Why You Should Try Self-Care Sunday
Shandra Martinez
| 4 min read
Some people seem especially enamored with pairing a task to a specific day of the week. Fans of healthier eating have embraced Meatless Mondays. Tex-Mex food fans get their spicy fix on Taco Tuesdays. But there’s another day-of-the-week idea that everyone can feel a little better if they start practicing: Self-Care Sundays. If you could set aside a day to do good things for yourself, ask yourself what that list would look like – and how you’d feel afterward as you prepare for the week ahead. Here’s why you should jump on board the Self-Care Sundays movement.
The idea of Self-Care Sundays has been around for a few years. The more you think about it, the more sense it makes. Sunday is traditionally the more relaxed of our weekend days. Many people have it off from work. It might be a day people already sleep in a little longer than normal, have a relaxed breakfast or brunch, or at least don’t need an excuse to be a tad lazy. This makes it the perfect backdrop to set aside some time – an hour or a half-day or more – to do something good for yourself. This doesn’t necessarily mean you spend all day in a bubble bath with your favorite book – not that there’s anything wrong with that if you can swing it. But organizing Self-Care Sundays can have many facets. At its most basic sense, it is about doing things that make you feel good, or at least that are good for you. Some options include:
Movement
We all know exercise is good for us, but on a Self-Care Sunday, you want to make it fun, too. It can be a regular afternoon hiking date with your best friend, or you can mix it up for something new each week. Grab a buddy and do some spins on the local ice rink. Go for a morning run, then treat yourself to your favorite latte. If you’re a regular at your gym’s cardio classes, reserve time on Sundays for something different, like a session of yoga or Pilates.
Food
Weekends are a great time for indulgences, and that means delicious food. If you love spending time experimenting in the kitchen, reserve a few hours on a Sunday for that. Maybe it means a trip to a favorite restaurant, or a take-out order enjoyed while you’re binging episodes of your new favorite TV series. A self-care twist: Set aside a half-hour or more on Sundays to meal-prep for the coming week. This could mean menu-planning your at-home dinners, or prepping days’ worth of to-go lunch items for the office.
Banish the Sunday Blues with self-care
Often, Sundays get a bad rap as being a bit anxiety-filled as some people spend part of the day worrying about the looming work week or fretting about everything they have to get done in the coming days. You can use self-care in a deliberate way to banish these feelings, often called the “Sunday Blues.” Set aside a small piece of your Sunday – as little as 15 minutes or as much as an hour – to get organized for the week ahead. This might mean writing out daily to-do lists in advance to make all the things you need to accomplish look more manageable on paper. It could mean prepping by getting online forms or needed paperwork filled out and ready to submit. A little organizing on a Sunday will make you feel like you’ve got your week under control. Reducing your stress level is a good form of self-care.
Personal care
Deep moisturizing. Exfoliating. Face masks. Basic at-home manicures. Self-massage techniques. These are all small things we can do to make ourselves look – and feel – better. During a busy week, they might get skipped, or feel like time-consuming luxuries. But making them part of a regular routine on Self-Care Sundays will make you feel a little pampered. And that’s a good thing.
Set a self-care example
If you live with other people, it’s good for them to see you spending time on self-care. It sets an example that you understand how to take good care of yourself, and that you believe you are worth it. Especially as a parent, it is a way to model good balance to children so they understand how important it is to take care of themselves.
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