GWYNETH PALTROW'S EVENING ROUTINE

via @gwynethpaltrow

Oh Gwyneth. Love or loathe her, she’s unapologetically herself: “I am who I am. I can’t pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year.”

When she’s not selling her vagina candles or preaching about the benefits of an 8-day goat milk cleanse, she does have some sensible advice about how to relax.

The woman who gave us the term “conscious uncoupling” leads a lifestyle based not just on clean eating, but what she calls “clean sleeping”: 7-8 hours of good, quality sleep. “Ideally even ten,” she says (editor’s note: as if). “Sleep plays such a powerful role in determining your appetite and energy levels that I believe it should be your first priority — even before you think about your diet,” she says.

She begins her evening with a “ridiculously early dinner time” because she believes ongoing digestion can rob some of the restorative and reparative energy that happens during sleep.

She then does a yoga nidra class or goes for an evening walk to let her brain disengage from input while getting some fresh air.

“I like to take a bath with baking soda and salt,” she says, especially after jetting around. “A naturopath once told me that it helps to pull the radiation out that you get up in the sky.” She pops drops of essential oils for added aromatherapy benefits.

She pops in a few drops of essential oils and epsom salts from Dr. Teal's, which she says gets “all the energy of the day off.” The minerals in the formula release toxins from the skin, helping to cleanse and soften skin texture.

Surprisingly, she turns to an affordable tea: Sleepytime by Celestial Seasonings, “something that I’ve honestly had since I was a toddler.” Less affordable? She often calls in for a foot-and-head massage.

Remember, we are talking about Gwyeneth Paltrow so don’t think the indulgence ends there: she sleeps on a $22,000 mattress she developed in collaboration with Avocado Green Mattress company: “It’s expensive, I’m not going to lie, but it is so worth it!”

She chills her room and props herself up on a copper pillowcase, committing a sleep hygiene faux-pas….often drifting off to the television. Blue light has been found to directly interfere with the body’s release of melatonin, the hormone that tells your body it’s time to sleep, but she says “for me, it's like Ambien.”

She advocates for sleeping nude, except for some handy sleep strips which are said to promote quality shut-eye. But rest assured, she isn’t immune to being jolted awake with worries:

“It can be everything from just those feelings of anxiety...to total catastrophizing [thoughts like] Goops going to go out of business and I don't know what I'm doing. So, I can go to extreme catastrophe. I don't do it a lot, but when it happens, it happens. And I'll be awake at 3 a.m. in the morning thinking of every mistake I've ever made, and it's not productive.”

In these times, she calms her nervous system with “square breathing exercises” she learned from Brené Brown. To practice it:

⟡ Inhale through your nose for a count of four (1, 2, 3, 4)

⟡ Hold your breath for a count of four (1, 2, 3, 4)

⟡ Exhale through your mouth for a count of four (1, 2, 3, 4)

⟡ Pause and hold for a count of four (1, 2, 3, 4)

⟡ Repeat (video tutorial here)

Okay. I can do the breathing free air part—but I don’t know if a $22,000 mattress (or ten hours of sleep!) is realistic for most.

Although some of what she practices comes with a hefty price tag, she maintains that the “the true tenets of wellness are all free.”

I’m prone to agree.

So what about Gwyneth's routine feels attainable to you, if anything? Drop a comment.

Psst. Did you know Gwyenth is a super fan of Moon Juice? Check out Moon Juice founder's unusual evening wind-down routine.

Design the evening routine of your dreams...I’ve taken inspiration from wellness girlies like Gwyneth and compiled 40 wind-down ideas + a free planner so you can prioritize self-care tonight. Click here.