Marking the wild-hearted freedom of Friday fading into the looming responsibility of Monday, Sunday has earned its reputation as the most dreaded day of the weekend.
However, after years of association with the infamy of the “Sunday Scaries,” Sunday is re-branding with a fresher, more wholesome image – the “Sunday Reset.” A quick scroll through the #sundayreset tag on TikTok yields thousands of carefully-edited clips of freshly-laundered sheets, jade face rollers, and steaming mugs of hot lemon water. Aspirational aesthetics and conscious consumerism aside, the founding purpose of the “Sunday Reset” is simple, accessible, and important: devoting a day of rest to recover from the past week and to prepare for the next one.
And just like that, Sunday isn’t Saturday’s less-beloved sister – it’s an opportunity.
The Sunday Reset encompasses both physical and mental aspects of self-care, including “boring” tasks like getting enough rest and completing chores. Within this core goal, you can customize your Sunday Reset to your budget and your energy level. Whether you’re chucking your bedsheets in a coin Laundromat machine along with your unsorted clothes (like me) or spending coins on a The Laundress x Le Labo detergent, you’re working towards the physical and mental rejuvenation of a clean space and shorter to-do list. Likewise, I don’t always have the willpower to wash and dry my heavy duvet, but I can usually muster the energy to launder my towels.
Moreover, the Sunday Reset’s celebration of “boring” days of uneventful rest and solitude is especially unique and refreshing in today’s grind culture, which can elevate a lifestyle of endless, energetic hustling during the workweek and endless, extravagant partying on the weekends. For me, a healthy work-life balance doesn’t always necessarily mean “work hard, play hard.” If I’m “playing” so hard that it’s interfering with my health – like hangovers that make me lose an entire day to lying in bed and set me behind in my schoolwork – that’s not self-care, it’s self-sabotage. Sometimes my work-life balance looks like skipping a night out so I can sleep early. As much as I love spending time with my friends, sometimes nurturing my social life looks like setting my phone to Do Not Disturb and spending a quiet day in my own company so I don’t take my irritability out on my loved ones.
As I embrace the Sunday Reset’s advocacy for simple rest days, I also work to extend that philosophy of simplicity and intentionality to my buying habits. I’ve been training my mind to (quite literally) avoid “buying into” the capitalist co-opting of self-care.
As boring and unglamorous as it is, loving myself isn’t always “treating” myself to immediate gratification or splurging on material things. Whenever I’m tempted by the manufactured desires of marketing, I remind myself that this shiny bottle of “soothing” face serum isn’t going to bring me the peace its label promises when it has me reeling at my credit card statement or when it’s cluttering my dresser – and eventually cluttering a landfill. As much as I’d enjoy a spa day being pampered with professional services, the peace of mind knowing I’ve budgeted enough money for my needs and emergencies will probably bring me more long-term calm than a scalp massage with lavender essential oil. Some of the most important boundaries I set are with myself, including setting a budget and exercising the self-control to prioritize my long-term wellbeing over short-term pleasure. Though the Sunday Reset has a healthy purpose, it can quickly become distorted into an unhealthy pursuit of perfection if it is not balanced out with an emphasis on moderation and flexibility. Excess and restriction alike can warp the health of the Sunday Reset: the success of your reset isn’t measured by your excessive accumulation of lavish hygiene products or your restrictive adherence to a strict, picture-perfect diet and exercise regime. True self-care isn’t about the appearance, it’s about the effect.
And anyway, perfection isn’t the true goal of the Sunday Reset – “better” is.