SAD sufferers take heart. We have a lot of company today! The Monday of the last full week in January is “Blue Monday” – a danged depressing day, even worse than the “January blahs.” According to Scottish psychologist Cliff Arnall, the causes are: dreary weather, left-over Christmas debt, the time since Christmas (that is, no reason for cheer), giving up on our New Year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action. For Jets and Vikings fans, our course, this year is worse than usual.
Blue Monday is serious, folks. Some companies actually hire counselors to help and there’s even a Blue Monday website! Most of these efforts are based in the UK where, I can attest from my years there, the much shorter days and the general winter gloom are pretty bad.
So, what can we do to fight this scourge, which certain affects many of us in northern latitudes?
Here are a few ideas. We’d love to hear yours!
1. Make a special effort to bring cheer to someone who seems down – maybe a loaf of banana bread or a phone call or an e-mail greeting card. Cheer is infectious, so you should benefit, too!
2. Hide. Get inside an engrossing book and stay there until today passes.
3. Listen to Fats Domino singing, Blue Monday – all but guaranteed to get your toes tapping!
4. Connect with your favorite child and plan the Storybook Quilt you’ll create together or make up a new story around one of our existing themes
5. And, for those of you who already have one, cuddle up under your Storybook Quilt with the child(ren) you love, read the story together, and enjoy the special closeness that creates. The only thing “blue” will be the colors in some of the fabrics in the quilt.
Tags: winter
