On Sunday – And Self-Development

The nature of modern society has fashioned the normal week into a 6-day grind. By the time the weekend comes around, some of us can be so drained that we may just utilise Sunday as a recovery day from the work week. It begins with Sunday morning; on weekdays you’d already be at work or in class by now. Today, you’re sleeping in.

Normally you check your phone while brushing your teeth, rapidly scanning the messages that have come in overnight […] This morning it doesn’t matter. You’re briefly liberated from the pressure of watching the clock, you don’t need to keep up.

– The Book of Life

In the normal week, say on a Thursday at 3:00 pm, when we’re in the midst of writing a report, studying for an exam or even taking a power nap before class…it can be one of those pivotal moments that we realise: work has taken over. Yet in that sense, Sunday is a unique opportunity to address the things that fulfil us in big, or small ways.

Zack Hemsey wrote in one of his songs:

Know that sedentary can be tantamount to tomb.

Within these eight words is a pearl of wisdom (at least to me). It’s an obvious statement that not indulging in activities or hobbies that help us grow can make our mental and emotional sanities deteriorate, but it’s something that we often forget when we’re bombarded by emails reminding us of assignments, deadlines to meet and family and friends trying to reach us.

Sunday ought to be a day where we think about and act on the things that get pushed to the edges of our subconscious throughout the week. Things that we should ideally be fully engaged in – checking in and up on our family, our health, the book we’ve been meaning to read or the friend we’ve been eager to hang out with. Your Sunday could even be as simple as biking around the city, whatever it is, we should be doing something.

Charles River Esplanade, Boston

You could compare your personality to a country. There are many diverse regions that make up who you are […] Some may be scarcely known at all: the unexplored areas of potential in which one could (given the opportunity) grow vegetables, learn Italian or dance the rumba…

We’re often so busy in the week that it becomes difficult to address a key consideration of our well-being: our happiness.

The words ‘Personal Development’ have become such colloquialisms that they might as well be as common as LOL. Motivational gurus, self proclaimed ‘personal development coaches’ and even YouTube bloggers love this term. They’ll throw at you an array of words, many so common that if you randomly picked up words like ‘Work Hard’, ‘Be Patient’, ‘Self Motivation’, you could certainly come up with most motivational YouTube video titles.

Yet, under all the noise, at the fundamental level, these things are trying to sell you one truth: Contentment with yourself.

Of course, we’re driven and in part consumed by an immediate desire to make money, to afford our living and buy ourselves the things we like. Yet, on a Sunday, when work takes the backseat for a change, our panicked minds are in the driver’s seat. It sometimes feels like we aren’t doing what we should in life. We’re worried that there isn’t enough time to do the things that we want with the rest of our lives. Our fears are true and justified.

We aren’t doing what we should with our lives not because we know better and aren’t acting on it. It’s because all of us are in some ways confused, perplexed and unsure about what it is that we really ought to be doing.

The Sunday evening feeling […] isn’t just that we have some sort of work to do that is dragging down our mood, but that we are going back to the wrong sort of work even while we are in dire ignorance of what the right sort of work might actually be.

Sunday is a chance to take our mind off our current tasks, mundane routines, and shift focus to our Higher Consciousness.

This state allows us to assess our position in the world, our victories and shortcomings, and where our deeds could have been done better. Our struggles become minuscule in the grander scheme of things, as we think about the people that once breathed and survived on this planet before us and how they carried their own desires, dreams, fears, and goals, the very same things that we fill our lives with. The fact becomes very real; our own lives begin to feel less precious, we think of how average our existence is put against the bulk of humans that ever existed.

With that said and in closing:

Go out. Read a book. Eat what you like. Pump iron. Don’t let Sunday thoughts just be Sunday thoughts. Explore and do new things, and let your discovery of self do justice to your talents and passions.