The bedtime ritual I do instead of scrolling my phone that helps me fall asleep *and* manifest

Hello dear sensitive ones! A little bit ago, I jumped into the New Sensitive paid subscriber chat (are you there yet? I often do free mini Tarot readings there…and more).

And I asked readers what they most wanted to hear from me next, from a laundry list of nearly 10 ideas I have had floating around.

The one that got the most vote? This very post you’re reading here. And I understand why.

We’re all exhausted of having our phones in our beds, scrolling ourselves to sleep, we know it’s bad for us, and we want out, but we’re not sure how to stop and change to something else. It seems impossible. At least, it did for me.

Since I’ve had an iPhone in my grubby little hands (ugh, like FIFTEEN YEARS AGO), I’ve used it as a soothing visual pacifier/turn brain off plz tool of sorts to help me fall asleep. There’ve been years where my phone has come into the bedroom with me every single night, despite all the accumulating science of just how very bad it is for both your physical and mental health.

But it’s not just your physical and mental health that your phone is stealing from you. When I started to understand the power of the subconscious especially for manifesting things you want to happen in your life, and how the moments you drift off to sleep are a powerful portal for using your subconscious for manifestation, that I really started to question my phone use, and decide to try to shift to something else.

To be totally honest, I’ve never been great at sticking to something simply because I know it is “good for me.” But if you tell me I should do something because it will improve my ability to manifest/co-create… my ears perk up.

Anyways, overall, between my increased understanding of circadian science, blue light’s impact on your health, how scrolling (even seemingly passive, silly, low-stakes scrolling) keeps you stuck in fight-or-flight and disrupts your nervous system and the moments-before-sleep-manifestation potential, these days, my phone is OUT of my bedroom, 99% of the time. (Sometimes, when I’ve been super overstimulated, socializing late, up late, or returning home late from travel, I will still scroll myself to sleep and I accept that as my pacifier that I need every once in a while.)

So. If you don’t have a phone to scroll yourself to sleep… what do you do then??

This post is about what I do.

First. In order to understand why this period before falling asleep is so important to manifestation, you need to know a bit about the hypnagogic state.

The hypnagogic state is that kinda dreamy window between waking and sleep. I think it’s one of the most interesting and best times to practice manifestation. As you fall asleep, your brain is moving away from the alert, analytical activity of waking consciousness and into slower rhythms associated with sleep, with alpha activity giving way to increasingly slower activity as you enter the first stages of sleep.

You might have experienced this time before because it’s that fleeting space when people can experience vivid imagery, strange associations, fleeting scenes, sounds, thoughts, etc that feel as though they’re coming from somewhere other than the conscious mind. Have you ever felt you’ve heard voices whispering or seen images during this time? That’s the hypnagogic state. In other words, you’re not quite in your everyday thinking mind anymore. You’re in this liminal space where imagination and unconscious material can become much more prominent.

That’s part of why this state has such an interesting connection to manifestation: rather than sitting there trying to intellectually convince yourself that something will happen, you can use those few minutes to imagine it, feel it, and experience it internally before allowing yourself to drift off.

Old timey manifestation/self-help teacher Napoleon Hill (his book, Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success, while kind of cheesy, is still I think is a must-read around mindset) was essentially talking about a version of this when he wrote about autosuggestion: deliberately feeding a thought, desire, or mental image into the subconscious through repetition and feeling. He believed that the subconscious was particularly responsive to thoughts that were emotionally charged, and that what you repeatedly impressed upon it could influence the way you moved through the world.

We now obviously have much more nuanced ways of understanding the brain than Hill did, but I love the basic idea: what you give your attention to in those final moments before sleep matters. So instead of filling that liminal space with the endless novelty of your phone, you can give your mind a ritual to focus on for manifestation and co-creation.

We’ll talk about that below.

I’ll also talk about…

• My exact circadian rhythm to help set the stage for better sleep

• My best, most potent Feng Shui tips for a truly restful bedroom that helps with quality sleep

• The energy clearing routine I start off with

• What I do to manifest in the moments right before I fall asleep

• Other tools and specific resources I’ve used while sleeping/overnight to help with manifestation that have been extremely effective

This post is for you if you’re into manifestation, energy work, Feng Shui, better sleep, or any combination of the above. And it’s especially for you if you’re tired of getting into bed with every intention of going to sleep and somehow finding yourself 47 minutes deep into someone else’s TikTok.

If you’re a little spiritually curious, a little science-curious, and interested in using your everyday routines to create a life that feels better, I think you’ll like this one.

Don’t forget, I have a big sale going on right now to become a paid subscriber! You can get all this for $5.60 right now if you become a monthly paid subscriber right here (cancel anytime) or $61 for a whole year. The sale ends Sept 22.

Get 20% off the New Sensitive forever

Paid subscribers get round-ups, how-to guides and behind-the-scenes stories of my life, health and biz, every week, as well as weekly Tarot forecasts, regular chat Q&A features, mini-Tarot and Feng Shui readings, community, and lots more.

If you’re a highly sensitive person who is spiritually curious, science-and-health-minded, and interested in tools, tips and real stories to help improve your overall life… come on in, the water’s fine.

Get 20% off the New Sensitive forever

Alright, let’s get into it! If you want to sleep better and you like the idea of using your subconscious mind to help create what you want, get ready to dive in. I’m going to walk you through the exact ritual I use in those few minutes before sleep, including the sleep, Feng Shui, energy clearing, and manifestation practices I’ve folded into it….

PS - I’m hosting an in-person New Moon Journal Circle in Leesburg, VA, Thursday, Sept 10 at 7pmET! I’ll be doing a Tarot reading and leading you through journal prompts, intention setting and community sharing. $22, tix here.