[Vanessa Keranovic, Mindfulness Coach] Welcome to the course, "Mindfulness for Better Sleep". If you're struggling to fall asleep at night because your mind feels busy, even though you do feel tired, but ruminating thoughts and worries clog your mind and affect your mood, then this course is for you. It will offer you inspiration and insight into the releasing practices and calming rituals that can fully support you on our journey to a restful sleep and deep relaxation. In this course, we'll talk about a lot of things related to mindfulness, sleeping and sleeping rituals. We'll talk about the two modes in which your mind and body operate in, the doing mode and the being mode. In doing mode, we get things done. In being mode, we enjoy the present moment, we enjoy the things that we have done in the doing mode. We rest, reflect without judgment, and simply enjoy the moment as it is. We'll talk about how to shift between these two modes, doing and being, in order to fully reap the benefits of both, because they are both necessary in order to live a full life. We'll also talk about how to use mindfulness meditation and various relaxation techniques in order to unwind and relax in the evening, in order to shift from doing to being mode. We will talk about adopting calming bedside rituals and having reflection time so that you can nourish your soul and improve your sleep. Bedtime rituals and reflection time both play a big role in creating a routine you'll love coming back to, and in creating space for the mind and body to let go of the day behind you and prepare for the night ahead of you to relax, unwind, and fully rest. Sometimes this can look like calming down a very reactive mind with, for example, deep breathing or journaling, so that it knows that it's safe now and it can fully relax and rest. Sometimes these rituals will help you nourish your soul and deepen your relationship with yourself with practices like meditation or self massage. We will also dive deep into how you can use reflection time and journaling as a releasing practice in order to let go of the day and connect with yourself once again. I am sure you're already very much aware of how sleep is important for us. It helps the body to stay healthy and fight off disease. It helps the mind to concentrate, focus, think clearly and process memories. When we are rested, we have the energy and the time to focus on what truly matters to us. We have all experienced how when we are sleep deprived, our energy levels are depleted, and we are barely making it through the day, only getting things done and just focusing on getting home to our bed, just trying to make it through our tasks. We're not really being present, we're not enjoying the present moment. We are running on autopilot and waiting for the day to be over. So taking good care of ourselves, resting and sleeping well, is really about filling up our energy resources in order for us to focus on what really matters to us, to thrive, and to really enjoy life. At this moment, you might wonder what does mindfulness help, or how does mindfulness help us sleep better? Mindfulness is a simple practice of coming back to the present moment in an open, non-judgmental way. It helps us move throughout our day, but also in the evening, in a more open non-attached manner. And while worrisome thoughts may disrupt our evening, making sleep difficult, mindfulness helps us move with more intentionality and become less reactive over time. Practicing mindfulness regularly allows us to change our perspective, to take a step back and observe our situation or our thoughts from a more neutral position. This offers us more insight into how our current routines look like and what we feel called to change. In the next three days, we will dive deep into how to create an evening that will fully align with our inner self, allowing the mind, body and soul to release resistance, surrender, and allow rest. At the end of the four days of this course, you will find a meditation practice created to fully support you in letting go of the day, relaxing, and falling asleep. It is best practice when you're in your bed ready to fall asleep, so I encourage you to try it out. After the meditation, you will arrive at the last step of this course, journal prompts. You will be given two sets of journal prompts. The first set is carefully curated in order to help you understand where you are right now regarding sleep, sleeping rituals and habits, and what do you feel called to change? The second set of journal prompts is created to support you in doing evening reflections, an amazing releasing practice for the busy mind in the evening. But we'll go more in depth into this in day four of this course. This sums up day one. I'll see you in day two, when we're going to tackle mindfulness practices, meditation, deep breathing and relaxation techniques you can use in order to promote better sleep. I'll see you in day two.