Have you ever had “a case of the Mondays”?

A hilariously relatable comedy by Mike Judge called “Office Space” gives a brilliant depiction of a case of the Mondays and you should watch it. I’ll be disappointed if you don’t – the movie is one of my all-time favorites and each scene is a gem IMHO. Seriously, take a minute or two, I’ll wait:

A “Bad” Case of the Mondays

Many people struggle with Mondays. A feeling of dread starts growing in your belly at some time on Sunday, and by the time you are trying to relax and go to bed, it has taken over. That dread is made up of thoughts of waiting demands, job dissatisfactions, and that co-worker that you just can’t stand. Admit it, there’s at least one. Even if you are the most tolerant person there is, there is always at least one sour apple in the bunch you wish you could throw out.

A case of the Mondays can start before the sun has risen. For me, it used to start while I was still asleep, with anxiety dreams, which I think should be called anxiety nightmares. I must not be alone in this, because in 2012 Forbes Staff Writer Jenna Goudreau wrote an article about “The 10 Most Common Workplace Anxiety Dreams and What They Mean”. The article was published right around the same time my battle with anxiety dreams began.

My most common version is a combination of “late for work” and “unprepared for a task”. In the so-called-dreams that drench me in night sweats, I am trying to get ready for and get to work and everything that could go wrong does and every delay feasible occurs, back to back, until I wake up in a panic at the moment that I realize in the dream that it is hopeless and that I am never going to make it. During my past career as a Community Manager, I had this dream almost every night. It was a decade-plus-long case of the Mondays.

A “Better” Case of the Mondays

It is a little over a month since I walked away from all that, and today Monday looked a lot different. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was relaxing, that would be a lie. But there is a peacefulness to this Monday, and all my recent Mondays, that wasn’t there before.

We went on a camping trip this weekend (more about that in a future post) and came home dirty and disheveled on Sunday afternoon to find that the kitchen sink had overflowed due to a clog somewhere in the shared main line. Fortunately, we only needed an after-hours plumbing call and not also water damage restoration. Unfortunately, between using all the clean towels to mop dirty water up off the kitchen floor and countertops, and the endless possibly tick-infested, definitely filthy dirty clothing and bedding from camping, I started my Monday off with a mountain of laundry. Washing clothes and towels and blankets and chonies for five people is no joke.

Between loads, I did my Monday ritual, which I believe sets the course for the week ahead.

I start my ritual with movement to get my energy right. Today it was in the form of an at-home yoga video that popped up when I searched for yoga-for-intuition. The Bare Female’s Feminine Feel Good Yoga Flow | 30 Min To Reconnect To Your Intuition was the perfect mix between yummy, feel-good-flows and more challenging balance-building poses. If you decide to try this one at home, and you need to make modifications to those more challenging poses, this is your permission to do so. I sure did! We can’t all have a body like The Bare Female’s (although TBH I am kind of mad about that), and it is important to honor yours.

After the movement medicine, I lit an incense stick, put on some peaceful meditation music (I like The Meditative Mind’s YouTube Channel), and took out my decks of affirmation, oracle, and tarot cards. One by one I shuffled each deck of cards at least three times, then spread the cards out and run my hands over them until one, or sometimes two, jump out. These are the decks I used and the results of today’s self-reading, which for the next week will be displayed next to my vision board:

Today’s reading seemed very appropriate for the kick-off of my new business ventures, including this blog. If you believe that a card drawing ritual is at best hokum and at worst devilry, please don’t judge me. You could substitute grabbing whatever holy text you believe in and reading a verse or section at random for a similar result. Or, if holy texts are not your thing either, you could do the same with any book. The best rituals are ones that you make your own.

After the weekly self-reading and in between all the damn laundry, I worked on content planning, did some writing research in the form of reading a chapter or two from Jennifer Weiner’s “Mrs. Everything” (my favorite form of writing research is reading what others have written), and wrote this awe-inspiring blog post that I am sure you were delighted to read. When I am finished, I will troubleshoot some issues with my brand new website I have been working the kinks out of.

Mondays still mean chores and work, but they feel a lot different than they used to when I had the chronic case of the “bad” Mondays. I am learning that when the work is something that you would do for free, it is much easier to work hard at it than a job that you would never consider if the paycheck wasn’t part of the equation. But, trust me when I tell you it isn’t all blissful yoga and time freedom. This mountain of freshly folded towels on my ottoman waiting to be put away is almost as tall as I am, after all.

Sharing is Caring

So, back to that question at the start. Have you had a case of the Mondays? What about anxiety dreams? Were they once in a while or recurring like mine used to be? Please let us know in the comments! We love to hear from you!

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