You do not need a perfect week, you just need a prepared one. And that's what we are about to do. We're going to get you set and ready to have your next Sunday being something that you.
Look forward to.
I'm Raley Wukiah and on my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy and the beautiful, providing a space for raw and fielded conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn, connect and find comfort together.
Hey, everyone, welcome back to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry. How are you doing? How has your week been? How's your heart feeling? You know, if it is feeling a little bit heavy right now, just want you to know that this two shall pass is the two of my favorite lines that every time I'm feeling like my heart feels a bit heavy, is something remind myself of. I'm sure if you've listened to my podcast before, probably said it a million times, but there's two phrases
and it really helps me. It's this too shall pass and that you absolutely, most definitely, without a doubt, can make it through whatever it is. Nothing that you cannot handle comes into your life, and I just want you to know that you would never receive something that you are not capable or able to handle. So I just want to remind you of that, just in case you know your heart was feeling a little bit heavy today
or this week. Just know you've got it. You know what if you don't, that's what this podcast is for. Hopefully it'll make you feel a little bit better. So today I wanted to talk about something that has genuinely changed the way that I show up in my week. I actually got a few messages when I asked the really good crowd community, what do you want me to do solo episodes on? I had messages asking about how to make your week better, how to have a weekend
that helps you prepare for your week ahead. So I thought, I do an episode based on this Sunday reset. I do it in my life, and honestly, it has changed the way that I show up during the week. It changed the way that I feel on a Sunday. You know, we really used to feeling dreadful on a Sunday, like, oh my gosh, the week's starting. I've got so much
ahead of me, work, starting, school starting. It's like from such a young age we've been trained to dread a Sunday because we know the next day is a Monday where we have to go back to doing things that we don't necessarily like. But I don't think it has to be that way, And I think the more prepared you feel, the better you will feel about your week ahead.
So a good old Sunday resea really helps me to go into a new week feeling much more prepared, less overwhelmed, and less like I'm rushing or chasing after myself, and just more on top of things. I think that's how we all want to feel going into a new week, right. A Sunday resear is not about being perfect or rigid. It's not about trying to do too much in one day. It's about giving yourself this gift of starting the week at feeling one hundred percent instead of crawling in at
a fifty percent. Think of it like charging your battray. If you go into Monday half drained, the whole week is going to take you to zero really fast. But if you spend even just a couple of hours of your Sunday recharging your body, your mind, and your space on Sunday, you will walk into the week with energy clarity and more confidence.
A Sunday reset routine is.
Also a chance for you to leave behind the things that are not serving you in this past week, even in the past month, thinking about what it is that you don't want to take into the next week with you, and to step into the new week with a clean perspective, a cleaner space, a cleaner body, and a cleaner mind. You definitely don't need an entire day to do this. You can use your whole day for it. I sometimes do,
but you definitely don't need it. Even just two to four hours is plenty, depending on what it is you want to focus on. I really like to choose one thing from each area of my life, and these areas may be different for you too, But for me, it's something for my mind, something for my body, something for my heart or spirit, and something for my external space.
And if I have a little bit extra energy or time, and if you do, then something for somebody else, and then sprinkling in just a little bit of planning for the week ahead. So a little bit for your mind, body, heart, your external space, and some time and energy spent for somebody else, thinking about somebody else, helping somebody else, and then a little bit of planning for the week.
So those are the main areas I focus on now.
I just want to say, you know, I mentioned earlier that Sunday we end up dreading it. So the first day we have to do before we even think about how we're going to reset on a Sunday. Is changing our mindset around a Sunday. It's reframing our mind resetting what a Sunday means to us. Sunday is not the end of your week. It is the launch pad for
your next one. And so instead of dreading it, think of it as your rest and recuperation day, the day that you get to prepare to make the rest of your week way easier, the day that you get to decide what mindset you want for the rest of the week, how you want to move into the next week, and
how are you going to make it better. And so actually, your Sunday, you can shift your mind to think of it as a launch pad, the place of opportunity, the place you get to change your perspective, the place that you get to decide how you go into the week. And the fact is our mood is ninety nine percent of the time a choice. How we choose to move through the week is also a choice. How we choose to let other things around us impact us is also,
unfortunately on us, and a choice. I know, it's really annoying because it's so much easier to blame other people, and usually it's a bit more fun to sit in that too, because then we'd have to take the blame for ourselves. But the fact is it is on us. Preparation is on us, perspective is on us. And what's another P I can add into this, planning is on us. Okay, So those three piece are things that we can change just by having a few more hours on a Sunday to focus on them. So you do not need a
perfect week, you just need a prepared one. And that's what we are about to do. We're going to get you set and ready to have your next Sunday being something that you look forward. And you know, I think a lot of us spend our Sunday almost in denial that Monday is coming. It's like a day of avoidance.
