If Sunday Dread Ruins Your Weekend, This Episode is Your Rescue Plan.

Feeling the "Sunday Scaries" creeping in as the weekend winds down? You're not alone — and you’re not stuck with that cycle of dread. In this empowering episode, we explore the science behind Sunday anxiety, the mindset traps that keep us living only for the weekend, and a powerful framework to reclaim your peace, presence, and purpose every day.
 Discover simple but transformational questions you can ask yourself to shift your narrative, align your life, and move into your week with confidence and joy. It's time to notice the truth of your experience — without judgment — and Default to Yes to the extraordinary life you were made for.
 If you're ready to stop surviving and start truly living every day, this episode is for you.

Transcript

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Welcome to another extraordinary week. I am really glad that you're here with me and I. Don't take it lightly. know that there are a lot of choices that you make and one of them is what you listen to. Maybe as you get your week started on your commute to work or home, I know that you have a lot of choices and I am honored that you are here with me to. Really lean into what it looks like to default to, yes to your extraordinary self. I am Julie Reynolds. I'm the host of this podcast. I'm a nurse coach and an aroma therapist and founder of the Yes Society where I. Honestly, people in midlife are getting real breakthroughs and holding each other accountable, celebrating with each other, and it's A really powerful community where we do all this work. So I cover kind of the basics of personal growth and development and share strategies here and in that community. We dive a little deeper. We apply them, we customize them so that they fit and really align them with. Personal values and goals. And so I'd like to invite you to join, to check that out. You can do that by clicking the link below and scheduling a chat with me. We'll just see what it is that's standing in your way of your truly extraordinary self on a consistent, regular basis. Consistency is key and that is where sometimes the challenge can be. Speaking of consistency, I wanna talk about this whole idea that we have of living for the weekend. Now most of my work life is in, in nursing, in the healthcare system, and For the most part, healthcare professionals especially if you're in a hospital setting weekends. Are up for grabs, you might pick up an extra shift. You might have to take call, you might be a weekender. I've noticed that even when we don't have the weekends off, we still tend to prioritize the weekend. It's just a cultural thing we will say. It's a common thing to be glad it's Friday and put an end to some of the chaos that happens in the weekday, because even in the hospital setting is crazy. It might get, it's less busy, less crazy, less chaotic a lot of times on the weekends because there are just less people around less things scheduled, but even that setting or retail, that people that work on the weekends in retail in different settings, I would say that mindset still holds true. So let's say it's noon on Sunday and you're sitting outside with a coffee, or maybe you're even folding the laundry or meal prepping or taking a walk. Maybe you're spending time with your family, but your mind. Takes off somewhere else. racing ahead to Monday. Maybe it's meetings, unanswered emails, looming deadlines, or simply having to show up at your workplace at a certain time. Punch the clock, do all the things, whatever it is for you, that you are dreading instead of soaking in the present moment. You're trapped in what a lot of times is called the Sunday scaries. Now, First of all, if you're, if you can relate to that, you are not alone. Studies show that around 80% of working adults report feeling heightened anxiety on Sunday afternoons and evenings, but. But I wanna say that understanding the science behind this experience and learning how to self-regulate can really set us free from this mindset. So let's dig deeper, and reframe this because you really deserve to be your extraordinary self, to live fully alive and not just survive your weekends. We don't wanna miss those moments that we have on Sunday. We don't wanna miss those moments that we have on our days off. Worrying about the days that we have to be at work, right? None of us want that, just so let's dive in and see what we can do about that. because there's always something that we can do about it, right? There's, our brains are powerful tools that we have to grow and to expand and we have control over much of what happens with our brains. We can train our brains to cooperate with us as we show up in the world, in the way we really want to cooperate with our calling. And it takes some effort, but it is totally possible, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So the Sunday scaries are just a natural part of the brain's default mode network. The DMN, that's the system that kicks in when we are at rest, when we're not focused on a task. when the DMN activates our thoughts, a lot of times we'll drift to the future. This is why in the shower when the DMN kicks in, we can have really great ideas and sometimes the struggle is just remembering them long enough to get past that time when we're focused on the present tasks. So when the DMN activates our thoughts often drift into the future, focusing on uncertainties and perceived threats. This is anticipatory anxiety that's worrying about the future, worrying about future stress. That also triggers a low grade activation of the amygdala. Our brain's emotional alarm system. And the sympathetic nervous system, that fight or flight mode, even though nothing bad is happening right now, our body responds as if it is, That makes it harder for us to focus on the present moment and easier to slip into that mental time travel that leads us into even an imaginary, stressful Monday. So there's another thing that we need to address too, is that the deeper problem is that living for the weekend mindset, so many of us have unconsciously fallen into that cultural pattern. Work hard, crash on the weekend and dread, repeat the cycle, work hard, crash on the weekend, and then dread. because while taking breaks is essential, living only for the weekends causes that split between your work life and your real life. And over time. This disconnect. eros, your sense of fulfillment. I wanna propose a challenge to that mindset of the defining your work life as not your real life. How can we make that blend