Monday 20th January 2020 …Blue Monday? Is this even a “thing”?
And if it is who came up with this day and why?
Is this just a deeply depressing reminder that Christmas is over, its Baltic and your Christmas spending credit card bills are about to arrive! Or is it that’s what’s been associated with to this day.
Well history tells us this date was proposed and published in a press release under the name of Cliff Arnall, at the time a tutor at the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Cardiff University.
Then Ben Goldacre, a Guardian columnist, reported that a press release was delivered pretty much pre-written to a number of academics by a PR agency, who then offered them money to put their names to it.
The Guardian later printed a statement from Cardiff University distancing themselves from Arnall: who had left the University the previous February.
A couple of years ago in 2018, Arnall said that it was “never his intention to make the day sound negative”, but rather “to inspire people to take action and make bold life decisions”. It was also reported that he was working with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays, to make it his mission to challenge some of the negative news associated with January and to debunk the melancholic mind-set of “Blue Monday”
Inspire people to act… to make bold decisions, this sounds like the content of dreams, of plans of goals, these sound like the areas to place your attention while nearing the end of the first month of the decade, a time when (hopefully) you are settled back in, all the chocolate and Gin has gone, the health and wellness routines are identified and getting established and life seems to be a bit more manageable.
Well if the vibe in my therapy room is anything to go by this is certainly what the whole of January has been about, never mind just this one day.
The start of a New Year can be an empowering time, should you choose to jump into the driving seat and take control of the decisions impacting your own life. It’s the easy route to sit and think “Oh I could never do that” or “ That will take too much time” because that’s exactly what your unconscious mind wants you to believe, it wants to keep you where you feel most comfortable and doesn’t want you to be exposed and vulnerable.
Well here’s a suggestion for you all, in the words of Henry Ford whether you can, or you can’t do something, you are right time. And you know what .. the time will pass anyway and you will be 6 months, a year, 5 years down the line and still be wondering “What if ..” while your unconscious mind will find any reason available for you NOT to do something, to not rock the boat and just keep plodding along.
So let’s make blue Monday 2020 the year you become your our own cheerleader, where you grab life by the scruff of the neck and get shit done! On stop and look back to remind of what you’ve achieved and overcame and the lessons you learnt on the way.
Always remember, the magic really is within you.
If you feel like you might need a float you can get them here
