The “Sunday Blues” are the dreadful feelings that emerge late in the weekend when your mind starts to turn to the beginning of a new work week. This weekly mini depression is the return of the performance anxiety we live with at school or on the job that is temporarily lifted over the weekend, holidays, or on vacation.  You could say the Sunday Blues are the opposite side of the coin from the welcome relief of TGIF.  

According to Psychology Today, Sunday nights are hard for lots of us. “For one thing, they stir up old feelings from schooldays – long after we leave the education system, our bodies and psyches bring up childhood fears about unfinished homework and tests we’re not prepared for. “. In this way, the Sunday Blues are a precursor to the “Monday Blahs.”

Recently, I’ve noticed my own experience with the Sunday Blues seem to be lifting.  I have less consciousness of them and when they do surface they have less of a grip on me.  With just 20 weeks left in my countdown to early retirement, most of the performance anxiety that comes with work & career are subsiding. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still been giving my job a full effort – even doing some extra things to leave things in a good place come next April 1st.  But at the same time, I’m doing it with less worry about what direction my career is taking for the long run.  That’s a relief.  

I’ve heard it said among recent retirees that they even experience the opposite of the Sunday Blues – a certain euphoria that their free time doesn’t end on Sunday night and that they also have the relief of the crowds around town heading back to the workplace.  I can see how they would enjoy less people in the stores, gym, restaurants, movies and other places that are jammed on the weekends. 

I am happy to be heading in that direction.  

It will be great to avoid the feeling in this cartoon:

Image Credits: Pixabay; iFunny.co