Honoring the Sabbath

I never make plans for Sundays, if I can help it. 

I have violated my rule the past few weeks, but today I felt I needed to honor my Sabbath (biblical usage purely coincidental). 

On Sundays, I like to let my brain do whatever activity it wants, be it laying in a dark room in silence or reading articles or watching TED talks. These are things I hurriedly consume in the mornings before I start a hectic work day, but on Sunday I can quietly read and fully absorb the information without distractions or feeling rushed to move on to a new task.

Today I began learning about addiction from a neurological standpoint, from a free class offered on Coursera called "The Addicted Brain". It is FASCINATING!! Just this afternoon, I discovered how different drugs affect the neurotransmitters in our brains, and I finally came to understand why addiction is considered a disorder, and why often mental resilience is not enough to kick certain habits. 

As a terrifying aside, I learned that alcoholics have a smaller prefrontal cortex than schizophrenics - a commonly recognized and very serious mental disorder. I'm sharing because it was absolutely jarring, and my mouth literally dropped when I saw this graph in the lecture. You can read here for deeper info. (Credit to the instructor, Michael Kuhar Ph.D, for sharing this graph)

I spent some time on Pinterest, allowing my creativity to be sparked by the various work outfits that are there. Pinterest led me to an interesting blog post on the importance of morning routines, which then took me to a wonderful blog. There, I stumbled across a video that spoke to my SOUL as well as a number of other highly inspirational words. I very quickly subscribed to both blogs. 

I even took the time to file and clean up my now horribly bitten nails, as well as change the very old polish on my toes. 

I get to learn a lot about myself on Sundays. With no interference from work or friends, I am able to tap into my inner voice and truly hear what my body craves: a chance to read and write freely. Going back to basics and remembering what I used to pass my time doing as a child gives me energy and drive that I can share with others. I love it!!!

Anyone out there in the world have their own Sabbath? What do you do?