Why do we hate Mondays so much? Let’s try not to.
Hello you wonderful soul…
And hello to this new week! 🤸♂️
How do you feel this morning?
Before you answer, hold that thought, and consider …
1. While you are reading this, you are travelling 220 kilometres per second across the galaxy (woah!). 🤸♂️
2. Every single one of your body’s 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms is billions of years old* (so don’t fret if you think you’re looking tired this morning – you’ve always been really old). 😅
3. All the 30 trillion cells that form your body will vibrate either positively or negatively depending on the way you answer this question.
So, let’s take a deep breath, and try again: How do you feel this morning? 😁
Are you wide awake, charged up, exercised, showered, shaved, dressed, and ready for this exciting opportunity called the ‘new week’? You can’t wait for the next seven days that are about to open up ahead of you, brimming with amazing possibilities and ideas? You are all set with your weekly to-do list in one hand, and a perfectly brewed latte macchiato in the other, ready to sprint from your kitchen to the living room to start your day? If yes: YAYYYYYY! I am so happy for you! Go, and spread those excited vibes! 💖
Or are you more team ‘I HATE MONDAY’? You have to think of reasons that peel you out of bed right now? Your work has slowed down, and in-between binging shows that you otherwise would not even touch with a stick, nobody, not even you, cares how you look on Zoom calls anymore? The only purpose of the day is to somehow get through it? If yes: Don’t worry! 🤗 Not only are you in the majority, but science actually has your back on this.
Why are Mondays so hard?
Let’s begin by cutting the poor day some slack: It is not so much Monday itself but our perception of it that makes it suck. Like in all other aspects of life, we are the ones who pass judgements – the poor thing just exists. And has anyone ever asked if good old Monday is happy with being the most hated day in the history of, well, days? 🙄
If you are unhappy with how your life goes, it is more likely that it is the idea of starting another cycle of ‘the same old shit’ that makes you cringe. In addition, the current lockdown leaves us with a pandemic brain fog called ‘allostatic load’, making us feel exhausted simply by not being our usual social selves. Thus, Monday mirrors the hard ‘emotional shift’, as psychologists call it, between a weekend of joy and relative freedom, and the life you might NOT WANT TO LIVE. Therefore, Monday’s are also the best time to think about what has to change.
Start your Monday with each procrastinator’s dream: A NOT TO DO List.
Don’t get me wrong: To Do lists are the bomb. Everyone who knows me is aware of the loose paper lists I carry around, celebrating each ticked-off item as if I won a life-time entry to an amazing library without any late-fees (my version of ultimate excitement). 📚
In the spirit of Steve Jobs, however, who coined the famous phrase “Deciding what NOT TO DO is as important as deciding what to do”, why not list out all the things that make you want to stay in bed? The best thing is: You don’t even have to get up for this. 😁
1. Start with the things you don’t like but can’t change: For instance, the fact that you are not allowed to leave the house. That you can’t quit your job right away because you would be broke and also, the job market isn’t really flourishing these days. Your cat who happens to be widely awake at 5am. Grrr! And then let it go.
2. Move on to the things that steal your time: Endless Instagram scrolling instead of painting. Deep-diving into weird Korean shows in original language on Netflix instead of working out. Running to the fridge every 10 minutes to decide what snack you will eat before, during and most probably also after binge-watching instead of baking banana bread or writing that bestseller.
3. Finalise your list with things you usually do to procrastinate: Mopping the floor for the third time. Colour-coordinating your dog’s leash with your socks. Or have you ever tried counting coffee beans to measure the amount of cups you can drink? Speaking of personal experience: Super satisfying. 😆
By filling out the template above, and becoming more aware of what you don’t want or have to do (and then don’t do them!), all those missing hours of the day suddenly return. It’s magic! 🥳 As a result, your NOT TO DO list creates the time and space for all those things that truly matter.
So don’t waste today’s precious 86,400 seconds! Use this wonderful opportunity called Monday to break the negative habit of starting the week with sad blues. Instead, give yourself a hug, and decide to find time for what and whom you love. 💖 You are amazing, wonderful, and full of potential – and now get out of bed. 😅
Here is a perfect feel-good-track to groove into your day!
Let me know how it goes. 🤗
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
* Calcium, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and around 60 other basic ingredients make up a human being. Since hydrogen and helium were the only elements around before the stars "cooked" up some more, it’s a safe bet that most of the substance that constitutes the "physical" you comes from the stars
** Many of us don't even crack our first smile until 11.16 am according to a study conducted by The Telegraph.
