Calming Your Sunday Scaries

The Sunday Scaries can show up as anxiety, dread, restlessness, or a sense of unease about the week ahead. This guided meditation by Stephanie Edward of the Inner Work of Work helps you acknowledge what you're feeling, calm anxious thoughts about tomorrow, and reconnect with your ability to navigate whatever the week may bring.

Transcript

This is the Inner Work of Work. I'm Stephanie Edward. Today we're talking about dealing with Sunday scaries. The Sunday Scaries are that sickening feeling that can settle into your stomach before the start of the work week. Maybe you feel it as a tightening in your chest, Or a restlessness, Or a general sense of unease. However it manifests for you, The Sunday Scaries are a real phenomenon, And can wreak havoc on what should be an enjoyable end to your weekend. Let's see if we can get you feeling a little bit better about tomorrow so you can get back to enjoying today. Start off by sitting comfortably. Close your eyes. And breathe softly in and out through your nose if you can or through your mouth otherwise. Take a few moments to just sit and breathe here. Acknowledge how you're feeling. What emotion would you link to the Sunday scaries you're experiencing right now? Would you say you're feeling anxious, Nervous, Afraid, Angry? Name it. You may be feeling a combination of feelings. That's totally normal. If you are, Try to name all of the things that you're feeling. Allow yourself to accept that you're feeling what you're feeling. I know you would rather not feel these things right now. I get it. You don't have to like how you feel. But you do have to accept it because at this moment. That's how things are. Perhaps ironically, The only way to move past our Sunday scaries is to sit with them for a few moments. And acknowledging what they are by naming the feelings is the first step. This is the second step. I want you to consider where in your body you are feeling those feelings. Where do you feel the anxiety or the dread or whatever it is you're experiencing? Focus on specific locations in your body. Is it in your stomach? Your shoulders, Your chest. There's no right or wrong answer here. Take a moment to connect with your body and those feelings and consider where you're experiencing that. As you focus on the spot where you're feeling your Sunday scaries, Imagine giving that emotion physical characteristics. Consider what it might look like. Does it have a shape? A color, A temperature, A texture. Does it have a face? Does it have a name? Be open to whatever comes up. When we can imagine our Sunday scaries or any emotion we experienced to have some of these physical characteristics, It helps us to remember that these feelings, They're just part of us and not the whole story. So remember, Your Sunday Scaries likely feel pretty big right now. They may feel like they're taking over, But please know that they are not the whole story. Keep focusing on the place in your body where you're experiencing those Sunday scaries. And I now invite you to breathe into that place. Imagine directing every one of your inhalations to that spot. And then when you exhale, Exhaling from that same spot. Do that a couple of times. Imagine with every breath in. Every breath that you're directing to that spot. You're filling that location with light and spaciousness. So you breathe in and you flood that place where you experience the Sunday scaries with light. And then with every breath out, Imagine you're releasing some of those Sunday scaries a little bit. Breathe in, Fill with light. Breathe out, Release a little bit of the Sunday scaries. You can keep breathing into that spot in your body if it feels good to you, Or you can let your breathing go wherever it wants, Keeping it soft and smooth while you consider these next ideas about Sunday Scaries. Sunday Scaries come up in response to how we assume our Monday will go. It's a reaction to something that has not yet happened. While I understand that you may feel you are so certain about how your Monday will go, The truth is you don't know for sure because it's in the future. You've been focusing on worst-case scenarios, Or if not worst-case scenarios, Then pretty dire ones. Don't feel badly about this. As humans, It is normal for us to latch on to negative perspectives. We have an innate negativity bias that has evolved from our ancestors' need for survival. This results in all of us having an inner negative voice. I'm telling you this not to discourage you, Not to lead you to think, Oh great, I can't help being negative, Rather I'm telling you this so you can understand that your mind will almost always go to that negative story first. The amazing thing here, Though, Is that we have a choice. We don't have to focus on that most negative story. Our inner negative voice is but one perspective. And we actually don't have to listen to it all the time. There are other options, Other stories available to us. They don't tend to be as loud because our inner negative voice tends to project the loudest stories. But there are other options there. Some of these options are. What if everything works out tomorrow? Or what if everything is okay? Or even, What if my Monday works out better than I expected? Monday and the rest of your week will unfold the way they will unfold. Whether you expend energy worrying about it, Stuck in your Sunday scaries or not, Will make little difference to how your Monday and your week will go. So from that perspective, Why not help yourself right now by redirecting your focus to a more uplifting possibility, One where your week turns out better than you think, Or at least more neutral than you're currently expecting it to. I'm not talking about being overly positive. I'm talking about acknowledging that worst case scenario, Acknowledging that negative scenario that your brain will come up with, And then consciously choosing, Because it is a choice, Constantly choosing to introduce alternative scenarios, More positive ones, Or perhaps simply a more neutral one. Your inner negative voice will kick up a fuss over this. It loves to focus on negativity. That's okay. That's what it does. However, As I said earlier, Your inner negative voice is just one perspective. You can redirect your attention to different perspectives, To different possible outcomes. You will likely have to do this over and over and over and over again. Don't get discouraged. Your inner negative voice will keep popping up and saying, But what about this? But what about this? Let it do its thing. Like I say, It's what it does. What we're trying to do is develop the habit of redirecting our attention away from the inner negative voice, Away from those worst case scenarios, To possibilities that are less negative, More neutral, More positive. And it is indeed a habit. So sit quietly for a moment. Continue breathing softly and smoothly through your nose if you can. There are many ways my Monday could go. What if it ends up being better than I expected? Let that sink in. There are many ways my Monday could go. What if it ends up being better than I expect? There's one more thought I want to leave you with. Even if your worst fears about the week ahead come to fruition. Do not underestimate your ability to get through it. You are incredibly resourceful. You have dealt with many issues in the past. You've navigated challenges and unforeseen problems, Wrenches thrown into plans, Shifting priorities, Heavy workloads, And countless other Mondays and weeks that maybe didn't go the way you planned. Because we're always so focused on the next thing, We so easily forget all the problems we have indeed navigated and overcome in the past, Including weeks and days at work that perhaps did not go as we'd hoped. The result is that the next time we're faced with an issue, We're blindsided and start to doubt our ability to navigate it all or figure it all out all over again. But we have figured things out many times before. There's absolutely no reason to believe you won't figure things out many times again in the future. There's no reason to believe you will not get through your week, No matter what it throws at you. Trust in your inner resourcefulness. You've got this.