Did you know that November 1st is “Give Up Your Shoulds Day”? Me neither! I actually just found out about it myself, but I’m thinking, “How did I not know about this day sooner?!” Here’s what I learned:
According to checkiday.com, “Give Up Your Shoulds Day is a day to give up thinking about something you “should” do. So often we spend so much time thinking about the things we “should” do—things such as exercising, eating healthier, making more money, being more organized—that we become overly stressed, and feel guilty and sad. We will feel better if we give up thinking about at least one thing we “should” do. Maybe if we do this today, we can do it on future days as well. The key is to get rid of the thought. For example, if we think we “should” go to the gym, maybe we still will go—or maybe we won’t—but the key is to get rid of the thought that is burdening us. No matter if you do something or not, getting rid of the thought in our mind that we should do it will ease our minds.”
Let’s be honest, you gotta wonder if the person who created this holiday did so after eating a ton of Halloween candy the night before and thinking, “I really should go on a diet and I really should go workout…oooorrrrrr….I could declare today a holiday and call it Give Up Your Shoulds Day…yeah!…I’ll go with that!”
Whatever led to the creation of Give Up Your Shoulds Day, I kind of like the idea of letting go of a stress for a day. You know what else I like the idea of? Having the clocks fall back an hour on Sunday morning so we get a whole extra hour of sleep! Yay for more sleep! I don’t love the idea of having it get dark so early in the evening now, but I’ve been fighting with a sinus cold for weeks now and I could really use that extra hour of sleep so I am going to embrace it and enjoy!
Between Give Up Your Shoulds Day and the end of Daylight Savings Time this weekend we are clearly meant to have ourselves a stress free, well-rested weekend. So remember to set your clocks back Saturday night when you go to bed and ENJOY!
~Amy Rees Anderson
