Why Do Sundays Cause Us So Much Anguish?
Sundays, without a doubt, are a marked day of the week for many people. A day destined to be feared by many for the emotions it generates. On the other hand, for others, the last day of the week is a day to recharge the batteries that have worn out and build their today, their present.
We usually meet many people who live with anguish on this day. A day that immerses us with its nostalgia and its truth. Somehow it is as if Sunday gave us an invisible reality slap. “Here I am, here is your freedom, here you are and your existence.” The end of a cycle, the week.
It is as if it shows us everything we avoid thinking about. As if opening that drawer that we strive to keep closed throughout the week. But, almost as if by magic, he always has a date with Sundays. An appointment in which this drawer is opened and uncovers part of what we do not want to feel.
On the other hand, Sunday is a paradoxical day because many times we feel enormously tired in it. We wonder how the hell we are going to start a new week with that feeling, which in our mind we only imagine growing. However, let us think that Sunday fatigue normally occurs because on weekends we alter our habits and therefore the body is a little “out of place”, in many cases due to resting too much or because of the drop in tension with respect to the week has been very strong.
After a week of occupation, Sunday emerges with its loneliness
Sunday tells us about our existence, without distractions or imposed blinds. This is your life, this is you. It is as if it undressed us and left us defenseless in the face of an uncertain future. We’ll take care of putting on our work clothes on Monday. Literal and figurative. We will distract ourselves from that anguish that appears on Sunday as soon as we start work.
In the occupation we find peace, we find meaning, direction and stability. We are something for something. We occupy a fertile place in the world. Our grain of sand helps build this society. A society full of people who fear the moment when their existence is naked. People who are paradoxically terrified of freedom.
Erich Fromm already pointed out this situation in his work “The fear of freedom” (1941). Where he stressed that curious paradox between wanting our freedom and in turn fearing it for the responsibility it entails. If I am free, then I am entirely responsible for my existence and my choices. This abyss in which I must build and invent myself generates atrocious anguish. Insecurity and restlessness.
Sometimes we do whatever it takes to avoid feeling the heartache of Sundays
It generates a void that is filled with anguish. An anguish that appears on that dreaded last day of the week called Sunday. Sunday is a kind of limbo between who we are in this society, our role as professionals, and what we are in the depths of our existence. It puts our most primal loneliness before us. Loneliness that we need to move away.
Sometimes we push her away looking for any kind of company. Everything is for not being alone. Because when we are alone, many times, anguish invades us. And in order not to suffer the effects of this hurricane, we will do what is in our power. Whether it’s sleeping all day, meeting people whose company doesn’t nurture us. Or just keep us distracted.
Many workaholics couldn’t bear the very thought of going a whole day off work. That day would mean coming face to face with their truth, with their existence, with their way of running away from themselves. Frantic activity fills us with life because it keeps us busy and makes us feel useful. But it also takes us away from who we are. It takes us away from our loneliness, from our restlessness.
Work distracts us from the depths of our being
Work helps us avoid this anguish, which is why it emerges with such violence on Sundays. What we cover so insistently will shoot out when we least expect it. That is why it is important to look at what is happening inside us with an honest look; otherwise we will be unable to take advantage of that crystalline reflection that we refuse to see.
It is logical that we feel this way many Sundays. The return from a trip, the day before our busy routine … That inner storm has a meaning and a sense. Sense that we must not ignore. It is important to live in this world as useful beings who pursue and believe in a sense, in a building material.
At the same time, it is important to attend to our nature as human beings. In order to understand all these natural reactions that emerge abruptly and / or repetitively. Listening, not denying, and welcoming our anguish will make it more bearable and, surely, more fertile.
