Apparently, today is Blue Monday.  According to ‘the experts’, the third Monday in January is “the most depressing day of the year, brought about by a combination of miserable weather, money worries and failed new year resolutions”.  Well, I’ve never really been one to follow the crowds, and you don’t have to either.  Here’s why… 

I woke up early this morning, peeked out of the window to see whether I’d be doing the nursery/school run in the rain and was greeted with the sight of a gorgeous blue sky, a few pink-tinged wispy clouds lit up by glorious sunshine, and a thick layer of frost glinting and sparkling in the sunlight like diamonds.  I love days like this – granted, it’s freezing cold, but it looked serene and beautiful.  There’s something about being the only one awake – there’s a certain hush, like everyone is holding their breath in anticipation, and a sense of peace, calm and tranquility easily soothes all thoughts of anything else.  So much for ‘miserable weather’! 

Money worries.  Yep, I’ve got plenty of them.  So do most of the people I know.  What’s important here is your attitude.  I’ve already been down the slippery slope of thinking that I’ll never have the money I need to do all of the things I want to do, like going out for meals, or going on holiday, or going for days out with the children, or buying new clothes…  I’m sure you have too.  But what the thinker thinks the prover proves – the more you visualise your future full of debt and hardship, the more likely it is that it will become a reality.  So I stopped doing that.  Besides, I was starting to get frown lines in my forehead and I haven’t even turned 30 yet – not a good look.  So instead I’m focusing on the things I can do to get me out of this financial downwards spiral.  And do you know what?  I’m finding it easier and easier every day to see the future I want actually being within my grasp.  I’m taking control and taking action, instead of just hoping that something will come along that will change things for me.  And that’s the key thing here – having an internal locus of control.  There’ll be more about that in a future blog.

And failed new year resolutions – what’s that about?  Personally, I believe in ‘there is no failure, only feedback’.  What can you learn from a situation that you perceive yourself to have ‘failed’ in that you could use to help you succeed next time?  If you vowed to lose weight and then found yourself finishing off a packet of biscuits with your cup of tea, or swore to yourself that you would stub out your last ever cigarette on the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve and then found yourself shivering outside with a cigarette in your hand during your break on your first day back at work, maybe there could be more going on subconsciously than you think.  Sometimes things that feel like habits or cravings can be driven by unconscious belief patterns.  So give yourself a break – making a decision to change something that might have been part of your life for a long time can be difficult (but it doesn’t have to be!).  It’s not meant to be easy… just possible.  You are not a failure, even though part of you is probably telling yourself that you are.  You can do it, I promise you.  And if you need a little help along the way, you can contact me on 07794 595783 or email me at chloe@openmindhypnotherapy.co.uk.

So you see, Blue Monday isn’t really Blue Monday after all, is it?  It’s just a label.  I think it’s up to you to decide how you want to feel today, and any other day for that matter.  So why not start now?  Blow a raspberry at ’the experts’ (go on, I dare you – you’ll feel so much better when you do!), put a smile on your face, and go out there and make your day turn out to be a great one.  Just because you can.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2012 at 3:31 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.