My sister got to our London hotel room before I did.
When I walked in, the Selefina Moon Milk packets were already laid out with two cups and wooden spoons. For a second, I thought they had come with the room.
Nope. My sister had brought them with her, just as planned. My heart melted when I saw them. Just, bless!
A month earlier, I had written that my new evening PIES ritual with Moon Milk would begin in London with my big, best sister. I had it all worked out. We would come back to the hotel, slow down, make our Moon Milk, check in with ourselves and close the day calmly.
That was adorable, yet London had other plans.
My sister reached our London hotel room first and set out the Selefina packets. I walked in and thought the hotel had left them for us.
Our schedule was packed. We were out. We were walking. We were eating. We had places to be and people to see. There was American football involved. There was very little evidence that either one of us was going to return to that hotel room in the evening and suddenly become the women in a beautifully lit wellness commercial. And don’t forget: my Swede was with us.
So we didn’t. And this is where the ritual got more interesting. We took the Moon Milk to breakfast.
I know. Moon Milk. At breakfast. But I wasn’t trying to make myself sleepy before going out into London. I wanted the thing I was actually looking for when I started thinking about this ritual in the first place.
A pause. Something intentional. A little calm before the day got moving. And time with my sister.
So there we were at the hotel breakfast table with our plates, yogurt containers, water glasses, packets of Selefina and two cups of warm milk. Not styled. Certainly not particularly elegant.
Real life. We started with Golden Slumbers. We opened it. Smelled it. Looked at the color. Stirred it into the milk.
Click the lovely image to go to Selefina’s website for the Moon Milk Trio.Scan the QR code to see Selefina’s Moon Milk Trio
Then came Blue Lagoon. And goodness, that color.
This is one of the things I enjoyed most about the whole experience. Making the drinks became part of the pleasure. Opening the packet. Watching the powder hit the milk. Stirring it. Watching the color change. Smelling the spices. Passing a spoon back and forth. Comparing notes. Our waitress got into it as well. She warmed our milk.
The ritual wasn’t separate from breakfast. That was the ritual.
And our reviews were honest. There was no, “Mmmmm, this is DIVINE,” because my sister wouldn’t do that. Would I? No.
We smelled things. We questioned things. We looked up ingredients. We compared the two. We decided what we liked.
I think the biggest thing this London experiment taught me is I had been thinking about ritual too rigidly. Morning PIES with matcha. Evening PIES with Moon Milk.
Very tidy. Except life isn’t always tidy. Sometimes your evening ritual happens in the morning. Sometimes the beautiful wellness moment has dirty breakfast plates in the background. And sometimes the practice is simply recognizing:
This is where I can make room for calm today.
Not where I planned to find it. Where it actually fits. That feels much closer to the way I want to practice and teach mindfulness. I don’t need another routine that makes me feel as though I failed because I didn’t perform it at the correct time.
I need practices that can move with me. Travel with me. Sit down at a hotel breakfast table with me. And work inside the life I am actually living.
The Moon Milk itself was fun. Golden Slumbers gave us that warm golden color, while Blue Lagoon turned the milk an almost startling blue. Selefina describes Golden Slumbers as an earthy, turmeric based blend and Blue Lagoon as a softer floral spice blend colored by butterfly pea flower. Selefina
But what I will remember most isn’t which one was yellow and which one was blue.
It is sitting at breakfast in London with my sister. The packets she had carried over for me already waiting when I arrived, and the two of us stirring cups of brightly colored milk.
Talking. Laughing. Reviewing.
Starting another ridiculously full London day with a few minutes that belonged only to us. Turns out I did get my Moon Milk ritual with my sister. I just had the timing wrong.
And I think I like the real version better. I often try to manage every detail. All of them! No. More.
Watch our London Moon Milk ritual
If you want to try Selefina Moon Milk for yourself, they make Golden Slumbers, Blue Lagoon and Celestial Blush, including small portion sizes if you want to experiment before choosing a larger jar.
Disclosure:Selefina product was provided for review. The opinions, reactions and sister commentary are very much our own.
My Moon Milk order (with what I consider exciting samples – just look) arrived quickly, beautifully packed, and with enough variety to make this feel like more than one evening experiment.
