I found it great to read the comments of people’s experiences, observations and experiments around the practice of getting an early night in response to the article The Science of Early To Bed – so much wisdom readily available in us.
A few of the comments relating to what we do before we go to bed have activated my keyboard this morning. To me, ‘before’ bed is not just the last few minutes before I peel back the sheets and get in.
I agree with what has been shared that it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.
But for me it goes back even further than the day’s activities, to how I make my bed in the morning. This may sound funny to some, and some may accuse me of being ‘obsessive’, however, in the morning as soon as I get up (early) I have a little ritual – fully present and loving with myself – when I make my bed. I devote up to 5 minutes to it.
I take off the pillows, top sheet, doona and blankets, whatever… then I smooth out all the wrinkles in the mattress protector and bottom sheet and tuck it back in tight so it’s neat, then shake and smooth out the pillows and put them in place, nicely centred. I then feel how much warmth I may need for the night and choose the coverings accordingly. After that the top sheet goes on, with the same length hanging down both sides of the bed, no wrinkles, and enough length up the pillow end for a comfortable fold-back. Then on goes the doona and/or blankets, also applied symmetrically and smoothed out. I finish by topping off with a couple of colour-matched velvet cushions, shaken out, smoothed and placed at harmonious angles.
Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?
I can feel it myself, and so can others (“It feels so amazing, am I allowed to sit here?” kind of thing.) When it’s time for me to go to bed and I begin to peel back the covers, my face erupts in a smile ‘all by itself’ – my body is feeling the love I have put into my bed to support and cradle me all night. It feels so delicious and inviting, the smile is inevitable! I can go to sleep within seconds of my head meeting the pillow . . . provided of course I have quietened myself down from the day instead of leaping into bed at 10,000 rpm. Even then, the quality of love in my bed is so strong and supportive that it can help me wind down . . .
It might seem like there’s not enough time in the day to put this level of care into things like making one’s bed, preparing one’s food, clothes, bathroom, kitchen, work spaces, etc., but when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over, etc., I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!
Dedicated to everyone’s loving choices that bring the best quality sleep!
By Dianne Trussell BSc, science researcher, educator & writer, Goonellabah, NSW, Australia
Further Reading:
Insomnia – my sleep disorder or my daily dis-order?
Ironing the Pillow Cases – A Lesson of Love
Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes you Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
Livingness Toolkit
Starting the day with an imprint of love to return to sets a foundation of loving care and attention to all activities during the day.
Those ‘little’ lovely details DO make a difference to life. I love to fold my clothes in certain ways depending on what it is. I do this at work too and it feels lovely opening the drawer and seeing the care and detail.
The truth is, love is actually all there is and as far fetched as it sounds we will one day live that truth again.
I really need to apply this same philosophy to my work desk! to often I leave it to only come back to a disorganised mess!
When it comes to our day the energy that we awaken is then put into our movements so our bed making can then prepare us for our most loving day and as this is a spherical approach to life we awaken the next day having evolved from the previous day because of the way we have approached each day from the outset, so building a forever deepening level of Love-every-day WOW! thanks Dianne.
It makes sense, the energy that we make our bed in (or do not make our bed!) we come back to at the end of the day, so, do we do this in a quality that supports us? This could be said for everything we do .. how we get dressed, cook a meal etc are we doing it being present with ourselves and in a way that supports ourselves. I have a lot to learn with this one and sometimes when I am in a rush can feel just how this affects me, and others, not in a great way.
How I wake up sets the day. I love waking up to the birds singing it’s pitch dark outside but they are already greeting the day to come with such energy and enthusiasm. I make my bed knowing that it is a place of great rest to come back to. How I am in my day makes a huge difference too. But going into my bedroom at night and seeing just how inviting my bed is, ready for me to put my self to sleep again is well quite magical.
My husband is amazing at making our bed, he makes it every morning without fail. When someone commits to doing something and brings there kind of flare to it it is just gorgeous and inspiring to see.
I love making my bed, I lay my PJ’s and my i pillow on my heated blanket, I then turn my electric blanket on half hour before bed so they are all nice and toasty before I get dressed and jump in!
Our bed and how we prepare it so when we return to sleep we are greeted by a deepened love that we have lived during the day and this is because we have started with the most Loving ritual that snowballs as we appreciate the Love we are living.
Bringing this level of care and love into areas of our life will have a huge impact on our lives and health.
There will be a time when all we’re leaving is the imprint of love wherever we go rather than what we’re all currently leaving which is the imprint of what is not at all loving wherever we go. It’s not so much that we ourselves are the stamp it’s more that we are the portals through which either love or what is not love comes through. Interestingly despite the fact that we live in what appears to be a loveless world, love is actually our default setting. We just work tirelessly to scribble it out.
Your blog really makes me sit up and ask if we are paying attention to the smaller details in life – after all – we have no idea how far one ripple, or one choice can go.
With sleep being such a big issue for many people these days it would be great if they were given articles like this when they seek help, ‘it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.’
And how much more our education would be true in a sense that it actually works when we apply truthfull observation and change whatever is needed from there.
Dianne, I love reading about the care that you take when making your bed – it feels very nurturing to take care of the details.
Dianne, ‘Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?’ This is lovely. I notice this if I leave my house tidy and cared for – it feels really supportive to come back home to this care at the end of the day.
Dianne, I love this; ‘Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?’ I have experienced this love and support from my living room and dining room area – where I have allowed the time to lovingly clean and tidy this area in the morning and then to return home after work has felt amazing to come back to such a loving and supportive space and so I can feel how this would also happen with lovingly making my bed.
It brought a smile to my lips Dianne reading how your body received the love that you had made the bed in. There is nothing better than feeling the quality of our essence in all our movements.
I love your words “…dressing my bed…” Elizabeth. I had actually never considered that before but I am sure now I won’t forget, ensuring that the love I dress myself in, in the morning will be the same love with which I will ‘dress’ my bed. Now I can’t wait for the morning!
So simple, but so profound and a very practical way to bring more order into one’s life. And having more order in the morning cannot but help to support the order of our day and on into the night, such is the power of the ripple effect. Turning back a bed made in love is, for me, a real smile moment.
Once you have prepared and made your bed with such love and care and felt the difference it would be very hard not to do it every day.
There are so many areas we can bring more care and love to ourselves, this is one such example, how we make our bed in the morning, ‘ fully present and loving with myself – when I make my bed. ‘
This level of attention to detail is super supportive on every level. Once you start you sure don’t want to stop and you get to feel that there is a deeper level you can always take this love for ourselves.
Sleep is needed to maintain our vitality which is why it is important to prepare ourselves properly for it.
Oh how lovely ✨
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” I absolutely love this sentence… And of course the same goes for anything we do when we bring that level of love and care to it. I have often felt that cleaning when there is nothing to clean, or tidying up when a room is tidy has seemed pointless.
But what I am appreciating now is that there is always an opportunity to reimprint any space with love, so that whoever comes into it next will feel the depth and quality of how it has been prepared. Whether they are aware of it or not is of no consequence.
It’s great to see how circumstance in our day may play out chaotically – but it’s not random at all but a consequence of some simple choices you made at the beginning of it all.
“the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!” This is so true and a real life example of how we can bring love and self care into our lives and the difference joy and expansion this brings to each moment we choose it .
Beautiful. What an experiment to do and fully allow ourselves that we deserve to put care into our every day.
How you make your bed in the morning after getting up sets already the quality of going to sleep in the night.
How much are we in rhythm with every movement which sets the standard for the next movement to come?!
Love doesn’t come out of nowhere, it rides on the back of all the loving choices that have gone before it. I like most people thought that I could pluck love out of thin air whilst making unloving choices in every single area of my life. I have now rediscovered love and that rediscovery has come about as a result of changing my unloving choices into loving ones, one loving choice at a time.
We can never escape the fact that there is a quality of energy behind every move we make as such every imprint we leave holds a quality of energy that represents love or lovelessness. We can feel it all however it comes down to whether we want to be honest about what we feel as such take the responsibility of what quality of energy we are choosing to be moved by. To make our bed in a loving way is an act of love that not only honours who we are but also is an honouring of the love we all are and all deserve to be met with through our movements, be it in person or by way of our imprints.
This article talks about the great science of energetic imprints, and how these can form the basis of our lives, to be more loving and supportive as we work and toil throughout the day, with a returning to our divine selves when it is time to rest and recover.
Dianne, I agree with yiu here; ‘I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’ from my experience it is definitely worth the time, my relationships are stronger and less strained, I feel less tense and overwhelmed and more able to focus on what needs to be done with work or preparing meals. What I find supportive is making these loving touches every day to the house so that it stays feeling cared for and supportive.
Dianne, I love this article. Since previously reading this article I have started making my bed in the mornings. I really enjoy smoothing out the creases and making everything symmetrical. It feels gorgeous to leave the bed in this way. I have also noticed this with other areas of my house, – straightening up chairs and placemats. A few minutes time spent on these details makes the house feel very different – I love the order and spaciousness that this brings. Thank you for your inspiration.
What if it wasn’t just our bed we made with this quality? Our world would be so changed ~ for just look at what shifts when we bring this care to one single thing.
I love getting into a beautifully made bed, in a beautiful tidy, clean room that has amazing order and a well loved atmosphere. It’s super nurturing and rejuvenating.
Put the love out, let the love in when it comes back. Simple.
One of the many cycles of love that are on offer in our days. Preparing our beds for our return later… the quality with which we do this is an amazing feedback loop and opportunity to reflect and learn.
If I am working late I can often leave my office in a bit of a mess, now however I am putting more effort into the way I leave it, as I know how I leave it the night before meets me the next morning.
The power of doing anything in love and gentleness leaves a beautiful footprint to re-meet when we come back to it, from making our bed, to tidying our desk, clearing our cupboard and everything else.
That is a great point – when we consider the procrastination time, the inane distraction time, we can easily take 5 minutes to lay a foundation to come back to at bed time. What a great loving seed to plant for ourselves to come back to.
Just like the story of the princess and the pea, energetically we can feel all the care or lack of care in our daily movements, especially making our bed.
The ripple affect of everything we do affects the next so it makes that how we live in the day will affect the quality of our sleep at night.
I remember reading your blog sometime ago Dianne, and loved what you have shared, and like you it has become my daily routine each morning , thank you.
Making my bed with love and care in the morning supports the quality of sleep that I want to surrender to in the evening.
To me it is just common sense that the bed has to be made with care in every detail to the tee as it just feels so disregarding and dishonouring not to do so. After all, I would rather come home to an imprint of love than an imprint of disregard any day.
So so simple, and something to live by. I make a point to observe what my relationship with this is day to day. This morning was a bit of a rush, late night last night and fell into bed and then up early on the move again… yes lots getting done but in what quality? And that is reflected in how much time I gave to making my bed. I can have the same itinerary but giving myself (the bed etc) that extra minute or two to make sure the quality is there, changes everything through my day.
That is such a great point Simon. These little things can be early warning signs of a much bigger ripple effect with rushing and the quality we then bring to whatever we do or whoever we are with.
I love this idea of your bed, so beautifully made up, sitting and waiting for you all day to come back to. And I love how simple and practical self-care can be, with just a few extra moments that can make all the difference to a whole nights sleep.
This does make such a difference, and it is very much about preparing, preparing for life, all the details of life matter. Being aware that we come back to what we have chosen is important, and how we make our bed definitely shows us this every day.
This is true self care and it is this deeper level of care for ourselves that always comes back, doesn’t matter if it is making our bed or cleaning the house, getting dressed in the morning, when we do it with the quality that is in us, it will serve not only ourselves but everyone, it emanates out and is felt whether people are aware of it or not.
True we are so powerful when we balance our life in repose and motion, so winding down before going to bed is crucial. And making your bed from this still place within one self is very supportive indeed.
That is so true, how much time we waste during the day, because we get busy with things, that don´t evolve us any bit. For me it is really painful by now, when I review a day and see pockets of wasted time, by getting drawn in any humanly discussions, issues that are actually not existing anymore, thinking etc. I really hate that fog, that is polluting my presence then.
I would very much appreciate to sleep in a bed that you finished to get ready to sleep in. It must feel like heaven lying down in the dedication of your preparing.
The days were my room is out of order show me that there are things I am letting slip or things that I am not dealing with in my day and it is reflected in how I care for my space which also reflects how I have been caring for me.
This is a beautiful reminder how much time we loose in rushing around, being in stress and tension. What you are reflecting and offering is that if we allow space and time to nurture ourselves in our preparation for sleep, food, cleaning our space and other things we are allowing another level of care to our lives, which will support our rejuvenation/rest period and our movements.
I so enjoy the invitation that a lovingly made bed offers me, not only when I come to get into it at bedtime but also as a reminder throughout the day that there is a quality there ready to hug me back.
Yes.. how much time do we actually waste through exhausting and pushing ourselves and wanting or needing recovery time afterwards? Self care is so worth the investment because it sustains and nourishes us, providing a foundation of steadiness and consistency.
Giving ourselves the space up front and through the day, rather than squeezing everything in!
I used to think that I was ‘making my bed in love’ that is until I read your wonderful blog some time ago. It didn’t take too long before I realised that there was a much deeper level of this love to access. And as the bed-making love has deepened so too has the quality of my sleep as well as the ease with which I go to sleep; definitely worth the extra few minutes in the morning.
And there is an ongoing lesson for me in terms of the intention behind why I am making my bed. A hint of ‘keeping up appearances’ still wheedles its way in sometimes, which dismisses the sweetness of simply setting up a loving embrace for our return.
Making this a focus as to quality in how we put our bed together is super important. I remember I would leave the house with a bed unmade or shoved together and be fine with it. Today every cell in my body goes crazy and can’t handle it slightly. When we start to truly love and nurture ourselves all these things matter.
Thank you Dianne for it reveals to us how much power our choices have when we truly care. I love this example and have used this example in my own everyday life ever since.
Making my bed has become a daily moment where I check where I am with my connection to myself. Which often by the time I have done kids lunches and breakfast I’m ready for a moment to connect more deeply. I love coming back into my room and feeling what love I have chosen to leave for myself reminding me that I am worthy of enormous love.
‘You made your bed, you better lie in it’ – this keeps coming to mind when I read this blog. Life is not a punishment but it is undeniably true that the quality we choose in every moment lays the foundation for what comes next. At the end of the day, and of our life it’s inextricable that we’ll come back to the light we’ve lived. Thank you Dianne.
It seems like we are ever being pulled to be more loving with ourselves, what we considered loving yesterday may not be so today and in fact if we look back we can see how by deepening our level of care and consideration for ourselves, our honouring of ourselves, the quality of our life changes quantifiably.
A great learning here and beautifull sharing in how the quality, care and love in which we do things in for either ourselves or others comes back tenfold when we meet it again. Very inspiring.
Starting the day by making the bed lovingly, is a great way to set up the rest of the day in a quality that supports every action thereafter.
“I agree with what has been shared that it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep” – yes, and the quality of sleep governs the type of day we experience too.. which later generates the sleep quality. They are inextricably linked. So as i’m finding myself, sleep isn’t just the resolve or recovery to a bad day i might have had where I’d ‘switch off and forget’ [because it’s night-time] .. but more so an extension of my living day that is continuing to be lived whilst asleep. The preparation and care we have and hold for our days is to be there equally for our night-time cycle too.
Many people look at me funny when I say I get up at 3:30/4am when I start work at 7am with a 30’ commute. So what do I do the rest of the time? I prepare my room, my work lunch, do some computer work. I have the space in the morning to not be rushed. I enjoy my working day far more this way.
Everywhere we go, everything we do is bed preparation when you understand how energy works. It’s the choices we make that determine the depth of rest we will take. Thank you Dianne for this powerful blog.
‘like a warm loving hug ready and waiting.’ This is very precious to read Monica. Who wouldn’t want a welcoming like this?
Yes. Points of inspiration for us to consider what we leave behind us for us to return to: our beds, office chairs, kitchen sinks, clothes cupboards, conversations…
I love returning to a bed that was made with love and what you share in your last paragraph Dianne about the question of having time or not to take this care; it is brilliant to consider the time wasted in struggle, so the self-care and loving attention totally make sense.
A US army general gave a speech on the same subject – making your bed and doing it well, starting the day out well and leaving a good imprint when you come home after what may have been a difficult day.
What Dianne has shared here about making our bed with super care, love and attention really does make a difference. When I make the effort to do this I easily notice the way my bed feels so inviting and warm at bedtime. But what came to me is that I could imprint everything with this same loving attention in a way that is not only for my self to return to, but for everyone else to feel the love that is instilled in my movements.
I for one can certainly “imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” and it feels divine. How lovely it is to turn back those covers feel the deep love that the bed was made in that morning, and then snuggling down into it. A beautiful recipe for a beautiful sleep.
Absolutely worthwhile any amount of love and care we put into our lives is worth it. It is that we will feel within ourselves and face the world with.
The quality of the imprint we leave behind will be the quality of the imprint we return to. This is true in life, as it is in ‘death’.
The best investment of time is in deeply self-caring. This will always pay itself back on all levels
I agree with you Dianne how you physically invest in you throughout the day determines the quality of your outcomes and how it all flows.
All the love and attention put in something, whether it is making your bed or cooking food comes back right to you.
I love the details you describe, because they matter.
Yes, as an architect once said “God is in the details”.
It sure is Ariana and yes what a gift we get to retun back to.
What we leave we return to so we have a choice to either leave loving imprints or not. So we either get confirmed in the love we are or the opposite. Which shows that we create the way we perceive the world to either be one of love or not depending on the imprints we have left and are moving with.
How simple it actually is to bring loving rituals into our lives, rituals that will support us in every moment. To get into a bed at night that has been made with such love and care in the morning feels so honouring of our ourselves and I can feel how it will “support and cradle” us as we sleep. Just imagine how our lives would change if we brought this level of care into everything that we do.
Thank you Dianne, for our love is great and there to expand in such daily actions as making the bed, and taking care of ourselves by movements in all our day.
I love the way you describe these energetic packages we can leave throughout the day Dianne. Whether it is making a bed, cooking food, or the way we sit on the loo (!) every movement has the possibility to leave an imprint of love. Practice this enough and pretty soon we will find our life is rich – and a sound foundation for an awesome sleep.
I can so relate to this, on the days when I am ‘running late’ and let this slip its like everything in my day is out of kilter. Not making my bed represents that somewhere I have taken something on or have dropped my rhythm and this is when I then let go of these foundational things that support me in the day.
I love the routine I have with making my bed every morning preparing for a good nights sleep and reading your blog Dianne I can feel there is more detail I can bring to it. Thank you.
Diane I just love your sharing here and what an amazing gift to give ourselves the love and nurturing bed to get into at the end of a busy day. I am going to add more detail as I do this going forward and reap the delicious benefits from it. Thank you!
Beautiful. We meet our bed with the love we have prepared it with in the morning.
How gorgeous to receive this each night when you prepare to go to sleep, ‘When it’s time for me to go to bed and I begin to peel back the covers, my face erupts in a smile ‘all by itself’ – my body is feeling the love I have put into my bed to support and cradle me all night. It feels so delicious and inviting, the smile is inevitable!’ Very inspiring.
Great Dianne and so simple for us to start applying to in our own way. The connection we establish than always comes back at us. Lovely!
It’s absolutely true Dianne, we can say that we don’t have the time for self loving activities like making the bed, but by taking the time we can have a much smoother day and night.
Oh yes, there really is nothing like laying down in a bed that has been made with love and tender care.
Absolutely Dianne. And they way we make our bed or any bed (I make beds in my job) is not about the corners the folds and the non-crease perfection but the flow and joy of making it, and being with ourselves as we do which sets us up for a joy-full day.
I work as a nurse and people often ask me if I ever get tired of making beds. The truth is I don’t because for me when I make a bed I bring care and attention to detail into it which then allows another to feel cared for and loved.
Since reading your article sometime ago Dianne I have followed your advice and now each morning make my bed lovingly, and what is 5 minutes out of the day to lovingly support myself, I too smile as I lay myself down each night and feel the loving embrace of my bed.
It’s a complete illusion to say there is not enough time in the day to put such love into what you do when there is plenty of time to watch TV or check out with video games and other such distractions. Seems like we have not the same dedication to loving ourselves than we do to checking out.
Love, expressed in anything is an expression of joy that is its own reward, however mundane or small the action or gesture.
My partner and I make our bed every morning together and I love how much fun it is to fold the sheets back, fluff the pillows and fold down the blankets as it feels like a beautiful marriage of movement and flow all rolled into one.
When we consistently make our beds with care, we reflect to our children to do the same, we can ask children over and over to do something but if we are not doing it ourselves then it will fall on deaf ears.
When I have made my bed with clean sheets, beautifully folded pjs and puffed up pillows carefully placed at the head of the bed, I love knowing that this is what will welcome me to bed in the evening.
It makes complete sense to start the day with such loving attention to detail. I am going to begin this way and see how this loving foundation cannot but support me through the day and greet me in the evening, My day maybe a little off but I can never take away the love in doing this.
Not making my bed in the mornings would for me be like going outside with no clothes on (!) Making the bed brings purpose to life through practicality.
We live in moments! Do we really take these moments consciously in? You offer us a great reflection how little effort brings you into the present moment, instead of rushing through the day, whilst doing one task after the other. And in doing so, you are preparing a foundation you can always come back to. Your example of doing your bed is exquisite, as this is a place, where we can grow and restore a lot, when we stay present. But even how you leave the toilet, when you visited it, you will come back to this imprint. So you are feeding yourself during the day by putting out these imprints. Amazing expansion and well worth it.
The quality, care and love in how you make your bed Dianne is exquisite. I have started to do the same but in the past I used to think I don’t have enough time to lovingly make my bed. What you’ve shared towards the end of your blog makes so much sense. We can waste so much time if we choose to rush or delay. This is a great example of how much love can be expressed in full in just 5 mins, imagine if we express this way 24/7 with everything we do?
Dianne, this is really beautiful; ‘the quality of love in my bed is so strong and supportive that it can help me wind down.’ Reading this makes me aware of the importance of the quality in all that we do and the imprint we leave behind, and whether this will support us and others or not.
I heard a speech the yesterday from a General I think of the navy seals and he was saying the most important thing of the day is to make the bed as it sets the foundation for what is next.
None of us have to be victims of life we decide the quality of our day.
That’s really interesting, in the morning I feel like I have to make my bed, more or less the moment I get up, if I don’t something feels out of sorts.
Yes, that is a great speech and he gave a lot of good reasons.
How can we ever think that the way that we live during the day does not determine the quality of our sleep – for our body clocks everything, from every moment of stress and tension to every moment of joy it all accumulates and is what we literally take to bed with us each night.
Yes Dianne, making our beds with great love and care is a beautiful gift for ourselves, both from receiving the love at the end of the day and also the healing we receive while we are loving making our bed.
I’ve never thought of making my bed as something that is healing but it makes sense as it’s incredibly therapeutic.
There are possibly a million little rituals that can be done every day like making the bed and when they are done with such love and attention to detail, this is when the gorgeousness of life really starts to take shape.
We hurtle through life, skimping on parts we know could be rich, shortcutting what we have to do and skimming the brim of what’s really true. Without consciously realising it we steadily compromise bit by bit, till there’s nothing left of even our favourite section. When will we stop and realise there’s no substitute for the quality we live? For to everything we do we will return, just like the bed that we make. So whatever we do, let us consider the quality we would like to experience in your next day for it will be the consequence of what we choose today. Thank you Dianne for laying down this blog although it’s uncomfortable reading, I feel it will help us all with our living and sleeping.
