Monday Mindset

Timely Reminder #6 - Honor your body's rhythm, plus an encouragement to follow a side quest or two

May 11, 2026

Welcome to this week’s Monday Mindset.
I’m so glad you’re here.

Settle in for a quick reflection and deeper dives
from archived posts that support today’s theme.

Most Monday mornings are like a catapult back into the routine. They don’t exactly illicit a joyful energy. It’s not that I don’t like work—I do. But the expectation of jumping in to the the work week with full energy doesn’t always match the actual energy of my body, mind, or heart.

Without really thinking about the Monday routine, I scheduled a therapy appointment for 9:30 this morning. Instead of getting into work for a couple of hours and then creating a break around my appointment, I began my week by easing into it.

Before I left the house, I had an urge to throw in my watercolors and paper, feeling the need to paint at some point today. I figured I could stop at the lake on my way to my coworking space from therapy.

I don’t know about your daily energy fluctuations, but I am definitely more tender/open in the mornings. Having therapy in the morning meant that I was less in my head and more in my body. It meant jumping into some deep work quicker than usual.

Afterward, I had room in my schedule to take a bit of a side quest before clocking in.

I remembered my neighbor telling me a couple days ago that the tulips are in full bloom at Lakewood Cemetery, one of my favorite places to stroll and be. It reminds me of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, back home where I grew up. It is part park, part history center, part hushed reverence.

I stopped at Lunds for a danish and egg bites, and headed to my favorite park bench in the pond in the middle of the cemetery (after passing the tulips, of course).

Sitting there, with red-shouldered birds singing, the faint sound of airplanes overhead, and the calm quiet that this place brings, I felt more at rest in my body than I have in weeks.

I pulled out my watercolors and quickly sketched the landscape. I started filling in spots and marking landmarks I didn’t want to miss adding later.

I ignored my phone, and only looked at the time when I started packing up.

I left refreshed, and the ease followed me into this afternoon.

Today’s reminder is two-fold.

Honor your body’s rhythms. Make things a bit more easeful when you can (for me, that is a morning therapy session). Build in buffer time, too, when you’re able.

The other?

Take the side quest. Something in me knew, even before I left the house, that I needed to do something out of the ordinary before jumping into the routine—the expected.

By following that inkling, I created intentionality around the inspiration. And then I went with it.

You might not be able to take a morning off, but what about taking your lunch somewhere else than where you normally do? (Especially if that somewhere is your desk.)

During your most open time of day/night, pay attention to what you want to do. To what your body pulls you toward. Try to build a side quest around it.

When was the last time you allowed yourself to break your routine and follow the pull toward a side quest?