This year, Monday, 19th January is officially pronounced to be the “most depressing day of the
year,” according to psychological research. Dr. Cliff Arnall's, who specializes in seasonal
disorders at the University of Cardiff, Wales, created a formula that takes into account
numerous feelings to devise peoples' lowest point.
Arnall found that, while days technically get longer after Dec. 21, cyclonic weather systems
take hold in January, bringing low, dark clouds to Britain. Meanwhile, the majority of people
break their healthy resolutions six to seven days into the New Year, and even the hangers-on
have fallen off the wagon, torn off the nicotine patches and eaten the fridge empty by the
third week. Any residual dregs of holiday cheer and family fun have finally kicked the bucket by
the beginning of the third week in January. This year with the gloomy economic climate, it is
likely to be more depressing than ever.
How can psychology help to beat the blues?
Happiness and psychological well being are now serious areas of psychological research.
Positive emotions have been linked to increased well being and engagement at work, and
engagement at work linked to profitability, productivity, turnover, and customer satisfaction.
There are a number of techniques and exercises which can be used to promote optimism and
life satisfaction. Many work by encouraging us to break our habitual negative thinking patterns
and concentrate on the positive.
Most people spend more time focused on what has, or will, go wrong, than they do thinking
about what has gone right for them. We remember failures and things we have not been able
to complete more easily than we remember success (this is called the Zeigarnick effect). I bet
you can remember the last rude/mean/nasty thing that was said to you more easily than you
can remember your last compliment!
Critically it is this thinking style can minimize life satisfaction and increase anxiety and
depression. By challenging this thinking style, we can reverse the trend!
Exercise to beat the January blues
As many of us have heard from our parent we should ‘count our blessings’ this exercise helps
us do just that. Martin Seligman and others have devised and used a simple technique to
address this, called the three blessings exercise.
Step one
Every night before you go to bed, write down three positive events from your day. These can
be things that went well, nice things that happened to you, or just things that you felt good
about. They can either be small and run of the mill – "my boyfriend put the heating so that it
was warm when I woke up", or more important – "my mum’s cancer scare turned out to be a
false alarm."
Step two
For each positive event, think about why it happened. For example, did your boyfriend turn the
heating on because he really loves you and wants to make sure you are comfortable, or did he
do it because you reminded him that you would be getting up later than usual?
Step three
Once you have your list, chose one positive event you would like to dream about. Research
shows that positive dreams increase life satisfaction and consolidate the memories of good
events, so it is worth the effort to try to influence your dream content.
Doing the following will increase your chances of having a positive dream:
- Give the positive event a name (e.g., “my healthy mum”).
- Visualise it.
- As you go to sleep, say the name over and over, visualise it, and intend to dream about it.
You might not be successful first time. Influencing your dream can take practice. However, even
without influencing your dream, research shows that people who write down every day all the
things for which they were grateful, are not only happier than others, but are also more likely to
take exercise, get regular health checks and are more energetic, enthusiastic and alert.
