Try a quick exercise. Look over your past week and see how much of your time was spent on work. Work also includes house chores, grocery shopping, errands, and minding the children. If work represents one of six slices of a pie chart, how big is that slice? Quite big, I bet.
We work hard so we can afford holidays or a move to a bigger home and improve life quality. Don’t wait for a holiday or a new home to bring balance to your life. Reserve Sundays for doing meaningful things you don’t get to do on weekdays and improve life quality now.
1. Slow Down
Turn off the alarm. If your internal clock wakes you up at the usual hour, use the time for deep breathing exercises or read inspiring quotes and experience positive emotions. If you wake up late, that’s great! You’ve begun to enjoy your Sunday.
The point here is to not have a schedule. Letting the day flow will allow more leisure time for recreational activities and for doing them at a leisurely pace.
2. Disconnect Electronically
Is this hard for you to do? Look back to an instance when you felt toxic and were ready to toss your phone out the window to get 15 minutes of uninterrupted time. This will make it easier to put your phone on silent and out of sight. Now is the time to give your laptop and other devices a rest too. You may be surprised to discover engaging things to do minus your devices.
3. Notice and Appreciate Things
No strict schedules and no electronic devices equals a space of silence and freedom to just BE. Heighten your senses and attention to find joy in the simplest things—homey kitchen smells, new grass, children’s laughter, a leisurely shower, or your relaxed breathing. To measurably improve life quality, be aware of and appreciate the things that bring quality to your life.
4. Enhance Your Home
The spaces you move around in affect your well being. Home is where you wake up every morning. Enjoy Sunday by engaging in a hobby—art, crafts, carpentry, gardening—and decorate your home in the process. No such hobbies? Try rearranging the furniture, adding a couple of throw pillows, and organizing your book shelf, kitchen cabinet, or wardrobe closet. Your enhanced living space would then be a pleasant place to come home to.
5. Sit Down for a Meal
Is your weekday breakfast an on-the-go affair where you munch on a sandwich as you hurry to the subway station? How often do you get to have dinner with your family or partner? Sunday is when family and friends can sit down, share a meal, and chat in a relaxed atmosphere. Have fun preparing the meal together at home or make it a restaurant treat.
Ask light questions to get conversation going. Be positive, listen fully, and appreciate these wonderful people you share your life with.
6. Help Someone Out
It could be your child asking for your opinion on a school project, an elderly neighbor needing some company, or a request for volunteers to pack relief goods for disaster victims. Helping others moves focus away from yourself and brings meaning to life beyond mere accomplishment.
7. Do Something Just for You
Make Sunday a day to reward yourself. Get a haircut, buy that nice shirt you’ve been saving for, have a massage, watch a matinee or a sporting event, or stay home to read, play video games, or nap. The only rule: it makes you happy and is good for your health.
8. Attend to a Spiritual Practice
A spiritual practice is an activity that reminds you of your connection to the divine source. It could be a full-day facilitated retreat, a Sunday service, a quiet jog in nature, a gratitude journal, insightful books, or inspiring music. Keeping a meaningful connection to the divine lightens your perspective in life.
Sunday is a day to forget work and to rediscover other areas of your life. A consciously-spent Sunday helps you appreciate work and allows you to handle the week’s stress. You gain work-life balance that will improve life quality starting right now.
Featured photo credit: Marya Oct.Calendar via flickr
