The recent time change gave me all the feels…A full moon, the end of Mercury Retrograde, 3 other planets just starting their retrogrades, and the unsettling reality of a pandemic thwarting our normal routines and making us all “physically distance” has made for a mind that doesn’t want to turn off at night. How do I still manage to get some proper REM sleep? Here are my go-to’s for using Feng Shui to create a space for total rest:

1)      Turn off the news at night. The worst thing you can do is to check your email or get a news update (other than the weather) right before bed. This is designed to “hook” you emotionally, which restarts the adrenaline cycle just as you need it to tone down. Start with a news fast for 60 minutes before bed, and if that isn’t enough, go to two hours.

2)      Minimize electronics in the bedroom. Many couples have a TV in the bedroom, thinking that it’ll be a nice way to snuggle up to watch a movie. Instead, it becomes the focus in a room that ideally is dedicated to sleep, intimacy, and restoration. Don’t let your flatscreen become a relationship substitute. And on that same vein, cell phones need to be banished as well as tablets. Get a cheap alarm clock so you aren’t tempted to check your DM’s in the middle of the night. Doing work on your laptop in bed is fine if you are sick and need to self-quarantine, but that’s the only time.

3)      Get a solid headboard and place it flat against a wall. The image I selected to go along with this  article shows what NOT to do…no open frame headboards floating in the middle of the room. It’s better to have NO headboard than this situation. Your energy field relaxes while you sleep, giving your chi a chance to “puddle” around you. Without a solid headboard, you can lose vitality and a chance to sleep deeply. The best bed frame is a wooden one, as metal can amplify EMF’s (electromagnetic frequencies), which can trigger illness and hyperactivity in those who are sensitive to it.

4)      Fade to Black. Blackout curtains are a great way to provide the darkness our bodies crave for our circadian rhythm to keep us in a healthy sleep cycle. Having an all-white bedroom can look crisp and appealing, but it’s too yang (active) for our sensitive chi.

5)      Honor the Intangibles. Using a calming essential oil as a pillow spray or diffusing them will help to create a ritual as part of good sleep hygiene. We all crave patterns that signal our movement from wakefulness to dream land. I personally can’t relax unless I’ve flossed my teeth. If you have a snoring partner, it’s OK to sleep in another room until they figure out what the root cause is. Silicone earplugs are a necessity for me, as I have hyper-sensitive ears. If you do listen to music, focus on instrumentals. Your brain wakes up to the spoken word.

6)      Put some weight on. Weighted blankets are easy to find these days after people with anxiety realized that their gentle pressure gives comfort without the added heat of heavy quilts.

7)      Water down your intentions. Write down all that you are worrying about. It could be your actual to-do list, or a basic brain dump of all that your monkey mind is creating. Put it in a red envelope and then place that envelope under an open container of water and sea salt. Place this underneath your bed (and this should be the ONLY thing under your bed, or else that may be another reason why you aren’t sleeping well!), preferably under your heart chakra. Set the intention that your fears, worries, and anxieties will go into the container and be absorbed by the salt and water combo. Dump the contents daily for a week, and then check on the list to see if those items have resolved or at least found some peace around them.