Oh beautiful Dianne ! So recognizable and inspirational, for I am left to feel where in my day and activities or rituals I would like to bring all this care to. To simply start with one thing in my day that I do regulary.. And then probably there will be more inspiration to choose to bring this detailed care in more facets of my life. LOVE IT. Thank you.
As you mention in your post it may feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to fit in everything we want to do, But “I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!” I agree Dianne. Making my bed each morning and staying present whilst doing so is a beautiful way to start the day – and then to lovingly return to it at night – mmm.
A beautiful reflection of how in every moment the way we are, the dedication to love we move with, is what we are met with when the moment return to us, as it constantly does. Not only is for us but in building our commitment to love in every moment possible, we bring to the world a greater body of love that moves in a way that heals rather than bringing harm through lovelessness.
I love how you’re talking about the power of imprints and how every moment in time we leave an imprint, the question is what kind of imprint do we want to return to at the end of the day?
Quite simply – the imprint we leave behind is the imprint we return to, both at the close of the day and at the end of our life. There is so much in these seemingly small gestures that can either speak the grandness of who we are, or hide it.
I can really relate to what you have shared here, I love coming home to my bed in the evenings, knowing that I have indeed made my bed in the morning with such love and care, this is very much felt when i get home and take myself to bed that night.
I’ve realised that making my bed is a foundation that I never drop below. If I wasn’t to make my bed things would be out of sorts. I like to air my bed out after I wake up by folding down the sheets and blankets. When I enter my bedroom again I make the bed and I love entering my room after that to be greeting by the care I take. I am blessed with it every time I enter my room.
Yes, our bed can really be of great support. It’s so important that we don’t go to bed wishing to forget about the day, or to just shut away, it’s just about going there to rest and rejuvenate.
Great article to read just before going to bed, I remember a few weeks ago I was so angry when I made my bed and later on that evening as soon as I laid my head down things suddenly started to bother me. I kept tossing and turning, thinking and getting frustrated, annoyed and at the end I was so angry with myself for not being able to fall asleep. Then I remember the way I made my bed in the morning, and realised that I had literally set up myself for that night. It’s incredible how much everything affects us.
It is the ritual of making our bed every morning that sets the tone for the day, to deeply cherish and love the delicateness and gentleness within us.
There is nothing lovelier than making our beds, sorting and organising our homes ready to welcome us back on our return from a full day. I find it supports me to let go of held tensions in the day far more easily.
Dianne leading the way, as always with her amazing insights into life
I love the point you brought up about how much time is lost in all the other effects that come from not brining true care to ourselves. It reminds me of my kids when they kick up such a fuss to not clean up when they could have finished by the time the tantrum finishes.
Great observation, people often think that they do not have time to complete things, give attention to making the bed with care etc…but right, we spend a lot of time, worrying, procrastinating, doubting, moaning, sitting watching TV, there is so much time and space available if we allow ourselves to shift our patterns. And the more we shift our patterns the more we feel the space.
Taking care for your bed in the morning for you to return into can be of great support as in doing so you kindly invite yourself at night to rerun to that same state of loveliness or even more you left your bed in the morning. In doing so you make it a perpetual action of love that can grow and expand through this continuous building.
How gorgeous to feel the quality in which you make your bed Dianne. That quality is then what tucks you in every night, so lovely. How I’m leaving my bed at the moment is not supportive and I have felt irritated and can’t get to sleep like I used to.
On first reading this I was deeply inspired to completely change the way of making a bed. On re-visiting many months later, it is lovely to appreciate just how consistent these changes have been and thus realising how this quality of movement and care has spilled over into many other aspects of my daily living.
Beautiful, my mum has always taught me just how important it is to make your bed first thing in the morning. Many years I rebelled against that however now, I cannot do anything else if I have not made my bed.
Thank you for inspiring me again to look at my investment in things like making my bed and appreciating how this supports all areas of my life because getting a restful night’s sleep makes such a difference to how the next day unfolds. What is coming up for me this morning is that I start off well at the beginning of the week but towards the end there are areas of my house that become less ordered because I tell myself I don’t have time to sort whatever it is before or after work but actually the knock on effect of feeling the lack of order impacts the rest of my week and then I feel like I am playing catch up at the weekend.
I always take the time to make my bed in the morning as I know I am coming back to my bed that night, therefore, this simple loving act is honouring myself and each loving thing I do for myself starts a momentum of loving acts throughout my day, so that when I have dropped this momentum ( for whatever reason), it sticks out like a sore bright red thumb.
Thank you Diane, there is nothing better than coming back home at the end of the day and being loved by a bed that has been made with such level of care and detail as that which we deserve. Amazing!
Wow Diane, you have taken making your bed with love to a whole new level. I can feel the incredible love that must pour out of your bed on your arrival. Very inspiring.
Love it Dianne really going that extra mile to honour oneself. How loving and inviting your bed sounds, can feel the warmth just by reading what you have shared. you can definitely feel the invitation of the bed when you have prepared with the true intention and given it the love and attention to prepare it.
I noticed since reading the amazing blog when it first came out, how much more important the making of my bed has become, and how I find my sleep is much less deep and resting if I don’t have a well ordered space to sleep in. Thank you for this sharing Dianne, it was and is such a beautiful reflection of paying attention to the detail.
Yes Stephen so much love can be found in the smallest of details…
Taking the time to lovingly prepare your bed for your next return means the world to our bodies. I know when I was younger I would drag my heals having to make my bed and then I would do it in a huff and a puff. No comprehension that this was what I was coming back to. Thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine and understanding that ‘Everything is Energy, therefore, Everything is because of Energy’ I clocked how much this meant ever aspect of my life. Coming home to a nurtured loved bed is the best.
As I made my bed this morning I could feel the love, care and nurturing I will receive when going to bed tonight. I loved what you have shared here Dianne, thank you.
Making the bed with my partner each morning is a lovely daily ritual which we do in harmony preparing the foundation for where we will lie each night. Whilst the mechanics of making the bed each time might appear the same there are so many variations in the quality or presence that we can bring which affects the energetic quality of what supports us each night.
Reading this again just before I go off to work reminds me of the terrible state of my van, I have had a very busy week and haven’t made time to keep my van in order and I can feel that my first job of the day needs to be putting some love and order into my van or else it will effect the quality of my whole day.
The ‘return on investment’ is palpable and to me feels more than worth the effort and time.
Every second and minute of true care and dedication supports us to defeat and prove wrong our misconceptions about time and allows for spaciousness and joy. Move over complications!
Gabriele that’s what I have been becoming more aware of, the more true care we bring there seems to be more space and joy. My life is still as busy and I am getting on with many things, but there feels more space, which is beautiful.
I love what you have shared here Dianne, as I too love the feeling of making my bed and making it with love. I especially love changing my sheets, the feeling of nurturing myself with crisp sheets and knowing that I have also made the bed with a tenderness and care that is just for me.
Imagine this level of detail and preparation in every part of our lives… imagine this level of detail in how we set up for work, and how we prepare for dinner, and how we care for ourselves moment to moment.
Great point, we think nothing of wasting 10 minutes on Facebook, but what if we used those 10 minutes to prepare or do something that would actually support us later in the day?
Making the bed with love, care and attention to detail makes an amazing difference when we go to bed at night; I have been surprised at the palpable difference. Thank you Dianne for bringing a greater awareness and understanding to these subtle distinctions.
As part of my husband’s morning routine he makes our bed every single morning, it is lovely to get in it at night time and to feel the love and tenderness he has brought to it.
Samantha this is gorgeous! Wow to be so lovingly tender for him and you is such an inspiration of how we can all be with each other.
How gorgeous it is to prepare our bed in the morning and how beautiful it is to appreciate the care taken as we snuggle in at night. I love what you have presented Dianne and I love the simplicity, love, care and power of preparing and making our bed in the morning.
So many people in the world carry the hurt of not being loved and cherished by their parents but this blog shows us that we can love and cherish ourselves in exactly the way we wanted another to do it for us. This is deeply empowering and shows that no matter what has occurred for us in life we can bring that love to ourselves.
Great contribution Elizabeth, I often stop when I am doing something during the day – maybe putting cream on my face- and ask myself, if I would do it like this to a friend or client? Do I use the exact dedication and tenderness for myself as if I would for someone else..? It often brings back a deeper gentleness towards myself and in effect I don´t need the love from the outside to give it me.
I was just thinking about my bed today and how I would like to up the level of care I put in when I remake the bed each morning. Although I have a ritual and am particular about the angles of the pillows I can feel that it could be made to feel fresh again with a bit more care. Doing this certainly feels worth it to support having a restorative sleep.
Start as you mean to go on they say, but as you so beautifully show Dianne, where does anything truly begin? We wake up with the quality of sleep and dreams our previous day’s choices allowed, and this flows from the weeks and years before this. And if you are inclined like me to see the fact of reincarnation, then we can start to understand that this chain of events is actually as old as time. But all of this can be changed and updated just by us making a new choice. Yes we always have our energetic bed we must live with, but we can always reimprint this with Love every day.
Thank you Dianne for sharing the loving care you put into making your bed, I have been conscious of putting more care into making my bed but not to the same degree as you have, you have inspired me to deepen my love with bed making.
Something that has been highlighted to me recently is the fact that although we are asleep, we are actually still moving. Our hearts beat, our lungs expand and the earth continues to spin. So actually sleep is another activity of movement that we take part in , that we bring our bodies to, and therefore could be treated as no less important than any other activity of the day. Amazing.
Since originally reading this blog I experimented and now make my bed similarly. This one simple act has made a huge difference to the quality of my day and when it is time to put myself to bed the imprint of loving care applied in the morning never fails to delight me. I feel held and cradled and fall into sleep easily. So, thank you Dianne for the inspiration.
So true Susan, the love we bring into our lives, including how we make our bed, is a lovely gift (and very necessary support) we give back to ourselves.
Dianne your example of how you make your bed with love is very inspiring, and a great point about bringing that same level of love into all parts of our lives and what that truly means for our day to day living. Agreed also that making the time to being Love into our lives eliminates all the delays and difficulties that happen when we live carelessly.
making a bed can be done with so much love and its awesome how much we can benefit from something so simple
This may be the best blog ever written on making a bed, seriously though, the level of detail Dianne described is beautiful to hear, you can feel that is the kind of bed you would want to sleep in and recently I have noticed how I don’t sleep well if I haven’t got a well made bed to get into.
I tried the “making the bed with Love” today Dianne and I was almost freaked out at how powerful it was, it was great to remember this during the day and being more presence to the movements which I take for granted, good thing we get tomorrow to do it all again!
The quality we bring to every little thing makes such a difference to our day.
Self-Appreciation allows us to bring a deeper level of care that will nurture and rejuvenate our bodies, for we deserve every bit of it!
I wanted to get into your bed when I was reading this blog, the depth of love thats gone into making a simple thing we take for granted.
Dianne, I loved reading this article, what I realised reading this is that I make my sons bed this way in the morning; it feels awful if I leave it in a mess and so I smooth the covers, fold the duvet up, arrange all of the teddies and this feels like the only way to leave it, reading this I realise that I do not put this same level of care into how I leave my own bed, it is often left unmade or if made it is not to the same level of care and attention to detail as when I make my sons bed, it’s great to be aware of this.
I was reminded of this blog this morning while making my bed, thinking about an issue in my head I stopped and refused to keep making it in that quality, not something I want to be lying in! And it’s so true, those little moments we take extra care in support us massively later on.
I was making my bed this morning and I thought of your blog Dianne and then I came across it to read again. I agree it is certainly worth it to create a loving space for ourselves to go to bed in. When we move and do things with a loving intention, then everything we do becomes a joy and it leaves our space feeling totally divine.
Taking the time to lovingly prepare my sleeping space in the morning, and then being constantly aware of the energy I am doing everything in during the day, making sure that I have as many ‘stop’ moments as possible, has definitely impacted on how easily I fall asleep that night and the quality of my sleep. The nights that I struggle to go to sleep are a great indicator of the way I have lived my day.
I love this notion of giving a whole 5 minutes to preparing your bed for the next night, and how this is what greets you when you return from a full day of work. And I can see how this would build a steady quality in to your daily life that is nurturing and supportive.
Dianne, it is very beautiful to read about how you make your bed in the morning. I had an experience at the weekend which makes me realise how true what you are sharing is, I cleaned my bathroom; usually I do this in drive, not enjoying it and trying to get it done as quickly as possible, but at the weekend I took my time and cleaned gently and lovingly, I did extra touches, like arranging my things in a way that felt lovely and harmonious, I added some heart decorations and folded the towels very neatly and precisely, now when I go into the bathroom it feels amazing, it feels so loving and supportive that I’m finding I want to hang out in there more, so now having felt how powerful and supportive this I want to bring this level of care and attention to the rest of my house.
Dianne I love how you share that the smallest moments of care for self and can make such a huge difference. You are so true to say we can waste so much time in things that are not necessary so why not take few minutes out of the day to create loving and nurturing environment for the self.
Your last paragraph says it all, taking extra love and care over the smaller details in our lives may take a little extra time, but when we consider the effect of returning after a long day at work to an unsupportive home – can we afford not to?
Of late I have been more super aware of how I leave things . If I have not completed my movements …e.g If I have walked away without placing my shoes where they need to be after taking them off, it feels like a part of me is still there, with the shoes, and I am not complete. it is interesting how particularly strong this feels at the moment and I am loving the order of detail that my awareness is asking me to take.
I’ve heard of wise investments before but this is up with the wisest, no better way of giving yourself the best start and end to the day.
I find that if we make our bed in a rush or simply because we have to and not because we actually want to, the imprint is clearly felt when we get back into bed again later that day. If something has happened over the night, perhaps a lot of tossing and turning happened and it was not the fully deep an nourishing rest we are used to, making the bed in an honouring and loving way is one way of helping to clear this for the night ahead.
An amazing ritual, I have definitely noticed a change in how I feel all day when I make my bed with care and attention, much like how I get out of bed and start walking around the house! Its amazing how simple things support us during our whole day and when we come back to them at night they are waiting for us to enjoy, and confirm again tomorrow.
Every little and big thing that we do is super important. If we give a certain task less importance, then this will have a trickle effect on the other ares too. Making the bed, cleaning the dishes, taking the rubbish out etc etc. When we give it all importance and the care it deserves, we find it feeds us back…a bed made with love is there to feed us back that love when we return to it…
I love the care and attention you describe here Dianne. Who would not want to jump into a bed made with such love and tenderness?
one could never call you obsessive Dianne… You have an extraordinary feeling for detail and making the complex simple that is a blessing to us all.
Getting into a lovingly made bed at night is absolutely delicious and always indicates to me how I started my day. I love making my bed knowing the way in which I do so will receive me in the evening.
A great reminder of how worth living ourselves we are. The ritual you share is inspiring and rather exposing all at once – thank you !
Wow that is so committed Dianne. When I read that you dedicate 5 minutes to making your bed, followed by your process, I had a moment to reflect /reassess how I make my bed. I only started making it daily a few years ago, before then I really didn’t see the point. As a teenager, I would swing the doona open in the morning, and leave it like that for when I came back to it in the evening only this time swinging it back over me. At the time it made no sense to me to make the bed because it was only going to get messed up again. What an attitude.
5 minutes actually feels like a very long time, when I consider I purposely don’t have a top sheet, just a doona that can ‘look’ neat once pulled back over the pillows. You’ve inspired me to begin at least being more present with how I prepare my bed for me later.
Every morning my husband or I make our bed and it is done with an appreciation that it will be as we choose it to be for our next nights sleep. I really enjoy coming upstairs and seeing it prepared for us and it reminds me regularly to pay attention to where I can prepare and choose care and attention to details in other areas of my life.
Awesome Dianne – bringing it back to quality! You have a great point here about how we could actually save so much time doing things with love, then wasting it on being anxious, rushing ect. It is true that making mistakes counts for a large chunk of some peoples time, but I know if I am present in what I am doing, then I do it once and do it well.
End of. So there is certainly something in quality over quantity.
We so often underestimate the power of our movements and how our movements can support our everyday.
On reading your blog today Dianne I am reminded that the quality we bring to each and every task, no matter how small, is critical to the quality of the life we live.
I had the most beautiful, nourishing and nurturing sleep the other night after a session of Sacred Movement before bed. It was so beautiful and reflected the importance of how we are before bed but also in the day as this has a huge if not ginormous impact on our sleep
Not having the time for rituals is definitely not actually true, because as you say Dianne we lose and waste time when we are stressed, anxious and rushed, and so rituals that place our own care high on the agenda give us more time and space in our days than they could ever take away.
I have long fostered the concept of lovingly making my bed in the mornings, knowing that I have this wonderful space to come back to in the evenings. That I can really feel the love, care and tenderness that I make the bed in and just love coming back to feel that for myself.
Dianne, I remember reading your blog a while ago and how you inspired me to bring more love and care to preparing my bed for sleep. Reading it again it is an awesome reminder for me to deepen my level of care and love. The quality in how we move and do certain things definitely can be felt by everyone. So, by bringing that same level of love and care to all areas of my life is what I am learning to do. Also learning to pay more attention to detail and appreciate the quality of my movements.
‘I agree with what has been shared that it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.’ This is great Dianne! So many people struggle with sleep and try many lotions, potions, remedies, bed changes, pillow changes and more, with no positive effect. What you are sharing here is gold for anyone who wants to improve their quality of sleep.
Making the bed each morning with loving care and appreciation for the repose it has offered us is a nurturing ritual to bring into the rhythm of the day preparing for our return.
What I also love about this is not just how it sets an energetic quality for your bed that evening, but also how a ritual like this is a gigantic support for the whole day. How easy is it to get up and immediately get swept up in whatever the day holds..yet, taking five minutes like this..putting ourselves first..committing in full to such a simple task is a great marker for the whole day ahead. Isn’t it ridiculous how simple it can be!
Bearing in mind that we might spend between approximately 5-8 hours in bed every single night then I reckon a five minute investment into the quality of that space is an absolute no-brainer. A joy to re-read this blog Dianne and thank you for the ever inspiration that your words are.
Thank you Dianne. Our quality of sleep is everything.
Reading this is very inspiring and it makes perfect sense that spending time to lovingly prepare will support us during the day.
A part of my husbands morning routine he makes our bed every morning, the love and attention he puts into this is truly felt. I can always tell how he is feeling by how he has made the bed.
This is so true Samantha, we can all feel the quality of how something is done. I am learning to not be judgemental when I can feel something was done in disregard and to simply observe with understanding and love.
Absolutely true all of it , and this sentence so too: “Dedicated to everyone’s loving choices that bring the best quality sleep!”
And to know that we live in a cycle everday, so all and everything will come back at us. Thats why worrying about something that is not there is absolutely unnecessary!
‘…it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.’ The power of these words can not be underestimated. One move begets the next from sunrise to sunset and what happens in between.
These little rituals such as making our beds are wonderful ways to appreciate and honour our bodies which take us through life.
The movements I make prior to getting into bed have been the key to the quality of sleep I have. Giving myself permission to rest with deep levels of appreciation of the day is often felt the following morning, as my alarm clock is not needed as in the past.
Great inspiration of how we can create a loving foundation to support ourselves even more simply by the quality of our movements in anything that we do -such as making our nest. 🙂
Dianne the entire description and its paragraph length describing the ritual of your bed-making shows just how much detail, and precision must be in your day for that to be how you make your bed in the mornings – it feels completely gorgeous and very loving – a reflection of yourself.
Love it again and again! The simplicity of this blog is its appeal. A very practical example of how laying foundations for ourselves can hold us during our day. Taking time to keep things simple leaves less space for the anxiety, the stress of not being organised etc. Well worth ensuring the priority of ‘time’ is focused on making space for these foundations.
The space offered in these nurturing moments we give ourselves sets a rhythm for our day and then that leads into our night and so on and so forth. Each moment we move with such quality expands the space for our next movement. A very cool way to live everyday. Thank you Dianne
This is such a great reminder that how we are with ourselves on all levels either feeds us back with Love or disregard and neglect. So making the time like you do Dianne really does bring me to a stop and I simply ask myself – how about it, is this something you can deepen more – I sure can and considering every movement I make will determine the quality, this makes me realise that it is not just making the bed it is every moment because that is what we bring to the next moment.
Five minutes dedicated to making your bed in the morning may not seem like much time but when so present in the task and done in such a loving way, the benefits are huge and everlasting. I love your style Dianne and reading this again has given me a loving kick up the backside to give myself an even better nights kip.
It is an interesting phenomenon to watch how more space is created when we take the time to tend to things fully and lovingly such as making our beds or putting our things away.
Preparing the nest in a loving nurturing way feel divine to return to each night since first reading this blog it has been the first thing I do when I get up each morning and I feel the love and tenderness (or not) I left my bed in when I return to bed each night.
Nothing obsessive about this to me – I can feel that imprint all day, see quite clearly the reflection between how together I am feeling and how tidy or messy my room is… and however I left it is what greets me the next day. A simple reflection for all of us.
Making the bed to the detail that is described here reminds me of that tenderness we can experience when we tuck our children in at night. And why not give to ourselves that same level of care, which after all would then be what we give back again to those we care for.
So great to enjoy making my bed in the way I do. Such a beautiful sense of love, care and completion. In fact tidying up, cleaning up in general is an activity that I now love attending to. This has not always been the case! The commitment and love of life that Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine has inspired in me makes any movement a heavenly gesture.
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” Part of my husbands routine in the morning is to make our bed everyday, the love and attention he puts into this is truly felt which means I love getting back into each night.
Reading this again I can feel how my own bed making could be improved. But not from a place of comparison but in appreciation as I know and have taken more notice of how great it feels to prepare a meal for myself as if I were on a date. Thus that care can also be applied into making my bed with more care. And why stop there when this quality is not bound to certain tasks, simply practiced and refined in the repeated tasks we do in daily life.
This has been a beautiful ritual to develop in my life Dianne, it is like the way I do it and how it feels at the end is a real marker, a symbol that sums up where I am. There is something stunning when you allow the quality to work, that makes you keep looking at the bed when you have finished like it was a masterpiece or some great artwork. What you share here reminds us that this quality of care can and marveling can be applied to any thing in our day. So let us polish up jewels like this in our life, so every part shines equally bright.
You make a great point Dianne, how much time do we spend on needless distractions complication reactions, and dramas that we create each day whereas the simple act of making ones bed in full presence and love can set up that quality to be with us for the rest of the day. And in that quality, those complications and trials lose their power to affect us, and indeed most often do not even arise.
Thank you Dianne for this truly beautiful way to prepare each morning for the evening ahead sleep experience. It does most certainly make a huge difference to getting off to sleep when we have a lovingly prepared bed for ourselves to slide into,
I love this blog, making something so simple as making our bed, into the most loving thing one can do for oneself. I absolutely love making my bed for me, leaving the bedroom in the morning knowing I have supported myself, and lovingly made the bed, feels wonderful. It feels even more wonderful when I come back in the evening and I can feel the love that was left there from the morning.
