That is what Sunday is all about. Sunday is about resetting, recharging, feeling REVIVED by the very important things that matter the most to us! You don’t have to let the Sunday scaries overrule you and dominate your thoughts no more! You can live a life with more joy and peace! Sharing everything you need to know about how to get rid of the Sunday scaries for once and for all in order for you to make the most out of your Sunday and start your week off right!

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Sunday Strategies – How To Intentionally Spend Your Day Of Rest And Start Your Week Off Right

In order to provide you with a little bit of purpose and clarity so that you can truly live each day as the best day possible, I want to focus in specifically on Sunday. Yes, the day of the week that so many have a love/hate relationship with. It can be so easy to catch a case of the “Sunday Scaries,” and feel ALL the overwhelm of the upcoming week ahead. However, I believe there is SO MUCH JOY to be found on a Sunday, if we only let ourselves find it! For that reason, I am sharing just exactly how you can get rid of the Sunday scaries and intentionally spend your day of rest in order to start your week off right!

the Purpose of A Sunday

By creation Sunday is designed to be a day of rest – a day of reflection. A day where work can be set aside. Where you can be fully connected and whole with your family. The day of the week where you can put aside the worry, say goodbye to the anxiety and be fully present and fully connected. The purpose of a Sunday is to spend the day reflecting, resting, rejuvenating, and recovering from the actual week.

Instead, myself included; we live in a culture that coins terms as “Sunday Scaries,” where our society and culture tell us that we need to dread a Sunday. We are told that we need to dread the feelings towards the start of a new week. To be consumed with the stress and anxiety of all the challenges that a new week brings forward. Instead of reflecting and just resting in the joy that Sunday is!

Your Sunday Intention

The intention of a Sunday is too reset and to be fully reconnected. If you are a spiritual person, if your faith is important to you. Sunday is a great day to be plugged in and connected to your faith, to your spiritually, and to your community. If you are not a spiritual person, if that is not you, Sunday is designed to be a day where you take a step back and a step away from the busyness and chaos of your life. To focus inward and to be more whole!

The reality of a sunday

I value honesty and being real so incredibly much. Usually, our Sunday situation was a little crazy. For far too long in my professional life, my Sunday consisted of this. Wake up after the first full night of sleep, to quickly head out the door, all while chugging a cup of coffee, to get to church. Or taking things a tad bit slower and watching a church service on the couch. Next, my husband and I would quickly chat meals for the week and create our grocery list on the back of the church notepad, while eating lunch somewhere. Followed by a quick trip to Publix, then back home to unpack the groceries, start the first of many loads of laundry, and to turn on the Braves or something else we may currently be watching on television.

I would sit my bum on the couch with my computer and begin to work on all the teacher things that needed to be done in order to be fully prepped and ready to go for the week. All while feeling extremely stressed and anxious thinking about what the work week would bring.

For majority of my professional life, Sunday was the day where everything needed to get done. Sunday was the day with the longest of to-do lists full of many, many things. Sunday was also the day filled with the most anxiety and the most stress.

Sunday Vision-Casting

As shared, for most of my adult life, I have had a pretty unhealthy relationship with Sundays. Now, fast forward to today with a 10 month old, our Sundays look A LOT different in the best way possible. Naturally, having a baby and working outside the house has forced me to slow down every single Sunday. To slow down in order to truly treasure each moment. Through slowing down and focusing on remaining present in every moment, this has allowed me to live my Sundays without the stress or the anxiety.

Instead of focusing on all the things that need to get done for the week ahead, I am focused on being present with my sweet baby boy, my husband, and our two sweet pups and soaking up the moments of sweet family time!

Ideally, my perfect kind of Sunday would include a slow and restful morning full of intention, family time, and snuggles. Church, a great family meal, a walk outside, the right amount of work around the home to get us on a solid ground for the week ahead,  but mostly, many moments of fullness and joy full of my people! For me – that is what Sunday is all about. It is about resetting, recharging, and feeling revived by the very important things that matter the most to us!

