The third Monday in January is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year! Let me explain why it is actually the most exciting third Monday in January!

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“Blue is the colour of the sky
In the mornin’, when we rise
In the mornin’, when we rise
That’s the time, that’s the time
I love the best…” –
Colours by Donovan

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Stop the rot!

The fallacy that the third Monday in January is the most depressing day in the year; is simply a lie. Conjured up by depraved souls in the travel industry, to make you believe that by booking a package holiday in the upcoming summer; your struggles with the long cold dark nights of January will magically disappear! Yet you, I and common sense know that is complete nonsense! Any day of the year can be depressing for rightful reasons. Yet never ever let anyone or anything make you believe you are sad or wrong! Onwards and upwards; brave souls! Let us make the most of this Monday and everyday after that!

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Early to bed, early to rise; makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!

The day before ‘Blue Monday’ is Funday; I mean Sunday! Go for a walk in the fresh air with your nearest and dearest and just relax into nature. Turn off your phone and listen to the birds and the wind in the trees. Make and take a picnic and enjoy the taste off a fresh ham sandwich after you have grown hungry from a bracing walk in a northerly breeze.

Then get home and run a warm bubbly bath and appreciate just being warm and then clean! Put your feet up after a hearty dinner; have a beer or a glass of wine and maybe a dram to ease the muscles and mind. Yet do not stay up too late watching some depressing documentary or tragic serial of a serial killer! Head early to bed for maybe a chapter of a interesting book. Then turn off the lights and wish yourself a goodnight.

So when the alarm goes at some ungodly hour; you jump out of bed full of life and power! Save time and money later in the day; by eating a big breakfast before you leave the house. Queueing in a bakery or café to buy breakfast; is not only expensive and time consuming, but maybe stressful too as you try to choose and chew with strangers in full view! Skip to work or just drive; with a pack lunch that you made the night before and along with the right frame of mind, your day can only be kind!

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No work, no money or honey?

Have you lost your job or even worse; you are in a job you do not enjoy? Well make this the Monday you change everything! Tell your boss the truth; tell the customers they are not right; as a result you can tell the truth from here on and out!

You are out of money after spending all your hard earned cash on material things? The things that you were told would you make you happy by the made up girl on the advert? Well you cannot grow a straight row of potatoes with a overpriced car; you cannot keep warm in that thin silk shirt and you cannot clean the dirt whilst holding that overpriced phone in your hand.

No; today is the day you run, jump and fly away from the rat race way of thinking! People who think you are crazy are actually in awe; the friends by the whirlpool were just there for the fair weather and the you’ll soon meet the greatest person ever: the true you!

Unlucky in love; lonely, beaten, cheated on and left in the gutter? Or with someone who does not appreciate you? Well today is the day you leave them far behind in the shadows of your mind. Love yourself, appreciate yourself, respect yourself; you are the greatest! Do you think you are walking alone? You are not; surrounded by good thoughts and feelings, you are on top of the world! Appreciate your family and true friends; for they have stood by you through thick and thin!

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‘The sweet is never as sweet; without the sour’

There are rightful reasons to feel depressed and low. Bereavement, losing a lover or just too much stress from a unhealthy job. It is easy for me to write here; yet try to see everything in perspective. Remember the good times and remember they are with you in spirit. You cannot turn back the clock; yet try to show them you are making the most of the present day! What is more; grieve and learn about loss in your own sweet time. If friends become impatient with your sadness; then grieve alone until you feel happy again.

As for stress from work or man made things in the present moment? Simply leave them in the present moment and they will soon be the past.

If you find you are struggling and becoming stressed; it is best to simply focus on your breathing. Read my first blogs to perfect the technique: Breathe and Breathing techniques to relax

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‘Carpe diem’

So do not listen to the naysayers, doom mongers or saccharine social media. Make the most of this Monday and everyday. Enjoy it, use it and make the most of it! Learn, work hard, exercise and eat well. Fear nothing but fear itself; and you will climb any: ‘mountains of the mind’.

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