Monday Blues

Monday’s can get a bad rap being the bearer of bad news (weekends over!) and the return to the stresses of weekday work. Sometimes my Monday blues would even creep into my Sunday nights stealing away my last few moments of relaxation with anxiety about a busy week ahead. Anyone else experience this? Well I finally decided that enough was enough and how I choose to show up to Monday (or any day!) is completely up to me. So how can I kick that annoying Monday blues to the curb and start owning my experiences no matter what day of the week it is?

First I identify all the things in the upcoming week that create stressful emotions for me. I write them down then decided if this stress is avoidable (ie: If I have too many meetings on Wednesday can I reschedule some of them to another day to lessen the load?) or manageable (ie: If there’s a big presentation I have to give, what do I need to do to prepare for that so I feel more confident that I will succeed?). This provides me a road map for how to manage these stress factors and gives me a sense of awareness of the whole picture of the week as opposed to just feeling overwhelmed.

Once I have a grasp of the reality of what the week holds for me, I then move my attention to the positive and write down 5 things that I’m looking forward to this week (I like to write one for each day. Ie: Monday – I’m looking forward to lunch with my friends). The simple act of focusing my attention to the positive moments of the week shifts my mood and allows me to keep that happy contentment I feel on the weekend all week long, even on a Monday! After all, happiness is a choice.