Some of us use any form of emotional sedation we can on SUNDAYS.
Maybe we need to quell the anxiety of either too much alone, couple or family time during the weekend hitting emotional overload. For others it might just be because we are anxious and reluctant to face the new week ahead of us.
SUNDAY is named the day of rest so that we ensure we recharge and reconnect with ourselves and the things that really matter to us. Those luxuries in life that we spend all bloody week working so hard for so many of us do not allow ourselves to truly relax, exhale and enjoy on our precious SUNDAY. Instead we hide.
The SUNDAY family roast is for some an essential ritual to help all our loved ones come together and share stories of the weekend’s adventures, and the challenges ahead in the new week. However, not all of us have access to parents, siblings and children due to either emotional unavailability or geographical distance. No matter whether we are alone with our pets or with loved ones, a time of rest and gentle reflection is a healthy, emotional ritual on a SUNDAY, or whatever day precedes recommencing work, study or responsibilities with others.
SUNDAYS were once, and sometimes still can be my hardest emotional days. Now as an empty-nester life is different since my sons have left home. It had become for me (since 1995 when my recovery from addiction and childhood trauma) a really lonely day to face for several reasons. When I was single and my boys were alternating weekends with their dad and me when they were away I emotionally battled on SUNDAYs. I was unpractised at creating activities that gave me a natural high and contributed to self-respect via self-care. I was the queen of instant gratification, emotional escapism and self-neglect. So I became a pleasure junkie, clean and sober sure, but still looking for a quick fix to comfort my anxiety.
Food comas worked sometimes, dating unsuitable men for entertainment worked sometimes. Obsessive cleaning worked sometimes. Working instead of taking a day off to keep me distracted and busy helped sometimes too. However, the cost was I got too emotionally tired. Starting our week emotionally spent sets us up in a cycle of self-neglect on automatic pilot.
So I invite you to review your SUNDAY rituals of rest. It is a sacred day for our heart to connect with love, refuel with nourishing food and good company, even if it means our own.
I am a helluva lot better at being less anxious on SUNDAYS nowadays, and find I will rarely answer my phone unless it is a loved one, or socialise with anyone outside of my intimate heart family.
How are you at the ritual of consistent self-care on your SUNDAYS?
It is never too late to create healthy lifestyle changes so now is the perfect time. One last reminder that you will find repeated many times throughout my Daily Word Vitamins, for most of us are not slow learners, just quick forgetters …
If we don’t or won’t rest, we become the old, cranky and the restless.
Lotsa love Cynthia xxx
© Copyright 2016 Cynthia J. Morton Emotional Fitness™
This Word Vitamin is an excerpt from my latest bookset “The Four Seasons of the Heart”. If you would like to order your own full set of Daily Word Vitamins one for each day of the year, in book form for yourself or as a gift just click on the SHOP tab and place your order.