6 Specific Strategies To Get Rid Of Sunday Scaries And Start Your Week Off Right

I am going to share with you specific Sunday strategies to help you set up your week for success by living your Sunday the right way. A day spent with intention and purpose. Before we dive into these six strategies, I  want you to take a moment in reflection on what you actually need your Sunday to be.

Evaluate your current situation, think of the things that are working well for you, and maybe the things that could be changed. Think to yourself how you are currently doing? How is your heart? What is currently causing you greater stress and anxiety within the season of life that you are currently in? Take a moment to do a little personal and emotional inventory of yourself so you can be completely in tune with YOU to know exactly what it is that you need for your Sunday.

And by doing this you can then prioritize within the six strategies I am about to give you based on your individual need. Once you have done that then let these six strategies transform how you and your heart approach and feel towards a Sunday!

Sunday Strategies

I am going to present this to you with 6 specific strategies to make your Sunday a day full of intention, rest & clarity. These are 6 things to include on your Sunday agenda to help you set yourself and your family up for success for the week ahead. Each of these specific strategies can be altered according to your own individual needs and preferences. The idea is to utilize these specific Sunday strategies to jump start your week and to help you be in the right mindset before your Monday begins.

Sunday Strategy #1 – A Brain Dump

The first Sunday strategy is a brain dump! This can be as specific as you want it to or as general as you like. That completely depends on you and how you function on your day-to-day! The purpose of a brain dump is to help you sort through your mind and your thoughts and provide a permanent home for those things elsewhere (Hopefully on paper). This is designed to help you RELEASE the stressful and anxious thoughts, it is NOT designed to cause more stress or anxiety. Please be really careful here and make sure you aren’t overdoing it with the brain dump if you notice it is causing you more stress. It is truly designed to be a helpful tool.

For this Sunday strategy tool, a brain dump can be the MOST helpful by unleashing the power within you to let it all out. To take all the things that are swirling in your mind, all the things that need to get done, the things that are coming up on the week ahead. To take all those things and quickly put it on paper. To be successful, spend less than 5 minutes working on your brain dump to truly give your mind the release that you need! Unload the things, dump it on paper, and then let it live on the paper. Use this brain dump as a healthy starting point for working the week ahead.

Sunday Strategy #2 – Self-care routine

The second Sunday strategy is all about creating and establishing your very own Sunday self-care routine! This is all about you. Find time in your Sunday to do something that is strictly and fully for you. Something that you can come back to every single Sunday and that you can count on. While it doesn’t have to look the same every single week, maybe it is the same thirty minute window of time that is devoted to you fully that you can begin to trust and count on each week.

For me – this looks like a bubble bath. Every single Sunday evening (well more like Sunday night, I take a bubble bath and it is absolutely amazing!) Create a specific self care routine that is for you on Sundays only. Something that can tell your body and your mind to relax, to rest, and to recharge and with the routine of this self-care routine, you will start your week with intention, every single week!

Sunday strategy #3 – Connection

The third Sunday strategy is connection. This is all about spending intentional time connecting with your family, your friends, your faith, time spent connecting with yourself. Make sure that on every single Sunday you are carving out time for connection. Is that with your kids? Your spouse? With you? Time spent with you and the things that make you, really you! Call a family member or a friend and simply connect! Incorporate on every single Sunday a time spent connecting with those that mean the most to you!

This is the best way to live out your day with intention and purpose, to tune in and connect with some else. By connecting with someone else and tuning into them, you are plugging into them and their heart. You are shifting your focus away from yourself and instead focusing on others around you! This allows for empathy to grow and compassion to take root and to blossom. To cultivate powerful relationships that have the ability to change the world. Connect with your community on a Sunday. Sit and rest with that community with intention, purpose, and clarity. In order for you to fully start your week off on the right foot, with the right intention, and the right people to support you and back you up along the way!

