Start Your Week With Mindfulness Using These 13 Mindful Monday Ideas

Rise and shine, gorgeous: It’s Monday — the least-celebrated day of the week!

But Mondays needn’t be bummers. 

People who’ve adopted a “mindful Mondays” mindset look forward to the first day of the work week as a fresh start.

For them, every Monday is a New Year’s mulligan — a tabula rasa ripe with potential.

Instead of seeing Mondays as the day you jump back into the pit, shift your perspective and approach Mondays as a regenerative launch pad for your hopes, goals, and dreams.

What Are the Benefits of a Mindfulness Monday? 

Mindfulness, in and of itself, is excellent for the body, mind, and soul — from both spiritual and psycho-physiological standpoints.

As such, it stands to reason that committing to a mindfulness routine each Monday helps you reap all the potential rewards, including:

• Lowers blood pressure, improving cardiovascular health
• Less stress and stress hormones
• Better decision-making skills
• Increased emotional balance
• Enhanced life satisfaction

Moreover, committing to one day a week can help you build better patterns. After all, every habit expert suggests starting small and slow.

Mindful Mondays fit perfectly into that paradigm.

13 Ways To Practice a Mindful Monday

How can you add a little more mindfulness to your Mondays? Options abound. You can go big or stick to smaller conquests.

Whichever activities you choose, just make sure they fit into your schedule and lifestyle. The point isn’t to stress you out on Mondays; it’s to enhance your week and help you build healthier habits.

1. Make a Goal List for the Week

Some folks love making lists as much as terriers love digging holes. If you’re enthusiastically raising your hand right now, setting aside 20 to 30 minutes on Mondays to make a goal docket for the week is a great idea.

Break down your to-do list into micro objectives that you’ll be able to accomplish over the next seven days. The first several times you make a Monday target list, you’ll likely overshoot the mark.

After a few weeks, you’ll have a better handle on what you can fit into a week and adjust your aims accordingly.  

2. Take a Nature Walk

Weather permitting, setting aside time on Mondays to get outside and experience a bit of nature is a smart idea.

Communing with nature is a proven boon for physical and mental health. Like meditating, spending time outside offers many benefits, from improved cardiovascular health to less anxiety.

Plus, vitamin D, which we absorb from the sun, plays a massive role in our well-being.  

3. Recommit To Your Beauty Routine

If you’re like 67.9% of the population, regardless of gender, you have some sort of forgotten beauty routine.

Whether it involves using 16 lotions and potions or a simple all-purpose soap is neither here nor there. The point is that you always mean to do it but rarely succeed. 

So why not make beauty part of your Mindful Monday routine?

Doing so starts you off on the right foot, and even if you don’t keep up your face-washing ritual throughout the week, at least your face is pampered on Mondays, which boosts your mood and starts you on a positive note.

4. Make Your Bed

Making your bed is one of the easiest and most effective habits to develop if mindfulness or discipline is on your goal card. 

It’s a moment at the start of the day when you take the time to do something nice for your future self (because crawling into a made bed is a lot more satisfying than slipping into an unmade mess.)

Moreover, you can turn it into a meditation exercise, which boosts your mood and lowers stress.

Can you think of a better way to start your week?

5. Eat a Healthy Breakfast

Food is vital. Or, perhaps more accurately, nutrition is paramount. We function at higher levels when our bodies are fueled with the best gas. It’s not unfair to say that eating well makes you smarter.

But here’s the rub: a lot of healthy food tastes like dirt dipped in doo-doo. And let’s not even mention the consistency of so-called “salubrious” culinary offerings.

So if you find it difficult to choke down sustenance that’s good for you, at least give it a try on Mondays. Start slow. Add one healthy thing a month. Before you know it, half your diet will be decent.

6. Stretch Right Away

Another easy way to kick off a mindful Monday is stretching — it’s another one of those mood-elevating activities that people overlook.

Right now, get up and stretch up to the sky for 20 seconds, then bend down as far as you can for another 20 seconds.

If you don’t want to get up, lean toward your legs for 15 to 20 seconds with the goal of touching your feet. If you have a favorite stretch, do that.

