The Sunday Scaries and 3 Lessons on the Art of a Graceful Exit

There’s a specific quality to the light in late August. It hangs longer than it should, sways to the wind, heavy, cool, and golden. It’s in this light, often on a Sunday afternoon, that a familiar feeling starts to creep in. Sometimes it’s the all-too-common dread of Monday, or the longing for a longer stretch to the weekend. We call this feeling the Sunday Scaries, a catch-all for the dread of the approaching week. But right now, at the tail-end of summer, it feels like so much more.

It’s the grief for a season, for a freer version of ourselves. It’s the anxiety of trading bare feet for real shoes and sprawling days for packed schedules. But what if we try to look at this feeling in a different light? What if instead of dreading this looming end, we learn to embrace it and see it as a signal? A signal to practice the quiet, to reminisce, learn, and prepare for a graceful exit into a new chapter. 

That Familiar August Ache

For many of us, this feeling has been with us like that familiar childhood memory or imaginary friend. The end of August wasn’t just a date on the calendar; it was the smell of back-to-school in the air, the new school boxes, early bedtimes, new crayons, and the ringing of a school bell. Even now, as adults, these familiar memories have stayed with us.

That end-of-summer anxiety isn’t just about missing the warmth; it’s about mourning the person we got to be for the last couple of months. The post-vacation blues, the Sunday Scaries, they’re all related. They come from that jarring shift when you have to fold up the sunny, wide-open map of your time off and pull out the predictable grid of your daily life. The ache you feel is the ghost of your carefree Wednesday-self haunting the person you’re supposed to be on Monday morning.

An Exit Isn’t a Wall, It’s a Doorway

Remember your favorite book? The one that took you on a roller coaster ride, made you clutch your pearls, and wonder what the next chapter would bring. Just like how the end of your favorite book lingered in your mind and made you understand the entire story better, a graceful exit in life is a lot like that. It’s not about shutting a door and opening the next. It’s more about pausing in the doorway, taking that final look at where you are leaving, not with a heavy heart but one that is grateful for the fun times, and then stepping through to your next season.

Honestly, embracing change has less to do with looking forward and more to do with honoring what you’re leaving behind. It’s giving permission to feel the pang of sadness. The deeper the sadness, the more beautiful the memory it’s tied to. And when you look at it that way, you gain renewed strength and the dread starts to feel a lot more like reverence. 

A Few Gentle Ways to Walk Through

So, how do we actually do this? How do we handle the transition back to routine without feeling like we’re losing something? That’s simple! All we have to do is do small and intentional rituals that honor where we’ve been and where we’re going.

1. Actually Look at Your Photos

Don’t let the memories of summer sit forgotten on your phone. Take a real hour this Sunday. Scroll through your pictures and create a memory album. You can call it whatever you like, but make it memorable. After organizing your pictures, linger on them, remember how the sun felt that day or the cool feeling that glass of Pina Colada tasted like. This isn’t simply about clinging to the past but rather using the memories as fuel to drive you forward so you can prepare and experience such good vibes again.

2. Set a Small, Cozy Intention

The dread of routine comes from feeling like life is happening to you. So let’s take back the reins, just a little. Set a gentle, cozy intention for the autumn ahead. This isn’t some huge, New Year’s resolution kind of thing. It can be simple. Maybe you decide you’ll read a chapter of a book before bed, or you’ll perfect your chili recipe, or maybe you’ll just make a point to light a candle at your desk in the morning. Frame the new season as an opportunity for a quieter kind of joy.

3. Find the Sacred in Your Routine

Routines can often feel dull and painfully mundane. The trick is to start finding your “little pockets of happiness” in your own routine. Brew your cup of coffee like you’re celebrating new milestones. Listen to music that feeds your soul while you read emails. Take five minutes to look out the window to find new and interesting things, such as the changing leaves or how the trees sway. To gracefully exit a season, we have to be intentional about finding magic in the small, everyday moments of our lives. 

Every Sunset is a Promise

There has to be a sunset to see a sunrise. So, there has to be an end for there to be a beginning. The art of a graceful exit teaches us that every sunset, no matter how bittersweet, is also a promise of a sunrise. Good things that happen to us don’t just disappear but settle deep within us and become a part of the story we carry into our next season.

So tonight, when you feel the familiar Sunday scaries, take some time to breathe. Don’t fight the familiar pull, just let it linger and remind you that you have lived, felt, and laughed. Acknowledge the closing of a chapter, and trust that you have everything you need to begin the next one. 

What’s one beautiful memory you’re carrying with you from this season? Let’s fill the comments with a little bit of that summer light.