Katie L Clark: lifestyle

I love looking at routines, maybe I'm just nosey.... but I love seeing what people are up to, what products they're using and things! So why not share my routine? So here are 5 things I do before going to bed at night:

1. Skincare Routine

First thing's first, I go through my skincare routine. Which is usually pretty simple in the evening, I'll be posting an updated skincare routine next week though!

I usually just take my makeup off, use my toner and then pop on my sleeping mask. I'm not sure how much difference the mask actually makes, but it smells so good that I'm going to keep using it anyway!

I then try to remember to moisturise! I've got my hand creams and things next to my bed at the moment so I can remember to use it before bed.

2. Verse of the Day

I might do a separate post if anyone is interested, but aware that my blog doesn't focus on religious things!

I usually sit down and work on the verse of the day and my reading plans for the day. I use a combination of apps and notebooks for this and just try and work through different themes at a time.

But I can do separate posts if you guys are interested!

3. Catch up on Youtube

Once everything is sorted, I like to catch up on my YouTube subscriptions. I've been decluttering my subscriptions list so I'm not overwhelmed with content, so I usually only have a few videos to watch each day. So it's a manageable list! Sometimes there's nothing new, and sometimes I leave it all completely and just have an evening off my phone!

4. Plan for Tomorrow

At this point, I'm getting tired.... and it's time to get off the phone, so I grab my notebook and planner and sit down and work through my plans for the next day. I fill in bits that I had completed that day, I work on my goals and things. I'm also tracking my food at the moment, so I write all of my meals down and things. And just dump everything out of my brain!

5. Sleep Spray, Sleep Mask, Sleep!

Now I'm finally ready to sleep! I get my sleep spray and my sleeping mask and turn off the lights and hop into bed!

I'm a really light sleeper and I struggle to actually stay asleep, so I usually set up some background noise to try and help. I used to like using apps with white noise and things... but now I actually just put a fan on in my room because it's so hot anyway! Kill two birds with one stone and all...

But that's it! Pretty uneventful, sometimes I change it up a little... I used to do yoga before bed, but I'm finding I'm too tired by the evening to do that at the moment so that's moved to the morning for now! I've been really struggling with my sleep recently and am only getting around 3-5 hours of sleep a night... So,

What do you do to get ready to sleep each night? Do you have a night routine or just collapse in a heap at the end of the day?

I've been reflecting a lot recently. After finishing university I needed some time to recover, I'd had years and years of exams - 9 years of constant exams and coursework from GCSE to masters to be precise! And I just needed a break, I was having some health problems that had cropped up and just needed some thinking time. Time to actually make peace with me, and listen to the voice in my own head.

I knew where I was going in the long-term. I knew where I wanted to be in 10-15 years, I knew what my ultimate goals were. But I didn't have a plan for how to get there. So many people make 5-year-plans, I skipped that one and jumped straight to the long-term goals. Which in some ways was great, it gave me something to work for and a goal whilst I was at university. I woke up every day with a purpose. And I do believe we all need that. But it wasn't useful for day to day life.

Finding Purpose

It's important to have a reason to wake up in the morning, a reason to keep going and to push through whenever you're struggling. But these don't need to be huge goals. You don't need to sit down and write that you're working towards being president, that you're going to invent something life-changing.

Accountability

It's a case of knowing your own beliefs and values and sticking to them. I sat down and connected back with myself. As cliche as it sounds. I looked at my own actions and my beliefs and re-evaluated everything. Tried to justify all my beliefs to myself.

For example, I've been vegetarian my whole life. I never made the decision to become vegetarian, so I needed to sit down and re-evaluate. Make sure I had a reason for believing that and knew what decision I was making. I was holding myself accountable for my own decisions.

You can also apply this to religious beliefs, beliefs about how to live - do you want to buy or rent, how do you want to work?

Not going to get into my own personal views because this blog isn't focused on a debate of my own beliefs, I just want to help you all to be able to make these decisions and act as a prompt so you can also have thinking time!

Finding Joy

I've been reassessing everything. I've taken the words from Marie Kondo's Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up and applied it to everything, not just material possessions. We can declutter everything... commitments, relationships, all of the non-physical things in our lives.

I'm now in a position where I'm happy with the things in my life. I want everything I have. I love everything I have. I love all the people in it. And I now know I can give everyone and everything my full time and commitment... and that it's valued.

I really encourage you all to look at your lives, look at your average day. How much of that do you need to do? How much of it do you enjoy doing? How much of it is necessary?

Then look at relationships, do all of your friends help you grow and thrive? Is your relationship with your partner - if you have one - healthy? Try not to drive yourself insane, you'll know straight away. Just ask yourself whether it makes you happy. And cut out things that don't make you happy.

Learning To Be Me

I've really been learning what it means to be me, learning to be comfortable with my own skin. Making peace with myself. It was just a case of really looking into myself and realigning everything.

It's been a long process, I don't think I'll ever be finished because we always need to have an update as we grow and change! But this is my life now.

Hopefully, this one wasn't too heavy for you, are you facing clutter in your life? If you're finding it hard to balance everything, then maybe it's time to take a look and try and make your life a little simpler!

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend, and stay happy!