a little bit so that we see the work life as our real life as a real meaningful part of our life? Even though we may not, it may not be ideally what we all want to be doing with our day. We could probably, there are a lot of things that we would rather maybe be doing than having to work or having to punch a clock, having to be an employee, having to do that work, but. It's a pretty necessary part of life to make a living, to be able to pay your bills. So that really is part of real life. And so what can we do to really change that mindset or just make that shift a little bit, even compartmentalizing a more effectively. because if we believe only that life only happens on Friday night, Saturday, or part of Sunday, then we unintentionally tell our brains that 70% of our life, the work week is to be endured, not enjoyed. And that's kinda heartbreaking when you think about it, life isn't someday. Life is today. So I wanna propose a framework to help us reclaim our mindset so that when Sunday dread creeps in, like it will, we can use this. Ritual to self-regulate. there are four Rs in this ritual, and the first one is recognize and we know that all change begin begins with awareness and recognizing that there is a problem. So if that this is you, then celebrate that you're there, that you are noticing that this is a problem, and that you have power and the autonomy and the agency to make that change. So that you can live aligned with who you really are, your extraordinary self. And so how do we do that? We can pause and name it. I'm feeling anticipatory anxiety about the week ahead. Just a simple statement like that names the emotion and helps the prefrontal cortex, the logical part of our brain regulate the amygdala's alarm signals. So then we can start just recognizing, I'm feeling that anticipatory anxiety over the weekend, it's time to shut it down. Then we move into the second R, which is reframing. Ask yourself, what is one thing that you're looking forward to this week? How can I bring joy and meaning or curiosity into my work days? Simply by shifting the focus from dread to opportunity, you start to train your brain to expect good things, and that activates that dopaminergic reward system and. I know you don't feel like it, and it seems like. I don't really enjoy my job. Where am I gonna find the joy in that? I promise you that if you look, you will find it. Our brain is really good at finding out what, finding what is really important to us. And so it's really just about training the brain on what to look for. I'm not saying that it's gonna be all that you're gonna enjoy every moment, and that it's not gonna be without its normal stressors or aggravations or challenges, but those are all part of life too. 50 50 maybe, that we have exactly things the way we want and we're feeling the joy and we're feeling happy about our circumstances. And the other part is just getting it done right. I'm not throwing some toxic positivity at you I don't want it to sound like you can just by thinking positively, it's all going to be better. I'm not saying that your circumstances might not change at all, but what can you look for in a way to bring joy, meaning, and curiosity into your workday? You're training your brain now. Maybe you need to make a change that's gonna be another part of that. For some of you, you that might be where it takes you, is that when it's just, that you're not aligned with your circumstances, then it might be time to change them and make some other hard decisions. But right now we're just focusing on reframing our current circumstance, training our brains to To help us show up in the way that we really want to, and right now the way we really want to is we want to be able to make it all weekend or all vacation, all day off without starting to dread having to go back to work. All right, so we recognize and we reframe, and then we regulate using simple grounding techniques like the 4, 7, 8 breathing. You are gonna inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, and exhale for eight. I've been working on designing a little video that helps time that breathing while you watch a video and breathe with it over a time so that it can be five minutes. Designing that for our patients. I hope that it actually goes through and we are actually able to put it out there so that they can use it. In the meantime, I've designed this tool and if you'd like to check it out, reach out, email me, or message me and let me know that you would like to try out that tool And I'll gladly send it to you. I'd love your feedback on that actually, before even we put it out to our patients. So that would actually be helpful to me too. So if you'd like to see that, I've got voicemail, I've got text and email, all in the link, links, whatever works for you to reach out, I'd love to hear from you. in the meantime it's hold it's breathe in for four. Hold for seven and breathe out for eight. We can try that right now. So go ahead and take a deep breath in hold and exhale blowing all the air out while you're counting to eight. That's one thing that you can try That breath, repeating that a couple times, three to five times would really help to really ground and help. Reset the nervous system and help you regulate those emotions and kick in that parasympathetic nervous system. So moving to taking a mindful walk, stretch, dance, whatever you do, just to move your body. And then of course, aromatherapy. If you have oils, which I hope you do, inhale some calming sense like lavender, bergamot, frankincense. I have a blend called Shirin Yoku, which is forest bathing, and it's all the smells of the forest. I love that one for just bringing me back to the present moment. And here's the thing about aromatherapy and these breathwork techniques is when you're using them on Sunday to kick in the system and going through this ritual. To this regulating ritual. You can also take these through during the week, so when you start to notice all the things that you were dreading on Sunday coming or when you get up on Monday morning, you can use these tools again to condition your brain to think the thoughts that you were wanting to think instead of the thoughts that are just automatic. And eventually over time, this will become your. Default mode. So using these aromas. I'd carry my aroma with me. I always have one in my pocket. My colleagues will come to me when they need a moment for calming, and they will apply this as well. Pair this with your thought, the thoughts that you want to have, and you have a perfect combination for. Aroma