I have been thinking about morning PIES and evening PIES as part of my Rooted for Care rituals. Morning PIES with matcha (especially nice when my Swede makes it). Evening PIES with Moon Milk starts next month in London with my big, best sister. When she was 6, she asked how much little sisters cost and 1 year later I arrived. She rarely tells me no. So we’ll PIES and Moon Milk together.
Physical. Intellectual. Emotional. Spiritual.
A simple check in before the day begins, and another before I close it.
I am celebrating the arrival of this package with gratitude. Life tip: celebrate everything that’s a win regardless of size Gratitude for the win. The introduction of a new ritual comes next. I. Can’t. Wait.
I teach mindfulness, which means I spend quite a bit of time encouraging people to notice what is happening before they are completely overwhelmed by what is happening. I also have to do this myself daily.
Knowing a stressful day is coming does not magically make the stressful day less stressful. Knowing I have too much on my calendar does not remove anything from the calendar. Well, at least it didn’t used too. Now, I have even reduced the size of my workweek.
Knowing that travel, deadlines, difficult conversations, long commutes, family responsibilities, or simply too many things happening at once may leave me tense does not grant me immunity from tension. It does, however, give me a chance to do something.
That is where rituals come in. I have inherited and accumulated quite a few of them over the years. Prayer. Morning Bed Yoga. Gratitude journaling. Matcha. Breathwork. Meditation. Tapping. Mindful movement. Evening practices.
At this point I could probably turn brushing my teeth into a mindfulness ritual. Actually, I may already have. Somewhere along the way I learned to stand on one leg while brushing my teeth. Balance practice and clean teeth. Efficient.
I am not interested in rituals because I think everything we do needs to become sacred, complicated, or worthy of talking about. I like rituals because when life starts getting busy, I do much better when I already know what I can reach for.
That is also one of the ideas behind my Release Tension When Stress Builds Up course. We cannot always stop stress from arriving. We can get better at recognizing what it is doing and have practices ready when it does.
But before I get to the course, let me tell you what I am actually doing.
Sticking with my Morning Bed Yoga, Gratitude Journal & Matcha
My morning begins with practices I already know work for me: Bed Yoga, my gratitude journal, and Matcha. I am not changing them because somebody on the internet has announced that there is a newer, better morning routine involving twelve steps, cold water, a sunrise, three supplements, and waking up before everyone else on the continent. I like mine.
Bed Yoga lets me check in with my body before I ask it to start doing things for me. My gratitude journal gives me a few minutes to notice what is already good. Matcha has become part of the rhythm.
I wrote more about morning rituals, Matcha, and some of the other things currently earning space in my mindfulness life in This Is That List.
The interesting thing about rituals is that once you discover how useful they can be, you start wondering where else one might help. Which brings me to nighttime.
Apparently My Evening Wanted a Ritual Too
Maybe you grew up with warm milk before bed. Maybe it was cocoa. Maybe your family believed in tea. Maybe somewhere along the way you discovered the grown up version of a nightcap.
I have always enjoyed chamomile and mint tea. And years ago, while researching anti inflammatory foods during my Rheumatoid Arthritis oral chemotherapy days, I became intrigued by Golden Milk.
There was only one problem. I never became particularly good at making it. I had the ingredients. I understood the concept. I admired other people’s beautiful golden cups. Mine never quite became a ritual.
Then I discovered Moon Milk mixes. This is the sort of discovery that gets my attention because it combines two things I enjoy: trying something new and making an ordinary part of the day feel a little more intentional.
Enter Moon Milks
Selefina describes Moon Milk as a warm milk drink blended with herbs, spices, botanicals, and other ingredients. Their collection includes several blends designed specifically for an evening ritual. The first one that caught my eye was Celestial Blush.
It is pink. I am not going to pretend that had nothing to do with it.
The blend includes beetroot along with warming spices and floral notes, including cinnamon, cardamom, and lavender. It turns warm milk into a soft pink drink that looks considerably more interesting than the plain glass of warm milk I remember from childhood.
Then there is Golden Slumbers, which immediately brought me back to my earlier experiments with Golden Milk. This blend includes turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, black peppercorn, and ashwagandha. Mixed with warm milk, it becomes a pale golden evening drink. In other words, somebody has done a good portion of the measuring for me. I appreciate that.