Sunday Strategy #4 – Outdoors

The fourth Sunday strategy is all about the outdoors and incorporating outside time within your day. Create a special Sunday routine or tradition that takes place outside. This can be with you alone, or you and the pets, or you and your family. Find time to spend outside. Take a family walk, go on a picnic, sit on the deck, enjoy a beverage, grill out. Look at the stars during the night sky. There is something magical that happens when you are outside and present in nature. To feel alive through movement of the body! To feel that energy flowing. This is a tool to be able to have that BEST day! In order to live your best life every single Sunday, spend time outdoors and make it a ritual that you go to every single Sunday so that you can actually start your week off the way that you want to. So that you can actually THRIVE!

Sunday strategy #5 – preparation

Sunday strategy number five is all about preparation. Now this strategy will definitely look different based on who you are and what you do and what your life looks like. This strategy is all about spending time on your Sunday in actual preparation for the week! Now, please do this in a healthy way. Do not do this in an obsessive way with the goal of perfection. That will not work and will not help in any sort of way.

Therefore key to this Sunday strategy are actual preparations for the week in a healthy, not overdone, helpful kind of way. Are the meals scheduled? Any specific things need to be prepped? School bags // work bags ready to go? Outfits decided? Family meeting discussed? Think of the things that are super simple and can be easily planned and mapped out ahead of time in order to help get your week off to a smoother start! By creating just a few small pockets of preparation on a Sunday you are setting yourself up for success in the long-haul and it will serve you and your family so well!

Sunday Strategy #6 – Reset

The sixth and final Sunday strategy is to reset! Think of this as what are the things you can physically do in your day to provide a reset to allow you to approach the new week with a fresh pace and a blank page. What can you do to hit that reset button to feel recharged and renewed again? A couple loads of laundry that can bring you closer to ground zero. A quick reset of the kitchen so that you can wake up Monday morning energized in a fresh, clean space. Wipe down the bathroom counters. Clear off your desk space so things are good to go first thing Monday morning! Choose a few things on Sunday to allow you to get that clear picture and reset in your heart and mind to start the week off on the best foot possible. This will help you so much!

Words of Wisdom For Your Future Sundays

Now with all things, no matter how hard we sometimes try to make a plan and to do things with complete execution and perfection, it is important to remind ourselves that things are not going to always go our way. These strategies are wonderful and great, but serve as a guide for you to help shape your Sunday so you can start living your best life walking with more intention and clarity. And it’s okay if you don’t get to them all. It’s okay if you have every intention to spend this upcoming Sunday working through this list of strategies to allow yourself to start your week off on the best footing, and if you fall short and things happen and you don’t get to them, that is okay. Don’t beat yourself up. Just pick yourself up from wherever you are and try again the next week.

In fact, maybe you want to just start off with one specific strategy this upcoming Sunday, or two if you feel like you can handle two or if you are the type of person whose personality is all or nothing and you know you need to dive all in or else it won’t get done – whatever you must do, do it so that it can work for you – but be open and ready to give yourself the grace and the understanding if you fall short.

And Grace, Endless Grace

We are unable to live our best life as humans without that grace and without that understanding, not just for the world around us, but more importantly, for ourselves. These Sunday strategies will hopefully serve as a tool and resource for you to help create more intention and clarity for you on your Sunday that you can live in and abide with so that your next week can be better than the one before it! So that you don’t have to feel the Sunday Scaries as Sunday afternoon, turns too evening, too nightfall. You don’t have to feel the burden and the pain of the end of the weekend, yet you can be excited, full of all the anticipation and the joy for the next week ahead.

With these Sunday strategies, these 6 specific goals of a brain dump, your own version of self-care, of connection, of time spent outside, of preparation and of reset, with these six things – you can be one step closer to living a life full of more freedom, walking in more grace, in more abundant joy, with intention and with clarity for who you are and where you are in your current moment and season of life! Your Sunday can be a great day friends, and it can be full of purpose, of intention and of rest to help carry you through and to start your week off in the place you want to be!