Blue Monday: How I Make a Difficult Winter Day Easier

Blue Monday is commonly described as the third Monday in January and the most depressing day of the year. The Mental Health Foundation explains that the claim has no scientific backing; it began as a campaign to sell holidays.

So if you wake up feeling perfectly fine, enjoy your Monday. There is no need to start looking for something wrong with it. And if you feel dreadful on a Thursday in February, you do not need a recognised occasion to take that seriously either.

Winter depression deserves attention in its own right. Seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression with a seasonal pattern. If low mood persists, affects everyday life or you think you may have it, speak to your GP. My own routine here is simply how I make an occasional difficult day easier.

On a day like this, I work from home and keep the number of meetings down. I am in my jogging bottoms, getting on with work in a way that feels more comfortable.

There is something very practical about looking at the diary and asking what really needs a conversation today. Some meetings need to happen. Others might have more flexibility. Where I have that choice, I use it.

You might choose a different adjustment. Perhaps you can take half a day of leave. Perhaps the useful change is getting outside for a walk during your lunch break, rather than spending the whole break indoors. Look for something that fits the day you actually have.

It does not need to become a grand plan for the rest of January. One useful decision about today is enough to begin with.

For me, comfort food is very likely to mean a stew. I love making Belgian beef stew with homemade chips: a proper, comforting meal and very much the sort of thing I want in winter.

That is a personal favourite, rather than an instruction to spend your evening cooking. Decide what sounds good and what you have the energy for. The meal can fit around you.

If you would like some ideas, there are winter recipes in Hollowpine, including potato and leek soup with mustard and mushroom goulash with soft polenta. Choose something you would genuinely look forward to eating.

I would rather give you a few places to browse than prescribe a supposedly perfect Blue Monday menu. You know whether tonight calls for a pot on the stove or something much simpler.

My choice is a feelgood film, watched from underneath a blanket. That sounds like a very good evening to me when the day has been a bit much.

For something to watch, open The Watching Room. It is where I keep my personal film and series recommendations, so you can choose something that suits the kind of evening you want.

You do not have to turn the evening into another exercise in improving yourself. You can eat your dinner, settle down and enjoy a film. I am quite happy to leave it there.

What I like about the attention around Blue Monday is the opportunity to ask how people are doing. I would be happy for that conversation to continue throughout the winter.

What I would leave behind is the suggestion that we should all expect to feel awful on cue, or need a special purchase to get through it.

My version is fairly ordinary: a more manageable working day, food I want to eat and a comfortable evening. I do not need Blue Monday to give me permission to make those choices. Neither do you.