…and 3 ways to update them, especially if you are suffering from binge eating, drinking, overworking and overspending.
It’s Friday 5pm and you are ready to leave the office. Another workweek is over and a co-worker asks you about your weekend plans. Your answer has greater meaning than you might think…
What do you usually do during the weekends? Are you involved in exciting activities with friends? Are you working? Are you volunteering for a cause you believe in? Are you comfortably sitting on your couch in your pajamas, eating chips, binge-watching your favorite series on demand?
Research shows that 60% of Americans spend their weekends working. And I can’t help but wonder whether we came to this world to live to work or to work to live. In my search for answers I read Victor Frankl’s book the “A Man’s search for meaning” This book helped me realize how important the interpretation of our circumstances is, and how by choosing the meaning we give to life’s challenges and opportunities can be the difference that makes the difference to our well-being.
People have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but not the meaning.
Victor Frankl
What caused so many people to feel a void in their lives? Well, it’s easy to blame technology, right? To say that is rendering human beings more and more useless, less and less connected. But the truth for me is that we have become more mindless and less present. It’s time to realize that the void you feel in your life is your own thinking. Once you become aware and present you feel that life has a meaning for you, the void vanishes.
- Do you often find yourself bored?
- Are you looking forward to the weekend?
- Are you working during the weekend?
- Do you often find yourself feeling empty?
- Do you increase your screen time during the weekends?
- Do you often find yourself having a bad hangover during the weekend?
If you answered yes to one of the above questions, then your weekend habits might not be as innocent as you think.
‘Sunday neurosis’ is the term Dr Frankl uses to refer to the emptiness that many people feel at the end of the working week, when at last they have the time to realize just how empty and meaningless their life has become. To cover the feeling of emptiness, we try to compensate by binge eating, drinking, overworking and overspending. While these habits give us a relief from the uncomfortable feeling of emptiness, this relief is temporary and we have to repeat over and over again so that we can avoid it. In the long run what this does is to prevent us from taking action and finding meaning in our life.
Here are 3 ways to help gear you towards a life full of meaning and fulfillment.
• Dedicate at least one day into service. Regardless whether you like your job or not, spend some time doing something significant and giving something back to the world. Something that is important to you. You can do that by volunteering for a cause you believe in, you might want to do it through creativity and self-expression, or you might want to consider doing a small good deed without expecting anything in return. A smile, an honest compliment, a good word. The feeling of love and aliveness you will experience will be like no other.
• Care for another: In caring for another person, animal or plant we become more present with ourselves. The cherry on top is that we end up experiencing reality more authentically and we generate meaningful connections that lead us to feel more whole as human beings.
• Choose your response: It’s easy to be positive when all is well, but the real challenge is to be mindful and present, even during difficult times. When faced with a situation or circumstance that we cannot change, we always have the ability and responsibility, to choose how to respond. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel about what happens to you.
So…. how are you planning on spending this weekend?
Choose wisely grasshopper!
Chrisa T.S is a hypnotherapist who loves to guide and witness your transformation. Watch her Tedx Talk Here to get a huge dose of inspiration and mega amounts of confidence. Join her and find your true purpose in life. Start Here. Find her at her free Facebook Group Here