Weekend: how to fully relax in two short days

Whatever you do, the result is always the same: you go to work on Monday as tired and delayed as you were on Friday. If this is about you, Aboutmans.com gives you five tips on how to fine-tune your weekend.

1. Love your job

If you start dreaming about Friday night on Wednesday, it means there won’t be a good weekend,” says psychologist Shane Wayne from Sydney, Australia, and explains: “If you hate your job, your boss, every day of your week, you can’t immediately switch from this level of stress to joy and relaxation. These guys have the same scenario: tough drinking on a Friday night, a totally hangover-stricken Saturday, a dull Sunday at the mall.

What to do: If you can’t change jobs, at least change your attitude. How? Get over it, or find something good in it, or come up with new incentives. It’s not an easy task, but you set yourself up with it, right?

2. Don’t count on much

The bad news is that the dreams of total liberation must be forgotten. If during the week you work from morning to night as a Kuzbass miner in the slaughterhouse, you can stuff the fridge with food, visit your parents and dust off your favorite plasma only on weekends. Of course, you can ignore these cases, but then the list of unfulfilled obligations (including to yourself) will catch up with you in the form of guilt, like a parachute – landed paratrooper.

But even if you are a lonely rich man with a housekeeper and do not have a list of cares for the weekend, do not seriously expect that these two days will turn into a glowing whirlwind of pleasure. You’re not little anymore. “The higher the expectation bar on Friday, the greater the disappointment on Monday,” explains Anthony Grant, founder of the Department of Applied Psychology at the University of Sydney.

What to do: “Human happiness is somewhere between freedom and discipline,” said the great Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Think of the weekend as a time that will give you episodes of joy, not 48 hours of celebration. And if you’re busy with business, change your schedule a little: for example, do not fuss, move around the city with a relaxed walk and look around. And also: completely relieve yourself of at least one weekend per month.

3. Come up with rituals

Our ancestors didn’t worry about what to do this weekend. In the morning – to church, then family dinner, then talks at the samovar. And everyone was happy. Psychologists say that you can have a full rest at the weekend only in a familiar environment, getting the usual pleasures.

Make some good tradition: go to the museum with your friend on Saturdays, play football with friends on Sunday morning, receive guests on Friday night. “It’s also much easier to manage your time when there are key points in it,” adds psychologist Grant, who is already familiar to you. – And too many options are a powerful stress factor.

What to do: Even if you firmly know that the first half of Sunday you’re always busy with classes in a circle of aquarists, the rest of the time on the weekend, too, it would be nice to plan ahead. Otherwise you risk wasting your time on TV, social networks and other nonsense.

4. Look for contrasts

“I’m working a week, not at the weekend,” only your brain will tell the difference. What about your body? It’ll know it’s not a normal Tuesday if you take your hands and feet with something out of the ordinary.

You sit in front of your computer Monday through Friday, you run on the weekends. You stand by the machine or work as a loader at Ashan, swim. If you are a triathlete – well, after a week of training go to a lecture “How the human brain works” from the magazine “Popular Mechanics”. Sleep for your pleasure in a soft chair.

What to do: British physiologists say that after a sports weekend additional energy in your body will bubble until Wednesday inclusive. So what’s next? For example, on Wednesday night, go to the gym.

5. Look at people

Even if you’re tired of the squabbles at work, spending a weekend with your favorite dog is not a good idea. “A proven way to take a break from communicating with some people is to communicate with others,” says psychologist Shane Wayne.

Change the picture, hear new gossip, and at the same time, maybe you will learn that all your problems – kindergarten compared to the everyday life of your friend from the Pskov Airborne Division.

What to do: Communicate with positive companies, it’s the best stress relief. Data from neurophysiologists: When someone smiles at you, the so-called mirror neurons of your brain include a response.

How to get away. From work

You won’t get the most out of Saturday and Sunday until you learn to leave your work problems in the office. Australian work/life balance specialist (yes, there are some) David Hall knows how to do it.

1. Before you leave work on Friday, write down on a piece of paper the things you need to do first on Monday. Then on vacation, your subconscious will let you not scroll that list in your head all the time.

2. Set a boundary for yourself, after which the weekend begins. It can be the end of the working day, a pedestrian crossing on the way from work or the first glass of wine at home. When you get to this point, solemnly announce the beginning of the weekend for yourself.

3. On Friday, go to bed at the same time as on a weekday. After a work week, your brain needs rest, not loud music and ethanol poisoning. Otherwise, he won’t be able to guide you successfully this weekend.

4. Because of technology, work doesn’t leave office workers alone even on weekends. If on vacation you need to check your mail, do it once a day, not more often.