On lazy days we have a habit of grabbing our phones and browsing social media or messaging apps while lying in bed. On the other side of that is zombie-headed-ness, guilt and a sense of having wasted our day away.

Well today my friends, I want to share three different categories of things you can immerse yourself in while being happily tucked under those cosy blankets.

Apply these ideas the next time you spend your day in bed, you’ll be feeling pretty smug and content.

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We’ve been having dull and cloudy weather here in Bangalore. It rains off and on. Sometimes, very rarely, there’s sunshine. But most of the time it seems to be kind of dingy, dark and cold. Don’t forget cold.

On days like this, I just want to lie in bed

I don’t want to get out of bed. I want to be under the sheets wearing my socks. Nicely tucked in. When I’m not too lazy, maybe drinking a hot chocolate as I sit up, but most of the time, just lying down.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being lazy. First of all, we all deserve to allow ourselves slow days like this, as long as we don’t do too many in a row. Maybe one day like this is fine, or a slightly less lazier day the next day. That’s okay. But if we spend too many days in a row in bed, that’s not good for us. However, sometimes it’s okay to indulge, allow ourselves to do this occasionally.

While in bed, most of us, we tend to reach for our phones, right?

Like, it’s such guilty pleasure lying in bed and looking through our phones. That’s basically the default activity most people resort to when we’re in bed. It’s not the nicest of habits though.

It feels nice at that point of time, but none of us feel good after spending a long stretch of time just looking through our phones. Especially If we’re catching up on messages or reading emails, going through social media, doomscrolling of some sort – all these things leave us feeling icky.

It doesn’t feel nice, the brain feels dull at the end of doing all of these things

So again, it’s okay sometimes. 10 minutes here 10 minutes there, that’s okay. But if you’re planning to spend the whole day lying in bed, definitely we don’t want to spend that time on socials and just lose the day. At the end of it we feel guilty. We feel like, “oh, the whole day was meaningless, kind of wasted. It’s gone.” And that’s not a good feeling.

So today I wanted to share a few things. Things that are better, way better to do while in bed than scrolling through Insta, and especially short from videos.

I’ve divided this into three different categories, depending on the kind of energy you’re feeling right now

Of course, if you’re going to be in bed all day long, then you can do a bit of everything. There’s going to be variety. Brains need distraction, we’re so used to it. So we need to train ourselves to do distraction with better options. haha

So if you can’t stick to the same thing all day long, no problem. Do all these different things, try them out. But while you’re doing them, whichever one you pick, give that activity enough time. Do it for at least 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Allow yourself to go deep into it.

Resist the urge to jump to something else at the initial stages

Over time you kind of get into it. You get into a sense of flow and being present in the moment. And it starts feeling nicer and nicer. So push through this phase of distraction and boredom. If you put in a little effort to do that, later things become much more easy.

Now, before we go on with this episode, I want to tell you a bit about my newsletter, The Feel Good Tribe. I write to you once or twice a month. In my emails I put in some secret stories that I don’t share anywhere else. Plus updates, tips, etc., all kinds of different things like that.

Usually the stories are kind of entertaining, you have some fun with it. But also, they make you think, they give you a different kind of an idea about life, about looking at things, different perspectives.

If you want to find out more about it, read more about the newsletter, and sign up. Once you sign up, you’ll get a confirmation email, you’ll be added to the newsletter when you confirm. And then you’ll get a welcome email. Reply to it and tell me about yourself. I’d love to get to know you.

All right. Now, let’s get on to these ideas!

1. The first category is if you’re in the mood for some kind of entertainment or leisureliness

Pick high quality leisure activities or high quality entertainment. You just have to switch the quality and can still be entertained. You can still feel leisurely, not taxing your brain too much, just listening to or watching something, but it has to be of a higher quality.

Instead of picking a random series on Netflix or Amazon Prime or whatever streaming service you use, and then binging through that, why not watch a workshop video instead? A workshop where you don’t have to think too much maybe, not even take notes, but just by listening you’re picking up some nice ideas. So there’s a little bit of self-improvement happening, but you aren’t doing much, you’re just watching, listening, absorbing ideas into your brain.

It could be anything, I mean, we can always learn anything, it doesn’t have to be something that you’ll necessarily use immediately in your work or studies, business, in anything.