So we scroll or we numb ourselves, and we end up doing things that don't actually replenish us for the week, but diminish us and take away from us and drain our energy, and so we don't end up coming into the week feeling our best. And so I've learnt from my past habits that that was not serving me well, and that is why I created this Sunday reset schedule for myself, And honestly can't say I've regretted it. Not one Sunday, not one Sunday have I regretted it. It's
been very, very useful. Now you can do these in whatever order feels right to you on that Sunday, and you can kind of mix it about if you want to, depending on how you're feeling. But first of all, I usually start with my heart at the beginning of Sunday morning. The first thing I really feel like connecting to is my heart my spirit, So that can be different on different days. Sometimes I'll spend just a little bit longer in my meditation, maybe I'll do a little bit exit
breath work. Maybe I'll go outside and spend my meditation in nature. Maybe I'll catch up on some of my spiritual reading and nourish myself in that way. Honestly, it's just having these sacred moments to yourself and creating an open space for reflection.
And that might just be sitting in silence. It might be.
Journaling and pouring out your heart and your thoughts. It might be releasing emotion like crying and or feeling angry, or feeling really happy, whatever emotion is, you have to release just some allocated time to really dig into that heart space and to take out what feels stagnant and old and unnecessary and invite in what is needed for
this following week. I think about it in this way like the world will not know, the universe will not know, God will not know what to send you or send our way if we do not know.
And so it's.
Also a chance and an opportunity to think, what is it that I want right now in my life?
What is it that I.
Want this following week? What are the emotions I want to feel? What are the intentions that I want to set? What are the things I want to grow in? What areas of my life do I want to improve on. We don't really get to think about those things unless we set allocated time for us to reflect on those things.
And so here are some ideas or kind of questions that you can ask yourself on the Sunday or throughout the week to really help you to set the tone and understand what it is that you want from this following week.
So the first one is what am I proud of from last week? Something simple?
What am I proud of from last week that I want to bring into this next week? Where did I waste the most amount of energy and time? What are the three things that matter most this week? How do I want to feel by Friday? And what can I prap today that will make this week easier? Those are just some questions you could ask yourself. There are so many more journal prompts that I'm sure you have if you have a journal that you're working in, but those are some nice ones to really help set the tone
for your future week that's coming. It's basically like a gift that you're giving to your future self. And as we have to think about everything that I'm doing right now on this Sunday is preparation that it's a gift that I'm giving to my future self to make her life a little bit easier. So after I've figured, after I've worked on my heart space, doing a little bit of crying, connecting me with my heart and my emotions, I then move on to caring for my body. Depending
on how I'm feeling, that could be very different. It could be some sort of movement. If i feel like I've got a lot of energy to expend or release emotion, maybe I'll do something intense. If I feel like my energy is drained or I need something a little bit gentler, something more restorative, I'll go for a walk.
Maybe I'll get a massage.
Maybe it's just spending a little bit of extra time in the shower with my eucalyptus essential oil washing my hair.
You know.
Usually I'm rushing in and out of the shower and so on the weekend, I spend a little bit longer, and that feels like a gift back to my physical body.
Maybe I'll do a little scrub in the shower. Maybe I'll shave my legs, you.
Know, just deciding on the things that you feel like you need to feel a little bit better walking into the next week physically.
Usually I like to do.
Something where I get outside, so a nice hike or walk, you know, just time to bring in fresh air into my body, fresh air, a fresh week, and a fresh perspective. I always find getting outside makes me feel so much better, and nature gives you a new perspective on life.
