10 Powerful Winter Night Routine Ideas for Women Who Want More Balance With Their Drinking

A night routine for winter can be a critical element to bringing more balance and alignment as the season begins to take its beautiful shift.

If you are anything like me in the winter, you might feel more drawn to spending time in solitude or with close friends in the comfort of your home. The winter is our hibernation too...

Summer is left in the dust and so is day drinking. Now, winter is the most beautiful season to slow down and find connection with nature's beauty, and what is better than connecting back to the raw beauty of wine?

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As a yoga teacher and mindful wine drinker, I realize how important it is to flow with nature's natural rhythms. For me, a solid night routine is the ultimate game changer. 

You will learn the best night routine for winter to slow down your drinking and move into a place of authentic beauty, connection, and find a more grounded lifestyle.

This post is all about night routine winter!

Ultimate Night Routine Winter

Winter Night Routine for Adults to Slow Down Drinking

Fall in love with herbal teas

First thing's first, to slow down your drinking of alcoholic drinks it can be SO beneficial to substitute that with another drink. 

So, replace your nightly drink with an herbal tea. I have found the best tea is valerian root. It can aid in sleep and relaxation like no other which can be beneficial for supplementing the buzz of an alcoholic drink!

Other lovely herbs to make a tea cocktail are lemon balm, chamomile, lavender, and for women, red raspberry leaf. Make sure to do your research on these herbs!

I like to make a mini cocktail with all, or some, of these herbs for one rich cup of tea to help aid in sleep, energy metabolism, relaxation, and support my cycle at whichever phase I am in.

Practice Hatha Yoga 

I have found when trying to change my night routine in winter, my mind is racing or I have too much energy in the evening. Coming down from summer is like trying to come down a sunshine high! Right?! 

Training our mind and bodies that it is time to slow down can be challenging, so use hatha yoga as a strong tool to slow down. 

I say hatha yoga and not vinyasa! Hatha yoga offers a slower more grounded approach that focuses on your breath more than anything. In hatha, you hold poses for longer, breath deeper, and breath slower. 

Drink a single glass of wine

Ok, here is an uncommon opinion: If you are trying to drink less or simply trying to live a healthier life then drink wine (FINE WINE, cheap wine won't cut it) or beer and avoid hard alcohol. I know that sounds crazy...

Wine and beer still have their plant influences. Right? Like grapes, grains and hops. Believe it or not, hops were once used as a sedative herbal medicine. 

Drinking hard alcohol is one more step removed from Mother Earth. It's more processed and can be harsher on your body.

So, to start to drink less as we move into winter, opt for top tier wines or beers. And have ONE if you feel like you really want one, in the mood, or the evening just calls for it. 

Get top tier wines here!

Have an evening ritual that serves

A drink every night is undoubtedly an evening ritual. Going out every Friday night is also undoubtedly a ritual, just like having your morning coffee every day. 

So, for the winter as your mind and body begin to slow down, invite a different ritual that serves your higher self. One that helps you reach a specific goal or one that fills your cup.

At the moment I am beginning to start an evening ritual at 7:30pm by turning off my phone and making a cup of tea. It gets dark around 8:30pm, so it gives me ample time to close out my day before the final rest. 

Some evening ritual examples you can integrate are:

1. Do an easy house chore (laundry, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, etc)
2. Go for a slow evening walk around the neighborhood
3. Do a 15 minute meditation 

Avoid technology for at least 45 minutes

You might have heard this one before, to avoid technology use for at least 45 minutes before you go to bed. This one is HUGE! Especially in the winter when it gets dark sooner you want to make sure you are not consuming blue light.

Consuming social media before bed pulls us away from our natural rhythms, away from our bodies natural cycles. Evening blue light exposure can raise cortisol levels which inhibits reproductive hormone function, alters blood sugars, and more.

Constant brain stimulation with blue light is detrimental to a winter night routine that aligns you back with the seasons and your bodies sleep and hormonal rhythms.

To honor the seasonal change and your body here are other alternatives to technology usage at night:

1. Practice slow yoga, deep breathing, relaxing music
2. Take a hot bath with candles 
3. Enjoy a nice conversation with your man 
4. Sip tea outside and watch the trees, birds, cars
5. Go for a walk around the block
6. Read a book
7. If you feel you want to have technology, then opt for a thought provoking movie, and if you can turn on "Night Shift" 

Winter Night Routine Ideas to Find the True Beauty of Wine

Use wine as medicine

My favorite winter night routine idea is seeing wine as medicine. Think about it, alcohol is a drug. There is no doubt about that. And, yes, drugs can be cocaine, marijuana, etc etc. But, drugs can also be tylenol, herbal medicines, and day-quil.

I mention this in a winter night routine because as winter falls we are pulled inward. Our bodies and minds seek more rest. It's the time to find understanding and deeper meaning, and wine as medicine may help us get there.

Leisurely shop for wines here!

Meditate with it (yes, I'm serious!)

Meditation can be the ultimate tool to grounding down and making this world feel not as messy and confusing, but Godly and pure.

When you meditate, use wine as medicine. Even have half a glass of wine and sit in meditation. What does that feel like? What other thoughts are you having that you normally don't? What are those? Do they need to be addressed?

Not only noticing your thought patterns and bodily sensations, but listen. Listen to the spirit of wine and what she has to say. You may or may not understand what that means right now, but opening the door to the connection is the first step.

Read these books

During the winter months, I can feel so much more creative and have some beautiful ideas show up. Since I tend to honor the season and move a bit inward, I can find some true beauty within.

Sometimes reading a novel or story can be daunting (I know for me it is), so here are two insanely good books that will connect you with the beauty of wine and transform your perspective on the fermented arts:

• Uncorking the Past, a famous archeologist who travels the world finding pieces of the puzzle to answer the question: Who was the first to ferment alcohol and why?
• Wildcrafting Brewer, a well-renowned natural brewer who uses herbs and plants in his natural landscape to ferment unique boozy concoctions (the photos alone are enough to want this book!)

Go to sleep with the sun

I spend a lot of time in Central America and when we are down there we live in a house with open air and minimal lighting. In the winter, when the sun goes down, instead of fighting the rhythms we go to sleep with the sun.

Then, what happens? We wake up with the sun. And you can do the same thing too! 

If you can muster up the control of getting off your phone before the sun goes down, have a ritualistic glass of wine, then find yourself in bed by sundown you might just fall in love with winter!

Understandably, not everyone has this luxury to move cyclically with kids, work, responsibilities, but if you can squeeze it in to your night routine winter you might just feel like a renewed woman.

Practice yoga with a glass of wine

Seeing wine as medicine can shift your entire perspective on how you drink it. When you do yoga, integrate wine in your practice, breathe with it, feel it, understand how it reacts to your body and mind.

Wine, and alcohol, can be used for our benefit if we know how to use them correctly. So, this practice is opening the door to invite in a new friend: the spirit of wine. 

This post was all about night routine winter!