It could just be learning for the sake of learning

In fact, it’s preferable if you’re learning something for the sake of learning, because then you can be even more relaxed, with lower expectations on yourself.

I have a few favourite workshop videos. I’ve already watched them, taken down notes and all that. I’ve done it in a very serious, alert, and interested way. But on the days I feel like watching something for high quality leisure…at other times I do binge watch plenty by the way, Netflix, all of those things…but I’m talking about especially when I’m in bed and I feel like I need high quality leisure, then I just play a video of one of these workshops. I watch it like a refresher, in a relaxing way.

Another thing of course, the most obvious thing, is to read a book

If you’re not much of a reader, then get an audiobook. Listen to it. That’s okay. I love listening to non-fiction, but when it comes to fiction I prefer reading. On my quality leisure days lying in bed I tend to pick fiction books. Stories, because they’re so gripping. I get lost in the world of these characters, these different scenarios.

So again, I have some favourite authors, or some highly recommended ones. If I’m feeling extra lazy and really don’t want to think too much, I read a book I’ve already read. You know, pick from one of my favourites.

Usually I fall back on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. There are some books in that series I pick and read repeatedly. I don’t have to think so much, I don’t have to worry about the suspense, the thrill, and all that. There’s none of that because I know exactly what happens in the story.

However, the writing, the humour, the characters are so good it’s totally enjoyable! So yeah, pick one favourite book of yours you’ve already read, or start something new, something that comes highly recommended by somebody you trust, and then just start reading.

When you’re reading, if you’re reading ebooks on your phone like I tend to do, turn off all notifications! Turn off the internet on your phone preferably, so there are absolutely no distractions popping up and pulling you away from reading. Then it’s much easier to lose yourself in this reading.

Another high quality leisure activity, if you feel like, “okay, I want my brain to feel a little bit more alert, active. I want to stimulate my brain”, then…

There are some great podcasts you can listen to (like this one haha)

But I don’t mean just mine. So many interesting podcasts out there! Pick one. Or put a bunch of episodes from different podcasts into your library. Then press play, close your eyes, and just listen to them. And that’s about it.

So I’ve given you three high quality leisure activities that you can do while just lying in bed. You don’t even have to get up.

When you pick high quality leisure, the way it works on your brain, the way you feel, the relaxation, all of that, it’s so much better, so much nicer than you’d feel if you’re watching a TV series or getting online and stuff like that.

The way you feel is starkly different between the two.

2. The second category is all about slowing down your mind and your body

Pampering yourself, feeling really nice, focusing on your well-being. Particularly your physical well-being, but also as a result, your emotional and mental well-being.

In the self-care activities that can be done in bed, the first would of course be…

Do a guided meditation

I specifically say guided meditation because then you aren’t putting in the work of focusing on your breath, or bringing your mind back to a particular way of thinking, a focal point…none of that. You don’t have to put any of that effort.

Just play a nice guided visualisation meditation where somebody guides you, they let you use your imagination. You just close your eyes and it’s almost like daydreaming. Remember daydreaming?

You probably did that a lot when you were a kid, in the pre-screen days. So guided visualisation meditations are like that, except there’s somebody safely guiding you through all these scenes, this imagery, and you feel good, you feel protected. They’ll take you through uplifting emotions.

I record guided meditations and post them on Insight Timer. So you can get the app and look for my profile there by searching for “Veganosaurus”. I have a gentle flowing stream practice, and different kinds of practices like that. So, you can look through that.

But Insight Timer has so many thousands and thousands and thousands of teachers who generously share so many wonderful guided meditations. Even in the free version of the app there’s so much. Pick anything that randomly feels nice. “Guided visualisation”, do a search for that, and you can just listen and do the meditation.

If that means you’re drifting off for a while, maybe even if you fall asleep, fair enough. You’re sleeping in a truly relaxed and healthy, restful way instead of with a very active brain running around even as you fall asleep.

Another very beautiful thing to experience while you’re lying in bed is this thing called havening or self-soothing

It’s a neuroscience method. We basically gently touch our own arms, our palms, our faces…It brings you to the present, and really calms you down. It’s a very intimate, loving thing and you’re touching yourself like you’re a little baby, a child you’re caring for. Like soothing the child, calming it.

That’s how you’re treating yourself with this. And because it’s your own your own hands touching your own face or even your own palms gently rubbing each other, you get to experience the feeling of touching and being touched which is very, very powerful, and very, very calming and soothing.

