In the past few years, I have perfected my Sundays to include the most delightful and productive routine and I am so excited to share it with you!
It has helped me start the week in a better mood, feel more rested, clear headed, and well prepared and ready for the week ahead.
Read down below to find out!
Sleep in
Sunday is the day I allow myself to sleep in and rest a little longer. Well, a little bit longer since our pup knows not what a weekend is. Hah! Even so, having one day/week to sleep in until 7/8 (instead of 5!), makes such a big difference in how rested I feel when the new week begins.
Sleep truly is the best way to allow our minds and bodies to reset, heal and recharge. And best of all, it is absolutely free!
If you are like me and needing close to 9 hours/day of sleep to feel like yourself, giving yourself at least one day per week to sleep in can make such a difference to your overall well-being. I cannot recommend this enough.
Read
After I wake up on Sunday morning, I pick up a book and stay in bed reading for a couple of hours.
It makes for the most cozy and indulgent treat! to be able to stay in, cozy and warm, with nowhere to be and nothing in particular to do, it just feels like such a blessing and I am so grateful for it.
It is so incredibly important to read, for so many reasons, but mainly because nowadays we are so bombarded with lots of info and click-bait articles that all of it can be quite overwhelming for our brains and nervous systems.
Reading naturally reduces stress, focuses our attention, increases our vocabulary, empathy, and helps prevent cognitive decline as we age. It also allows our minds to fully process and understand what we are reading, forming deeper thinking strategies and critical thinking skills.
Reading can also be incredibly leisurely and delightful, transporting you to different times and ages, thus making you feel like living multiple lives from the comfort of your couch (or bed).
Make a soup
I have spoken about this before and if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen some of the soups I have made since the beginning of the fall season.
I cannot recommend this enough! soups are a great way to get you to start cooking, if you haven’t already, because you almost cannot mess them up. Soups are easy, require minimal prep time, are generally a one-pot affair, are nutritious, can feed a crowd AND and can last up to a week so you get lots of leftovers to enjoy. Win-win-win.
This fall season I’ve challenged myself to try a new soup recipe almost every week and so far I have made and adapted to my taste and liking the following recipes: this lentil soup, a potato-butternut squash soup, a roasted tomato and eggplant soup, a mushroom and wild rice soup, a white bean soup, my own chili recipe and a classic chicken noodle soup with the leftovers from a chicken roast I made last weekend.
Next, I have my eye on this pumpkin soup that sounds too decadent for words!
What I always do and encourage you to do as well is raise the nutritional value of each dish by adding raw veggies, fresh herbs and spices to any recipe you try.
ANY soup can be enhanced by starting with the holy trio: onion, celery, carrots. Saute these on low and slow for up to 10 minutes to create a wonderful flavor base (those brown bits on the bottom), then adding a good quality broth (when I don’t have my own on hand, this has been my go-to) makes any soup taste 100 times better. Try it and tag me on Instagram if you do, or let me know in the comments section.
Do some self-care
Taking care of ourselves, in whatever capacity or form is available to us, is the greatest show of love we can offer ourselves and those around us, that are directly impacted and benefit from us feeling our best.
It encourages self-love, the root of all other types of love, replenishes our “well” and boosts our mood and well-being.
Self-care can mean anything: a yoga session, a long walk by ourselves, listening to music while we cook, cooking something nourishing and healthy (see the soup recipes listed above), dancing, reading a book, chatting with a loved one, a long soak in a bubbly bath, putting a face mask on, meditating for 5 minutes.
The question to ask yourself is this:
“What replenishes me the most? what activity makes me feel relaxed, soothed and restored to my truest self?”
This is what we want to incorporate into our Sunday routine each week, even if it is just for 30 minutes.
Plan your week
By Sunday eve, I have made it a point to have planned, organized and written down the following:
- dinners I am going to make
- outfits – pre-selected and put aside; culling and organizing your wardrobe is key to making this process speedy so check this post to learn more about it
- deadlines, meetings, tasks – written down in my agenda
- 3 important tasks to be accomplished each day
- prepping my lunches
- a general idea of what I’m going to have for breakfast each morning
- organizing my purse, setting aside my reusable water bottle and my reusable my coffee cup
I cannot tell you how much of a difference doing all these things has made in reducing my stress level and how much more prepared I feel for the week ahead! especially during uncertain times, relying on effective and well-known routines can significantly decrease our stress level. The familiarity and consistency of our routines is the one constant in our lives we can ALWAYS rely on and come back to, again and again.
Now, what other things could we add to our Sunday routine to feel even more prepared for the week ahead?
Scroll down below and lest us know!
I truly hope you have found this helpful and inspiring and if you did, please share this post with others. Also, subscribe to receive each new post the moment it goes live.
I am so grateful for you, for being here and reading this!
Much love,
Roxi
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