It really does.
There's never been a time where I've gone for a walk when I felt a bit funky that it hasn't made me feel so much better. Nature heals in such subtle ways that we do not even realize, whether it's seeing the sun or looking into the distance. It says even being able to look into the distance, not only its good for your eyesight, but it also gives you this subtle feeling of perspective. It helps you to feel like you belong in this world. You look around and
you think, wow, nature is so beautiful. There's so many incredible things that are around me that I haven't noticed in this last week. And so it also helps you to create gratitude and appreciation. I only I find when I'm lacking gratitude going outside and noticing everything that's around me, whether it is the way that the sun is rising, whether it's the way leaves are blowing, whether it's a
beautiful new flower that's in season. All those little things that you probably would have noticed in a busy week, When you get to notice it in the weekend, it kind of sets this tone of gratitude and appreciation that you can take with you. So definitely get yourself outside, even if it's pouring down with rain. There's this feeling of like feeling that rain pouring onto you, feeling the water,
feeling just nature embracing you in some way. And I find whether it's wind or sunshine or whatever climate is occurring around you, it can help you to feel connected and kind of embraced by nature anyway. I feel that way anyway, So I hope you do too, or at least try it out and see how you feel. Another great thing to do for your physical body is to have a reset of your sleep, a sarcadian rhythm reset.
Getting into bed earlier on Sunday, even just that one day, Oh my gosh, a couple of hours more of good sleep can completely change how you wake up on a Monday morning. And so maybe it's planning one day so that you can get into bed a little bit earlier. Another really important thing that you need to do for you a physical body, which I think we get is hydrating yourself. Yeah it's so simple, but there's nothing worse and waking up on a Monday morning with a really
bad headache and suffering from dehydration. It's going to make it feel way less enthusiastic about your Monday morning.
And it's not going to set you up for the day, is it.
And so even if she's drinking a huge glass of water or making sure that your big bottom is filled up at the beginning of a Sunday and you make it through.
It by the end of Sunday, you're winning.
Cut yourself some nice cucumber or citrus slices, pop it into your picture of water, make it look pretty. I've actually been taking electrolytes lately for a top up because for some reason, every time the climate is a bit drier outside, it really affects my internal body.
It feels like the hydration is being sucked out of me.
So I've been taking some electrolytes to top up on a daily basis, and I've been using Terror Origins. They've got this healthy hydration electrolyte powder. I like the berry and lemonade flavor. They're my favorite at the moment. But it also just makes your water a little bit more exciting and gives you all the electrolytes that your body needs. You know, sometimes when I get a head, as soon
as I take electrolytes. It helps since it's not even just the hydration, it is the electrolytes that are helping boost my mind and giving me more focus and giving my brain exactly what it needs to feel like it can function properly. And so I've noticed it really helps me on a day to day basis to just feed a lot better in my body. And obviously the hydration and extra water will never be something that is bad for you.
We're made up of, what is it like, eighty percent water, so we really need it. We really need to keep hydrated.
Next up comes the manual labor part of things, spending some time on your external space. I usually pick a space in my home that needs reorganizing, decluttering, or clearing up. It could be your whole house if that's what you need to do in the day, but it could just be your desk or your fridge. Usually I end up in the kitchen reorganizing my spice straw or clearing out my fridge. I like things done in a specific way, so I usually get in there and reorganize that because
I love opening a fridge that is organized. It could even be digital clutter, like sifting through emails, if I told you how many emails I have unread, I'm going to tell you just because oh, right now it's fifty two, seven hundred and twelve. I don't know how many weekends I would need to help clear that out. Maybe I need an app for it or something. But anyway, you know, sifting through that so you don't see it, your text, your WhatsApp messages, anything unread feels unfinished. So maybe sifting
through that that could be great. And actually, if I think about it, whenever I've been anxious about something or find myself too in my head without realizing, I seem to find ways to organize something, I'll end up in the kitchen. I'll end up clearing out my cupboard. There's something about it that feels really comforting and helps to clear my head. While I'm clearing things externally or helping to reorganize things on the outside, helps my mind feel
organized on the inside. There's something just calm and cleansing about the whole process. I read this statistic that the average person spends two years of their life looking for lost items. So actually resetting your space literally gives you back time. Resetting your office space, maybe where you where you spend the most amount of time. Why do we want always two years of our life just looking for things when we could just organize our space and get
those two years back. Next up, let's talk about how we can fuel our mind, nourish our mind. It could be a simple declutter of your thoughts brain dump journaling where you literally write down every single thing that's in your mind ever to do, list, every worry, every idea swirling around in your head that's creating chaos and not letting you focus in the present moment, and then you can sort it into different things.