Life has a science and an order, love what you have shared Dianne because it reveals that there is magic, order and science all in one – which is nothing other than JOY. Living and committing to this is a great way to be!
love what you have shared about making your Bed Dianne! I love how we can apply our love and leave imprints for us to come back to, the sacredness within reflected in the objects that we use 😀
Dianne, I am learning how this is a complete cycle, my sleep is dictated by my day, how I am with myself throughout the day, and my day is dictated by the quality of sleep I have, and so it goes on. When I don’t make my bed I am already no longer with myself and the quality is already gone, and that is usually the start of a downward trend for the day, until I bring myself back to me.
This is so true Dianne, the more care and presence we bring to simple things such as making our bed the more loving and healing our experiences are on a daily basis. Thank you for sharing and the inspiration that you are.
Doing anything in love makes a huge difference. We can all feel, for example, when a meal is cooked in love or if it is cooked in anger, frustration etc. Love works, it is as simple as that.
Diane, I love what you have shared here – essentially it is those simple loving acts that we choose to do that are then there to feed us back in so many ways. I too love making my bed in the mornings because I know what I will come back to in the evening. I know how awful it feels to come to a bed that has not been made in the morning – and so if this is the case (which actually has not happening to me in years), I will still make the bed just before I have to hop into it to sleep! And the same goes for my son – he too might suddenly realise that he forgot to make his bed and so when this happens, he will make his bed minutes before getting into it again! I love this!
Great blog – attending to the details in our lives with the utmost care is Love in action and as you say, Love feeds us back in every way.
Very inspiring blog Dianne- highlighting the amount of love and attention given to something like making your bed will ensure that the quality of sleep will be harmonious and loving. Sounds great- I shall try it out.
What your blog has highlighted for me Dianne is the quality of our presence in everything we do; which in turn impacts on the quality of our sleep. A beautiful gentle reminder to observe and deepen my quality in everything I do.
Dianne, the level of care and attention to detail you put into making your bed is beautiful to read – it makes absolute sense that the quality and imprint in the bed will support and wrap you up in love. Thank you for the inspiration this morning, I shall enjoy taking this experiment into my bed-making this morning and feel the difference.
Thank you Dianne for dedicating your time to share this loveliness with all of us. I know that feeling of ‘oh there is just no time to put this quality into making my bed’ and it is actually in all parts of life that are truly supportive to do and do not even take that long. This highlights to me a part of us that is unwilling to have no issues in life. Yet if I notice this part being there and then choose the very supported way of life it is very beautiful.
‘…as I get up (early) I have a little ritual – fully present and loving with myself – when I make my bed.’ I find it intererestig that I also have a ritual of making the bed in the morning and I always feel to do this as soon as I have got up. it’s as though it is actually part of my nights sleep, clearing the day before and rejuvenating for the day and night ahead.
I was drawn back to reading this blog today, it was a great reminder of how we can leave a loving imprint that supports us all day which highlights that whatever we do we leave an energy behind.
There is usually such an emphasis on “getting things done and finished’ and here we have an evolution in the process of doing …. Just wonderful
“I agree with what has been shared that it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep”.
This is such a simple yet powerful reflection on quality of sleep; thank you Dianne for the gentle timely reminder. Quality of presence throughout the day is certainly the key.
Every day when I make my bed your blog pops up, not your blog of course but your dedication in how you make your bed, the amount of love and care you are putting into it. It is a stop for me to feel my love and care and thus make my bed with attention to detail feeling how lovely it will be to come back in the evening and have a great night sleep in my bed filled with love.
When I give this loving attention to the bed at the start of the day it naturally brings my awareness to the next thing I do and then the next and if I keep this connection the day flows simply and easily. The days when I have been a bit hurried in making the bed and not given it the same loving attention, it really does make a difference to my day because I have not started my day in that same gentle connection
When I read this blog recently I decided to start making my bed every morning with the attention to detail I felt in this blog. I found it to supports a solid loving and purposeful foundation to start my day with and can feel how it supports me to be present with myself through out my day and hold that level of responsibility in all that I do and say.
Dianne I love your daily commitment to making your bed with such love and it reminds me of how much I love to make my bed in the morning and how I place my pillows, with my scatter cushions in a certain angle and the way I smooth out my doona. I love looking at my love made bed everyday. Thank you.
I have noticed how much more supported I feel when I make the bed how I enjoy it to be each morning.
This blog speaks of so much more than making one’s bed – I love it, and particularly so in regards to becoming increasingly aware of late, just how important detail is to me in my life, and tending to the details in my work, home, car, relationships, and basically everything.
Particularly in the home, the more that detail is honoured, the more I know I am honouring the truth of my being – a being that is glorious, beautiful and a blessing to this earth, if I am to truly feel and acknowledge who she (‘I’) actually am. Do we truly honour all that we are in the way we live? I’d say we’ve got a long, long way to go… yet every step claimed is a powerful one that should never be negated.
Beautifully said Dianne. The love in the details is actually huge for us – should we truly allow ourselves to connect to what such love actually feeds back to us, and the difference it can make in our lives. We are all worth it, absolutely so.
Putting loving care into making my bed and other household jobs is great investment I agree Dianne, ‘I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’
The other morning I was busy but still took the time to make my bed and tidy my room, it felt very supportive coming home to a made bed- the quality of my room supported me to wind down from the day and surrender.
Since reading this blog, the quality of my sleep has changed. It feels far more yummy and supportive when I lay down in to the beautifully made bed that has been waiting for me all day. Thank you Diane.
It’s such a good point Diane that it is worth putting loving effort and time into preparing things for ourselves. It sets us up so well to live life and supports us in our connection with others. Yes, the time we spend in stress and making mistakes when we don’t take care takes more time than it does to attend to loving rituals. This is such a good reminder, thank you.
I came back to this blog to be inspired as I was aware that the quality of my sleep has not been that great, and what I am getting here is that whether that is a bed to put my body to rest, or a life on the planet Earth – knowing that I would come back to the same spot, that there is a cycle that carries me to that point makes every moment worth putting love into, to make sure that I would be welcomed back by a quality that I know to support me so.
Dianne what you share here is so beautiful, because we all have the same choice, and when we start our day by simply making our bed with the utmost love that we have for ourselves, we get a sense of how our day will unfold.
So true Dianne, the effort put into making your bed or anything else for that matter is so very worth it
I can feel the absolute love and joy that comes from making ones bed every day. I have always felt this, almost feeling unnatural if I didn’t make the effort to make it. But that was always very few and far between. I love the feeling as you describe Dianne, of placing the sheets and donna just so, in a loving and gentle way, knowing that I will be getting back into those sheets later that day and to feel the love and care that had gone into doing it in the first place. It truly feels loving and deeply nurturing.
If we took this level of care to everything we do we would not have nearly as many problems in the world as we currently do
Diane I so agree with you, what a great blog. When we put time and love into our environment we are making a great investment.
That is incredible and simple, thank you for sharing this Dianne.. The last sentence was an amazing revelation to all: Dedicated to everyone’s loving choices that bring the best quality sleep. Once we see this and feel the realness of what is being shared here, magic can occur and true love can unfold. The power of divine touch is in our hands.
I thoroughly enjoy making my bed in the morning too Dianne, what you’ve also highlighted for me is the lack of quality or ‘holding of love’ that I return to if I do not place the deserved amount of care and nurture to it in the morning… my bed can then feel flat, cold and unsupportive, even though technically it may not look that different, the difference in energetic quality is unmistakable!
Well worth it I say! to deliver ourselves a full and enriching sleep that is warm and comforting from a lived love and quality that matches (or far exceeds) what we truly deserve.
Love what you share Dianne, taking the time whether it is making our bed or organising a space leaves such a beautiful and loving imprint for you to come back to. I have often done this with tidying a space such as my wardrobe. When I have taken the time to carefully put my clothes away, what I come back to later is a loving space that invites me to dress in a truly loving way. We are so worth taking the time to invest in, as there is simply no better investment than the investment of love in self.
There is nothing lovelier than getting into a bed that was lovingly made that morning, especially with clean bedding that smells scrumptious…a beautiful way to set up a restful sleep.
Everyday is a daily routine for me making my bed with love, but also ironing, folding my clothes, take off the plates and glasses from the dishwasher…all these things are a beautiful ritual for me every morning where I can find to myself choosing the quality doing everything. This quality comes with me for the rest of my day. It’s so supportive and inspiring to develop a deeper connection in these little things. My level of intimacy, understanding and confidence with myself have increased considerably since I’m observing the movements of my body in my daily life. My body feels great after doing all of this activities with love.
Dianne its easy to consider “before” to be a short period of time that precedes an event yet what you show here is before is every moment that precedes, and at the very least every moment of that day. So when we talk about having a good nights sleep It certainly shows the importance of how we get up in the morning, make our bed and then how we are throughout the day that is then going to influence the quality of our sleep.
Wonderful point David, that how we live an entire hour, day or year is all one and the same thing. So what we put into our day and our lives is what we are graced back with all of the time too. Preparation from this understanding, then becomes not something that we are preparing for ahead of time, but from a rhythm or ceremony that is in fact lived in the moment and thus by virtue of our presence and quality is already our future being lived. When we then arrive at bedtime for example, we have not actually moved forward in time but simply held ourselves with cherished warmth and love within the moment we simply arrive at, because it is already lived.
Everything in life deserves this much care and attention and when it is done in full presence it in fact does not take more time at all. By being still and connected a lot can be done in little time, it is when I get rushed or am not fully in the moment that time goes by much faster.
Dianne, I make my bed every morning but I am inspired to take it a notch deeper. It can easily become a routine and in that the quality can be less. Even though I am present with myself and my movements there is room too for deepening, for paying attention to the details and giving it more space to be just right.
I love what you share in this blog Dianne, imagine if we brought this same level of care and love to every task we undertake during the day, we would be greeted by love so much more, and this would help us build and deepen our love and so the cycle would build.
If we took this care and awareness into everything that we ‘made’ the quality of every movement and ritual would deepen. This is the joy of livingness.
I LOve making my bed and can feel the power of returning to something made with love. I have returned to this blog to reread the beautiful description of how you go about this loving gesture. Thanks Dianne. 🙂
‘I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’ – I agree Dianne, a great investment, totally changes the energy of our environment.
Be it making my bed, hanging the washing or bringing it back in, these jobs that are done almost everyday are great opportunities to re-connect or confirm and deepen the connection. There is such pleasure in these tasks and the feeling of the union of the body and the mind to bring about conscious presence is an incredible way to live.
It is a very commonly acknowledged thing that getting into a freshly made bed with clean sheets is something very lovely to do… what you’re offering here though Dianne is another step beyond that, essentially re-freshing the bed every morning, so that when we get in at night, we are enveloped in the loving care we made it in that morning. For me this applies to the clothes I wear too, taking the same sort of care in folding, putting away or hanging in preparation for when I want to wear them. If I they are creased or crumpled through lack of my own care, it does not feel the same putting them on as when I do take that care.
I totally agree Dianne, it is an investment that pays huge dividends when we choose to make the space needed for things like this. We tend to think we don’t have time, but at the end of the day, the adjustment it makes to our state of being is worth gold. Doing this day in and day out, provides a foundation of self-care that affects every aspect of life.
Absolutely beautiful inspiring blog I love it it makes so much senses to me to spend 5 minutes lovingly making my bed every morning to be able to come home to a love nest that will support a rejuvenating nights sleep.
With so many minutes available to us in our day, dedicating just 5 minutes to something as delicious as making our bed with deep tenderness and care and feeling just how much that then supports us the whole day and all the way round to bed time feels wonderful.
Absolutely Dianne, people need to understand this, especially those who have trouble getting to sleep, or rely on sleeping tablets for their sleep, ‘ it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.’
Dianne, I love this article, its so practical and inspiring. Since reading it the first time I have been enjoying smoothing out my duvet and pillows and can feel what a difference it makes to actually lovingly make my bed in the morning rather than just quickly making it with no care and love, it feels completely different, i can feel how brining this level of care and love to everything we do would be amazing and so supportive for us and others.
I recall as a child being very particular about making my bed. As I grew older it became another chore that needed to be done and I approached it that way, eventually ending up in a situation where the bed was rarely made. But really what this was showing me was about the disregarding choices I was making across my life. I have now returned to making my bed everyday, but not just going through the motions of making my bed but doing so with care. I love making m bed because I know that I will return here to place my body at the end of my day to rest and renew. So not only do I make my bed with care, I prepare my bed for sleep in a similar way. It’s a very nurturing place, that I have created for me. So as I finish typing this I am about to leave my bed and make it, knowing that I will be back here again tonight and that I deserve a beautifully and lovingly made bed to sleep in.
On re-reading your gorgeous blog Dianne, I feel to deepen my level of attention and care that I give to making my bed, as it feels super supportive for myself and a much deeper level of self love to claim.
This blog has been with me since I read it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. This morning I changed my bed and really took the time to prepare it with my favourite bed linen. It felt really different to take the time and care in the knowing that I was preparing the bed for the night later on the day. Rather than just making it a ‘doing’ or something that needs to be done. I became also aware how little I truly do things with me, enjoy them and offer myself the best love and care that I could possibly offer me. Accepting that I’m worth this level of care and love is something I’m learning. Thank you Dianne for the inspiration!
Dianne I love how you describe the ritual of making of your bed in the morning. It feels so gorgeous I could just hop right in! But as you say, what a delight to know that this is then waiting for you at the end of the day. I spent many years not bothering to make my bed, but now I love to do the same as you and love to know that I have laid this imprint to come back to in the evening. If I don’t do it because I am rushing for example, then going to bed is a totally different experience.
I make my bed every morning and it really does set up my day. For me it is not about the doing rather than the quality I do it in. I take that throughout my day. I don’t always get it right but what I do know making a bed, tidying up always brings me back to myself. Equally before I go to bed I turn down my bed and set myself up for sleep ensuring their are no distractions.
In the book ‘My number one job’ by Sunlight Ink Publishing there is a line, where it says something like, when I do my number one job it makes doing my tasks, work easier, the number one job being to love ourselves, it always strikes me when I read this to children how true this statement is and how much it is overlooked as we don’t tell anyone to up the love when they are being mess, we just yell and get frustrated that they are not more responsible with the tidying of the house! Life could really be turned up side down if we let ourselves see what is really going on.
‘It might seem like there’s not enough time in the day to put this level of care into things like making one’s bed, preparing one’s food, clothes, bathroom, kitchen, work spaces, etc., but when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over, etc., I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’ Just had to pull this out as it is a stand out piece, and makes so much sense; living with tension is caused by the lack of love and presence in the small seemingly insignificant tasks, it’s really so simple.
I have been doing this for the last month after reading your blog Dianne, and I love it, this morning it didn’t happen and coming back in to a bed that is not lovingly made is really unpleasant and I can’t believe I have lived 40+ years not taking this care with making my bed. It is so precious and confirming to be loving in this way – so simple so easy!
This sharing has made a great difference to how I start the day, most days, Dianne. I couldn’t have imagined the absolute difference it would make to my quality of sleep until I tried it . Thank you!
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting for me later?”
Wow Dianne- what a beautiful, loving, bed making ritual you have chosen for yourself every morning.
So much attention to detail with such love and care. Very inspiring.
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?”
Yes I can Dianne, what a gorgeous way to start and finish the day in total regard and love for yourself. A beautiful example and reminder that we are all worthy of this level of self love.
It sure is a great return in investment Dianne. What I love is how you can feel if you have had a busy day and haven’t fully wound down then hopping into your Love filled bed you have made actually supports you to drop quicker. What I can’t help think is the depth and quality of your sleep when you have already wound down because it must be super deep as are hopping into the same bed that is only going to nurture you to let go and surrender even more. So worth every second as you say.
I remember the first time my partner made my bed for me with the care that you describe here. It was early on in our relationship, and I made my bed (usually) so it wasn’t like I left it a mess. But this time I remember walking into the bedroom and having a beautiful sense of the attention that she had put into smoothing out the blanket and the love that she had put into preparing the place we were sleeping together. It was a whole new level of care and one that I appreciate every day.
And aren’t we all worth this kind of attention to detail? We will often give this to another, why not ourselves to the same or deeper degree.
Making your bed in the morning, with a real care, attention to detail and loving order really does set the tone of the rest of the day of how you approach anything else that needs to be attended to, from making a cup of tea, to working, to meeting people. What a great way to start the day!
I was at my friends place yesterday and the way her bedroom was and how her bed had been made inspired me deeply to have a look at my own bedroom and how I make my bed. What I love about this and also this blog, is how we constantly deepen our level of self-care and self-love.
I agree with what has been shared that it’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep. Absolutely Dianne, when we move in a way that confirms we are divine, as consistently as possible through our day, moving into our time for rest and sleep just naturally occurs, and making the bed in this loving rhythm sets the scene for the most gorgeous nights sleep in the loving quality of your own making.
This is a powerful statement Dianne and exposes excuses with time to why we cannot be supportive and loving with ourselves.
PS This can be very valuable to share with our children, that there is so much more to making the bed than it being a task, where it can be fun and loving, where they can bring their own creativeness to it.
‘It might seem like there’s not enough time in the day to put this level of care into things like making one’s bed, preparing one’s food, clothes, bathroom, kitchen, work spaces, etc., but when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over, etc., I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’
Dianne you bring a whole new freshness to making the bed, this is inspiring!
These little things in life like making the bed in a loving way and with care leaves that quality for us to come back too. If we brought this quality to not only making the bed, but as we walk to the kitchen and make our breakfast, and eat in that quality of care, we would be building a presence of care and loving quality in our lives. Which surely must be healthier than making the bed in stress, eating in stress, basically doing everything in stress, or hurry etc etc…it does not take longer, it is not a time thing, it is a quality thing. A lot of things have to be done but it’s about what quality are we getting things done in?
Dianne, you share the simplicity and great value of making the bed with such care, and those few minutes of care actually set the day with that quality!
My partner and i often make the bed together with care and it’s a very loving way to start the day together in love and back into bed in that same quality. Of course sometimes we may be tired and not quite right in the morning, but as you say Dianne, the loved quality in making the bed is holding and can actually support us to come back to that quality, because the of mood stands out…all in the morning in making a bed – so simple yet quite a loving statement.
Ten years ago I would have not imagined the power of basic self care. Today I don’t actively self care anymore as it has become part of my livingness and with this part of my natural expression.
Self care is the normal of a harmonious life and time is not a question as self care creates space that holds time in abundance
Making the bed seems like a very simple task, but to me it sets the foundations of my day. The care I take in this action first thing in the morning, is then easily reflected in all other parts of my day. Start as you mean to go on as they say. It sets a marker of quality that we can expand on or drop away from, either one will be very much felt.
This is such a beautiful example of the potential of love we can bring to every moment. Every moment an opportunity is given to be with ourselves and it is down to us whether we make it about love through the way in which we move with ourselves or choose abuse and disregard; it is one way or the another.
I love your blog Dianne. The love you put into preparing your bed is exquisite to read. You have inspired me to also be more aware of how I make my bed, reminding me the quality in how I make it is the same quality that I will be able to feel when I get into bed at night. Also it is so true, with everything we do, if we apply the same level of love, care, quality and detail we would actually waste less time having to fix things later. Mistakes often happen when I have been careless, not present and not focused on what I am doing. At times I can get distracted by random thoughts or by what is going on around me, this leads to silly mistakes which then takes time to fix.
This blog by Dianne Trussell reminds how there is care to be taken with all aspects of life, with all levels of activity, and with everything that relates to the quality of life. Quality being the word to explore, because with this blog quality does not mean how expensive the bed coverings are, or if they match the latest trends in bed linen. Quality here relates to the imprint that you leave behind when adjusting your bed sheets. And whatever that quality may be that you choose, it is what you return to at the end of the day. A truly powerful potential for self-love in a very practical everyday way.
I love re-reading the steps you take in making your bed each morning. It feels to me like an accomplished chef sharing a mastered recipe. In understanding what is offered in this blog it can be felt that just as we prepare food with care and attention to produce nutritious and great tasting meals, so too can we make our beds to support us in our quality of sleep.
Instead of wasting time with hurting ourselves we can support us and you gave us a wonderful inspiration how we can do it.
I love how you bring science back to what it actually is, simple everyday wisdom that comes from true livingness.
Wow, so a few weeks later and your blog has helped me totally revolutionise the way I make my bed. It is now such a normal natural part of my routine, but what it has done is make me look at other areas – my bed feels so lovely to get into that then the way I prepare for bed and get in to bed and go to sleep needs to be equally as lovely.
Dianne, I love returning to read this blog, highlighting how bringing such care and attention to detail in the most basic everyday things to be attended in daily life to is very nourishing and supportive as a foundation for the whole day.
I just love the way you make ‘making a bed’ science. How the way we make it leaves an imprint for us to return to. I have always loved making my bed, since I was young. If I had time to one thing only, I would choose making my bed, to have that to come back to. It’s a loving investment in my day and in the quality of the way I sleep.
I love setting up my bed in the morning, it gives me a feeling of completeness, that I am ready for the day without any loose ends holding me back.
The quality of the preparation affects the quality of sleep affects the quality of the next day. How important is it that we get sleep right? If we don’t we usually have a horrible or less than effective day. Making the whole of life as loving as Dianne makes her bed makes sense.
I am learning detail counts. And delicacy. It’s in these moments of expression – these movements – we increase connection with ourselves and the divine. It’s very ‘in the body’, promoting an inner stillness rather than a raciness. This is beneficial on a number of levels.
If we brought as much love to making our beds as Dianne describes to everything we do, life would be a breeze. Or at least a heck of a lot easier to cope with if a storm came though.
I reckon making your bed with love is a great return on investment! I have to say I do almost the same thing and I absolutely LOVE the outcome. My office is attached to our bedroom and I look at the bed many times each day. It’s completely harmonious and inviting. I also love preparing the bed before sleep. Usually, before I go downstairs for dinner, I take the pillows off, fold back the blankets on each side for my husband and I to get into, and replace the pillows, all ready to go. Delicious.
It’s really everything we do from the moment we open our eyes in the morning through to when we go to bed again at night that determines the quality of our sleep, and the quality of our sleep that determines how we feel when we do open our eyes….a never ending cycle. So when someone says they have trouble sleeping, that’s the symptom, but it isn’t the place to look to address the problem. It’s how the day is that needs the focus…and then when we get into bed, we get to feel that.
I love the way you express how you make your bed in the morning Dianne, I can feel how you would feel cocooned by your bed when getting into it at bedtime, and how delicious and self-nurturing that would be! I can’t say that I would have the patience or attention to detail that you have but it has certainly made me more aware of the energetic imprints that we set for ourselves in every seemingly little daily activity, thank-you.
I can feel the power via the quality of how you make your bed Dianne. It made me realise the power is only there when the detail is noted, appreciated and truly felt in your body.
“It’s how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep”; I agree with you Dianne, including how the bed is made in the morning. I actually love making my bed now.
Also a lovely gentle reminder to self love and nurture no matter what we are doing.
Since reading this blog I have realised that there are lots of little ‘5 minute opportunities’ in the day which are easy to skip over or leave out but where a little time is taken for taking care to do something properly and with detail, can make a big difference to the quality of my presence in the day and also leaves a little imprint of care and support that greets me next time I come to that place.
The question of the time to do this process that Dianne describes is a similar quality of thought to when we say something is expensive, but cost like time actually relates to quality. So if something is high quality it makes sense to make the time or money for it. In this regard making my bed deserves time due to the quality it brings and when we look at a 24hour cycle then it is worth it for me to question where I have wasted pockets on low quality actions as opposed to high quality ones.
