Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning if you follow the link and make a purchase, Yummly makes a commission.

We've all been there: 5:30 on Sunday evening and you get that sudden feeling that something bad is about to happen. Worry. Dread. Terror. And then you realize that it's just the work week ahead that you're not quite prepared for. That feeling is known as the Sunday Scaries.

Some people numb the Sunday Scaries with bottomless mimosa brunches for a Sunday Funday, which, depending on how long your brunch lasts, just delays that inevitable feeling of dread. But now, many people are trading that kind of therapy for a yoga class and an acai smoothie bowl — the healing rituals of Self-Care Sunday.

Kicking Off Self-Care Sunday (After A Salty Saturday Night)

I don't mean to harsh your buzz, man, but that hangover from Saturday night's bender might be part of why you have the cloud of impending doom hanging over your head. But we're not here to judge you, we're here to help with a hangover remedy that could save you some pain after a night of heavy drinking.

There's this guy — Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall — who did extensive real-life research on how to cure a hangover. That means he did a lot of drinking (over the span of a decade in 35 countries). And then he wrote a book about it called Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for a Cure. According to Bishop-Stall, greasy food is not going to ease the jim-jams. However, he says cabbage can help ease the discomfort of hangover symptoms. It's not a cure, but it is at least a treatment — and there are a lot of tasty treatments that aren't accompanied by corned beef. In fact, some of these recipes are fermented foods, which are good for digestive health (but we'll to get to that later).

Road To Recovery

If you bowed out of Saturday swilling but you're still having trouble relaxing and enjoying your Sunday, there are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks that can help you loosen up and take your day of rest back.

Hot & Healing

Chamomile Studies show chamomile can reduce anxiety in some people. Chamomile contains the antioxidant apigen which may reduce anxiety. Typically, tea is how we take chamomile, but people have gotten creative with chamomile recipes.

Turmeric Turmeric is another holistic ingredient with healing properties. It contains curcumin which has been touted for its anti-anxiety effects. People are now playing with turmeric quite a bit in warm drinks — golden milk and recipes that use it are getting more and more popular.

Green Tea You've probably heard that green tea has properties linked to anxiety reduction as well as the stress hormone cortisol — there are both warm and cold drinks made with green tea.

Cool & Calming

If you prefer chilled drinks or you're looking for cool drinks for hot Sundays, there are many relaxing or restorative ingredients you can use to make a blissful blend for your Self-Care Sunday.

Cherry Juice If you need help with sleep, tart cherry juice contains both melatonin (the hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm) and tryptophan (the stuff in turkey that makes you sleepy).

Tulsi Tulsi or holy basil is native to the Indian subcontinent and is used as a stress-reducer in teas and other drinks. It's been shown to protect the body against both physical and metabolic stressors.

Ginseng Ginseng is one of the more common stress-reducing plants used in drinks. It's known as a potent antioxidant which may have anti-inflammatory effects.

Go With Your Gut

Kombucha

If you haven't jumped on the kombucha bandwagon yet, Self-Care Sunday might be the time to try it. Kombucha is fermented tea that has probiotics considered beneficial for gut health. The health effects of kombucha are something we neither promote nor discredit, but we can say for sure that it is a tasty, bubbly drink you can make at home, and that people swear by. For home brewing, it's pretty easy — making kombucha is almost as easy as brewing sun tea. All you need is cane sugar, black tea, and SCOBY.

SCOBY (not to be confused with our favorite 1970's canine detective) stands for "Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast." It's a weird floating mass that converts sugar and tea into kombucha. You can buy a SCOBY from a brewing supply store (I got mine from a store that specializes in fermented foods and canning) or you can get it on the internet. Because it's fermented, some alcohol is produced, but the alcohol content is so low that even if you drink it in large amounts, it won't give you a buzz.

Once you've brewed the base, you can flavor your kombucha however you want — ginger and apples, lemon and lavender, pomegranate and elderberry — the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. If you don't want to brew it yourself, you can buy kombucha by the bottle and mix mocktails for Self-Care Sunday. We have recipes for both brewing and mixing.

Kefir

Kefir is another probiotic drink you can brew at home — you can make water kefir or milk kefir. Similar to kombucha, you brew it using a SCOBY, only the SCOBY in kefir is grain-like. When it's steeped in milk, it feeds off the natural sugars during the fermentation process. For water kefir, you mix the SCOBY with sugar and water. Just like kombucha, both milk kefir and water kefir can be bought at stores if you don't want to make it at home.

No Brewing Required

If brewing or drinking kefir and kombucha is too new-agey for you, you can always get your probiotics in the form of yogurt drinks. Yogurt is commonly used in drinks around the world — both sweet and savory. The mango lassi is a sweet everyday beverage in India while in Turkey, they drink savory ayran. In Bangladesh, you might find a borhani, which is also a savory yogurt drink.

Sunday Sipping

Of course, any non-boozy beverage will have the health benefit of hydration; there are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks to sip for Self-Care Sunday; you can find hundreds of recipes right here on Yummly.