you go about your everyday life, then check out my signature Happy Healthy Habits coaching program in the link below. This program helps you not only get better sleep and cultivate an evening routine that really works. For you and your needs, but it also helps you implement all of the success habits that you need to get you feeling the best you've ever felt in body, mind, and spirit. If you want more on getting better sleep with the help of Ayurveda, then check out this video next. And if you want more on creating a happier, healthier you, make sure you subscribe and you hit the bell to be notified the next time I post another video. See you in the next one.