The quality in which we make our bed may seem like a ‘small’ or minor detail, but if you consider that this is one of the first movements we make in our day, and that how we choose to do that particular task may set the tone for the thousands of movements we make throughout the rest of the day then we realise that this ‘minor’ detail is actually super major!
Thank you Dianne Trussell, I have been inspired by your article and have been taking much more care to leave my bed lovingly cared for in the mornings and it has been lovely, a real treat to come back to it at night. I have been sleeping very well too.
I think of this gorgeous blog each morning when I make my bed – a super simple reminder of the power of bringing love and care to all that we do.
What a blog, it has inspired a massive number of comments.
You have inspired me too, I have taken my bed making to a whole new level and can report that the difference is very palpable. It has also shown me that I can bring this same level of loving presence and attention to every single thing I am doing, knowing that when I return to it, what I will be met by is what I left behind. I have a little heater that I use in the winter to warm my pyjamas before I put them on, that feels delicious too.
Leaving a trail of love to return to in everything we do; making our beds, doing the dishes, walking through the house or office etc, leaves a blessing for us, and all who come across our trail as well.
It is becoming apparent to me how we move and the quality we bring in everything we do impacts the all. This is huge and is a natural law yet many of us care to acknowledge or admit this universal truth. How I am right now effects everyone – this of course takes responsibility to a whole new level.
“Even then, the quality of love in my bed is so strong and supportive that it can help me wind down . . .” – so true Diane, I also get this feeling in my home too when I return from outside or come back from the office …there is a distinct feeling of the solidness of love that envelops to support and restore. How we move or our movements made inside a home serves to confirm our own harmony.. or disharmony… and our bed/bedroom is exactly the same.
What I love most and learn most from this sharing is the fact that you turn the time upside down by choosing to make your bed in the MORNING in preparation for the coming night. This in itself feels very spacious, honouring and caring. No wonder that your body LOVES to go to bed at night. It’s a warm welcome to your own nest. How wonder-full is that.
Dianne I love how you’ve bought a whole new understanding to “before bed” that it is something that starts from the moment we wake up. This is challenging to consider as it means there is no separation from one thing to another, rather a cycle from moment to moment, one affecting the next.
The penultimate paragraph in this article is the best ‘time management workshop’ I have even been to!
Since first reading this blog, I’ve been paying much more attention to the care I put into making my bed in the morning. This morning I was in a bit of a rush and although there were no specific wrinkles etc. it just didn’t feel right and when I looked at it, I noticed uneven blanket sides etc. I could feel in that moment that this wouldn’t feel right to hop into bed to later that night because it reflected less than the care I know I normally take. So I re-made the bed and this time was much more present and the result after felt totally different and complete and will feel amazing when I am ready to get into bed tonight!
Thank you Dianne for another blog of simple wisdom. What comes to me when I read this blog is order and harmony. In the past I did not always appreciate the power of order or harmony in my life or the relationships between the two. I used to believe that it was not worth the time or the effort. However I totally get your great point here that if we leave something disorderly in our life, however small it creates a disturbance or a disharmony in our environment which creates a disharmony within ourselves which of course will have a knock on effect to how we are able to deal with everything in our daily lives. So it is incredibly supportive to create spaces that reflect order and harmony and love in our daily lives.
It is the attention to the details of life that makes all the difference.
The idea that even the smallest detail in our day may influence how we sleep or feel and go to work the next day reflects the natural cycle that we are replaying and living in our lives. In a sense we are being given the opportunity to redo or revisit each movement and re-imprint with more love each time.
I just love re-reading this blog because it is beautifully describes how we can value and appreciate ourselves in every movement that we make and the level of energetic responsibility we can take in our lives.
In fact , come to think of it, and considering day leading to night, and night leading to day…..there is nothing that we don’t do at every present moment that doesn’t set or make what follows, or becomes our future. The moment before, becoming what occurs in the next moment. So it becomes a question of quality yes, though additionally, consistent quality – in every single moment because of the circular or holistic/360 degree effect of living.
How completely wonderful Dianne, I find having certain rituals at bedtime very supportive, for instance I love lighting a candle as I get in from work so the bedroom smells nice, spraying sheets with linen spray, and then falling asleep to lighted incense. A lot of mine being scent related. I do many more things too, and couldn’t be without them. I once left out a ritual, and it felt really odd.. and my day went odd too. What comes from us, follows us. Hence the importance of rituals that are unique to us and no other person or out of a book for example, as they are unique ways to deeply care and love our body, and ourselves.
I travelled to a rental place today and although very neat, clean and tidy – I was very surprised to feel how different it felt energetically, noticeably so in the bedroom! I unpacked and then felt to re-make the bed and re-imprint it ready for me to fully enjoy slipping into it this evening. Already the room quality feels different and I look forwards to being in there this evening.
After I read this blog I change my sheets more often than before. My body really appreciates this little details. Then when I go to sleep I feel great. I celebrate all the new regards that I can give for myself. I feel how much my body needs all my attention, care and love. And I want to give it because I’ve realized that is my best friend, my best partner who wants to be adored. My level of confidence and intimacy with myself increases with my loving choices. I appreciate so much being a student of the Livingness because I’m learning to appreciate everything, to appreciate everyone and to embrace life again, like a little girl who is living the joy and her beautyness inside. Thank you Dianne.
Thank you Dianne for such a beautiful reminder of the power of love in the simplest detail of every day to day things that really does imprint our lives enormously. Making my bed and imprinting it lovingly with this intention really is felt when returned to at night and feels awesome any time I walk into the room . This applies to everything we do and touch move and position lovingly and allows a feeling of space flow and expansion in our bodies .
The health of our everyday foundation is our true wealth. I spent a lot of my life, trying to get by without a healthy supportive foundation in place. It did not work, I was exhausted, felt overwhelmed, ill prepared and often did not complete what I set out to accomplish. Building everyday consistency concerning self-care and nurturing has allowed me to develop productively lovingly in all areas of life.
Beautifully said Samantha. We are all responsible about our health, and this commences with the quality that we bring in our daily life.
Same here Samantha – without that foundation of self care life becomes more about getting by and survival than living with true vitality and joy. My life and my relationships have changed enormously since I started putting more commitment, energy and dedication into taking more care of myself and my body.
I put more care in to my day now, I complete what I start and yes, make my bed with attention and detail in the morning. I am more productive and have more ‘time’ now than I used to, because I don’t have afternoon slumps, stresses and giving up moments like I used to. I get on with it, ‘life’ that is, and I enjoy getting on with it. Completing what we start supports us deeply, no loose ends, no should have’s, it means we can be ready for life rather than pondering the past and wondering if we have done it or not…life is more simple. This is the case with making our bed, doing the washing up, ironing and significantly it is the same for how we walk, do we rush and bump or walk with purpose and presence, and also how we talk, do we have loose ends and not express, do we rush, get emotional and not be present. When you get lost in your head, it sucks up life, time and vitality, staying with the body and completing our activities, conversations and interactions allows for spaciousness in life.
Dianne – your blog helps me to further appreciate the little things – the day to day things in life that can so easily be overlooked. I am staying in a hotel at the moment, and I walked into the bedroom one morning after my shower to see that my husband was making the hotel bed. My first reaction was ‘why would you do that in a hotel?’ – but as I watched him, I naturally felt how loving it is to simply make a bed, knowing that this sets what we will come back to that evening. It made me see the importance of taking time and care to really set the foundations for how we will sleep.
One could read this blog and see it as just about how to make a bed with love, and one would be completely missing the point. There is a way of relating to life through movement that enables us to connect to the love of the Soul in every single moment. That is what the livingness is all about, and why there is such profundity in the simplest of tasks.
‘Can you imagine the care and love pouring out of my bed…….’ It is amazing what a difference we can bring to things in treating them with care and love.
My mother sometimes used an expression” You made your own bed now lie in it” meaning you come back to what you created and have to deal with it……so very true.
Everyday when I make my bed I think of this blog and ask myself “Truly, how does this feel?” I haven’t been giving myself a hard time about it, but it’s a great marker for how connected I am with myself and how I’m feeling at that time.
‘Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?’ Yes I can Dianne and it feels you are going to sleep as a joyful innocent child, completely surrounded by love. Every time I read your blog there comes a smile from inside warming me up, thank you!
Amazing thank you Dianne! I got up early this morning, earlier then I usually would and was amazed at how spacious I felt, I had usually been going into forms of hardness and protection in my body later in the morning, and now that it’s early I feel completely timeless, much to appreciate! The quality that can now be brought through my body is amazingly different. Making the bed, walking to the kitchen, hanging out the clothes it’s all the same, joy is available if we are in connection and and these can all be beautiful and revealing tasks.
Making my bed was something I used to do only occasionally, but now I can feel how gorgeous it is to leave my bed made lovingly and tenderly, ready and waiting for me when I go to bed the following night. It is as though I have given myself a gift that will then support me in my sleep, which then carries on into the next day. It is amazing how a simple thing like this can offer so much support to us everyday.
Since reading your blog I have totally changed the way I make my bed, but yesterday I got to see how now that my bed is far more loving, everything else in my room got shown up as not the same level of love and care and so my whole room needed a reorganize. It was a great moment of learning that as we increase our love in one area it needs to increase everywhere in all that we do.
After reading your blog last week Dianne, one morning I did make my bed differently and took more care than usual. I took everything off and remade my bed with tender care. I felt the difference instantly, and had a smile myself at how gorgeous my bed felt. Even though I do take care when I make it normally, there is an element of auto pilot that goes with it too which means it isn’t done as lovingly as it could otherwise be. Anyway, I’m a work in progress with this deeper level of care when making my bed each day.
Thanks for sharing this Dianne! I loved reading about the level of care you put into making your bed, it is very inspiring and makes total sense to me that this is how it works – it is a science of itself that we as a society have lost and don’t give any attention to. Maybe this is our great detriment and it would help thousands to return to this forgotten science of attention to detail and loving care in daily chores.
What I find matters is the detail of bed making. Fitting the sheet, smoothing out the creases or positioning pillows all done in full presence. I then take this quality into my day. To me it feels like a yoga session first thing in the morning and such a pleasure to feel consciously present with movement and I get to return to it later, it is really a gift everyday to come back and receive. This is not normal in society, in fact, I could be seen as a bit strange that I or we, can derive so much joy from something so ‘everyday’ and what most consider it to be a chore.
The consistency of making my bed with the deeper care and detail, inspired from this blog, is bringing more awareness to other areas that require this same level of consistency of love in action. It is like the ripples on a pond naturally spreading out from something dropped in its centre and bringing change elsewhere – what a beautiful process you have highlighted here.
I love making beds for other people, that usually being my kids. It feels so lovely to bring this quality to where they will come back to in the evening and a knowing that they have the choice to accept the quality of what is within their beds.
Loving choices and actions bring love into our life – so we bring space into our living instead of time-pressure.
It is in ‘fully present and loving myself’ that lies a key. Anything I do in this quality sets a foundation that supports me to re-write so many old patterns of behaviour from self-denigration to disregard to dismissive-ness about responsibility. And what I notice more and more is that when something (in this case, making up my bed) is done with this presence and love then I am loved back when I return later. It is the same with the washing up, parking the car, finishing off at my desk… not only am I met by the quality with which I completed something but it is also there for everyone else. Just imagine the difference between slamming shut my computer, shoving undealt with paperwork ‘under cover’ and rushing to get away alongside taking a moment to prepare the space for my next visit. Which would we prefer to return to? The latter for me, please. Considering what I would like to be greeted with, the next time I come to work, is like loving myself and taking care of a bigger picture in the future.
Yesterday I was inspired to make my bed with an added level of love and care after reading your blog Dianne and when I lay myself down last night I felt held by the love and clarity I had left. It made me smile and was a beautiful reminder and simple confirmation that whatever quality we leave behind has our imprint and we eventually return to the quality we have laid.
Since reading this blog last week I have taken a new approach with my bed. After waking up I make my bed before I leave my room. I always made my bed lovingly and never left the house without making my bed, but the impact of making it first thing has had on the feeling of my room is substantial. Now, over the course of the morning as I enter and re-enter my room time and time again, I get welcomed in such a loving way.
Yes Dianne the power of doing any little thing in love, fully present and accounted for is remarkable. Thank you for the great reminder.
The love and care you take to make your bed, Dianne , is felt in your sharing and it is a revelation that taking time of the day to make things lovingly in the end saves time. This turns around the common belief pattern that we have to be as quick as possible in order to be able to do all the things which are expected of us and in the end the stress causes complications.
Over the past few years I have enjoyed going to bed being very aware of how I move and get into it. Since bringing the finer details to the morning bed-making routine (from reading this blog), I am noticing an amazing lightness and delicateness within when approaching and getting into bed. Wow – It feels so precious and loving.
9 days ago I was totally inspired by this blog to take steps to spend time to bringing even more care to making my bed. It has been an amazing experience – the whole room feels different from this detail and whenever I walk into the bedroom a huge smile comes up from deep inside. The other morning, I felt some sense of rushing creeping in and this felt very constricted and off balance in my body – everything came to a stop for a few moments and then I enjoyed making the bed with this deeper level of awareness. Thank you Dianne – it is gorgeous to feel the building of consistency with this.
To make my bed with care, presence and detail, to replace my make up in my dressing table and to put away anything that’s been left out, brings a feeling of completion as I leave the room for the day. I know there’s simply that order there, waiting for me to return to in the evening.
I love this Dianne, I have always subscribed to the notion that if you lovingly make your bed, it is like a gift to yourself at the end of the day when you are ready for bed. It has always felt so wonderful to get into bed, as you say, peeling back the covers that have been so lovingly made up. I definitely have felt the benefits to making the time to make my bed, the appreciation I feel, the love and support is felt all day.
We literally do sleep in the bed of our own making. Every choice we make impacts so much more than we realise, and undeniably comes back to us on so many levels. Thank you Dianne.
Dianne I love it very much what you wrote about making your bed as I could feel during reading your amazing blog that this would be a wonderful way to got a more loving way to approach sleep for people with a sleeping disorder.
This blog makes me question how much of our time is wasted or spent on the re-doing or catching up with what is left undone or incomplete. When we are ever playing catch up it is a drain on us and there is no space to enjoy what simply is.
Lovely blog Dianne. Whenever I have given this amount of love and attention to detail you speak of, whether it be the way I leave the house, my car or my room I am always met with that equal love when I return to it. It is so worth doing all the time.
The level of care you bring to making your bed is inspiring.
So yesterday I was inspired to take much more care when making my bed, and so last night it was amazing getting into bed – I was far more aware of how I pulled the covers back and got in, because I didn’t want to disturb the beautiful bed I had made for myself. And now every day I can learn to make it more loving in how I do it.
Since reading your blog I have come to a new level of appreciation for what my bed offers and how it supports me. I have been in the routine of being on my computer early in the morning in bed and set my self up as supportively and comfortably as I can. A discussion with a professional on what is best to support my body revealed that being on the computer is counter productive to my spine. The point is the difference I felt when I made my bed in the morning. The bed feels lighter and more sacred. The space is more honoured for being solely dedicated to support my restful and restorative sleep. There is no lingering energy from also using it as a work area. I have cared for my bed in a loving way with an awareness, conscious choice and loving gentleness around making and sleeping in it. But until I stopped being on the computer in the bed, I didn’t pick up that this was also leaving an imprint.
This sharing Dianne, has supported me to deepen the tenderness with myself whilst doing my homework, thank you.
Dear Dianne,
I have recently moved and have only just had my bed delivered out of storage and have deepened the level of care that I am making it with and it is too beautiful for words.
The first night I slept in my bed, it was literally like climbing into Gods arms as I settled into bed. Thank you for sharing the absolute science that we ‘reap what we sew.’
Investments are all about returns – and the returns you get from making your bed in love come with a very high interest rate that never drops. Each time you do it you get more out of it. It really is a good deal.
This is incredible! Realizing how much support lies in a lovely caring. You can transfer the ‘making the bed’ into everything like cooking, desk cleaning – evening I leave behind me (like my bed in the morning), I will come back to, in the one or other way. To leave things in love supports the love that will be awaiting me.
The power of doing anything in love.
Dianne! Thank you so much for this blog, since reading it I totally re thought about the way I make my bed, and this morning I put it into practice and wow, I looked at my bed and couldn’t wait to go to sleep that evening because it felt such a loving thing to take the time to do more than smooth it out but actually re-make it. And that then lead me to a very loving morning, doing my stretches and exercises and feeling more appreciative doing my makeup – it really is small things.
This example of making our beds in love, highlights how we are constantly making energetic imprints in life that we leave for others or may return to ourselves such as our beds each night to re-experience. Whilst we may appreciate the imprints which hold a loving quality we do not so quickly recognise the not so good imprints that we leave behind perhaps because we do not want to take responsibility for how we live our lives in every moment.
It is wonderful to read how everything is connected to everything Dianne. We so often compartmentalise our lives and do not make the link between the quality of the energy that we do things in affects the quality of other parts of the day such as our sleep.
Awesome, Diane. I love the idea of preparing yourself for the coming night first thing in the morning. It is something that I am inspired to try for myself!
My experience is similar Diane. I love to make my bed in the morning, but on the odd occaission that it doesn’t get made and I just leave it tidy with the cover and duvet pulled back and pillows plumped, when I go to bed I can feel how un nurturing and unsupportive this is. And its the same if I don’t put my clothes away when I go to bed – there is an incompleteness and that can get carried with me into my sleep and the next day, so affecting how I am. It highlights the responsibility we have down th the smallest detail of how we choose to take care of ourselves, and what can affect us when we don’t do that.
Supporting our sleep by taking this extra care with our bed is part of supporting our day. The one sets up and guarantees the quality of the other and is part of a constant cycle.
I agree with your observation Dianne that taking extra care actually creates time in the long run. When I do things with care, my body feels lovely and spacious, and 5 minutes can feel like half an hour. I am more precise in my movements and don’t have to redo things. I just know how they need to be. We really have ourselves fooled with the idea that we don’t have time to tend to things lovingly. Perhaps worse still is the belief that it doesn’t matter how we make or leave our bed. Unfortunately the energetic imprint in the bed is there affecting us each night whether we believe it or not.
Reflecting on your blog, I realised how much I notice the disharmony of a bed that is not made, or has its covers thrown back in place roughly. We can spend anywhere from 6-10 hours in our beds a day, and they hold whatever energy or state we have left them in. Like buying supportive shoes, it makes sense to care for your bed as it holds and cares for you as you sleep and rejuvenate.
I really love my bed, its furnishings and the angles made with pillows and sheets. I like to make it as soon as I get out of bed, almost in respect and appreciation of the care it has offered me overnight. I love the feeling of freshly washed sheets and the way I have made my bed. However I have never undone a bed in the morning and started afresh. I will have to give this a try!
I’ve been doing my own experiment with this the past week or so – not fully stripping the bed, but paying more attention and putting more care into the way I make my bed. It feels different making it, and I really appreciate having more conscious awareness around this and the way I am preparing for sleep – thinking of which….. it’s time for bed… !
You are so right, Dianne- loving self care is a great investment and I appreciate you showing me another way to be deeply self caring. Of course it need not stop there as we do so many things in our day which need this loving attention. You have inspired me to be more aware of the care I give these daily tasks.
I am so inspired Dianne. Also on the note of OCD I find it interesting that those who are tidy naturally often feel they have to apologise for this rather than celebrate their natural alignment to order. I am not naturally inclined to be very ordered but I really appreciate those that are and are inspired to bring more and more love and order to my everyday living. Thank you for sharing, I am off to remake my bed!
“but when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over, etc.,” this is SO true Dianne the amount of energy wasted on these sorts of stresses it makes total sense to put our energy into other things like making our bed, taking loving care over the day to day tasks so that is what we bring to our interactions and jobs throughout the day. It is an equation in living a loving life.
Diane this is so beautiful and brings such an important simplicity to sleeping and how we are in our day with every little detail and the preparation and love we put into it. The love put into making our bed is there for us to return to and be in as we sleep that night what a great way to go to bed.
One of many inspirations I get from this article and your writing Dianne, is the fun we can have and the insight we can get from looking at the way we do things and live our lives, as science. The impact of making our bed really lovingly, carefully and respectfully in the morning, on the quality of our sleep and how we feel when we return to bed that evening. This is the science of us and so worth ‘studying’.
As a child I looked forward to the days my Mum had changed the bed sheets. I would feel the care and time she took to wash the sheets with gentle fabric wash and the support with the bed making with each corner tucked in tight to keep me warm. This is a memory I have taken on as an adult and so enjoy making my bed.
I love this blog Dianne, because it’s shown me that my making of my bed could include a whole lot more love and care in it – I always make my bed in the morning as i love to come home to a made bed, but to the detail and love you described I have to say I have never considered. Usually it is more a case of making sure the duvet and blankets and pillows are nice and neat and tidy, but what your describing is taking it to another level and literally stripping the bed and remaking it with love, so thank you for sharing and I shall have fun making my bed tomorrow morning.
I could feel the Love Dianne, I love this ritual you shared and I for one don’t think it’s over the top. I know when my rhythm is in place, pockets of love are set and felt for me everywhere. For me it’s working on the consistency to hold them and moving it to all areas. Loved it Diane.
Yes, I too love the space I have in the morning to make my bed, lovingly. Every time I walk past it during the day (eg. to go to the ensuite) I look at my bed and feel the beauty in the amazing way it was made earlier that day, and when I come to pull back the covers in the evening I know what is waiting for me. Love, wrinkle free sheets, warmth on a cool night, light coverings on a warm night. Can it get any better than that??!! Yes, it is absolutely worth the investment.
What a beautiful ritual, Dianne, and one which not only nurtures you while your body rests, it sets the day up to be an expression of your love. I love the fine attention to detail you bring to this and I know you bring that to your scientific work as well as I have heard you present with great clarity from your keen observation of matter.
Wow Dianne, I can feel the love coming from your bed. What a worthwhile investment – in yourself.
Everything is waiting for us to return to it in our lives, whether it be our behaviours, our words, how we left the kitchen or our bed in the morning. How we complete and prepare what we return to in life is very significant. Is it with a disregard and lack of care or is it with love and respect? What are we saying about what we think about ourselves when we do not offer ourselves the respect and kindness of preparing our space and leaving it ready for us.
I agree, how I make my bed supports how my day will be and how I return to bed.
I love how you have shared some simple secrets in life so beautifully Dianne! It is so true that it is so lovely to creep into bed when it has been made, and indeed even more delicious to creep in when it has been made lovingly. In fact we could say that when we connect to the power of making our bed in love, we get to enjoy the power of making love in bed (with ourselves or with another) – and to clarify for those who have a train of thoughts that is a bit wayward, it is about loving yourself up here and not the act of sex itself! Hence making a bed lovingly is like making love to oneself!
How we move and with this everything we do is a preparation for what is waiting ahead, we are building the path meanwhile we are walking and we have the choice to build this path with love or not.
What a great counter list to the ever-common cry of ‘I don’t have time’. When we look at how ‘time consuming’ rushing, exhaustion, lack of presence and mistakes are, a minute or two extra, taking attentive care of the detail, makes total sense. It is the quality and attention with which I approach every day tasks that changes everything. And ‘WOW’ to the feeling of being’ loved back’ when we return to something we have really taken love and care over.