cognition, which is my which is something that I teach all of my clients. I teach a course on this that helps us really condition these thoughts so they become automatic and we can really, again, train our brains. So these practices activate the parasympathetic nervous system, your rest and digest mode, allowing you to stay present. Alright, so we have recognized and then we've re reframed and then we regulated and now we're going to reconnect, recenter your attention on right now. So as soon as those thoughts come into play, you're going to kick this ritual in into action and then ask, what beauty do you notice right now? And what can you savor time with? How can you honor your energy today? When you reconnect with the present, you reclaim your power. because the present really is where life actually happens. We aren't guaranteed tomorrow. So worrying about it is really a kind of a waste of energy, and we miss the moment that we're in when we do that. So some questions to ask yourself to really get to the root. Am I living in alignment with my values during the week or just surviving? Where could I adjust my work, my mindset, or my boundaries to create a more balanced life? What story am I telling myself about work? Is it helpful? Is it harmful? And how can I bring a little of my weekend energy? The curiosity, the relaxation, the joy into my work days, and what am I avoiding and what small action could I take to feel more empowered? You aren't powerless a against the Sunday scaries is what I'm saying. You are powerful enough to transform, dread into anticipation, anxiety into action, and living for the weekend into living fully every single day. It begins with a pause. It continues with a choice. It builds into the life that you love Monday through Sunday.'cause you were made for more than survival you were made for presence, purpose and joy to live and to love, to imagine and inspire. As we wrap up our conversation today about the Sunday scaries, I wanna leave you with a powerful thought, and especially if you're listening to this on Monday because. You can't go back to Sunday, right? You've already probably maybe experienced these, this, that sense of dread, and maybe you're regretting that you missed some of your weekend thinking about the week to come, but you can take, you can be proactive here and take a moment today, throughout the week just to notice how things actually go. Compare the reality of your Monday to the soundtrack that you played in your mind yesterday. Was it as heavy as you feared? Was there any beauty, any momentum, any ordinary moments that felt not so bad, not as bad as you thought, maybe even a little good. There's no judgment here. Just curiosity, and maybe you're gonna come away with this and go, no, the whole thing sucked. I the week sucks. My job sucks. I don't wanna be there. And believe me, I know where you're coming from. If that is you and you can't see it. But I promise you, your brain will find it if you really intentionally look for it. So even on my worst days, the my most frustrating days, I could always appreciate the people around me. It might have come through a patient or through a colleague, through an interaction, even appreciating my own expertise in a moment. Those things, once I train, started training my brain, I could see more of it. I might have some bad moments, but I'm able to put them into moments. I do a little less bringing it home with me and talking nonstop about it at home. I still do it. And there can be some conversations, especially now that my husband is working in a healthcare setting as well. We have there, there are some commonalities of the things that we deal with and we're working for the same institution, so there's that too. Little bit of that does come through. You're not, it's not about being perfect, it's about making progress. It's about training your brain to cooperate with you and the way that you really want to show up. So you're still gonna have those days and maybe your job does totally suck, and maybe you just need to get out of it. So there's that too. So if that's, that might be a decision that you learn or get the courage to make. Over this process, maybe you will decide that, yeah, I'm looking and I can't find anything and it's time to change my circumstances for the good of my, the rest of my life. And so that might be a PR place you go, but give this a try and see if just the changing the mindset maybe does help a little bit. So take a moment today and throughout the week, just notice how things actually go. So notice what you enjoyed. What did you handle better than you thought? What surprised you about today? Notice the people around you. No judgment. Just notice and even better, journal it. Write it out. Share it out, because When you say things out loud or when you journal it, it externalizes it, and so your brain can process it a little differently. You'll start noticing thoughts that you have that maybe you weren't aware of. So the simple practice of noticing without judging, it starts to loosen that grip of that old narrative that says Mondays must be miserable, and that weekends are the only place where joy lives. We know, even when, probably as you hear me say that it's not true. So let's tell ourselves the truth. Train our brains to cooperate with us, and maybe just maybe you'll start to see places where life is already more aligned than you realized. And from there, you'll start seeing where you can bring even more intention and more joy and more. Yes. To every day. You are not here to survive the week. You are here to live as your extraordinary self every single day. There is more that you have to give. The world needs you to show up in the way that is the most powerful. You possible. So keep noticing, keep aligning, and as you head out into your week default to, yes, to life, to growth, to the person that you're becoming. and if this topic and today's episode resonated with you, I'd love it if you would share it, pass it along to a friend or maybe a coworker that might need this encouragement to, and together you can be accountable to then to one another. And you can build on this practice together. because really that is the point we're building. We're living this life That's really too good to only live on the weekends. All right, Until next time, keep noticing. Keep aligning. had love to hear how this process resonates with you. I'd love to hear how you apply it and how you process it. it means the world to me to be on this journey with you as you go out every day and default to, yes to your extraordinary self.