You can look up self-soothing online if you like, but it’s pretty simple. Basically be intuitive, you know, use your fingertips, use your palms, tough your hands, touch your shoulders…One thing I love doing, my favourite, is taking the back of my fingers and then gently stroking my cheeks with them. It feels so nice! It’s so cute! You feel good, you feel really relaxed and nice.

You can try self soothing. And again, all you have to do is just lie down, keep your eyes closed and do it. So that’s another great way to relax in bed while also feeling very good about it.

And of course, if you feel like, “I don’t be so still as in the meditation or the self soothing”, if you want to move a little bit…because if you’re going to be in bed for a long time, then the body need some kind of movement, some kind of stretching…

There plenty of gentle exercises, gentle movement techniques you can do while you’re lying in bed

You don’t even have to get up. You can twist this way and that, lift your legs, stretch, you can do a lot of that and flow into it. Look up online for some yoga exercises which are done while you’re lying down, and then just practice those.

So these are three…I’m sure there are plenty more you could probably think of where you’re involved in self-care, and your own wellness and pampering while you’re lying in bed. Being in the present moment, being very mindful without getting distracted or pulled into other things.

In fact this is something I recommend…you know, these activities I recommend you do every day just for a little while at least, whether it’s in bed or not. These things really, really help us and soothe us.

3. The final category is when you want to stay in bed all day, but you don’t want to be completely lazy, you want to feel at least a bit productive or creative

Activities that you can do either while lying down, or most of the time while sitting up in bed, or propped up on some pillows or something like that. You don’t have to get up, you don’t have to go sit at your desk or in your workspace to do all this.

You can just do them in bed. If you want to, right on your phone! Or if you like, you can keep a laptop with you and do all these things.

Any kind of audio content you want to create

Guess where I am as a record this podcast episode for you? laughs I’m sitting in bed, propped up with pillows. Under a blanket, because that’s what helps the sound be really good. And I’m just recording this for you. I’m going to edit it a little, publish it, all of that I’m going to do right here in bed.

So any voice related content, audio. If you’re a singer, you can sing. It doesn’t even have to be something you publish, it could be for your own self. So sing and record and listen to it. It’s kind of fun to do that.

Or if you’re into making videos of some sort, this is a great time to do the voice over for that video. Like for example, I occasionally do recipe videos for my YouTube. They have a voice over component. After I’ve edited, and the video is almost ready, I add the voice. I talk about the steps in the recipe. So that’s as an example of something you could do in bed.

You can also record a workshop, a course. A lot of my courses are audio courses. It’s kind of nice for people to be able to just listen instead of having to watch. They can carry it with them anywhere and listen. So you can do an audio course.

Or if you have ideas for an upcoming project, to sort your brain out you can do voice journaling. Record those ideas, and then when you play it back and listen, you’re listening to it from the outside, so it gives you a different perspective.

Usually writing also is great for this, but yeah, we want to do this lazily in bed. So record it in your voice, or do voice to text, and then just read it out or listen to it. So this is one excellent in-bed productive activity to do, the voice recording thing.

Another is designing stuff

Say you’re making graphics for your social media or for your business. It could be slides for your course or whatever you’re teaching. Any kind of a creative thing you want to do with photography, like photo editing and then putting that together and creating a poster.

Maybe you have an event or workshop or something coming up, so creating some promotional material for that. For any kind of designing thing there are some great apps for your phone!

I have GoDaddy studio. The most popular one a lot of people use is Canva. There are many others. Adobe also has one. So you have these on your phone and you can just lie down or maybe prop yourself up a little bit and happily work on those. Create all these slides and carousel posts and stuff like that.

You’re not in any rush because it’s your lazy day, but you’re being productive because you want to feel slightly productive. You know, it gives you the sense of accomplishment. So araamse, very, very relaxed-ly lie in bed and do all these on the phone apps. Create these posters and stuff.

And again I want to stress this…whatever you’re doing on the phone, make sure your notifications are off because you don’t want to be distracted! The whole idea of doing all this, me sharing all this is for you not to go down the rabbit hole of all these notification, DMs, Insta, emails coming in, or any of those things.

So make sure you’ve turned all of it off while you use up your phone as a tool to do these exercises, these productive things, so that you feel good. You feel like, “okay, I’m getting something done, I’m getting some work done.”

