How to use Saturday affirmations
- Pick one or two over breakfast. Say them slowly, with nowhere to be.
- Plan the day around three simple things: one thing you’re looking forward to, some time outside, and some time with a person you like (or with yourself). Leave the rest loose.
- When guilt creeps in, about chores, emails or everything you “should” be doing, read a line from “Rest without guilt” and pick one small job to do slowly, then stop.
- If you work on Saturdays, use these lines on whichever day is your day off.
Why rest and time outside matter
Two lines of research back up the idea that a weekend works best when you actually take a break.
The first is about switching off. People who mentally detach from work during their time off tend to be more satisfied with their lives and show fewer signs of strain, and they aren’t any less engaged when they go back (Sonnentag, 2012). Resting on a Saturday isn’t slacking. It’s part of how you keep going.
The second is about nature. In a survey of nearly 20,000 people in England, those who spent at least two hours a week in nature were more likely to report good health and high well-being than those who spent no time there. It didn’t seem to matter whether those two hours came in one long visit or several short ones (White et al., 2019). It’s a survey, so it shows a link rather than proof, but a Saturday walk in a park is an easy way to get some of that time.
Saturday doesn’t have to be productive
There’s a pull to treat the weekend as a second working week: the laundry, the shopping, the overdue emails. Some of that has to happen. But if every Saturday is spent catching up, you start Monday already tired.
Try giving yourself a few hours on Saturday with no plan at all. If that feels hard, start smaller: one unplanned hour. Notice what you choose to do when nothing is required of you. That’s often a clue to what restores you. If you’re not sure, try one of these and notice how you feel afterward:
- a walk somewhere green, without headphones
- cooking something slowly, for the pleasure of it
- an hour with a book, a puzzle or a craft
- a long call or a coffee with a friend
- a nap, with no goal for the rest of the afternoon
For the end of the weekend, see Sunday affirmations. For lines about noticing what’s good, try gratitude affirmations.