Sunday Rhythms

Setting your week up to feel intentional, meaningful, and more focused usually starts with good Sunday rhythms.

Today, I’m sharing with you what most Sundays look like for me.

P.S. I’m using “The Weekly Unplanner” as my guide. Sign-up here to join the five week series and receive the mini planner as a gift.

Even in the midst of a "to-do" list, there is a way to practice a Sunday rhythm that works with your current life season and schedule.

On Sundays, when I can, I do like to take time do do some personal reflections. When I look back on a time when I fully enjoyed a Sunday, a time when it was refreshing, joyful, meaningful, restful, a few things came to mind for me—time to meditate or pray and to write, time in nature, connecting with my family or close friends, and cooking a meal I didn’t have time to make during the week.

This past week I found that I wanted to a mix of solitude, to embrace some family time, and enjoy time in nature with a twist—heading out for a little holiday fun.

So, I first started the day with contemplative prayer, meditation, reading and writing. It happened to be a Sunday where only a couple of family members had commitments, so there was a little more room for me to spend extra time and space for these activities.

Music is a very important aspect of life in our home. And often on Sundays, we will include some form of doing music, whether that’s at church, or at home.

I wanted the day to feel nostalgic and fun, so after I spent time in solitude, I headed downstairs to make pancakes for breakfast. I turned on a playlist of fun, nostalgic songs from all the kids Christmas movies we used to watch as they were growing up. It warmed my heart so much, I couldn’t help but feel joy.

Spending time in nature looked like heading out as a family to pick a Christmas tree. We grabbed coffees and hot cocoa, set the playlist, and headed out on a scenic drive through a national park to a small farm outside the city.

It was such a fun time together, and we kept it simple—we were really there no more than an hour. I find that time is often about understanding a “good enough” feeling. Recognizing when you or your loved ones are at the limit, and ready to get on with the rest of their day. This has allowed us to create a little more freedom around how we spend our time together.

All of these activities activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and engage positive emotions like hope, joy and optimism. And they help me to be open to possibilities, and bring an opportunity to create more resonant relationships. This is important to note because while it may feel like a nice-to-have to engage in renewal activities, it is actually essential to our effectiveness as leaders, parents, coaches, teachers, friends, etc. Our emotions are contagious, and when are only constantly under stress, and activating our sympathetic nervous system, we may find ourselves more and more frequently closing down, in a defensive posture, less open, flexible and creative. The brain loses capability to learn, we feel anxious, nervous, or even depressed. We may perceive things people say and do as negative or threatening, and as a result more stress is aroused. (From The Sacrifice Syndrome, Boyatzis on Intentional Change Theory).

So, it’s not simply a nice-to-have it is essential that we attend to ourselves holistically—taking time for renewal activities that activate the parasympathetic nervous system and engage positive emotions.

So, one way we are exploring this is to give dedicated time on Sundays for these activities.

For me, once I reflected on the best parts of a Sunday rhythm that felt joyful and restful, I now look ahead to how I can make these important elements a part of my routine most of the time. By understanding it may not need to look the same way every time, but more so that it captures how I want to feel and how I renew, it allows more freedom and flexibility as I plan the rest of the month ahead.

• I start planning ahead by marking down the Sundays on the calendar that I know I have an event or a commitment, so I set the expectation ahead of time. And I might want to look at these commitments now with ways to be mindful or to offer authentic connection since I know that is important to my renewal.

• Then, I leave room in the calendar. I know now that I don’t want to have every Sunday fully booked, with no open spaces. I want to keep Sundays as free as possible to make sure I’m committed to reflection, time in nature, and connection with those I love.

• I also understand that it may look the same or different from Sunday to Sunday, but the core elements can remain the same:

  • Reflection may be at church or at home depending on the week

  • Time in nature may be with family, friends, or my partner. It may just be sitting outside by the fire in the evening, or it may be a 20 minute walk in the neighborhood. Some weeks it might be something more if we want to go out for fun—sledding, hiking, a walk by the lake.

  • Connection with those I love may be taking time with a meal together, visiting grandparents or other family, calling a friend, or planning a board game night with friends.

  • I have found it’s also important for me to have some time at home on the weekend, and mostly I like that to be on Sundays, to catch up before the week starts—I may need to do some cleaning, laundry, or some other preparation for the week ahead.

By creating a plan around what you want to experience and how you want to renew and feel ready for the week, instead of only keeping to a should do or a standard to-do list, you open up your calendar for more opportunities to be flexible and even potentially fit something in at the last minute without sacrificing the desire to be prepared for the week ahead.

I like to consider my Sundays a true day of renewal, and it allows me to dedicate time to those activities with less guilt or fear of missing out. There will certainly be exceptions—like travel, gatherings, or other commitments. By looking ahead at those, while also keeping your favorite routines for renewal in mind, you’ll begin to enjoy it all much more, and will start to feel like yes and no becomes easier when an opportunity comes up.

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