The ultimate Sunday Scaries: How to cope with the January return to work
Forget Blue Monday, the Sunday before going back to work after the Christmas break may be the scariest day of all. Here’s how to cope.
You know the feeling. It’s the end of the weekend, you’re feeling good, content even. Belly full from the warmth of a roast dinner, cheeks pinched pink from a stroll in the park. When, like a visit from some corporate underling of the Grim Reaper, harbinger of emails and dread, it comes.
The Sunday Scaries.
Indeed, in 2025, it seems the nation had a particularly bad case of pre-Monday dread, with Google searches for ‘Sunday Scaries’ up 84 per cent year-on-year as work-related anxiety flourished.
So, what to do today, on the ultimate Sunday Scary – the return to work after the Christmas break?
With the help of executive coaches, mindfulness experts and Morning Wire cynics, we’ve gathered five tips of varying helpfulness to help you battle the beast in 2026.
1. Shift your mindset
You’ve heard it before, but the brain really is a powerful thing, so shifting how you think about work can really help when it comes to getting rid of pre-office dread.
Executive coach Angela Cox says part of what causes the Sunday Scaries is the erosion of self esteem that comes from dividing ourselves between our work and home selves. “The pressure to fit in, please others and perform perfectly takes a cumulative toll, and time away from work often brings that into sharper focus,” she told Morning Wire.
To combat this, Cox suggests checking your ‘self-value baseline’ by writing down 100 things you genuinely like or value about yourself. Struggling? That may be telling. “The fewer you can write, the more likely your sense of worth depends on external validation, which makes work feel heavier and more threatening,” says Cox.
How to combat that? Hmm. Maybe make some up. Maybe do some affirmations (‘I do not hate my job. I do not hate my job’). Mindset shifts often depend on a healthy sense of self-deception, so just fill that list whatever it takes.
2. Treats!
Speaking of trickery: positive reinforcement. It works with your dog, now try it on yourself. Maybe it’s a Farmer J’s for lunch, maybe it’s a shot in your coffee, plan treats for Sundays and Mondays until your brain starts to recalibrate.
Cox encourages people to look for “glimmers” at work, moments of small joy that can remind us of the good of the grind. Mondays are duller than dishwater but only because we’ve made them so. Who says you can’t go out on a Monday night? Who says Mondays have to be miserable? In 2026, let’s Make Mondays Fun. If all goes well, it’ll be the Friday Scaries we have to worry about and I’ll write us a new article.
3. Reset your vagus nerve
You may not have known it, but resetting your vagus nerve is very in for 2026. Don’t know what your vagus nerve is? Sharpen up. The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve, running from your brain to your large intestine and, according to wellness gurus, could be the key to world peace. Stimulating the nerve can reduce stress, lower heart rate, improve digestion and bring an allround overwhelming sense of peace and calm to the subject, making it relevant when it comes to pre-work dread too.
As empowerment coach Sophie Jane Lee explains: “The Sunday Scaries aren’t a mindset issue, they’re a nervous system response to modern working life, which means we can’t just think our way out of them. By Sunday afternoon, the body is already anticipating the stress of the week ahead. This triggers a cortisol spike, which is why the dread feels physical: tight chest, racing thoughts, disrupted sleep.”
In other words, the list of 100 things you like about yourself may not actually be enough to drive away the Sunday Scaries completely, you must support your physical body too.
How exactly to do that? 100 more things, naturally. In terms of the vagus nerve, wellness expert advice ranges from singing to eye movements to cold water immersion – why not experiment? If nothing else, you’ll hopefully get so distracted that you’ll forget Monday’s coming.
4. Power pose
If your Sunday Scaries are rooted in a lack of self-assurance in the office, it’s time to take up more space, communication coach Dominic Colenso advises, and power poses are the perfect place to start. “Most professionals try to think their way into confidence. Actors do the opposite. We use the body to tell the brain that we’re safe and in control,” he says.
“Place both feet on the floor. Uncross your arms. Rest your hands on the table rather than hiding them in your lap. Lift your chest slightly and let your breath drop lower. These small shifts calm the nervous system.” Aha!
5. Gain some perspective
If mindfulness and cold water plunges aren’t quite your vibe, this may be more your speed. Why not watch a horror movie, or just the news. In the 9-5 bubble, it can be easy to lose perspective, but it’s good to remember that an office job is far from the worst thing on earth. If you want to see something really scary, maybe look at UK employment figures. That should chase the Sunday Scaries right away and leave you scribbling away in your gratitude journal in earnest: ‘I love my job! I love my job!’ Job done.
- Dominic Colenso is a communication coach and the author of Cut-Through: The pitch and presentation playbook
- Angela Cox is an executive coach and founder of the National Coaching Conference
- Sophie Jane Lee is a voice and visibility consultant and the author of Beyond Palatable: A Manifesto for Unapologetic Women