That felt good, right?

Stretching feels terrific because it improves circulation, activates our parasympathetic nervous system, and releases feel-good endorphins. It’s like a bon-bon for the body.

Start Mondays with a revitalizing stretch that preps you for the week ahead. Plus, it’s a fantastic time to squeeze in some mindfulness. Think about your muscles as you lengthen them.

Feel the mood-boosting hormones coursing through your well-circulating blood. 

7. Show Gratitude for the New Week

Showing gratitude can be just as satisfying as receiving it — if not more. Begin each week with a statement of thanks. Try to change it up each Monday, and don’t forget the small things.

You can address your gratitude toward a deity or yet-discovered scientific principle.

The what and who are up to you; just do your best to stick to a routine. If you can only squeeze gratitude in on Mondays, that’s better than never.

8. Write a Letter to Your Saturday or Sunday Self

Have you ever heard of writing a letter to your future self? It’s a popular journaling technique, but we suggest turning it into a mindful Monday activity.

Instead of penning prose to yourself in 10 or 20 years, stick to the near future. Write a letter to the version of you living seven days in the future.

Read last week’s letter every Monday, and write another for the following week. 

9. Put Aside 15 Minutes for Journaling

If you’re interested in self-development, you’ve undoubtedly stumbled upon lots of advice about journaling and its benefits.

We agree that it’s one of the more helpful habits to develop, but we also get that finding time daily can be difficult.

So if you can’t commit to a daily journaling practice, try doing it once a week.

You may not get as much out of it as someone who spends 15 minutes a day recording and reflecting on their feelings. But once a week isn’t a waste. 

---

More Related Articles

Savor Every Day With These 137 Simple Pleasures In Life

Are You A Deep Thinker? 21 Signs That Suggest You Are

Anchor Yourself In The Present With These 21 Mindful Mantras

---

10. Refrain from Watching

Alcohol, drugs, gambling, and even sex are all well-documented, oft-discussed addictions.

Yet none are nearly as pervasive as “watching,” which is becoming an increasingly prevalent problem as working from home becomes the norm.

What’s it all about?

Basically, most of us are watching way too much TV, streaming shows, YouTube and Twitch channels, and movies. We say we’re using them as white noise, but all too often, the background becomes the foreground. 

And it’s wreaking havoc on our brains! Our attention spans are shrinking, our cognitive abilities are dwindling, and our ability to reason and think quickly is also eroding. 

So to help you avoid the corrosive nature of audio-visual addiction, demarcate Mondays as a no-watch day. Instead, use the time to implement other mindful Monday ideas.

Many people discover that they love living a life without constant AV intrusions and learn they reach their goals a lot faster without TV slowing them down. 

11. Try Yoga

Yoga is everywhere, and who knows, you may be the kind of person who doesn’t like to jump on bandwagons. We get it, but we also encourage you to reconsider your stance.

For starters, no rule says you must attend a yoga class. Many people stay solo when it comes to mat work, relying on videos, podcasts, and other guided session tools.  

Yoga stretches muscles you didn’t know you had and triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which aids relaxation.

12. Try Meditation and Mindfulness

In addition to yoga, incorporating meditation and mindfulness into your routine can improve mental and physical health. Practitioners enjoy:

• Less stress
• Better emotional control
• Increased cognitive function
• Calmer lives
• Less anxiety
• More self-esteem

13. Commit to 15 Project Minutes

For years — maybe decades — you’ve been threatening to start that side business, read 25 books in a year, or finally work your way up to running around the block without passing out. 

You haven’t given up, per se; you’ve just failed to get started.

Using mindful Mondays to jumpstart your stalled dream may help. Dedicate 15 minutes every Monday to your elusive goal.

Even if you spend just 15 minutes a week working toward your objectives, you’ll be further than you currently are.

More than that, you’ll be about 13 hours ahead of someone else with that same dream who did nothing all year. 

Final Thought

Mondays needn’t be miserable. Turn them into someone meaningful and fun by making it your day to be extra mindful. And hey, if you only manage it on Mondays, that’s better than no days.