The next thing is writing, like actual writing

Yes, if you sit up in bed and do this on your laptop it’s probably going to feel easier and flow better. But if you don’t feel like sitting with the laptop and you want to do it on your phone, okay. Open one of your text editing app like your notes app, depending on what phone you have and just simply start typing out.

The thing about writing is there are two steps to it. The first step is to just allow the words to flow, whether it’s a story or a post or a launch sequence or whatever you’re writing out. Allow the words to flow and just keep writing without pausing, without going back and re-reading, without editing yourself.

First let all the ideas come out onto the page. Once it’s all out, the second step is to go back and gently tweak things. Keep what’s great, plump it up a bit, let whatever’s useless disappear or fall off. So there are two steps and both can be done while just being in bed, right on your phone, or on your laptop.

Writing makes you feel good. You don’t have to be a writer there’s nothing like, “Oh I am a writer!” You don’t have to be an author of any sort. Writing is fantastic as an activity. I even have an episode about writing as a spiritual practice and the five things you can use it for.

It can be the most healing, helpful thing. And like the journaling I mentioned earlier, it allows ideas to come out of your brain onto the page, makes them real, especially useful if it’s something you’ve been putting off doing.

Writing in bed is a low-pressure situation. You’re all tucked in, all relaxed, things flow in a much better way.

So there – I’ve shared three different categories of things that you can do while in bed

Let me mention once again that I’m in no way encouraging you to stay in bed every single day and just do all this. Absolutely not.

We need to move out. We need a change in location. You know, it depends, sometimes you need to sit at your desk. Sometimes you need to sit at your sofa, wherever. But you need to be up and about. So I’m not saying, “Oh, be in bed every day and do this”.

But on days that you feel like staying in bed all day, depending on your mood, your energy level, the way you feel, depending on all of that, I’ve given you three different categories of things to do.

• One is the self-care thing, which is super slow, super easy.
• Then another is high quality entertainment and leisure, which is a little bit stimulating.
• And the third is gentle, no pressure, low pressure productivity or creativity.

There are plenty more things you can do of course, but I wanted to give you a handful of these. And now I want you to ask yourself…

All of this I’ve shared right now, don’t they all sound so much better, so much more fulfilling, satisfying, joyful, stimulating, meaningful than browsing social media, doomscrolling, DM-ing with someone constantly especially on all these groups, you know like WhatsApp groups and stuff (meaningless conversations), or binge watching some TV show?

Don’t all these sound soooo much better? Can’t you just feel how nice they leave you feeling at the end of that activity? End of that particular day in bed?

The next time you want to spend a lazy day in bed, you can be proud of it

You can look forward to it. You don’t have to feel any guilt at all because you’re like, “Yeah, I stayed in bed all day, but my day wasn’t wasted. I did something meaningful, something good with my day.”

Whether it’s in a state of being or if it’s in a state of doing, either way something happened in your day. The day wasn’t wasted, and you were kind of alert, alive, aware…yeah, aware is what I’m looking for. Aware of what you did and where your time went.

I normally don’t encourage multitasking

I usually recommend doing one activity or being in a certain practice and being fully involved in that one practice. If you do feel the need to multitask, you can combine things which combine well with each other.

For example, you can’t do an activity that uses your brain and then some other activity that also uses your brain. That’s not going to feel good. However, say you’re listening to an audiobook or a podcast. While that’s playing, you can do your movement, you can do your self soothing and havening.

So some of these things can be combined. I suggest avoiding it, but if you want to do it, do it discerningly, you know, combining certain activities.

So yeah, there we go.

I hope this gave you permission to be in bed the next time you feel like just being in bed

Because, wow! There’s wonder here in bed. It’s not a day wasted.

All right, talk to you again next week. As always, if you like this episode then you’re going to love my newsletter, The Feel Good Tribe. Sign up.

Take care!

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and I’m most in my element when I’m teaching, writing, and playing with clay. I believe authenticity and kindness are the key to a joyful world. Sign up for my free newsletterwhere I share Life and Business Tips, Vegan Hacks, Holistic Guidance, and more.

Vegan cuisine and holistic business building are my two biggest passions. If you’re looking for guidance with vegan cooking, or want to grow your conscious business with joy and fulfilment, explore ways we can work together here.”

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