This is useless.
I don't need this in my head, but this is what I need to schedule, This is what I need to do, This is what I need to drop off. It helps a clear mental clutter. I always say the brain is not meant to hold things or information. Is spent to help process information, and so why keeping your head what you can write down and what you can take out of it to allow more in I like to spend a little bit of time learning, you know, It's made such a difference in my life since I
started reading. I think I've mentioned this before, but I started reading again after a really long dry spell, and Wow, what a difference in made to my life. Whether it's reading just a chapter of a book, or listening to a podcast or watching a documentary that stimulates thinking. It helps to feed your mind with new thoughts, give you different perspectives. But also it makes me feel more intelligent, and not just intelligent in a oh I know so much, but in a way where it makes me more of
an interesting person. I more to communicate with people, I have more ideas, I have more interesting facts to tell people. And it sounds really random, maybe to you guys me saying that, but I went through a phrase and I was like, I'm bored with my conversations, and I realized it wasn't the other people, it was me. I was not investing into myself, into my own knowledge, into the wisdom that I was accumulating.
And when you're not learning, you're just stagnant.
When you're not learning, you don't have new things that you can think about that inspire you. I noticed when I started reading and listening more, it has inspired so much of even the podcast I'm able to record, or when I'm having those conversations with people, even guest episodes, gives me so much more contribution that I can have in the conversation just by reading a few pages every day or reading a chapter of a book on Sunday. So I really recommend doing that because I think it
helps with boredom. I think it helps with communication with other people and gives you just more ideas, more creativity, more inspiration for your day. Next up, we are planning our week out. But you know what, there's obviously the standard planning, like I need to take my children here, or the regular scheduling. That's one thing, and then it's trying to plan the things that you keep wanting to do in your week but never get around to do. Like if you've been wanting to eat better, but you
haven't been able to meal prep. So finding the things that you've be wanting to do that makes those things easier to actually accomplish in the week, or makes it
easier to stick to them in the week. So, whether it's planning out your meals, if it is to do with eating better, maybe it's planning out your meals you want to cook and then making sure you can do the shopping for it, or you get a delivery of all the food that you need so that you have all the ingredients to avoid you getting to that moment where you're saying, oh, but I don't even have this,
so I can't cook it. And instead of cooking full meals, you could just prep or do the building blocks of it. That's often what I do, because I don't like necessarily cooking the full meals on a Sunday.
But what I do like doing is doing meal prep.
So I'll chop up all my veggies, or I'll air fry some of my tofu in different ways, or make my dressings or my sauces all in one day so that I don't have to think about that part. Okay, great, then I can just throw it on top of my salad. But if I have to then make the dressing and the salad, you know, it feels a little bit longer.
So it's something that is so simple but so useful.
You will really thank yourself when you're getting to the end of the week and you've just got that dressing and then you've got some leaves that are ready that you bought on the weekend, and then all you have to do is drizzle the dressing onto your salad and
you're good to go. And also if you are planning out your whole week, make sure you start with all your non negotiable so things that you can't change, and then the things that you don't want to change, whether it's your workout, your meals, your meditation in the morning, and don't just plan your time, plan out your energy and start asking yourself, am I when am I the most productive, the most creative, or the most social and align that with the important things that are required in
those moments. So I know that I am most energetic and I have the most focused in the morning, So I try and get all the work that requires my mental focus and attention or thinking in the morning, and then try and do more creative things in the afternoon.
Also, get your supplements readay.