‘how I do everything for the whole of the day that governs the ease of getting to sleep and the quality of my sleep.’
This makes complete sense. It also shows the science of consistency, something I was just about to write was something I hadn’t mastered. But I’ve been consistent in moving in a way that repeats patterns that are familiar and so comfortable. There is nothing stopping me from living in a way that supports my sleep, or eating in tune with my body, etc. certainly not the belief that I’m deficient in being consistent!
It is true, we often feel like there is not enough time in the day to do all the things, our tasks, with care yet it is because we do not take the care needed to support us through our living day that we lose the sense of who we are. With this disconnect and not having a true sense of what is truly needed in that moment we instead use time to dictate our movements. I am learning more and more of the power of living with our presence in every moment, as in truth it is our future that is being lived with every move we make. The quality of how we live today is the quality in which our future is lived, be it seemingly minutes or hours away, or days, years or lifetimes. Our future is in our hands in every moment.
It’s a beautiful simple way that we can support ourselves, our sleep and therefore our day. It may seem like an ordinary everyday activity, which it is but imagine if we invested the same amount of care and dedication and love into all of those seemingly ordinary everyday activities and moments during our day? Our whole life would be transformed.
There is no amount of time lost whenever we choose to be with our loving presence as love is timeless. It is amazing how much space opens up to support us to be all that we are, whenever we choose to be with our loving selves.
This is just beautiful Dianne. I could feel the warm embrace of your bed from here. I love this – ‘my body is feeling the love I have put into my bed to support and cradle me all night.’ It is so true the body knows love, as it is designed to be moved by love and responds accordingly with openness when met with love or loving actions.
It really is in the small things that make the difference. The way a bed is made, the way we get into bed and the way we put ourselves to bed, all have a huge impact on how well we sleep – this re-writes ‘How to have a restful night’s sleep’.
As I read your blog Dianne, I had such a vivid image of you making your bed with the love and care you describe. I did find myself saying ‘oh i can’t go to that much trouble every day’…and now I’m saying ‘why not?’…I might just give it a go today and see how it feels because I know how much I love getting into a freshly made clean sheets bed and the care I take then, so why not every day?
The time you dedicate to make your bed feels like you make space for the day. And like you share, Dianne, when we dedicate time for small things during the day is like holding us in love.
The way you make your bed Dianne feels so self loving and supportive. If such love was brought to all that we did, imagine how different our lives would be. Thanks Dianne for your inspirational blog.
I love the detailed way that you Dianne use to explain this simple and everyday activity. It makes me reflect on the level of depth that we can achieve, in everything that we do. Making bed, and everyday routines are a huge opportunity to take care of ourselves.
My bed and I have a new relationship now thanks to your blog Dianne and I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you for your continuous, gorgeously playful and inspiring articles.
I totally agree on how much of a difference taking time and care in making a bed does make. I find when I change the sheets and make my bed up, that night I will have an awesome sleep. The ritual you have detailed Dianne is one that I will also adopt
“I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!” Absolutely agree Dianne, a super-sound investment 🙂
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” – Wow Dianne, yes I can!! I too love taking the time to make my bed as soon as I get up in the morning but the extra detail and level of care you bring is super inspiring – I’ll be experimenting with my own bed-making ritual in the coming days – thank you!
I love coming back to this blog, it reflects how attention to detail is super important and powerful and how love comes back in everything. We can choose to be aware or not aware of the ripple effect is has on everything and everyone.
Inspired by your blog, for the last week I have been deepening the care in which I make my bed and have been amazed at how gorgeous this is to do. Once made it feels my bed is just loving me back and I am finding other areas of my bedroom, my wardrobe and drawers are now calling saying ‘me too!’ This deepening of care is infectious!
Your blog Dianne, clearly demonstrates the ongoing affect of the energy in which we do something in. If we applied this level of love to EVERYTHING that we do, leaving no stone unturned, we cannot but feel as though we are living heaven here on earth.
So much wisdom readily available in us and yes the body knows this wisdom. Your story of making the bed is such a beautiful, simple example of what the body needs and knows; of our innate wisdom and knowledge. Thank you Dianne for sharing the love and nurturing you give to yourself.
Dianne it’s a great sharing “putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!” Yes I can see how it is a great investment, like you say it saves the stress, the tension of getting things wrong in a rush. It helps you unwind and let go when you return from a busy day, it’s nurturing and supported, as your have left the loving imprint in creating that environment. It feels so lovely, something I am going to pay more attention too in my day.
The concept of putting energy in and getting that back in return is so true, I love that you also cover all the excuses we might think we have for not having 5 mins to complete such a loving act. Put 5 mins of love in a save 30 mins of possible tossing and turning, arguing or suffering somewhere down the track sounds pretty cool to me.
In the same way that how we go to bed prepares for the next day so, too, I have found that the way in which I prepare myself first thing in the morning ready to engage with ‘the world’ directly influences how I feel for the rest of the day. If I rush then I find I am in the rush for the rest of day, while when I make space to bath, get dressed and organise what I need for the day so there is no rush then the pace for my day ahead flows evenly even when the unexpected occurs.
I love your last paragraph Diane, it is so true that skimping and hurrying through a task without paying full loving attention only creates more time on putting it into order later. If we continue to live in this not caring state the messes in the house or at work build up until all is confusion and mess and hard to clear up or out. What interests me is that we know very well when we are skimping the responsibility of fulfilling a task with love, but choose to ignore it for the sake of some other reason, like “I have a thousand things to fit into my day, I haven’t really got time for this”. Listen to that excuse! When you say it out loud it becomes so obvious it is total disregard of your self and others.
Inspiring Dianne – I can feel that I only pay lip service to making my bed lovingly – and I now feel that I will be making my bed in quite a new and refreshing way – one that will bring with it love and an attention to detail. I can see how this ritual will bring with it a greater steadiness and purpose into the day ahead.
After reading this blog I have spent some days watching myself in how I would treat my bed, both in the preparation of it in the morning and in how I would place myself in to it at night. And, as I ask myself questions on how do I really feel about my bed in the way that I care for it as the special place that I lay down to at night, to rest my body and be with myself completely and as the place from which I arise my body in the morning and commit to another day in the world, I realise that this is part of the living science of being me, which has brought greater care to how I am with my bed. Thank you Dianne Trussell.
There is something quite lovely about making my bed in the morning in preparation for the next evening’s sleep. The quality that the bed is made is felt one hundred percent.
‘The Power of making my bed with love’, indeed. Power is such an appropriate description for this act of love, Dianne. Struggles of disempowerment are often talked about and expressed, in work places, in families and relationships, in our communities. But by reclaiming our connection with love, in the most simplest ways like you have shown here, and making them a part of our everyday, we are effectively reclaiming our natural powerfulness. The power of living loving choices, on a personal level, on a community level, on a global level, can never be underestimated.
You make such a great point Dianne for clearly the time and care you invest in you through your bed, is worth any effort the moment you are fed back the love you put in. Very cool.
‘..the quality of love in my bed is so strong and supportive that it can help me wind down . . .’
Such an important observation Dianne, that the quality that we put into our foundation, can provide us with so much support throughout our day and can even help to bring us back to ourselves when we are off.
‘I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’ I agree, as I’m sure would many others. It is definitely an investment. The alternative, I have to say gives you no return whatsoever, trust me, I’ve been giving it a go for yeeeaaaaaarrrrsss!!!
Your point about it seeming as if there is not enough time in the day to dedicate to what would normally seem to be a very menial task, is spot on. I have been playing with my obsession with time lately, and it’s absolutely true, that the time spent being anxious, which is supported by constantly worrying, creating drama and issues etc, is actually much time lost. The more care we take in the ‘little things’ (actually not so little at all), the less we feel that need to go into that racyness/overdrive etc, because we end up feeling more at ease with ourselves because of the level of care we have taken.
This blog has been such an inspiration Dianne… after reading this several days ago I decided to make my bed differently after washing the sheets. Normally I would just put new sheets on according to the weather i.e. another set of cotton sheets in summer, another set of flannelette sheets in winter, without any consideration if this felt true for me or not.
So as I went to make my bed I recalled how the cotton sheets have felt cold to get into lately but I would brush this aside thinking they will warm up soon, and although its autumn but still quite mild, I felt to put flannelette sheets on and went to bed in a summer nightie. It was the yummiest feeling to get into bed and snuggle into those cosy sheets, and I lay there with the biggest smile on my face – it was glorious to feel the love for myself and to feel so cocooned in loving warmth… and I appreciate you (and myself) every night when I get into bed Dianne 🙂 thank you.
Um, WOW! That’s amazing Dianne. You have inspired me to up the ante on my bed making. I’m still recovering from my ‘why make the bed when you’re just going to get back in’ days. These days I make it….but by making it, I pull the fitted sheet across a bit to flatten it out and then whisk the doona back over after it’s had a little breathing time. But this level of detail has me considering that perhaps being more present and actually focusing a little more on the detail will add another layer of support for me when I return to it in the evening.
Ok…I read this and was like,this sounds great, I will try it. Then the rebellious part of me kicked in and I left my bed worse than ever for 2 days and then I dropped that (thankfully) and the last 2 mornings have made my bed with as much love and attention as I can muster and oh my, it is so so so lovely. I slept so well last night. I have committed to a week of this and see what unfolds. Thanks for the inspiration Dianne.
This made me laugh. I love how we have this destruct button on the ready. I’ve been feeling it today right at my very surface, ready to come out to play. I let it play, but it was mean and nasty so I put it back again. Making the choice to do something loving and committing to it can seem near impossible at times, but at the end of the day it is just a choice, and as you have shown Sarah can be rechosen at any time.
“To me, ‘before’ bed is not just the last few minutes before I peel back the sheets and get in.” when thinking about getting ready for bed, straight away my mind went to the last few minutes of actually getting in to bed. but wow Dianne, this blog and what you have shared about making your bed has blown me away! the care and attention that you have when making your bed is inspirational, and no doubt it feels amazing to get into at night. love it.
It is great to feel the love and the side effects of taking the time to care for yourself. You get back a lot more than what you put in.
I am not so detailed with my bed, but I always have had this ritual around leaving the house in a state that I would like to come home to, or making sure the kitchen is clean as I don’t want to start my next day with dirty dishes.
It is so supportive of ourselves when we take time to care.
The attention to and love of the details that are shared in this article are deeply inspiring – thank you Dianne.
This is brilliant Dianne – I love it. I have just read another blog on squandering time and in that made the same observation. If we do things on automatic pilot we make miss-takes or miss something and have to go back and repeat. Absolutely worth the time and space to spend a few more minutes and do it with loving presence the first time. We are so worth whatever this takes, otherwise we are just short sheeting ourselves. And with that everyone else because we are only reflecting the rushed ‘this much is enough’ way of life rather than living the fullness of who we truly are.
The sumptuousness with which you describe making your bed in the morning is delightful, Dianne. I know this feeling you describe about how ‘It feels so delicious and inviting, the smile is inevitable!’ I too get into bed in the evenings with this delicious feeling and inevitable smile since making my bed every morning in complete presence with myself. I have been known to lie in my bed and laugh out loud at how awesome it feels to be so cared for and held.
I agree Dianne, bringing loving attention to everything is very much worth it, we are worth it, and the more we take time for it the more time will actually be available for us as many stressful moments will be prevented by it.
Dianne the love that you show yourself in the way that you make your bed is usually reserved for babies. How glorious that you treat yourself with such deep care.
Wow Dianne, I love it!! All the little details that may seem insignificant are so important. I can feel how much love your bed then greets you with at the end of the day. I just want to jump into bed now!!!
Dianne, this blog has brought a deeper awareness to how important consistency is in at least one area of our life. That can then expand to another area and another until this becomes a living way right ‘across the board’, with no compartmentalising of our life dependent upon who we are with or work or home situations and acting differently in each ‘box’. To be living in the same quality you bring to making your bed, into every aspect of life is absolutely gorgeous and exposes how much exhaustion is running in our lives if we continue to live in the accepted old way of being in disconnection to our body rather than the quality and detail we can bring to every moment.
Dianne feeling the strength and quality of love that you share with the way you make your bed shows how everything from the moment we open our eyes to wake up to the time we rest our head at night affects the quality of our sleep and then the way we wake up the next day, but its not some hard task list simply giving the same care and attention to each aspect of our day and the rewards speak for themselves. I know for me there are parts of life I think are more important and when I do I miss out me and the joy that is there waiting to come out.
If there was some sort of graph that could chart the return of the five minutes investment spent making the bed with such care and love, I’m sure the results would be out of this world.
Thank you, Dianne, your account of bed making has been super inspiring to read. It makes so much sense to take the time to prepare for the day, for sleep, for mealtimes etc with the same loving quality, as that is what we will return to.
I not only make my bed everyday, but also make beds for other people. Last week I was asked to make up four beds. Initially, I wasn’t looking forward to this, then, inspired by your article and having felt the gorgeousness of my room with a lovingly made bed, I understood the significance of the request and all changed. I carefully ironed bedding, lovingly made each bed and left rooms with the same feeling of deliciousness of my own. When we’re loving with ourselves, that same love is carried to all that we do.
Diane your blog is such an invitation to stop my disregard and reckless behavior at once.
Thank you Dianne – I have alway loved the care I placed on making my bed with no effort – but the biggest thing that has changed is the quality in which I put myself to bed – so the love and care is now right through out my day.
I find it quite scary that it is the norm today that people (including myself) run out of energy before the day ends. And the leaks come through not taking care with such a sense for detail as you describe it, Dianne. Great medicine.
There is something so nourishing in making your bed like the way you describe Dianne. To lay down at the end of the day in a bed that is made with vitality and love would be offering the body a nurturing transition into settling down towards the phase of sleep. A very restorative ‘cocoon’ to lay the body down into, how super supportive.
This is such a delightful example of how the love that we are feeds back to us when our movements such as making the bed are done in this loving quality.
What is so beautifully highlighted in this blog is how it is not just about having a smooth bed without wrinkles that looks neat and tidy. Rather the whole foundation of the bedsheets is tended to in such a way that builds a quality and level of loving detail which can support us through our day and ready for us when we return to be that night.
I enjoy changing the sheets on my bed and when I do this there is upmost care in making it smooth, tight and neat. But this is a once a fortnight or so event and I expect that it will stay that neat without me having to do much else in the coming mornings. Again, great symbolism here of how much effort I put into connecting with myself and I feel that doing it once and having the result of what precision and clarity that connection brings that I can just ride on that. What the bed is showing me though is that it’s an every day thing, every choice in fact, to connect and I can’t just do it once and think that that’s enough. Who would have thought the bed had so much to say!?
I love reading your wonderment and joy in caring for yourself Dianne – you make mundane chores sound like so much fun! For me, making my bed is a bit ‘slap happy’ and lacks care. Just by pulling the quilt up to cover the crinkled sheets is enough to satisfy me of a job (not so well) done. But what am I really covering up here? It’s like putting on a brave face when things aren’t ok. Making it look pretty when what lies beneath is disregarded. This is very symbolic actually of the body and it’s beauty superficially when the true beauty is within, connection to the inner-heart.
We leave behind energetic imprints in what ever we do, say or think, interactions with others Etc. We then return to those imprints, this recently have come to my attention in the way I leave the house in the morning going to work, if I’m rushing or stressed or in reaction with my family, the first thing that I walk into when I return from work is that same energy of emotion that I left in our home in the morning.
As soon as I get up, I make our bed with a lot of detail and it looks great, but mostly I find it a chore or burden that I have to do, as it’s a large king size bed its physically quite heavy. But I realize now that’s the energy I’m putting into our bed, so now I’m bringing more awareness and love into the way I make it, as I feel the importance of that, as it that energy that will hold and support us at night.
Such a joy reading your ritual of making your bed Dianne. I could not stop smiling as I observed the care and attention in every step and imagined how gorgeous it would feel to get into such a lovingly prepared bed. I was amused to consider that when we think if investing in ourself in a big way we think of things like a holiday or a pamper session, yet what you are sharing here is so much more powerful than any of that.
The great ‘return on investment’ is us – the world gets us in our fullness thus going out expanding and bringing all we are instead of going out to seek, to fill, to takes or to numb. This article has shown that by taking the time to attend to the smallest of details is loving of ‘All’ including and starting with ourselves and reaching to the most outer degrees all others. Absolute Appreciation in action.
Making the bed today had more clarity, love and inspiration then it did yesterday, now that is something truly profound. If we became aware of this level of detail in our life, every day will be filled with evolution.
There is nothing like getting into a bed made with love, and making a bed with love is a complete joy.
Everyday I make my bed and have done so for many years, the thought of leaving the house with an unmade bed would affect the quality of my day. Thank you Dianne for this simple yet beautiful reminder.
I make my bed every single day and cannot imagine not doing it. It is part of my day, just like showering and getting dressed. No time? We all have time to make our bed, it is just choice.
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” Absolutely. This is something most of us still need to re-discover and cherish, how very much every little gesture counts and supports us immensely. Every loving gesture allows us to feel at home, cherished and loved, the best support we can give ourselves.
I love your bed making ceremony Dianne and the preciseness and attention to detail you bring to it, I can very much relate to it. Making my bed in the morning is a ritual I never miss, it is a beautiful start to the day and a welcoming embrace at night.
It is amazing what we can learn from the simple things in life like making a bed. Thank you for sharing Dianne it was a joy to read.
Having enjoyed reading this blog and being so deeply inspired – I followed the impulse to return to the bedroom and re-made the bed (which was already made beautifully).
Thank you Dianne – you have opened the door to a deeper level of awareness and love to re-imprint the bed making with. The difference is totally awesome!
Wow this is inspiring and takes the care and time we put into everything super important. I can say I make my bed in the morning with a presence however I also know how yummy my bed feels when I shake the mattress cover and completely redo it after putting on clean bedding. I can now see I could bring this quality to my bed every day. Thank you Dianne.
I just loved your blog Dianne, it brought a smile to my face just pondering on your words I will remember this and take much more loving care when making my bed in the morning, knowing that the love that it has been made with will be waiting to welcome me when I snuggle in at night to go to sleep.
Thank you Dianne this offers a beautiful appreciation to everything we do in life and the accumulation of moments of loving detail and care really does come back to us to feel throughout the day . From making one’s bed lovingly to every other thing done in awareness and quality we build a loving life in a quality to take to bed and sleep with that is amazing and changes all aspects of time as it opens up to us.
So beautifully shared, Dianne….I smiled as you described peeling back the sheets before hopping into bed! The innate loveliness we are is reclaimed each and every morning as we bring ourselves, fully present, to making the bed and is returned tenfold as we slide in between the covers in the evening. I felt so very held by your expression and I appreciate you sharing this simple and true story of love.
Its moments like making our bed in love that set us up for the next moment to be one of a similar quality. Living this rhythm gives us consistency, which is a great joy!
Beautifully said Diane, the love and care and attention to detail you put into making your bed is very inspiring and powerful to read. I shall enjoy bringing this deeper level of care and love to my bed making and enjoy the rewards that this brings to the quality of my sleep and the quality of my day.
So true Dianne, a great return on investment indeed when we consider how we try to do things quickly yet with no quality at all and end up having to go back and do it again or are left sitting in and feeling the mess that we created in the first place.
I remember clearly 1 night staying at a friend’s house, she covered my bed with little notes expressing how much she loves me and it was such a delight to glide into that amount of love and appreciation. I took the notes home and put them on and in my bed for over a week and every night the same big smile would appear on my face.
“Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” Yes, I can. The love comes oozing from the page now and I can feel what it would be like if you wrap yourself into this abundance of love, adoration, appreciation and confirmation. Love simply takes over and there is no place for resistance.
“To me, ‘before’ bed is not just the last few minutes before I peel back the sheets and get in.” To me neither, although the last hour before I go to bed, my wind down period is a very important time with a lot of influence, actually my whole day has impact and just like you wrote the quality in which I do things effects the quality of my sleep and the ease I fall in sleep.
I love making the bed in the morning – for me it is a natural part of my day and I always appreciate it when i come back in the evening and see the sheets all made and ready to be crawled into.
Yes – a simple and practical thing, but it makes all the difference. The same can be said for many small things that happen in our days, the attention to detail, the care we put into the little things adds up in a huge way.
I love this blog Dianne and appreciate the detail you go to in making your bed. I absolutely love getting into a bed that has been lovingly made and sleep all the more soundly for it.
Dianne what completely stands out to me is when I make our bed and notice the sheets are not feeling quite supportive in the way they’ve folded, I get the instant feeling to take greater care and love when making them or try and cover them up. Which choice I make affects the whole of my day and night thereafter.
And when taken that time to support ourselves truly, we gain ‘time’ and space 🙂
What a beautiful and simple blog Dianne – I loved reading and feeling your ritual, and what stood out for me was: “when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over, etc., I reckon the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!” So much time wasted on all the things you mentioned, and so you are totally right- the choice to pay attention to the minutest detail in a truly loving way does reward us in the end in the way we are with ourselves and others throughout the day.
Having read your blog yesterday Dianne, I had a whole different awareness when making my bed this morning. I took a lot more care with it and I look forward to feeling the love that I made it with when I go to bed this evening.
Me too Elizabeth – Dianne reminded me as well, that we can always go deeper in our self-care and self-love, I love it.
It comes back to that every moment we make a choice and it is up to us, if we choose to care for ourselves or get lost in something else.
What you share here Dianne, I love it, especially your sentence “Can you imagine the love and care pouring out of my bed, sitting there innocently awaiting me for later?” You inspire me, to put much more care and love into my preparation before I go to sleep. And I agree, the preparation doesn’t start a few minutes before we go to bed, it starts when we wake up – basically the whole day is just one preparation for the sleep.
Such a powerful way to glide through the day!
The ripple effect of the actions we take are truly fascinating. In this case highlighting the making of our bed, but applicable to every little detail in our lives. It is amazing how a purposeful, loving action can so deeply affect the consciousness we bring to other parts of our day and affect others in many unseen ways. There is a science to this for sure and one that has not been given full exploration, perhaps we should spend less money and time looking for life on other planets and more time studying the effects on humanity of a well made bed.
Haha, well said Stephen. Let’s make life about what is important such as the quality with which we care for ourselves and each other, rather than wanting to fly to the moon.
Well said Stephen – we like to spend a lot of our time looking in the opposite direction to that we most need to see – less the realisation that we are responsible for all aspects of our current situation and more so that we have the power through our choices to change it.
What I have noticed and felt is if somewhere in the room, house, flat or space we live in; if there is something not in order or messy even in a corner of the room or a draw it reflects back to the whole space … no matter how tidy or well kept the rest of the place is! Everything in our life reflects back to us … I feel I have a lot of clearing and tidying to do!
Great sharing and a reflection for me. I have been doing the same like you for quite some time now. I have a finishing touch ritual of a fluffy white rabbit with a sweet smile who I lay against the coloured pillows, like the ‘topping on the icecream’. When I enter my room in the evening there is bunny smiling at me and I melt 🙂
If I have had a bit of a challenging day and I am not feeling fully myself I always find returning home to my bedroom really supportive. I can feel the energy that I have lived and the love that I have moved with, put things away with, set things up with. The imprint of me and the way that I have been with myself is all over it, and I can tangibly feel it as I enter. It really is a home coming and a beautiful support for life.
This blog shows once more how practical self love and care is and that there is always more to come when we pay attention to detail.
