Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Monday was the Gloomiest Day of the Year

According to Cliff Arnall.
From the Daily Mail (UK)

Psychologist Cliff Arnall, an expert in depression, has used a mathematical formula to pinpoint today as Blue Monday.

He says it is the day when six factors come together to leave us at our most miserable.

They are: the dank and gloomy weather; Christmas debt; a feeling of monotony after the Christmas cheer has faded; broken New Year's resolutions; low levels of motivation; and a desperate feeling that you need to take action to improve your drab existence.

To this I would add "short days" and "no break in sight." I talked to my oldest daughter and my nephew yesterday about how they were feeling -- and since it was a really gray day, they both were feeling blue. I always thought that January was awful. March is pretty bad, too, because you get so ready for Spring ... and you're ready and waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting... March takes forever to get by.

Today is nice and sunny, but some of the feelings are much the same. The kids are stressed from school and the ordinary stress in life. I'm working as hard as I can to "get ready" for whatever will come in June (moving? not moving? new church? no new appointment?). I'm still working on the decluttering of the house -- the "stuff reduction." My Amazon sales are OK, but I'm having to go back and put SKUs on all the boxes that don't have SKUs. I need to finish putting away the Christmas decorations and pull out all the eBay boxes. I want to finish cleaning the kitchen. I could go on and on. When I dwell on the amount of stuff that needs be done, it does become overwhelming at times, but that role model does not serve me well. The kids pick it up and does us no good. We had a nice pajama day already this week -- maybe it's time for a movie and pizza night... Hmm....

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