Guess what, today is not Wednesday…

Wake up sleep deprived.

Realize it’s Monday.

Feel grumpy.

Have coffee.

Drag yourself to work.

Complain about it being Monday.

Agree that it’s Monday’s fault when things don’t work out.

Wake up.

Realize it’s Friday.

Feel relieved.

Have coffee.

Go to work motivated.

Talk about your weekend plans.

Agree that Fridays are the best.

Go home a little earlier.

Feel happy. 

That is how the majority of people in this day and age go about their lives. Having an emotional reaction towards the days of the week creates distress and makes us dependent on an outside authority: the calendar. Freeing us from the identification with that age-old system can release tension, anxiety, distress and bring us closer to the fact that there is no past or future, only the current moment. 

I remember that when I was in high school, on Fridays I only had four hours of school and it only started at 9.30 – what a perfect day. Starting late and finishing early. I loved Fridays and even though I was never fully immersed in the concept of weekdays, I was looking forward to that day. Likewise, I hated those days with subjects and teachers I disliked. And even in school, everyone agreed that Monday was the bad guy of the weekdays. 

Of course we need calendars for a structured society and it is especially helpful to divide months into smaller sections like weeks and days. It just makes organizing events, appointments etc. so much easier. Funnily enough, we don’t usually have any feelings towards a certain month and not even towards a specific week of the month (i.e. week 3 of March). But when it comes to days, we tend to like certain days more than others. ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ is a claim that resonates with so many people, that there’s even a fast food chain with that very name. But do we not see how dangerous that is? 

By handing over authority to the calendar, our emotional body becomes dependent on a word that actually has nothing to do with the day itself. A few years ago I took a look at the past and realized this: no Monday has had anything to do with another Monday. No Friday has had anything to do with another Friday. Not even the times of sunrise and sunset were the same. It may sound like a trivial thing, but it isn’t. Realizing this helps us break free inwardly. Surely, the system these words are embedded in suggests that there is a common factor between each Monday, since it’s always the first day after the “weekend”. By submitting to that system however, we give this product of thought a power that it shouldn’t have: to move us (emotion literally has the word motion embedded in it). 

Now, can we wake up, realize what day of the week it is, and just use this as a guideline for appointments and structure, without giving it a special, emotional meaning? 

Of course we could simply come to the realization that we live our lives in a system we give too much power to, that it is destructive and creates conflict and therefore needs to be dismantled inwardly. For many people however, this isn’t as easy as it seems. In order to transition from theory to practice, consider these steps as a game plan to reclaim your days:

• Challenge the norm: instead of being pissed about it being a certain day of the week, try implementing themes or goals each day, unrelated to societal norms. This could be something like “Mindful Monday” “ Wildcard Wednesday” or “Family Friday”, where the focus is shifted from the day’s conventional stereotype to a personal value or goal. 

• Daily reflections: take a few minutes in the evening of each day to reflect on and write down what was special about your day. This practice encourages us to find something valuable each day and can help to shift our focus towards these valuable moments instead of focusing on what day it was. 

• Break up routines: you can try out a one-week challenge in which you mix up your weekly routine. For example you can try doing something that’s a typical “Saturday thing to do” on a Wednesday, if possible. This can help blur the lines between weekdays and weekends. 

Liberating ourselves from the prisons in the mind that we have been put into by education and societal norms can help us find meaning in life by broadening our perspective. No longer would the day of the week govern our emotions or dictate our potential for joy. Our usual routine of working Monday to Friday, a little bit of free time on the weekends just to return back to that rat race, dulls the mind, robs us of purpose and makes us blind to the fact that life is something entirely different. 

So if you find yourself bugged out by yet another Monday morning, pause for a moment, realize that there is no such thing as a Monday, feel the sense of relief and from there, you can move.