Making our bed and in fact attending to our whole home with this care and love is a beautiful and support level of regard. Our homes and how we are in our spaces are simply a reflection of the self honouring and self regard we have for ourselves and our bodies. It is amazing to return home everyday to an honouring space and especially to come into a deliciously made bed.
Yes I love to do that too! It makes all the difference and it is a lovely way to prepare my bed as well, putting the love and care into ironing my huge duvet cover.
I was and still am sometimes a person who rushed to do things as I always thought there is not enough time. As I read you inspirational blog Diane I questioned again all the rush. It felt so wonderful how you made your bed that I could feel that I loose quality if I am rushing – so how could that be good even if I would save three Minutes? Thank you so much for reminding me that quality counts more than everything else.
This level of love and care is beautiful to feel when expressed from different people in the same space. In our home we each bring a lovely uniqueness to the way we bring this quality to our home. For example my daughter has a lovely attention to order and detail with the cleanliness and order of intricate things like shelves and cupboards, I have a flare for the positioning and angling of things as well, what is needed in each room texture wise as a lovely presence I bring to the placement of objects and my husband has an amazing understanding of the activities among family and how to support connection in each space.
Diane I love what you have shared in your awesome blog. Now I am even more inspired to deepen my level of self care as I could feel that there is so much more possible.
The beautiful detailed care, love and attention you speak of here is so supportive and deeply confirming. I bring this, as does my family to all areas in our home and the way our home feels is amazing, lovely and clear that allows people’s bodies to surrender.
Yes, this choice is very clear and very supportive to be reminded of, thank you.
I love how you make your bed – I don’t go to the same extent but I can feel that it is well worth the effort and will give it a go. I’d love to get rid of those creases! And I am looking forward to that yummy feeling in the evening when it is time to hop into bed!
A great point indeed – blowing out of the water any thought of not having enough time; we actually waste bucket loads of time down the track by not focussing on or dedicating ourselves to what is at hand.
How can this not be considered ‘normal’? We are not worth anything less.
I’m so appreciating how, not taking the time to make space loving, is a real false economy because this lets in stuff that pollutes my day which then takes a lot more time and effort to clean up! This can have a compounding effect that often ends with a stop – illness, stress, financial cost etc. All when 5 minutes could have been spent making a bed, time making lunch that supports etc.
Dianne this is so lovely. inspiring me to focus on what supports me and my bed is definitely an area where I can bring loving dedication to. Such an integral part of ones day that never leaves us which I can really feel when making a bed in loving preparation for when we return later in the day.
I love the level of care and precision involved in your ritual. The preparation is a direct reflection of just how important the role of sleep is to you and your body and is tremendously inspiring. I agree that this quality of care applied to our workspace, our cars, our handbags, our wardrobes, our kitchen cupboards actually avoids unnecessary complication rather than burning up time and is therefore a truly supportive practice, so well worth the investment.
“Even then, the quality of love in my bed is so strong and supportive that it can help me wind down . . .” I have never considered this Dianne, but having read you line I can feel how this is true. I am not as consistent or as consciously thorough and loving when I make my bed. However this isn’t a critique of myself, because my bed does feel lovely and harmonious when I do make it with care – I simply feel deeply inspired to take this deeper – it’s time this ritual of mine evolved and deepened.
Dianne, I loved how you cycled out the illusion of not having enough time to do so, like your ritual.. So relevant, as we make more discussion, fight or delay in our day then a 5 min. beautiful ritual could actually replaces in our day. I prefer 5 min. ritual and less indulgence in issues. haha
Yes this is great point Danna as so often the excuse used to not bring this level of care to any tasks is ‘Oh I don’t have time for that!”
How beautiful, Dianne, the way you make your bed and I would say yes! It’s definitely worth the five minutes because we can waste hours sleeping badly, and your bed feels very nurtured and nurturing. I air my bed daily as it’s a feather duvet then I love putting it back on all fluffed up, plumping up the pillows and arranging cushions. It’s a little piece of self care that feels lovely to do.
Another great post Dianne and one which I can fully relate to, as I also like to leave my bed and bedroom with everything lovingly put in place and am rewarded by the way it feels each time I enter my bedroom. “the small amount of time given to making my bed and putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment”. Absolutely, it is these simple things that can have a grand effect on everything else.
Thanks Dianne for another drop of wisdom showing how we can support ourselves by some small steps that can set up a whole day. You are so right, five minutes spent preparing our bed for sleep that night versus hours of tossing and turning and poor sleep quality and lost effectiveness in our next day definitely makes the five minutes option seem like a very wise investment indeed!
I love making my bed in the morning and leaving it looking super inviting for when I return to it at the end of the day. however reading your blog I can feel how the position of my bed as it is at the moment does not support me to spend as much time making it feel lovely as it did before. Time to rearrange my bed again and try and other location.
My bed is a great reflection of how I am living- when I lose myself and become rushed and don’t look after myself- then my bedroom often reflects this. Things are left out of place and some days I don’t make my bed until the evening- this feels awful. I enjoyed the inspiration of this blog and the reflection it offers.
I LOVE what you have shared here, Dianne, about the amazing return on investment we get from cherishing ourselves in this way. Just a little moment of loving regard goes a long way, and I am super inspired by this simple gesture and celebration of yourself every time you make your bed.
Making self loving choices about our environment is such a supportive way to be consciously present throughout our day as these choices come from our stillness within. Inspirational, Dianne- thank you.
Dianne I love the loving detail you bring to your bed making. It is a ritual that starts the day and it never feels like the day has started properly if the bed is not made. We can never under estimate how simple things such as lovingly making a bed will make a difference to our day.
Dianne i smiled to myself as i read your blog, as quite often i find my beautifully made bed presents an irresistible opportunity for my 3 children to have a bounce after their bath!!!
Funny Lucinda, mine too, however they seem to like to bounce on it as soon as I have made it, and sometimes when it comes time for me to hop in I see little foot prints creases on the doona.
Haha, Lucinda, my grown-up children (17 and almost 21) have exactly that same tendency! They just want to cuddle up in my bed or have a bounce.
Gorgeous Lucinda, they’re feeling the love!
Indeed Susan, to be met by this love nest at the end of a long day sounds like heaven – what a gift to yourself.
A beautiful description of bed making Dianne, showing how preparing for bed certainly does start in the morning by the way we make our bed!
There is no denying the love we feel when we get into a well made bed, with no creases, even sheets and lovingly placed pillows. So why would we deny ourselves this love?
We brush off the simple things as if they do not matter. But each of these simple daily tasks is a brick in our foundation. We can build very solid foundation with many lovingly placed bricks.
Often when the conversation comes up about bed making, non-bed makers say they don’t see the point as you just get in again and mess it all up. To me they are missing the point entirely and Dianne has done a fantastic job of detailing what the point it. I always make my bed and the other morning I got caught up in the day and got carried with it. I hadn’t made my bed and I was constantly feeling it until around 2pm when I was able to make it. The impact of these acts is far and wide and affects us in many ways.
Beautiful Dianne. I am a ceremonies bed maker and you have inspired me to take it to the next level
I love making my bed in the morning and making sure the covers, pillows and cushions are all lined up and that the blanket on top of my duvet is crinkle free. Because of your blog Dianne I am much more appreciative of the care I take and like Nikki says I am inspired to take it to the next level.
Yes I am a bed fixer too Diane. I can so relate to the feeling of having fixed my bed with loving care. The act alone is beautiful and every time I walk past, it is lovely. It does make for a restful sleep.
Returning in the evening to a smooth, gently made and beautifully prepared bed is deeply inspiring.
Just like the relationships we have… whether it be it with something we do or someone we know … we always have an opportunity to build upon it and deepen our appreciation for it in every way.
Gorgeous Dianne. Everything we ‘make’ can be made with love 🙂
Absolutely. And that imprint has a powerful effect and offers an amazing support to others. I know that when I am in the classroom and bring the love and detail to how I even hand paper or books out to students that they feel the care and honouring and register it as it stands out compared to a book being thrown on there desk or a paper being handed out yo them in a rush or without any presence or engagement.
It expands into everything, the quality of all that we do…
There is nothing quite like a beautifully made bed. The feeling of it is so inviting and loving. This is a lovely opportunity to start the day being truly present with ritual and rhythm. Just beautiful.
Dianne, inspired by your blog, I woke up this morning and made my bed in the way you shared, stripping, smoothing, plumping and lovingly replacing sheets, duvet and pillows. It worked! My bed looks and feels delicious. Lovingly making my bed changed the energy of the whole room and lay a beautiful foundation for me to start my day. Thank you.
After reading this blog I took the time to make my bed when I woke in the way Dianne had described, it was incredible the feeling of comfort in getting in to bed that night. And I also noticed how much more gentle I was in my movements prior to doing so, very powerful stuff and a great addition to my daily routine. Thank you Dianne for sharing.
I loved reading this Dianne as it brings the chores which we see as mundane or unimportant into a new light. I am sure anyone who makes their bed in the manner you have described would feel ultra special and cared for. I feel inspired to revisit my attention to detail whilst making my bed and then to see how it feels to slip into the covers at the end of the day.
I love how symbolic making the bed is too – how we start the day a move through it determines how we will experience it at its conclusion as we again retire to bed.
Yes Michael…and it reminds of the saying ‘you’ve made your bed…now lie in it’
I’ve been very aware of taking care of making sure my sheets/duvet are all smoothed/tidy for my return later but, then realised looking under the bed an equally as important area as this is often a hidden out of sight storage area – this had to be sorted as that energy too will surface to be felt while in slumber. So true Dianne “putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment”
Dianne, after reading your blog I have become aware of the importance of taking the time to lovingly do things such as make the bed with love and care in the morning, I have a heart hanging from my window sill but the string was not long enough so you cant see the heart shape and every time i walked past it i notice this but I think im always too busy to change this, yesterday I really felt to do this, it took me a few minutes I lengthened the string and now can see the heart shape and it feels amazing, every time i walk past this I can feel how loving it was to change this little detail, this has inspired me to take the time to change what does not feel right in my home as it feels so supportive.
Dianne, since reading your blog I cannot walk away from my bed leaving it is a crumpled mess any more, not that I did that but my level of care in lovingly making my bed has just stepped up, and so to the level of plumping up my cushions on my sofa and straightening the towels in my bathroom. Thank-you for the gentle reminder that every loving detail counts.
I like your blog Dianne – things that we do that no-one else really sees are often viewed as not important – but if you look at it in the way you have, they are almost more important because they have an affect on you – the person who everyone gets to meet.
Thank you Dianne for the inspiration to look at the level of self-care I invest in supporting myself through practical activities like making my bed in the morning. Having had a night where I struggled to get to sleep because of not winding down lovingly before getting into bed I can totally see that time invested throughout the day in building my foundation is well worth it to then wake up ready for the next day refreshed and vital. The more this becomes my everyday routine the more it supports me throughout my life.
Absolutely Susan, so much investment in issues and complications. If we can learn to just keep it simple, doing the basics with all the quality that we are, this provides a foundation from which those tensions stand out as being at odds with everything else in our lives, and therefore something we are less likely to choose or put up with.
It really just proves beyond reasonable doubt that all is energy and everything is because of energy as said by two great men and that what we do unto ourselves as we do unto others.
This is awesome Dianne, so simple but so profound, spending some quality time for yourself, to return to later that day. You show to me how important even the smallest details are and can support us at any moment of the day. I can see that also taking the same level of love and devotion in everything we do during the day in all that we do will support us in building the level of love into our lives because we can and will return to that at any moment and can and will be felt not only by ourselves, but for anybody that will come across.
It is really amazing, how big the effect is, when we bring more love and care to all the little things in our life. Each little step and touch will influence the rest of the day.
Absolutely Susan and making the time to support ourselves in this way is so fun too and we are so worth it.
Dianne I love the way how you express and describe your ‘little’ ritual of making your bed. And great inspiration to take this care to all we do.
I have another little ritual I learned from a dear friend regarding bed making and going to bed: before brushing my teeth in the evening I open up the blankets on the side where I step in, neatly like a biggish triangle and being very aware of the loving energy I am in. Then I brush my teeth and going to bed I am met with an open warmly inviting bed, can just slide in and have the blanket cuddle me.
Regarding making my bed in the morning I still have my German ritual which is: as soon as I get out of bed I neatly open my blanket all the way and let it air for half an hour or so. (In Germany I would hang the doona over the balcony or out the window.)
Great point Susan, we do waste time on many things during the day.I’m going to bring more attention to spending time on the things that will support me in my day and lovingly making my bed is certainly one of them.
Someone else who pays the same level of attention to making a bed as my husband and I. We love the morning ritual of making our bed, especially when we get to do it together. Climbing into our big bed at the end of the day is so yummy.
Such a great point about the time wasting or draining choices we make at times, that 5 minutes of self love is worth it!
Another great blog Dianne, I love the simplicity of what you have presented and can vouch for it being an enormously supportive and confirming daily ritual that enriches each and every time I return to sleep. And I can say I never have a problem with sleep!
Dianne thank you for writing about the simple topic of bed making, that has become illuminated by the act of love. We can leave such powerful imprints of love for ourselves in all of our daily activities. Your bed is the work of a true artiste!
Oh I can feel the love your bed emanates from here and want to jump in! I have made my bed with care this morning, and it feels lovely, but you have inspired me to take it bed making and other tasks I do to an even deeper level of care and dedication.
Dianne, it is beautiful to support ourselves by the simple task of lovingly making our bed, it honours the rest that we have given our body, and another loving nights sleep is already prepared giving us a great foundation for the start of each day.
Wow Dianne – this feels sooooooo delicious! My bed has bed envy now! I thought I was doing well by making my bed first thing and smoothing out all the wrinkles in the bottom sheet and sometimes running my hand gently over them doing figure 8’s, then making the rest of the bed in a very neat and tidy fashion. You have now raised the bar in the art of bed making! Thank you for sharing.
Love it Diane – so simple, and just goes to show that the best things in life are free… accessible to all and happening all around us.
The best things in life are free and accessible to all which is worth appreciating because we can so easily forget.
And also goes to show how we can keep deepening the daily practical things we do with more and more love.
I love the simplicity too Simon. We use so much energy in complicating life and making things difficult for ourselves when we could just slip into the harmony that awaits when we make every moment and every choice about love.
Dianne I am absolutely ecstatic, this blog has made my day! I love the way you present living science!! It is the same for me also. Words do not describe the joy in making a bad, as you said why do we think there isn’t enough time in the day to have this level of detail and commitment to making our bed? well there is and it requires one not to identify with all of the struggle, busyness and drama of life but rather the simplicity, energetic quality and delicateness of life.
I love this Dianne. What better investment to make, than into something that feeds us back on every level.
It is the little details that truly do count… how gorgeous to make your bed with so much care, starting from the very bottom with the mattress protector to placing the blankets or doona on top. No wonder there is such a smile of appreciation for yourself Dianne. Very different from the ‘pull-up’ my top sheet and doona get – albeit gentle, however you have inspired me to bring more loving care to my whole day, and not just bed-making!
After reading this blog yesterday, I went back to my bed to consciously reimprint the energy by putting more care into making my bed. It made a huge difference -I woke up this morning earlier and feeling more vital than how it has been lately, and looking back, I had a very productive, full day, even though it was my day off. It feels to me that that reimprinting had introduced something into the way I spent my day yesterday which propelled me for the next move, and then prepared me for a deeper rest. Thanks, Dianne. Another proof of how everything is really about movement.
What again is so great about this practise of preparing the space with care, is that when you return to that space it gives you a marker, or a reflection for how you have been through the day. A stop to honestly assess where you have been at with yourself and the world around you. This is a beautiful gift we can give to ourselves, and is very supportive.
Initially I read the title of this blog as ‘The power of making love in my bed’. And then I realised that this gorgeous ritual you have shared with us Dianne is exactly that! Thankyou for showing us by your living way how enjoyable a simple ‘task’ like making the bed can be when we infuse it with the love we are. A chore is only a chore if we hold back this love.
Dianne the level of care and detail you bring to your bed is inspiring …. Like having fresh sheets every night! Feels amazing to offer your body such loving support.
Wow Diane, this takes making the bed to whole next level. The love that you dedicate in this ritual is no doubt supportive not just for how you sleep throughout the night, but every time you see your bed throughout the day you are being love bombed by it. You have definitely inspired me to make bed making more about love making.
A deeply inspiring blog Dianne, offering the possibility of a deeper level of service to humanity, as the more self love and care we orchestrate in our own life’s the bigger reflection we emanate out for everyone else to also choose that in their life’s.
These daily rituals such as making my bed are ones that determine all that is to follow on from those simple acts of love. Being present while doing so is what for me sets up how I move into the next moment thereafter. I completely agree Dianne there is no greater return for such a simple outlay.
“But when you factor in the time lost to feeling tense, tired and disconnected, making complications, messes and mistakes that we have to go back and clean up or correct, being moody and creating issues in relationships that have to be resolved, running out of energy before the day’s over”. This is an important point Dianne, when we create stress, and push ourselves in the day, to achieve more productivity in our daily tasks and at work, we actually waste time. As we then need relief from the stress and our bodies react to being driven in such a way, often craving stimulating drinks and foods or needing to rest.
A few years ago Dianne, I would have found the concept of making ones bed with so much love, care and attention to detail, a bit strange and would not have understood the importance of it. But as I feel more connected to my body and the importance of every part of our life’s, and particularly the quality we put ourselves to bed in and how that determines how rested we are the next day, which produces the quality and presence we bring to the day, it makes absolute sense to prepare our bed in a loving way.
Yes Dianne, the to dedicated to moments like these are well worth the return on investment! I have always been very dedicated to making my bed knowing that whatever kind of day I have, my bed will be the same as I made it in the morning and will ‘hold’ me when I come to get back in it. I passed this on to my kids and it is so wonderful to see the love they bring to each of their beds. It is a great sign of how they are going and often can help me spot when something might be brewing. It is completely their choice and they know it, I won’t be making their beds on their behalf, so it is a love they offer themselves to come back to at the end of their school day.
How lovely it is to be reminded that each and every thing we do leaves an imprint that can support us if we choose to do it with love.
So true Leonne, the loving care and quality that we can put into simply making our beds has so many benefits, not only for ourselves sleeping in a bed that is full of loving care, but also as Dianne states here, this morning ritual sets you up so beautifully for the whole day.
It does feel absolutely gorgeous to get into a beautifully made bed, made with the expression of my own love. As it does to get into beautifully prepared clothes or to eat food made in this way. When energy is felt, we become much more discerning about whose food we will eat or what energetic imprints need to be re-imprinted to feel supported and harmonious with the objects around us.
The quality of how I live in each aspect and moment of my day determines the quality of my capacity to rest deeply, held in my love and feeling complete with the activities of the day.
This is a fabulous example of how life is for me now: offering a level of care and attention to detail to all aspects of my life; doing the laundry and putting away my clothes; shopping, preparing and cleaning up after eating; washing my car; walking from one end of the house to another; exercising; working at my desk and yes, making the bed. Objects hold the energetic imprint of how they have been handled and interacted with, and this is what meets us next time we return to them. It certainly feels amazing to return to be held in the love I have chosen to express with that item and indeed awful when my attention has slipped or emotion has gotten in the way.
I absolutely love your description of your bed making ritual Dianne, it is the detail and science of making a bed! The precision, care, and attention to detail feel amazing, how supportive and enriching knowing you having afforded yourself this loving attention, and that this is what you will bring yourself back to to rest in, and sleep.
Yes, Rosanna, I love the science and precision in Dianne’s description too. There is such a beautiful quality, that comes from bringing loving presence to everything we touch.
The way you put yourself to bed and the way you make it for the next day just makes my whole body smile. It feels so exquisitely delicious! Like giving ourselves the biggest hug ever.. makes me wonder why these basic acts of love are not presented to us when we are growing up, the impact of them after all is huge!
Our beds and our bedrooms are a very powerful and sacred place. I love giving attention to them. About a year ago I was staying in a hotel for one night. When I was making the bed in the morning I could feel my presence and the enormity of my power in this bed I only slept in for a night. I have always felt this in my bed too, but then multiplied, yet I was never conscious aware of the power and sacredness I feel in my bed. Thank you for your blog, it was a great reminder to appreciate some more.
Thank you Dianne, I am inspired! I almost never miss a day of making my bed with presence knowing I will return to that quality at night. There is room for more love though and I will enjoy turning up the love volume when it comes to making my bed.
Inspiring Dianne, I feel cosy and warm just reading your words. Five minutes is a drop in the ocean when you consider a lifetime, why not use it so lovingly and so well.
Recently I’ve been taking more notice of how I wake up in the morning and asking myself what quality do I want to take out of this bed with me. It makes sense that that quality is the one then that will make my bed. Just as I wipe the soles of my shoes everyday from the previous days useage (which makes a huge difference to how I feel and stand when putting them on) this blog has got me curious as to how much deeper I can go with the everyday tasks and to appreciate that love can be felt in these often overlooked daily actions of life. Thank you Dianne.
Yes it sometimes seems it is a waste of time to spend time on things like lovingly making our bed and we should be doing things that are important. But that is so not true! As you shared the loving foundations like how I prepare my bed, food, clothes etc all support me to do my day job in the world. Without this foundation I don’t feel so confident and lovely in my day as I do now.
Yes, very much so. What we need to understand is that anything we do will establish a rhythm for us either one that truly supports us or one that (slowly) wears us down and keeps us in the same circle of functioning but not truly living.
Wow, well somebody (ME!) is looking forward to making her bed tomorrow morning with a whole new level of love. No coincidence that I have plans to buy some new bed sheets tomorrow……
Dianne – you are such a brilliant and amazing modern/ancient scientist. Bringing deep wisdom and factual simplicity to the everyday. My appreciation of you for the road that you light up for so many of us. Thank you.
A brilliant blog. It is the last paragraph that is the gamechanger. The equation that you draw up between the small amount of time spent preparing things like your bed, or cooking, clothes etc…compared to the time we lose through exhaustion, complication, lack of presence, lack of completion etc….It’s so very, very true and brilliant that you have brought such factual reality to it. I am ALWAYS making that erroneous judgement that there isn’t enough time and space for this kind of loving detail. So this blog is such a great reminder for me as I absolutely know it to be true.
Dianne, your blog is a superb reminder to bring a quality to absolutely everything.
Dear Dianne,
Once again your writting holds great simple wisdom. How we leave a space is there waiting for us to return to it. Of late I can sense that even when I have left my home lovingly, that at times on my return the way I have lived my day has been with such grace, that when I come back into my home, it feel how it needs support to raise to the new level I have stepped into during the day.
Beautiful to read Leigh that you are raising the bar from the quality in which you have lived in your day – a space that reflects & confirms our grandness.
I can really relate to returning to my home and feeling how I need to bring a different quality to the way I am moving and doing things to in order change the way it feels. What we leave behind we return to whether we like it or not.
I can’t wait to make my bed in the morning after reading this. Thank you Dianne.
It is such a great way to start your day by preparing to support yourself at the end of the day it is a great reminder that everything we do leads into the next moment and the next and the next………..
Absolutely love this Dianne – to spend whatever time needed to make the bed with true consideration and care is one of the things that supports us to acknowledge that we are worthy of being loved and deeply cared for. I am also one who loves getting in to my beauifully made bed and can feel how immensely supporting it is to my entire being.
