Feeling that Monday morning dread? Here's why you may need a Sunday reset

Written by Meg Walters

The alarm starts ringing in your ear. You peel your eyes open. You drag yourself out of bed. It’s Monday morning — so why are you already so worn out? With the new Sunday reset trend, you can start your week without feeling like you’re already behind.

Let’s face it — the weekend is never as long as we want it to be. If you’ve ever felt like Saturday and Sunday go by in the blink of an eye leaving you scrambling on Monday morning, you’re not alone. 

Many of us understandably try to pack our weekend full of fun — seeing a friend for coffee, visiting that cool new exhibition, another friend’s birthday party, a stroll through a Sunday farmer’s market. But after a fun, busy weekend, Monday morning can often leave you feeling more stressed and scattered than ever.

Enter the Sunday reset. With over a billion views on TikTok  and thousands of tweets, the concept of the ‘Sunday reset’ is well and truly taking over the internet. The trend, which features people showing off their Sunday wellness routines, is all about giving the mind and the body a chance to rejuvenate on the weekend, leaving you feeling fresh, rested and ready for the week to come. 

But does following the same wellness routine every Sunday really work? Or is it just another aestheticised social media trend that adds more pressure to your week than ever? 

What is a Sunday reset, anyway?

Head to social media, and you’ll probably come across numerous Sunday reset videos. Most of them feature typical wellness-y tasks like changing the bed sheets, cleaning, lighting candles, putting out fresh flowers, running a bath, reading a book or doing a face mask.

 The basic idea is that a Sunday reset routine should be all about slowing down and clearing out both your physical and mental space so that you can physically ‘reset’ before the next busy week starts. By creating a calm space around you, the trend seems to suggest, you can create a sense of calm inside yourself, too.

Are there real benefits to a Sunday reset routine?

As it turns out, there is some logic to the idea that decluttering your space and making it “nice” can have a positive impact on your mental wellbeing. As one 2009 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found, people with messy and cluttered homes tend to produce higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Another 2011 study in The Journal of Neuroscience found that mess can make it harder for the brain to focus and can leave you with that worrying feeling in the back of your mind that there’s something you forgot to do. Sound familiar?

According to Georgia Gadsby March, Co-Founder of Unearth PR, who has been studying the trend, “Sunday resets are the perfect way to ensure you’re prioritising your mental health and wellbeing. When life feels like it’s moving at a million miles per hour, it’s incredibly easy to forget to do the washing up, give hoovering a miss, and leave a cupboard restock until the very last minute.”

She adds, “We easily mistake day jobs and side hustles as priorities in our lives when, in reality, you can’t function properly when your headspace is taken up with the knowledge that you have to clean your home or you have a pile of dishes getting larger and larger in the sink. Making these tasks an essential part of your end of week routine can help clear this headspace and ensure your productivity levels are as high as they can be.”

Dannielle Haig, Principal Psychologist at DH Consulting, says, “Sundays are a great time to take the time and space for yourself; to recollect your thoughts and energy and to prepare yourself for the week ahead. This can be as long or as short as you like. From a moment of self-reflection and energy checking, journal writing, gratuities practice, a gym class, cooking a meal.”

Create a Sunday reset routine that works for you

According to the research done by March, the most popular Sunday reset activities are:

  • Washing and changing bed sheets
  • Hoovering the sofa and floors
  • Laundry
  • Cleaning bathroom and surfaces
  • Lighting candles
  • Washing dishes
  • Displaying fresh flowers
  • Writing a weekly goals list
  • Restocking clear food containers
  • Room misting

Of course, creating your own Sunday reset routine, you may find other rituals that serve you better. “Creating routines and patterns of behaviour that make you feel well and boost your confidence and self-efficacy is important,” says Haig. “Seeing this as a personal experiment helps you find the right ingredients for your wellbeing.”

Begin by making a list of all of those annoying tasks that you always seem to put off, such as hoovering or cleaning your windows and mirrors. Then, make a list of calming activities that you never seem to find the time for, such as reading or journaling. 

Begin your Sunday reset routine with all of the cleaning tasks. Then, once your home feels fresh and decluttered, leave yourself some time to recuperate and relax and enjoy the work you’ve done.

Hopefully, after your day of resetting, Monday will start to feel a little less daunting.

Images: Getty

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