If you are someone who takes supplements, you know those boxes, those weekly supplement boxes that take you from Monday to Sunday. Makes you fill them up, simple thing, But you're not going to want to untwist all those bottles in the morning.
You're going to rush out the door and then you're going to forget to take them.
So at least then you'll have a really easy tick on your to do list where you've taken your supplements, and it was really easy to do it. Another thing that people don't realize takes so much time is picking out outfits in the morning. Gosh, it takes so much time, especially if you don't have a uniform, which most of us don't when we're working. Pick out your outfits, or at least a couple of them, so you don't have to think about it. You just get to wake up
in the morning and have one thing to worry about. Also, there's something too wanting to feel good in what you're wearing, and if you're rushing and trying to pick things out last minute, not only is it stressful, but you also may leave and feel like you regret what you've put on, and then it kind of ruins the rest of your day. And so when you get to plan this, you already know I'm going to look really cute because I've already decided what I'm wearing and I know I feel good
in it. Also, one thing I've realized from doing these Sunday resets is that when you are already in planning mode and your whole mind is in one place, which is I'm getting things prepared or I'm planning things out, you get things done way quicker than when you're switching your mind between things in the morning. It's like, Okay, I need to prep this now, I need to plan this, now, I need to leave for this, now, I need to
try this on. If your mind is focused on prepping for the week, you get things done so much faster. So I've noticed that makes the difference in saving time during the week as well. I actually read somewhere that we make about thirty five thousand decisions a day. Can you imagine thirty five thousand micro and macro decisions every day?
Just reading that number makes me feel tired. So if you don't prep your basics on Sunday, like meals, outfits, priorities, you waste so much energy on these tiny choices Monday to Friday instead of saving that brain powerful what actually matters in the day. And then if you can and have the capacity to do so, then check in with friends and family. Find moments of connection that can really refuel you in ways that nothing else can. A moment
of meaningful connection with someone. Jane and I often use our Sundays to catch up and do wellness things together. We'll go for a cold plunge, go for sauna together and have a chat about our week that's ahead.
Those little moments make a really big difference.
You know, you could send a text or a voice note to someone that you love that you've been thinking about. There are so many people that end up being on my list of oh, I need to message them back, or I need to message them and see how they're doing. So having an allocated time to do that is really useful to help them feel loved, but also for you to think about someone other than yourself. So really, those are the main categories or the main things that I
would do on a Sunday. Now let's talk about the things that you could do wrong, okay, because I don't want you to have all of this and then feel like you made mistakes. These are mistakes I made. Overplanning is one of the big ones. If you make your Sunday reset this giant, rigid thing, you will end up rebelling by Wednesday, like overpacking your week or overpacking what you're trying to do on a Sunday. You're not trying to exhaust yourself on a Sunday. You're trying to replenish yourself.
And that's what you have to remember. But also another mistake I used to make is having a Sunday is like this cheat throwaway day, just indulging, skipping preparation, and then waking up really frazzled on a Monday. The point of this routine isn't to punish you. It is to set yourself up with compassion and intention, to actually show yourself some love for this week, to actually give you
the gift of preparation. And so give yourself the gift of a couple of hours this Sunday recharge your battery back up to one hundred percent. And you know you may have to adapt it as you go along. You may not realize what recharges you and what actually takes away your energy. And so maybe through this process also learn that that, oh, when I did this on a Sunday actually made me feel so much better, But when I did this other thing, it was a no no
for me. Sometimes I think I need to socially be around people, but actually it's a lone time that helps me to recharge, and so socializing on weekends actually drains me quite a bit. And remember, the more consistent you are with this, the easier it will become. Eventually, this Sunday reset stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling like a ritual one that really sets the tone for everything that follows in the week.
So you've so got this.
I'm so excited for you to have your beautiful Sunday Reset day, and I really hope that this helped you to be excited about it, to think about what you want to do on your Sunday, and I hope it helps you go into your week feeling so much better than you have been recently, and that your week is filled with a lot more that you want rather than the things that you feel like you have to do.
Sending you so much love for this week. Let me know if you try this reset, what your routine looks like and how it changes the way that you feel by Friday's Sending you so much love and I have a wonderful, wonderul week.