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Magical Mondays...We’ve all heard the songs that share lyrics about Mondays such as “Just Another Manic Monday”, and “Rainy Days and Mondays, Always get me Down”, to name just a few! The message is clear, Monday’s are Miserable, and many of us learned about this misery from our environment. Movies and T.V. rarely have anything good to say about Monday. But also as children, school started on Monday’s, and I bet all of us can remember at least one Monday morning we dreaded going back to school. Perhaps the school bully was waiting for us, or the stress of a project or test that we feared failing. Perhaps it was just leaving the comfort and freedom of the all special things that happen on a weekend, or perhaps we absorbed the unconscious messages by family and communities that Monday’s were in general, to be Dreaded, and in most part, due to jobs that were also Dreaded. It’s mostly an unconscious thing – western society has just decided, for the most part, that Monday’s are just not that great. In fact, for most of us, Monday’s range from the mundane to the extremely stressful! Most of us actually experience this ingrained sense of dread as soon as Sunday comes around, as the clock ticks down and the inevitability of Monday looms before us, and when Monday finally arrives, many people are already stressed out before the day has even begun, subconsciously influencing how we feel, perceive, even act and react. Next Sunday night, check in with your body and your feelings. Give yourself a ‘self-assessment’. Do you notice any butterflies in your stomach? Do you have any heavy feelings? Do you feel excited and happy about waking up on Monday morning, or are you feeling that low grade dread and anxiety? Now do the same thing Monday morning as your getting ready to work. If you’re feeling fabulous and excited about your day, you don’t need to read any further, but if you, like millions of others feel an underlying dread of Mondays, read on…. You might ask what’s the big deal about dreading Monday’s? Well, Monday’s happen to be a day in which heart attacks increase – some studies show Monday mornings are the most common time that heart attacks occur, other studies show a 20% increase on Mondays. Either way, we’re looking at a significant frightening change. Many of us are so used to feeling ‘icky’ about Monday’s (usually beginning on Sunday night) that we don’t even realize the negative state that our bodies go into as a response to stress and anxiety. It may be so ingrained that you’re not consciously aware of these bodily sensations, or feelings. What you need to know is that all physiological systems work in multidirectional
communication with all parts of our bodies, mind, and emotions. Change one,
and you change the whole configuration, like a kaleidoscope, a tiny turn
in the view, creates a totally different design. So changing your ‘view’ of
Mondays can change your respiratory response (directly connected to your
cardiopulmonary functioning), nervous system response, hormones, immune system
functioning and more. For instance, when you are ‘at ease’, your parasympathetic
nervous system will become dominant, while communicating with all your
other systems, often lowering your blood pressure, and your supporting cardiac
health. Think of your body as a chat room and
all systems are present, including your thoughts and your emotions. Your
heart beats in rhythm with your thoughts and feelings, conscious and unconscious,
based on the messages it is sent… So next time you find yourself singing
to the tune of ‘Rainy Days and Monday’s Always Get me Down.” You
might want to change the message, to one of ‘Magical Monday’s
Always Bring Me Good Things!” Yes, it does take some practice, at first
you might even feel silly saying to yourself ‘Monday’s are Magical
(or Miraculous, or Merry, etc., etc., *Cognitive Therapy is intimately connected to Mind-Body-Life, in that it is an approach that has us look at the relationship between thoughts, feelings, behaviors and our physiology. Unhealthy, distorted, and silent assumptions (whether being conscious or not,) can be restructured through ‘awareness’ of these thought/feeling patterns, which live in the body as physiological responses, and are acted out in behaviors. Becoming aware of our underlying patterns, patterns that cause stress, disharmony and dis’ease’, empower us to choose our response to them. Here’s some mind-body-life activities you can do to change these harmful
thought patterns and physically harmful responses into ‘healing’ experiences,
which not only have the power to change you, and your body, but also your
life. It is well known that when we change self-defeating, toxic thinking,
we change the way we experience life. This allows for better creativity and
problem solving, builds self-esteem, better relationships and opens the door
to the possibilities in our lives!!!
Small Ways to > BIG Change
If you’d like to hear Mayling talk about “Magic Mondays”,
go to: http://beyondtheordinary.net/mayling.shtml to
listen to a free, hour-long archive on this subject. Just scroll down her
guest page to her guest spot for Article 2007 written by Mayling, RN, HN-BC Board Certified Holistic Nurse,
Executive Director for Holistic Education & Program Development, Brightest
Blessings Creations, Network Leader for the American Holistic Nurses Association,
and President of The Center for Nursing Advocacy, Los Angeles Chapter. Permission
to use article is granted only with notification, and use of author name,
title, and reference to www.BrightestBlessingsCreations.com. For permission
email: Ask@BrightestBlessingsCreations.com
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But ask yourself if your heart is worth a little playful ‘silliness’ (playing
is also a very healthy activity for your heart). In fact, ask yourself if
your very ‘life’ is worth it. Then, after a while of *****, you
might find yourself not only ‘feeling’ better on Monday’s,
but also coping in a healthier way, and before you know it, because you’ve
now changed your view of, reaction to, and interaction with this negative
pattern, you might just find that Mondays are actually sprinkled with a little
Magic