For The Love Of Mondays

I have to admit, I’ve never really been one of those people who just hates Mondays. There have been times when I wasn’t particularly excited about them, but for the most part Mondays are just another day of the week, granted not as amazing as Fridays or Saturdays, but no more terrible than the average Tuesday or Wednesday. But what makes a Monday truly beautiful is your approach to it and I know staying positive about it is not easy when all the memes and gifs out there are making it to be the worst day of the week.

To make things easier though, here are a few steps to make your Monday more pleasant (or at least tolerable).

• Set the intention on Sunday. Before you go to bed on Sunday, set an intention for the week. If there anything in particular you want to accomplish this week. It can be something big or something as small as waking up 10 min earlier to make time for a quick morning workout of meditation session.
• Go to bed early on Sunday. Maybe you slept in on Sunday morning so you feel like you have enough energy to stay up late and catch up on all the things you’ve been dying to catch up on. Don’t! You will regret it on Monday morning. A good work week starts with good sleep. If you can’t sleep early, then just relax, read a book, listen to some soothing music, take a break from the blue screen.
• Start your Monday with something you love. I usually have a song start playing as my alarm instead of that dreadful alarm clock sound. I also love the daylight alarm clocks that wake you up by brightening up the room, making it way more natural than the jarring alarm sound.
• Stop snoozing your alarm. It’s a terrible habit that disrupts your sleep, makes you more tired and teaches your brain to be lazy. When you snooze your alarm a few times in the morning, you teach your brain that your decisions are not final, which in turn makes you less decisive about everything else.
• Get some physical activity in. For those of you who already clapped back with that “I don’t have time”, it doesn’t have to be an hour or even 30 minutes. There are plenty of 5–7 minute workouts online that you can do in, you guessed it, 5–7 minutes. That’s basically less than the duration of a snooze. And while snoozing makes your brain sluggish, a quick workout will do the exact opposite by pumping some endorphins in your bloodstream.
• Eat and drink mindfully. I’m not a breakfast person so I rarely start my day with a meal, but I do start it with a lot of water. Do what feels right for your body. Do you like a big breakfast and a strong coffee? Go for it! Are you more of a tea and light breakfast type of person? Then do that. Just watch your body and see what puts you in the best mindset to start your day.
• Set your work meetings for Tuesday. Allow your Monday to be the day where you catch up from the weekend and make the plan for the week rather than diving head first into meetings. That way you can plan better for your meetings and for the week.
• End the day quietly. At the end of the day, do something that makes you feel peaceful.

You’ve made it through Monday and you didn’t hate it. Now, on to tackle the rest of the week!