“Blue Monday”. I looked it up on the google engine. It’s actually just the term we can give to any Monday, where we feel depressed because the weekend is over and we’re back to work. However, back in 2005, some travel agent decided that the third – or second…or fourth?! – Monday of January was, according to their statistics, the most depressing day of the year. There was some very unscientific formula they used involving shitty Northern hemisphere weather, the level of debt everyone is in post-Christmas, time since the joy of Christmas has passed and the number of people who have let themselves down on their new year’s resolutions by now.
Now, as much as I fully agree with you, that this was clearly just thought up by said travel agency as a really handy way to pray on January blues and get people to spend more money and book more holidays with them, there’s some stuff I want to mull over with you…
You can control your own Blue Monday.
It’s funny how you can feel completely tip top, but then because the rest of the world is telling you this is supposed to be a shitty day and you’re supposed to be unhappy, you almost put a sad face on just to suit what everyone else wants. It’s like if you rock up to work and everyone is complaining it’s Monday, but you actually LIKE what you do; do you end up getting swept up in that anyway? I bet the answer quite often is yes.
So don’t think that just because some random says you should be super depressed today, that’s how you must feel. If you’ve spent time carefully curating a life that makes you feel great, then feel free to feel amazing every day!
You are ALLOWED to feel a bit crap.
On the flip side, there is a load of happy clappy crap over the internet today, about feeling “positive” and “optimistic” – heck, I wrote some top tips for a Blue Monday article myself! But the truth is, it’s completely inhuman to feel 100% all of the time. Some days, for whatever reason, you’re going to wake up and feel rubbish. You might be tired, stuff might be going on that makes you feel down, there might be stuff that’s just a bit tough right now. And that’s okay. And you need to take some time to acknowledge those feelings and actually sometimes, to just breathe them in. Then you can deal with them. And you’ll feel a bit better. Trying to fight it doesn’t actually get you anywhere.
But the important thing to note is, THIS IS TEMPORARY. Don’t resign yourself to feeling like just because one thing is falling a part or because there’s something outside of your control that is making you feel rubbish, that that’s how life is. You KNOW that’s not true. You need time to acknowledge your feelings but you also need to know when to countdown and get on with it. Remember that you can always make things better.
Pro-active steps.
What can you do to feel better if it is all feeling like a stale old balloon?
Well you know what I’m going to say: Quit the junk food and get some exercise. Sometimes you have just got to be disciplined with yourself and know when to say enough is enough. That’s where having that big goal comes in, you know, the one I always talk about, the one you set that had big emotions connected to it? Yeah, that one. Why? Because you can bet your bottom dollar that’s going to be easier to achieve if you look after yourself properly, by fuelling yourself right and keeping yourself healthy. So if you can channel the emotion you’ve connected to that goal, it suddenly gets a lot easier to tell yourself to crack on and remind yourself that health is ALWAYS the most important thing. So stop eating the junk food, get off your arse and get on with it.
And suddenly you can see that if you have gone through the goalsetting process properly, then it’s a lot easier to be prepared for these moments of doubt, than if you haven’t. Suddenly, it’s a lot easier to see through those horrible mizzly clouds and remember that this trough is just part of the pattern of ups and downs we see in life. You can’t have waves without troughs right?
And one final thought…
Nature. Nature doesn’t know the days of the week. It’s about survival. Eat or be eaten. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Monday or Friday, the real predators are out there being predators seven days a week. Remember that. Go out there and eat. Be more shark.