Think of it as a rosy matcha latte but for nighttime—spiced beetroot, floral notes, and gentle balance. Prepare a cup of Celestial Blush Moon Milk, the perfect touch to your evening wind-down.
This light pink powder turns warm milk into a soft, rose-tinted drink, setting a soothing backdrop for your nighttime ritual. The chief colorant, beetroot powder, provides a natural, dreamy pink hue; it’s a gentle blush.
The flavor of Celestial Blush is a harmonious blend of warm spices and subtle floral notes, with cinnamon, cardamom, and a delicate touch of lavender, offering a comforting and mildly sweet taste. Its fine texture ensures it dissolves seamlessly into warm milk, creating a smooth and inviting drink.
Your golden-hour answer to a matcha latte—turmeric, spice, and ashwagandha in a calming cup. Mix up some Golden Slumbers Moon Milk for a luminous addition to your nighttime routine. This light yellow drink mix powder transforms warm milk into a pale gold, soothing elixir, perfect for relaxing at the end of the day. The primary colorant, ground turmeric, gives it a natural, serene yellow glow. The flavor of Golden Slumbers is rich and earthy, with a grounding blend of spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and a hint of nutmeg, providing a warm and comforting taste. Mix the powder into warm milk for a creamy, indulgent drink.
Add a half teaspoon of this radiant powder to your evening warm milk ritual to help calm and soothe the senses. The chief adaptogen in this blend, ashwagandha is known for its restorative benefits, ashwagandha supports relaxation and balance, making it an ideal complement to your pre-sleep routine. Incorporate Golden Slumbers Moon Milk into your nightly regimen, inviting a moment of peace and serenity before bed, and setting the stage for a restful night’s sleep.
I ordered both, along with another blend, samples, and perhaps a few surprises. They are being shipped to my sister, who will hand deliver them when we meet next month. This means there is an excellent chance that experimenting with my new evening ritual will become a sentimental moment.
Even better. And because apparently I cannot investigate one interesting ritual without finding another one, Selefina showed me something else.
2026 Advent Spice Calendar
I do not remember paying much attention to Advent calendars before spending the season in Europe. Then I discovered that Advent calendars are not limited to chocolate. There are beauty calendars. Perfume calendars. Tea calendars. Candy calendars.
And now, apparently, spice calendars. This delights me more than it probably should. Selefina’s 2026 Spice Advent Calendar has 24 doors, each containing a spice or blend to experiment with in the kitchen. They also created an online companion page that reveals the day’s spice and offers recipe ideas.
Now that is a ritual I can understand. Open a tiny door, discover something, and try it. No transformation required. I like the idea because it makes experimentation part of the ritual. Not every practice has to become a lifelong commitment. Sometimes trying something new is the practice.
Spice up the season, one day at a time! With our Spice Advent Calendar, each of the 24 doors opens to a new spice or blend ready to inspire your cooking.
From bold discoveries to cozy classics, these sample-sized treasures are perfect for experimenting in the kitchen. The advent calendar’s festive holiday design makes it a great gift for amateur cooks who love to try new things.
To make things even easier, we’ve created an ONLINE COMPANION PAGE where the day’s spice is revealed and paired with recipe ideas to get you cooking.
This Is Why I Keep Building My Mindfulness Toolkit
People sometimes talk about consistency as though it means finding one perfect practice and doing it faithfully for the rest of your life. That has not been my experience.
I have practices I return to again and again. I also have practices that serve me for a season, practices I rediscover years later, practices I try once, and practices that surprise me by becoming part of my life.
My mindfulness toolkit has room for all of them.I am not asking you to become a person who never gets stressed. I teach this work and I still get stressed. I am much more interested in helping you become someone who can recognize, “Oh. Here it comes,” and know that you have something you can do next.
Sometimes you can see stress coming. Sometimes it has already arrived. Either way, having something you can reach for gives you somewhere to begin. That is what 👉 Release Tension When Stress Builds Up, Sometimes it has already arrived. Having a ritual you actually enjoy gives you somewhere to begin.