That is beautiful said Eva, “to acknowledge that we are worthy of being loved and deeply cared for”. I can feel that for me that this is key in the appreciation of the beautiful and delicate being I am as I so easily forget that I am that. It is therefore a measure of self love to create markers in my environment to support myself in maintaining and building this love, not only for myself but also for anyone that will pass by.
Yes Nico – I like your reminder, that we can create markers in our environment, which remind us on our love and care for ourselves.
I love your point, Dianne, that we say there are not enough minutes in the day to bring so much care, attention and love to the little things – but if we don’t, we spend so much time in the angst of disconnection. Our days are made of so many ‘little things’ that we disregard at our own peril. Just starting with one little thing builds a quality of care that then extends to other little things, I find, as a natural progression. Making one’s bed with love is an awesome start.
I agree Coleen, it’s a fun way to begin building love into our life by starting with the bed and moving into other areas. I really enjoy my lovingly cleaned and arranged bathroom, so simple but it’s a joy to wash my hands there and be greeted by my own love and care. And the fridge! And the best thing is love never ends, it has no end point, so each time we clean, prepare and arrange some part of our life there is an opportunity it express more love into that activity.
I totally agreed Coleen, taking loving care in the little things becomes a way of life, like you say ‘a natural progression’, and little things build up to big things and before we know it our entire being is more gentle and tender and self-loving choices become the norm.
I love this point about the little things – there are so many of them that it is surely worth seeing and tending to them first and foremost. ‘Count the pennies and the pounds soon add up…!’
Lovely sharing Coleen. There is no addition to the time it takes I have found. The presence crests space and a lovely flow that everything just happens as it needs to when we make it about quality. And as Dianne shared there are no mistakes.
I feel inspired by your deep level of care Dianne, to bring a whole lotta more love to all that I do. It makes sense that setting this quality at the beginning of our day sets us up in the most supportive way. I could literally feel the love and care that you bring to making your bed just leaping off the page and it felt divine!
Could not agree more Susan, taking time with ourselves in such a loving way is a time truly worth investing!
So beautiful to read, super inspiring and reminding me of the love that is there available when I just take the time for things like this. It feels great and, am deeply inspired to put more care in leaving my bed ready for the night to come.
When I make the bed I find it very important to get the details right and even more important how I move while I do these details. Both together are very powerful and create beautiful imprints to return to.
Is is a great reminder Christoph, to even be aware of our movements while we are doing our bed. I love it.
Absolutely, the amount of time I have wasted on things that don’t support me is phenomenal. I can simply choose to focus more on that which does support me, and as Dianne beautifully describes, there is nothing more amazing than getting in to a bed that has been lovingly prepared for me.
preparation and supporting yourself can be one of the best things you can do.
Dianne, what you have expressed is the simplicity of life. Such loving care waiting to greet you when you return. Making my bed will never be the same again, as your words will ring in my ears, love and conscious presence as I make my bed and the realization of the expression of detail. Thank you.
I’m so inspired Dianne! I love having a beautifully prepared bed to tuck into but I can certainly feel how I can claim the ritual of preparing my bed for sleep even more. And I love what you’ve called out about not having enough time… If 5 precious minutes in the morning will support me to have an even deeper restful and rejuvenating sleep then that in turn supports me to stay more connected throughout the day — and time simply opens up when we are truly connected with ourselves.
Thank you Dianne – I’ve just read the first part of your blog and you’ve just inspired me to rethink my bed making technique with the understanding of course that it’s the quality of energy that goes into it that’s the most important ingredient.
No coincidence I have just read this after making my bed! And on reflection it was definietly not made in the same love and care you have described here .. it was more of a ‘task’! This is something I have very much felt over the last few weeks not only in making my bed but ironing my clothes … just not loving myself in the deepest way and care that I know I can. Thank you for showing what is love and how gorgeous it feels when we care for ourselves in such a way, especially leaving a beautifull imprint for us to come back to at the end of a day. I think I have some work to do here!
Love and detail in every area of our life is certainly going to support us to have a harmonious and productive day.
Great reminder of what ever quality we leave behind we are met with on our return. Great incentive to leave love where ever we go.
Hear, Hear Mary-Louise!
ABSOLUTELY. I like that and it is 100% true, as we are met how we had laid the imprint.. we are met with the quality of care we have left it behind. Awesome!
Beautifully said Mary-Louise.
Sometimes I forget about this fact and it is so important to remember, everything we touch we leave an energetic imprint.
I had just completed making my bed with clean sheets before I read your delightful blog Dianne, and even though I took my time and made it with love, you have inspired me to take the making of my bed to a whole new level. I am though, looking forward to snuggling into mine tonight.
I love the feeling of getting into bed with clean sheets as I often put more care and attention into the details when I have changed all the linen.
This is an extremely valid point – we waste so much time doing things that do not support us – why not spend more time doing things that do truly support and care for us?
Oh good grief – I can see I need to take bed-making to a WHOLE new level! I love the level of detail you go to every single day, simply making the bed will never be enough again.
I love this Dianne. What if we replaced the moments in our day spent comparing, stressing, checking out or distracting ourselves with things like what you’ve shared – going the extra mile to look after ourselves and making time to enjoy and appreciate who we are?
This is lovely Dianne. I can feel the absolute love that you start your day with that feeds you back at the end of the day.
Such a lovely loop of support which is so easy to choose compared to that of disregard and lack of care which loops back to more disregard and lack of care.
When you meet someone after twenty years of not seeing each other you go from where you last were. This is not different to return to your bed to sleep. You are catched up by the flavour you left there. Life is movement and every step counts. So, their quality set us up to keep moving forward (or backwards, or sidewards). What is possible depends always on the steps that preceded you and the choices these allow you to make.
This is really an important fact to consider Eduardo. Thanks for reminding me again – the last imprint we leave somewhere we will come back and it will influence us.
This is a great blog introducing us into the science of making life about love. It does not take much and it makes such a difference!!
Dianne I love what you share in your article, for myself and Hannah we make the bed in the morning, taking time to prepare it lovingly and in that it supports us when we return at night. Yet there are other aspects that I brush over, don’t put the same time and care into, it could be I have a full day so judge that my food is not as important – what you remind us here is everything is equally important.
Having rituals around making the bed so to ensure that when you return to it to sleep you have an amazing quality ready to embrace you is fantastic.
Making the bed in the morning is also the most consistent part of my day and lay the foundation on which I start. It’s well worth considering that how we do all of these things in our day feeds us back the way in which we do them. Do things in disregard and an uncaring way and that’s what we get back but if we do things with Love, care and responsibility then we receive these qualities in return. This applies to every movement we make and everything we do.
I realised how easy it is to be satisfied by a certain level of care and to stay there instead of feeling what needs to be adjusted to appreciate myself and my ever evolving foundation of love.
Annelies, I can too. I’m also realising that staying where I am and not moving forward is harmful to the body whether I choose to see this or not.
Thank you Dianne this takes making the bed onto a whole new level and I can understand why you would have a smile on your face.
It really is worth taking the time that you describe Dianne on these details. The support we get back from it is amazing.
Agreed Rachel – ‘small’ things like making our bed with care can have a much greater impact on our day than we think; it is a super confirming way to look after ourselves, and offers us the opportunity for appreciation at the end of the day.
Thank you Dianne for this amazing blog reflecting the living way of the true power of love is in simplicity.
Every particle in my body is responding to your writing on making your bed in this amazing daily ritual. I am ‘blown away’ by the depth of awareness and quality you bring to your life with such a solid foundation in self care and self nurturing. All I want to do in this moment is walk out of my front door and and visit you in your home!
For a long time I have lovingly folded my nightie and placed it under my pillow in the morning. When I lift my pillow at bed time and see my nightie there I can feel the love coming back at me and it makes me smile too. There are so many different ways I can bring more care into my daily tasks and your blog has provided just the inspiration needed to do this.
This brings a whole new level of self care to bed making Dianne. Wonderful!
There is something truly awesome in applying the level of detail Dianne described here to our daily lives. Everything affects everything and taking care of ourselves to this level can only positively affect our health. I know I don’t bring the level of commitment, care and detail to my sleep that I could and this is something that I am definitely going to work on. There is so much more to be gained out of life in committing to this type of task.
Dianne, this is absolutely gorgeous. Every detail in an exquisite and delicate ritual to honour yourself in every way – this is the true quality we can choose to bring to everything we do. I am deeply inspired to bring more loving detail to my morning bed making routine from feeling such joy in my body from reading this blog.
Dianne, I absolutely love this article, I feel very inspired to take the time to make my bed in the morning with the level of care and love that you describe. I know that in a similar way if Im going away from home and its a rush to leave and the house is left in a mess then when I return home I come back to this mess and it feels really unsupportive to step into this, whereas if I leave the house having lovingly tidied up it feels amazing to come back to, – so loving and supportive.
Dianne, your blog makes me want to come over for a pyjama party, I can feel the awesomeness of your bed from here! I have started lovingly making my bed in the morning too as I can feel the difference in the amount of care I put in for myself when I get in it at night, although I have a way to go before I reach your exalting heights of detail! Changing the subject but still related to our morning (and evening rituals) I noticed that whenever I am doing treatments I present my client with a chair and they never sit on and take their shoes off and get dressed…. I questioned this and they say it’s much easier to just stand up and ‘did I really sit down to get dressed?”… and my answer was ‘yes’, there’s far more self-love in sitting down to take off our shoes etc than ending up hopping across the bedroom floor trying to put on your trousers!
Imagine if we were to refocus from these distractions (issues, tension and arguments) and non loving movements and choose the next movement or action to be a loving one. So much simpler and supportive!
Such a great inspiration Dianne. I can feel the deep level of love and care that you are bringing into your life with every little detail. I love tidying up my bedroom, kitchen and every place of my home with my presence, especially in the morning. When I’m typing outside I can feel the harmony and stillness that is within me. Rather than a boring duty that I should to do everyday, it’s a full-filling experience and an act of love for myself.
It is indeed and act of love, we neglect the details of life and want to seek big gestures, but the beauty and support and acts of love are very much in the details.
Dianne, I love this. When I was at boarding school between the ages of 11 and 18 we had to strip our beds right back every morning leaving the mattress bare so it could breathe. We had to open our windows despite the weather and allow our dormitories some kind of cleansing. I was one of very few who didn’t mind this process. Most felt like it was a horrible game the nuns would play on us to make our lives even more miserable! Reading this this morning makes me realise how much of a difference it would have made if we had an understanding that whatever the nun’s intentions were we could choose to do this for ourselves in the most gorgeous and loving way which in truth can be said for all that we do. Thank you.
I have a similar thing with my underwear drawer. It used to be a mess. One day I decided to bring some order to how I keep it, so now each time I open it, it makes me smile and remember the care I have put into how I keep my things. Not long after doing this I decided to throw out the old tatty underwear I had and bought myself some lovely new items. Love is in the detail.
What I so appreciate about this blog Dianne is how you describe the space that is created by tending to things in a non rushed and loving way. I can so relate to the complications and messy that is created when I dont give all tasks the same level of detail and care. Not to mention it feels so great to go back and use or revisit something which has some much love imprinted into it.
I really feel this cannot be emphasised enough. Being in the world with no rush and with love is exactly the opposite to what we have 99% of the time. When we bring this to our workplace or homes we are beginning to turn this crazy world around. When we find ourselves in a rush and joining that 99% we can stop and change. And how beautiful at the end of the day to come home to an awesome place to rest that we have created for ourselves out of love, love and no rush, out of stillness.
Thank you Dianne for the inspiration, it felt so lovely how you are preparing for your quality of sleep in the morning. This is super simple and something that will support everyone who has difficulties with his or her sleep. This morning I will do my bed in a different quality and I am already smiling, your blog truly invites us to take care of ourselves and we can do this in all areas of our life.
That’s so true Annelies, we could apply this loving attention-to-detail to so much in our day-to-day lives, like the way we place the plates, cutlery and pans back into their cupboards and drawers. I love to unpack my shopping and place things in the fridge in a way that I enjoy each time I go to the fridge, or laying out my makeup, or pack an overnight bag. Your comment has helped me appreciate all the small ways this loving support is possible.
Thank you Rosanna for some practical, seemingly small examples in how we can support ourselves lovingly but it cam have a huge impact on our every day livingness. The reflection we get back confirms the love that we are and that is something we should always appreciate. I have to admit there are a lot of things I do in my daily life which need some more attentention.
And in the simplest ways… there is no big ra-ra, just loving choices and attending to the details in our day in a loving way.
Well said Annelies – if we prepare for things before we ‘need’ to, then we are never playing ‘catch-up’, and therefore, we add a whole lot more space to the day
Lovely summary Jessica, so true – the catch up game is not a great one to be involved in, much better and much more loving to take care in the first place and then all unfolds in a much more harmonious way.
I agree Annelies – since I have read Dianne’s blog, I feel so invited to put much more love and care in everything I do and to every detail. Although she was only talking about the bedroom, she inspired me to take much more care in all areas of my life.
As I sit here typing reading your sharing with us today Dianne this brought a smile to me also. I have a very similar pattern to my bed making. There is nothing quite like gently getting into a lovingly prepared bed, aired, decreased, pillows puffed and gently patted flat to lower your body gently into its welcome for a full nights healing sleep.
Me too Marion, it is really lovely taking the time to make your bed in this way and I too do this every morning. Sometimes if I have gone into my head and are thinking about what is next while I am making my bed, I feel the change and stop and bring my presence back to my bed because I feel how truly beautiful it is to prepare my bed in this way for myself. Since I started doing this, I can see there are other areas of my life/day where it is in need of this same loving attention and presence.
What an amazing article that is not just in praise of, but a practical presentation of the significance and benefit of taking care of every detail of life. Thank you Diane.
Johnathan,
I too love the practical element that Dianne shares here. And how every detail matters, that giving the second or two needed to do something with love and care can and does profoundly change how we feel in our lives.
Ahaha Jonathan I too love the practical presentation as it was also written in a way that my whole body could feel every step and every gesture of Diane putting all her love in making her bed – wonderful.
A beautiful reminder of the love we can put into things and the amazing support this is and the love that comes back to us all the time if we chose it. Making my bed and the care i put into this really does create a loving space i get into each night also thank you.
Beautiful Dianne and I am absolutely inspired to take making my bed ritual to another level. It is interesting when we allow time to do loving nurturing things like this how it naturally opens up space during the day and it feeds us back in more ways than one. Thanks for sharing really appreciate it.
Spot on Natalie – it almost defies logic, but I know that feeling so well. It pays to take a little bit of extra time to doing something really properly and not rush it. Even though it may take more time, the difference is the space that opens up in knowing that is 100% complete, and that allows us to be completely present with what we are doing now.
This is a beautiful reminder that how we leave anything is how it is when we return to it.
Beautiful Mary – it doesn’t get more simple than that.
Yes – we lie in the bed of our own making in more ways than one.
Yes indeed Mary and it all comes back to that big ‘R’ word – Responsibility!
There is no escaping anything, we think we can hide or avoid, but the energetic truth is this is impossible.
So it is and then we get to feel exactly the effect of it …
Years ago in Vietnam I watched two of the Hotel staff making the bed I was to sleep in that night with such joy, love and precision, that I just knew I was going to sleep well that night and I made a mental note at the time to try to do the same when making my bed. I haven’t always been that successful in this area but this blog has given me a gentle kick up the you know where to get back on track in this area. Thanks Dianne.
Interesting Kevin. Dianne’s blog reminded me of when I shadowed housekeepers in a London Hotel, Preparing rooms and making beds for guests. As you say it was done with love care and precision and looked deliciously inviting when completed. Why not do the same for ourselves. And even, I wonder if the housekeepers make their own beds with the same level of care.
So cool Dianne, even if things go a wee bit askew during the day the love that was put into making the bed as you describe would certainly put one back on a level setting. Pure divine wisdom as I have sleeping down pat, but through this blog I can see that more care is needed in making the bed in the morning.
After reading this blog, I can see I can spend a little extra time on making my bed with more detail, that said, I have always put a lot of care and attention on how I lovingly fold my blue pj’s and sit them behind my pillow, knowing that that will be the love I come back to when putting them back on for bed that night.
I totally agree Diana that: ‘putting loving self-care into one’s physical environment is a great return on investment!’
Thanks for this reminder of what truly supports me. Making sure that say the bathroom is neat and tidy is also one of the things that I love. Then when you walk into the room again you feel welcomed and cared for, love it.
Matts, I suppose you could apply this philosophy to any room, keeping each room neat and tidy and leaving it in the same energy as you would like to come back to, goes a long, long way to supporting us, and that counts for whether we are nipping out to fill the kettle, spending six hours in bed or going on holiday for two weeks, we will always return to how we left it.
True Matts. Any room that is not neat and tidy stands out and feels imposing and draining – the polar opposite of feeling welcomed and cared for.
This should be part of our education as children.
That is so true – the energy of a room is so important and I like what you express about a lovingly tidied room “when you walk into the room again you feel welcomed and cared for”.
It is with every room really isn’t it, the kitchen for example is equally important – to return to a tidy and loved kitchen will make it so much more inviting to create a loving and nourishing meal too.
Thank you Dianne, I got alot from your article and will certaintly bring more focus on how I make my bed. Making my bed in anxiousness of the day makes me stop and feel what am I climbing back into bed with if made from anxiousness, raciness ect.
Fancy cakes, five star hotels, top chef cuisine, you name it – we like these things because they all have those many layers of extra care for detail. We immediately clock these details and feel like kings. But often the energy behind it is not love, but exploitation. Dianne, you show how easy it is to give this gift to ourselves everyday – with love.
So true Felix, it’s really quite mad to think we will ‘treat’ ourselves to Fine Dining or 5 Star Luxury Accommodation when our everyday can simply be that of taking loving care with the details of how it is we delight in living.
Great point Felix, people are forever looking to be served in this way in luxury hotels and high class restaurants with no expense spared and all it really takes to feel like a king or a queens is to make our bed with the love we are! I love it.
That’s true Felix, it is a true gift of love we can give ourselves so easily, it will never leave us empty as the examples you gave is setting us up for.
Wow, claiming such delicateness for your foundation is a joy to read about. I feel it’s this dedicated care that we all crave for and so rarely allow for ourselves, let alone on a daily basis!
Or even a moment to moment basis Felix, the configuration of our home is very important, you only have to walk into a room that has been neglected and starved of loving attention to feel that. I often walk through my home and adjust and re-arranged objects as I go, it’s the attention to little details that count, and the lack of clutter feels clear and spacious.
We are so worth the love that we are.
Good point and one to consider deeply – how much have we invested in that others are to bring this to us, when all the time we could have really given ourselves the love and care we yearn to get from others…
This is a beautiful science and one I am sharing with my daughter as she grows up. Reminding her of the quality and that that quality is what we return to. She naturally now brings a great deal if love and care and detail to looking after herself when organising her room, clothes and making her bed.
Johanna, thank you for sharing this. What a beautiful foundation your daughter has for the rest of her life to truly nurture and love herself which others will feel the quality of and naturally respond to. What a beautiful and responsible parenting you bring.
What a beautiful lesson for your daughter, in fact for all of us, that the quality that we do something in is the “quality that we return to”. Whatever we do, like making the bed, doesn’t need to take any longer but it is the attention to detail and the energy we undertake it in that makes all the difference to the completed quality we, and often others, return to.
Great reminder again Ingrid – “…the quality that we do something in is the “quality that we return to”.
It is a great support in the teenage years Johanna08. I don’t know if your daughter is that age yet but so much can come in to re-jig their normal, but if they can see how they are with their bed and space is a support for whatever else is going on then it helps them…and you in fact to see where a bit more support might be needed. Of course you may well also get the comment that it is their space and they like it being messy!!!
Such a beautifully powerful and priceless gift you are giving to your daughter Johanna.
This is a wonderful foundation for your daughter to have Johanna08.smith. This is something that will support her greatly as she grows into an adult. It was something I only learnt much later in life, but it’s never too late to start and the returns on such an investment are priceless.
I love making my bed in the morning. My husband and I do this together in a beautiful little ritual. We bring care to it knowing that this is what we will be coming back to at the end of the day. It is very supportive and powerful. To me I feel like I am getting onto a cosy cocoon.
This sounds gorgeous Johanna making the bed together with your husband, very inspiring!
I am going to suggest adding this beautiful little ritual to our routine in the morning, it just makes so much sense as everything we do matters so much and I feel at the moment my attention to detail in the bed making area falls short of what is truly self loving.
So true Johanna, I also enjoy the ritual of making the bed with my partner in the morning, it feels like we take equal responsibility for the quality of the bed we will return to that night.
Gorgeous Johanna – a lovely nurturing ritual for you both to share.
I am not surprised to read you describe that you get into a cosy cocoon every day- it sounds wonderful and such a treat to be doing this with another, who is totally committed to living with as much love as you are- totally gorgeous!
A return investment indeed Diane. I can fully agree and relate to all you have shared.
So true, everyone! I also set up my computer desk like my bed. If I don’t, I can get easily frustrated and tired, but if the love and attention to detail is there on my desk, it’s a joy to work and I can handle much more ‘stuff’ thrown at me. Same is true for absolutely every item we wear, eat, drink, use, every part of the house, car, office, even the bins, lawns….
It feels like there is a science to this also – that the space I make for myself is the space in which I live so making sure that what’s in my space is supportive stuff seems very relevant. It also feels as this quality I have within my space affects the particles in my body in different ways.
I agree Matts, we all deserve to have our homes and the space within them be a support for us, yet for that to be so, we have to support our homes.
There is definitely a science at play Matts, the science of Self-Care.
Ah Matts, I understand if I allow myself the essence and nature of space to bring the detail and love to everything I do, it will shift and alter the particles by virtue of the quality of choice in my every move, which reflects in the quality of imprint we leave and also return to.
Yes spot on Matts, the science of self love, order and ceremony!
Love the practicality of this everyday science which expands the space we create for our particles.
Exactly Matts, this is what I get more and more too – and am each day refining in all areas of my life. I love that you bring the particles in – this I had not considered as such and is another inspiration to be even more aware – thank you.
Indeed Dianne, the space I create for myself by lovingly attending to my car, bed or desk at work allows me to better deal with life and not get so affected when unexpected things arise.
Jenny, you are actually reminding me on my car – which I had neglected in the last weeks and it doesn’t feel right. To bring all my care and love in all areas of life, is an area, where I can improve myself a lot.
Thank you Dianne – This really exposes two distinct energies that are possible to choose from in our life.
Bringing self-love and deep self-nurturing with true quality in the smallest of details = Love and spaciousness in our day which everyone can feel and respond to.
Rushing about to get things done without self love first and foremost =frustration, tiredness and not enough time to squeeze the agenda into the day, bringing tension and contraction which everyone can also feel and react to.
You are blessing me with every word Dianne, PURE GOLD! Thank you so much
A great reminder Dianne, to bring true quality of care to all that we do – as it supports us in so many ways. I know when I bring this attention to detail and true quality I can always feel that same love reflected back and it feels amazing!
Totally, totally agree with you Dianne. (Although I am yet to master it). A few moments preparing a space before I start to move in it always reaps wonders. Not just in the support that it then gives me, but also in the stop that it brings. By committing to spending that time, i am stopping the day from running me, stopping myself from seamlessly going from one thing to the next. it is a constant and gorgeous reminder to myself that there is more, that the playing field is so much huger than what I have just in front of me. It’s brilliant and miraculous science this.
