really the most depressing day of the year?

It's been fifteen years since Blue Monday entered our lives under the (unhappy) label of "the most depressing day of the year." But is this third Monday in January really synonymous with depression? Between fund of truth and commercial deception, Blue Monday is very mysterious… We tell you everything (and also how to resist it).

Would you like to know your mood gauge for the year? If we had to caricature, chances are you'll find success in July while winter ends you! In any case, according to the news, the most depressing day of the year would fall on the third Monday in January. It is called the "Blue Monday", the "blue Monday" in French – but nothing to do with the song "Blue Monday" by the group New Order released in 1983 -, and we do not mention it without some well-matched advice. to survive ".
But who decreed that the third Monday in January was a day of depression (even the worst)? The leader of the calendar? The King of Mondays? A conference of shrinks wisely gathered to discuss the most fulfilling times of the year? Not so much, no! At the origin of Blue Monday (beware, disappointment) is Sky Travel, a travel agency.

Once upon a time there was a marketing stunt

History would have it that the Sky Travel travel agency had an idea in 2005: what if we argued that the third Monday in January was the most depressing day of the year, while also propelling a series of trips and stays? for people to book vacations? Here. Blue Monday was born out of an advertisement. Because what better way to sell trips and trips around the world than to tell the population that nothing is going well (in the middle of winter) and that the solution remains to plan a getaway (in the sun)? The story also suggests that Sky Travel agency asked a psychologist named Cliff Arnall to back it up and prove via a mathematical "formula" that the third Monday in January was the time of the blues. From here, then, it smells like a scam. But all is not to be thrown into this commercial deception.

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>>> the winter blues:

Blue Monday, a really not cool day (anyway)

To establish the most depressing day of the year, Sky Travel agency still racked its brains. Yes, because marketing is still work. An equation would support the date of Blue Monday. This equation would have been established by the appointed psychologist Cliff Arnall, who would have played the great mathematicians (and then admitted that his mathematical formula meant absolutely nothing).
But hey, we agree, Blue Monday couldn't have really happened in the pretty month of May, at the time of flowering buds and endless aperitifs.
According to the “fake” formula, if the third Monday in January turns out to be the worst of the year, it is because it comes at a critical time – at the crossroads of several depressing factors. That is to say ? Well, at the end of January, a lot of things are happening: first, we are in the middle of winter, it's cold (bad weather) and the days are short (even if in this matter, December is more vicious, but in December there is Christmas, of course), then we are ruined by the holidays (precisely) and the salary of the first month of the year has not yet fallen, and, finally, our good resolutions go off in a lollipop (we held three weeks and ciao). If we add to that a lack of motivation and fatigue, we might as well say that we have known more fun times and that it is time, therefore, to go see the country …

See as well :
>>> What if light therapy was the solution for depressing winters?

How to survive Blue Monday?

Blue Monday is therefore a pure commercial invention, but we cannot exclude its substance from being true. Because who, frankly, dances naked under the snow in the middle of January (and humming that life is beautiful?). So despite the business motivation of Blue Monday, it is always good to give some rigorous advice to get through this complicated Monday that smacks of depression.

  • To avoid depression, we will start by pampering our interior by creating a cocooning and comforting atmosphere (plaids and candles will help us face the winter).
  • We take care to eat well (vitamins galore for top health) and sleep well (after all, we can give ourselves a few days of peace).
  • We also start a list of "cool things to do" (watch a series, have fun with a puzzle, sort (or read) your books, go to concerts, go see comedians on stage, organize parties … ) in which to draw in case of slack … while waiting for the month of March.
  • Of course, we can add with the positive projections: by visualizing an imminent spring (after all, it will not be long), we do good morale.
  • If necessary, we plan a short trip of a week or more (cuckoo Sky Travel), in France or further.

Special Blue Monday shopping selection
> Some candles yes, but green. We chose those in soy wax in a mineral concrete pot, made in France and scented, € 55 for 65 hours of burning, at Nature & Découvertes.
> A plaid yes, but in a natural and durable material like Merino wool. This one unearthed on La Redoute guarantees in addition to warmth, softness. € 66.90 in 130 x 170.
> Some vitamins yes, but organic. And in the heart of winter, vitamin D is particularly recommended in our regions with little sun (the sun helps to fix vitamin D, to see more, read the file of Doctissimo). On the Greenweez organic site, you can find vitamin D in drops, which are easy to take on a daily basis. € 17.99 per bottle for one month.

Read also:
>>> 10 tips to get out of the seasonal blues

But above all, we don't forget that Blue Monday doesn't mean much and that there is no scientific evidence or study on it. So, why get particularly depressed on this day, if it is not that our brain is preparing for it by dint of speech? At the same time, let's be honest: rather than having the blues all winter long, you might as well think that Blue Monday is all about the blues. At least at the end of the day it's done, and the next day, Tuesday, everything is better, the (good) morale is back. So let's take advantage of this Blue Monday not to answer for anything, lock ourselves in the warmth, change the code at the bottom, no longer give any news, skip work (pretext for a day off), wait for the day to pass… and the next day , we smile again when we say to our dear Cliff Arnall "thanks for the equation, we rested well on this depressing Monday"!