Wellness Diaries: Niki Schilling, Rituals Director of Innovation and Sustainability

I wake at… 6:45am. Then I spend the first 15 mins on my morning ritual after which I get myself and my kids ready for the day.

The first thing I do every morning is… just after I wake up, I meditate in bed to connect with myself, my body and my soul. A healthy body and mind are very important to me. I do a gratitude ritual each morning, I shut myself down for about 5 minutes and focus on the things I’m grateful for that day. The ritual helps me to feel lighter and gets me ready for a day with full of energy.

My morning routine is… after meditating, I like to visualize how I want to feel throughout the day. It really gives me something special as it sets the tone and energy of my day and makes me feel positive and grounded. I also always make my bed in the morning and afterwards, I like to take a shower, going from hot to cold at least 4 times. I also train with a personal trainer twice a week.

I can’t go to work without… starting the day with my kids, having breakfast with them, and taking them to school. It nourishes my feeling of home and love.

The self-care tool I use every day is… meditation and visualisation. And I try to take a walk twice a day, especially after lunch when I can.

The best part of my day is… when I come home and spend time with my husband and kids after a busy workday. But I also really enjoy having focused meetings, to create together and finetune progress to reach our goals. This gives me lots of energy.

After a long work week, I destress by… spending time with my family. Every Sunday we practise gratitude together, we hold hands and tell each other what we are grateful for.

The most challenging part of my day is… the afternoon. Often I don’t have enough time to finish what I want to and at the same time can’t wait to see my kids for dinner and bring them to bed.

Before I go to bed, I’ll… put my phone away half an hour before I go to bed, and I also love to end my day with a candle meditation. By staring into the flame and releasing the day it increases the amount of melatonin. Right before I go to sleep, I sit quickly, and I practise breathing and gratitude as this really helps me to put the daily stress away.

My go-to comfort meal is… I’m a vegetarian so vegetarian Pad Thai.

When I need a moment to myself, I try to take at least 5 minutes a day for my meditations and gratitude and when I need to reflect, I like to take a walk.

Everyone should try… face yoga! A healthy lifestyle is important for your skin. We all know that exercising is good for your health, but another form of exercising, namely face yoga, is also a fun and effective skincare routine. Furthermore, while focusing on my skincare routine I meditate in a way of being kind to my skin and really focus on positivity. How weird it may sound, what really made a difference for me is to treat your skin with some gratefulness. So, a tip I would like to share is to have good thoughts for your skin. We always have comments and see the imperfections, but don’t forget to be grateful for the skin you have. Start or end your day with giving your skin some love and compliments. I tried it for a period, and it really worked, so it is part of my daily routine now.

Photography by Rituals.