So true. I will dedicate my attention to creating space to bring this support in for myself. It will be top priority this weekend even though it is a very busy one so I can build on making it my normal. The support it offers and the space I can feels it creates will mean busy becomes simple.
I’m with you Dianne, always imprinting my environment, including the garden. I feel so much is evolving and the reflection is no longer feeling true it’s the moment to move things around. It is a joy to feel the shift and no surprise even a subtle change then holds in its particles the love, care and attention to detail. My office has escaped this attention at this moment but is next to be embraced with the delicate touch to bring it to evolving with the rest of the house. To support myself in this loving way is felt in my body deeply and I appreciate and embrace the reflection
Dianne I love how you are sharing the finer details of your life and what GOLD it is. “Every thing is Everything and Nothing is Nothing” comes to mind and this has been so beautifully shared by Serge Benhayon and how down to the finer details in life effects the whole. When we live like this then there is no time to be checking out because we bring focus to the spaciousness that we belong to. It sure is a science.
Absolutely Dianne, and you left out the kitchen sink, which I always love retuning to because of the love that was given to it after doing the dishes!
I so get this Dianne! I feel the same when my desk, wardrobe, bathroom is disorganized but most of all the kitchen… that’s a no go disorganized area!! When things are not tidy, I can feel confused and it’s like everything starts piling up over top of the disregard in the first place. Such an important reminder that we feel everything all of the time.
This is GOLD for anyone who is prone to overwhelm- I know I have felt this. What a simple way to self support.
That is very powerful Dianne – I have to admit, that I can bring much more love and care in some areas in my life like my computer desk. Thanks for all your inspirations.
So well worth it Susan, as the after affects of not spending time to support the flow of the next day can be disastrous and impact on everything thereafter. I usually make meals for lunches on Sundays so that I eat food that is supportive for my body at work…and it is enormously supportive but this morning I realised I had run out and then didn’t grab anything. I then picked and ate things I wouldn’t usually, and it affected how focused I was at work. This should never be underestimated.
It makes a huge difference the level of self love and care we provide for ourselves, we are often told this is selfish, but in fact the opposite is true, because if we don’t love and care for our bodies and life’s, then what is going to be the true level of love and care for others, if we live in a love-less body?
Great point Aimee- it is the small things that have a big impact in our day.
I changed this up the next day, and lunch again became a loving gift to my body, not one of ‘that’ll do’.
An awesome example Aimee of how one supposedly little thing can affect the rest of our day and or week. Our self-loving choices support us in more ways than we realise – until we slip up and then we feel the full impact!
Yes Paula, there is never any escaping our choices and the consequences they carry.
Aimee that happens to me occasionally too and the ill-effect is extraordinary – its ramifications snowball. I appreciate the fact that these odd occurrences are now deeply felt and quickly addressed, whereas years ago they would have seemed normal and of minor consequence – I would not have seen the link between ill-food choices and other disturbances in the flow of my day.
Most definitely something to stop and appreciate Anne, noticing so much sooner when something is astray and bringing it back to simplicity and what practice changes need to be made.
Gorgeous to feel the level of love and care you give to yourself and create in your home Dianne. I’ve always loved making my bed like this, not just pulling the doona up and that will do, but going back to what’s underneath and building up from there. I have let this slip recently as I’m not the last one out of the bed, and it definitely does not feel inviting coming back to it. Time for a re-set and bringing back the love of making the bed for all that use it.
I love this Dianne. I wholeheartedly enjoy making my bed with absolute care and detail every morning too. I sometimes even enjoy walking past my bedroom just to catch a glimpse of my bed in all its spunkiness. Its a fun and deeply supportive way to start and finish the day.
I was thinking the same Kelly, I love catching a glimpse of my bed during the day. What I see is very powerful and sacred place, which I am learning to appreciate more and more.
I’m with you Kelly, it’s inspiring to feel the depth of reflection a beautifully made bed holds, actually anything really, even a meal made with the quality of love is so delicious beyond the few ingredients it contains. Which has me appreciate the quality we are all able to bring just through our connection to the love we are, and our innate ability to shift particles by our connection to this energy. It’s to be really …. appreciated.
Oh this sounds lovely Kelly – I can relate too as this is what I do as well when I have really given great care and loving to something – I tend to walk by a bit as well to enjoy what I feel when seeing how deeply caring I have left something.
We tend to think that love is best presented with a rose, but it is in the apparently mundane that we truly discover what love is made of. Thank you Dianne. A great reminder.
The roses are not ignored either Adam! I have a divinely-perfumed deep red rose in a little vase on my bedside table right now…
Me too! Roses are all about appreciation!
!!! No detail spared. You are amazing Dianne.
I love roses
Prolific Adam. And so debunking of what love is. The love that we bring to our movements is far more be holding and encompassing than buying a rose.
And sometimes cherishing a rose or flower is in itself a loving movement and reflection of the quality that we can bring and share in life.
So true Jenny – it’s in the care and lovingness that the rose is being given that will show and reflect the quality in which it is offered.
I agree Adam, we can bring love to the everyday activities of life simply by the way we do them. This is something that is becoming more and more apparent to me.
There is nothing mundane when we make it about love- the most ordinary things become truly amazing. making the bed, folding our clothes, cleaning up messy room- all is amazing when done with deep care, regard and love.
Gorgeous sharing Adam and so true.
Very true adam. The appreciation we hold for ourselves, our entire household and beyond is felt in every detail of the way we live.
So true Kylie.
We have that phrase in our world ‘you’ve made your bed – now lie in it’ but what if this actually applies more literally to our every moment? The beauty and care you describe making up your room Dianne is so powerful, as you set a foundation for the whole day and its movements. Because in effect in each gesture and word we lay down an energy, like the bed, we will inevitably return to. If our way is disregarding, or reckless no wonder when we come back to the beginning we find it unsettling and so ‘hard to sleep’.
Oh yes – this fits perfectly – what a great sharing.
This was something my mother would always say Joseph; ‘you’ve made your bed now lie in it’. Simply she was saying you are responsible for whatever you have made/created, and if you don’t like it, change the quality.
Yes I know this phrase too and it is all about self responsibility in all we do. Great reminder to look at the quality of our actions and take responsibility to shift and change things if it does not feel good to ‘lie in it’…
Joseph your comment is an inspiring expansion on what Dianne has shared. It has certainly me made think about the foundations I lay for my day in the way I do things every morning.
This is great Joseph and makes so much sense!
This should be on my fridge door, what a ripper insightful comment Joseph.
Thank you for sharing this insight, its all in the movements.
LOVE this Joseph. Absolutely agree with what you have said and the combination of Dianne’s blog and your comment explains this common saying to a much deeper level.
Joseph I heard this phrase often as a teenager and young adult. ”You’ve made your bed, now lie in it’ has a much deeper resonance already. Read in relation to Dianne’s blog and your comment, instead of it being worn like a noose around your neck, it can inspire us start anew ‘making our beds lovingly’ and setting more supportive foundations each and every day of our lives.
Great point Joseph and subsequent comments. It is so true and a great reminder of the importance of laying that foundation we carry with us thrugh our day.
Fabulous Joseph! It is certainly a pivotal point that we return to everyday. When my son was a teenager I can remember saying to him that if he made his bed every morning and left his room in order that this would change his whole life as it would begin each day in a completion and an order. He at that time was ready to hear this and actually took it on and it did change everything. It is these little things that we return to daily that make the world of difference to how we are with our self and the world. .
Beautifully said Joseph… we do return to our disregarding choices – feeling the consequences of them and the responsibility this also brings in what we next choose.
Awesome Joseph to expand on the old saying and bring a energetic responsibility to it. We are responsible for how we experience life and even more that this how we impact and affect the all.
Beautifully expressed Joseph. While reading your comment I could clearly see that there are so many things that we do in our day that we return to later, so if initially we had given them the same loving care and attention that Dianne gave to making her bed how amazing would it feel when we return to them; the energy we did them in and left them in is still there when we return. I know which energy I would prefer to return to.
I agree Joseph. The act of making our bed in the morning is symbolic of so much more that just making the bed and keeping the bedroom tidy. It shows a lot about the care we have for ourselves and the way in which we live our day. This in turn impacts what we return to the bed with.
Beautifully expressed Joseph I hear responsibility ring through your words.
Wow Joseph your amazing comment and Diane’s blog are such an invitation to stop a disregard or reckless behavior at once – Thank you for being such an inspiration!
Great point Joseph – how we make our bed is a foundation for the whole day, very powerful. In the future I will put much more attention to my bedroom and how I prepare myself for sleep.
Dianne how beautiful to slip under the covers at night after you have taken such care preparing for sleep that morning! I take care making my bed but I can see I need to spend that extra few minutes of time for a truly loving result. It would work also as you mention when we prepare our clothes for the next day or in absolutely any area of our lives where we spend time lovingly on ourselves, because we are worth it. Definitely “A great return on Investment”.
I agree Roslyn – everything we do with love and care is “Definitely A great return on Investment”.
This is such a lovely, practical blog – yet I am being reminded of how it is not possible for life to be segmented in parts, and I feel like everyday I am actually having to reconcile the consequences of little gaps of out moment I create in-between, or even within, each part of my life. Thank you for the inspiration.
Yes. That is the brilliance of this blog. Such simple moves are in fact the everything. It is my feeling that the commitment to these details are what lay the foundations and support us.
Down to the touch of fingertips on a keyboard, typing these responses to each other.
I agree Fumyio, the care and how we live is a 24/7 thing. Often I found it beneficial to start specifically imprinting one thing as Dianne has with her bed with the knowing it is not just about the one but that supports me in building awareness elsewhere. A few years ago I started to become very aware of how I touched the door handle in my office and now I am bringing more awareness to walking through the door.
I am also aware of imprints when I make my bed but don’t do it to the degree Dianne does. I find the kitchen an interesting playground for awareness in how I open and close cupboard doors and in particular the fridge. Often my awareness goes as far as being aware of just how unaware I am, when I notice myself moving in an un-present way.
You remind me Nicola, that we can refine our awareness every single day or moment. Great example with the door handle and now you are aware how you walk through the door. The key is really to apply this awareness to everything – every little touch counts.
Well said Fumiyo – when we compartmentalise our lives we are playing a game – it’s like saying ’I love you, I love you not…’ over and over again. When we are on, off, on, off, on, off, we are in effect off all the time.
It’s so true what you point out here Fumiyo, that life can not be segregated into parts- that we need to bring quality to all we do- I really got to see a great lesson of that yesterday in a presentation when Serge Benhayon asked a musician who had switched off in private to switch on for his performance. It showed that we can’t have an on/off switch- that we need to live connected and in the joy of that all of the time.
I totally agree with what you say about how we think we do not have time to put deeper level of care into our life and how the quality ends up suffering because of that. What I also find is even when we do not put care or attention to the details into what we do, that doesn’t necessarily make anything done faster either. The end products often feel neglected and even get delayed because of the over all lack of commitment and love that led us to make that choice, and they are awful to feel. Care and love is always very much worth investing into.
The idea of rushing to ‘save time’ is so ingrained in the way we human being behave. I often used to say ‘oh I don’t have time for that,’ but I had to start questioning what it was I thought was important and what did I have time for? I agree Fumiyo, care and love is very much worth the investment. Dianne’s blog is a perfect demonstration of how simple it can be.
Wow Dianne, I make my bed every morning as soon as I get up, but the only time I get near to this level of detail is when I’m changing my sheets! I am inspired however to review the way I make my bed from reading this, as I can feel the level of care and how amazingly supportive it would feel to approach sleep each night! I might not start with stripping all of the bed, but certainly willing to start with baby steps by taking a lot more care with the way I pull up and fold my blankets / doing / sheet and place my pillows, and then seeing how that progresses.
That’s gorgeous Angela, definitely the way to go with making changes –gentle baby steps. Otherwise we can go into overwhelm, look at all the perceived mess around us and drop it all in a heap and allocate ourselves back to ground 0 with a desperate sigh… Not fun ☺️
I am with you Angela, I know how I want to make my bed however recently I have had beds that are against a wall, to me this has been a little frustrating, as it is difficult to make my bed with the care I want to when I cannot easily acces part of it. However, this is about to change and it brings a settled warmth over my heart knowing so.
I felt inspired in the same way Angela. I share my bed with a gorgeous man who is really good at attention to detail and he is usually the one to make the bed. Over the past few weeks I have noticed that it has had less focus and I have not supported him or myself by doing it again or by taking time to see what the difference is. I can feel the consequences of that in our sleep so thank you to you and Dianne, a perfectly timed blog!
I wonder how it would be to make the bed together? I had the very great delight of making a bed with a friend recently. We have very different styles, a different rhythm and style of touch, and a very different approach to corner folding…but we hit a moment of coming together and it felt lovely to be in sync. I will have to ask how it was for them to sleep on it.
Most mornings my partner and I make the bed together Rachel, and it has become a very sacred ritual without making it so, for over the months we have found ourselves developing a rhythm together and coming to know intimately each other’s movements and energy. I love this moment in the day when we share this task together in harmony, and it makes for a beautiful return at night. That is yet to be worked with! Often one or the other of us collapses into bed tired, and we are not yet in sync. but the feeling of the bed we made with love is there waiting to receive us, together.
My partner and I make the bed together on most mornings Rachel, and have the same experience as you do with your friend. We have a very different pace of life and rhythm in the house, but when we come together to make the bed we have found that gradually we are moving in the same pace, rhythm, gentleness and care. I love this as a start the day, as we are moving in harmony together. It is true making love together, a sacred ritual without having made it so, just naturally so. The other end of the day needs attention though! very often one or the other of us collapses into bed with a slump. However, the bed we made so beautifully in the morning is there to receive us, and already healing is taking place.
Love your sharing Angela – I find the same, I can do more too, have not progressed yet to stripping the whole bed (it’s bigger than king size bed), however I can see exactly where I can take a lot more care, and will start with that today.
There is always more space to make life more loving…thanks for the inspiration Dianne.
Or…if you make life more loving, then there is always more space.
Love that Otto – it works both ways.
It is not an “or” proposition Otto…make it an “and” and you have a key to living a true life.
Beautifully expressed Joel and Otto. We always have space to make life more loving and if we make life more loving, then there is always more space. Wonderful!
True, and to no end.
Absolutely Joel – there are no boundaries when we are being love.
Well said Joel. No matter what we have on, the time to make for loving ourselves and each other more is always well worth it. It is after all the key to truly living life in full
Thanks Dianne. Your sharing made me go right back to my bed to do up my bed again. There’s always more details and care that could go into the way we take care of ourselves.
Thank you Dianne as what you have shared is inspirational for me to take self care to another level. As we connect more to our essence it is beautiful to find more ways to be self loving.
Well said, “As we connect more to our essence it is beautiful to find more ways to be self loving.” And so true, step by step forever deepening our awareness around this.
Thank you Dianne. I only began making my bed everyday in the last 2 years – before then it was always way down my morning to do list and something else would inevitably become more important. Effectively I was saying that everything else in the world is more important than me! Little wonder I was tired all the time.
Your blog inspires me to keep deepening my presence and connection when performing any task. The things we repeat every day are powerful markers and we can use these to support ourselves.
I agree with you Leonne, Dianne’s blog “inspires me to keep deepening my presence and connection when performing any task”. Yes, it is so important that we take that love and care in the detail of every task we undertake, every day. The love that we are greeted by when we return helps us build the love within ourselves.
You’ve touched on the key thing here Leonne that defines whether we choose to make time for making our bed lovingly, setting up our workspace in a way that’s super supportive and everything else — our sense of self-worth. Crazy because when we put everything else before us, everything else including us inevitably suffers.
This is great insight Leonne, we certainly can use such markers to deepen our self love and connection to our presence in literally any task.
That is very true Leonne, “The things we repeat every day are powerful markers”. I have been experiencing this myself and through appreciating those daily loving choices, I am allowing myself to feel supported more every day.
And I love the imprint that I come back to at the end of the day. I can see with enormous clarity what kind of shape I am by just taking a look at how my bedroom is, or how the house is. When there is space, I naturally tidy and bring out the love… and then when I start to let the world get on top of me, little loose ends start appearing… so it is reflected all around me.
That’s Funny Leonne, what better time to make our bed than straight after we get up? But I guess that our way of living as humanity has shifted into a disorder and there is a tendency to rush into the day and seek some form of stimulant or distraction first thing.
Me too Leonne, ‘Your blog inspires me to keep deepening my presence and connection when performing any task.’ It feels so lovely when i am present with a task, enjoying the simple, everyday things like folding washing, making the bed and making meals, i feel so much joy performing these tasks that often I do not need anything else – like exciting days out and entertainment, I just love being with me and these simple things.
I love that too -““Dianne’s blog inspires me to keep deepening my presence and connection when performing any task”. Like everyone else already said, this is something we can bring to everything we do – and by doing that the imprint will be awesome for us as well as for others to feel , offering the opportunity to be inspired to take it into one’s own life and daily rhythms.
Great point Leonne, by deepening our presence and connection we do create new markers for self-love and care, as well as creating the space to feel when we might need that extra little bit of support. I can feel how important creating this space and connection is when starting my day as Dianne shares it is a great return for investment and who better to invest in then your own self.
That’s lovely Leonne, it’s the small acts and details of our daily activities that when done with full presence and love, that then feed us back, during the day and night and when we return to them.
Very lovely dedication Dianne, and I truly enjoy making my bed with care as well and every time my son comes to my bed he compliments it is much more comfortable than his bed, which he attributes to the mattress, but I just wink inside of me! In times when he really requires deep support he would fall asleep on my bed.
Reading this reminds me of when my 90yr old father came to stay in the home I share with Merrilee. He slept so well he thought it was because of the feather pillow and asked if I could get him one the same.
That is beautiful Tamara. Everybody’s body recognises the loving energy wherever it is, and that you have chosen to build in your home, through the loving and gentle way you both live. A beautiful confirmation, that we all are made of that love, so it’s only natural that your father’s body has been responding to that loving feeling in your home with being able to surrender to a beautiful sleep. It’s unfortunate that we have lost this awareness, and now need to have a ‘purely physical’ reason….. it must be the pillow…. But he does have a clear marker in his body now what a truly loving home feels like.
Very true Esther, every ones body recognizes loving energy and care and responds to it, as we are made of this love and from this love, this reminds me how important it is to bring presence and love to all people and all we do as its deeply felt.
Wow Adele your son is responding to how you have made your bed and it has an effect not only on you but also to your whole family. That is very fascinating – I ponder how it would be if every hotel bed would made with such love?
You have taken the importance of bringing the love and care to all we do and everyone Ester, as in your example of some-body making a hotel bed for another person (body) they most likely will never know or meet but they are deserving of the same love and care of the persons making the bed, own family or child.
I love your sharing here Adele – wonderful recognition and very supportive of you and how you do your bed, just lovely.
Wow, Dianne with so much love and attention to detail that you devote to your rituals there can only be expansion of the love that you are to be felt by everyone you meet, what an example to follow, thank you.
Yes, this attention to detail is so powerful and if we do it with love, wow, our body will appreciate so much care and love.
Hear hear I fully agree – awesome example to take on board and implement sooner rather than later.
I agree Susan, such a reminder about our simple and loving rituals – I’m taking note. As mentioned before providing time, space and loving ways that support us truly – and I also find reading the comments of the blogs very supportive.
Absolutely love this blog, it’s just put a big smile on my face. Your bed sounds so lovingly inviting. I have more recently myself been pondering on how I do my bed and how I would like to come back to it, so lately I have conciosuly been taking more time to do my bed. And yes it makes so much of a difference. I so love coming home and climbing into my bed and within seconds I fall a sleep.
My whole body is smiling too Amita reading this!
Mine too Aimee and Amita, it can’t but just do it – just goes to show that the body feels everything.
This in itself is a stand out statement- how many times do we get the joy of slipping under the covers and going to sleep within minutes I am asleep. So many people all over the world don’t have this same experience, they don’t get to sleep easily nor do they feel untroubled as they go to sleep. Its a really important experience to be able to sleep without any difficulty.
Reading your comment Amita, made me smile, as I felt how that would be to love coming home to my bed, its inspired me to start looking at buying a new bed base, one that is higher, and truly supports me, thank you.
It’s not often that we look to this detail if we are having sleep problems for example. Our entire lives can be revolutionised by the simplest of adjustments in the way we live.
True Kylie, we often look for a tablet to take to ‘fix’ the problem, not willing to look a bit deeper, at how we are living – moment by moment. How much more supportive is it to give ourselves the space to lovingly prepare our beds like Dianne and many others have shared? I have had my share of sleeping issues going way back, but I had to realise that living without the loving care for myself, I had exhausted myself so much, drained my body to a level that it had not enough energy left at the end of the day to go to sleep. Changing how I hold myself during my day, how I touch and approach everything and how gentle I am with myself has made a huge difference. Making the bed lovingly, with deep care is a big, simple and beautiful part of this self-care and self-love; because yes: that care, or the lack of it, that is what is greeting us at night when it’s time to go to sleep. Beautiful sharing Dianne
I have paid much more attention to how I make my bed so that I can slip into it at night knowing it had been cared for by me in the morning. Reading Dianne’s blog I now know I can step up and do a bit more so it is truly all encompassing in a loving way. Just to put in that bit extra I can feel will make such a difference.
I wonder Amita in reading your comment, how many sleep problems could be supported with the technique of making our beds with such care? I don’t just mean the focus on neatness for its own sake, but making the bed with attention for our body, and all that it needs.
Love this Amita, you can feel the true love and support this offers your body which naturally responds by surrendering to sleep.
How lovely Dianne! So simple but yet powerfull. Thank You for the Reminder.
Dianne, I can feel and see the beautiful ‘Nest’ you prepare so lovingly each day to return to each night. It is absolutely beautiful and thought provoking around the level of love and care we all can bring to ourselves each moment. Thank you for this article.
Preparing our ‘Nest’ it does feel exactly like that Christine. As I’ve been watching nature outside my window making their nests in the pond/hedges taking such care and how precise they are in placing grasses and such like in the right place and sprucing up with moss/feathers – taking out any dirty previous used nest debris, to make sure of their comfort/safety and snugability. How are we humans much different in wanting warmth, comfort and feeling held in our lovingly prepared ‘nests’.
I love what you have shared Marion, when we see the care and tender way birds build their nests, it can show us the level of disconnection and disregard we often live in. But we can always choose to re-connect to this level of love and care.
Aah awesome, yesterday at the markets I was at a wildlife carer’s stall and they had 4 nests and I was admiring them in all their unique differences but what was the same, was the way they created what was needed for them. And the incredible intricacies of attention to detail. It was super stunning.
That’s a great reflection Marion- when we do look to nature we do see animals putting care into their nests or homes. My dog is the same, he will pat down his bed before he gets in making sure he will be comfortable.
Its a truly wonderful idea to take the time to build our foundations from the ground up. I love how Dianne exposes its actually false economy not to do this. If we offer more love for ourselves, then we demand less from the outside world because we already have it within.
Felicity I really loved what you have shared ‘ If we offer more love for ourselves, then we demand less from the outside world because we already have it within’.
Yes, this is gold. And the relationships we then have with people are based on love and not need.
I love the word nest, it feels like a place where you are held and nurtured- there is a great feeling of warmth.
Yes I am inspired of how to make my bed to a whole new level of love!