Make it BREW Monday, not Blue Monday ...

Since 2005, the third Monday in January has become known as Blue Monday and whilst it does shine an important light and puts mental health into the public eye via the media, experts actually dispute the science behind it so whilst it suits the media to call it the most depressing day of the year, it is nothing more than a media creation – or is it?!

Blue Monday came about as typically January feels a bit miserable as we are post the festive season when everyone was jolly and having parties and here we are in January, now getting the credit card bills to pay for it!

It’s another week until pay day, January can feel like the longest month – cold, miserable, grey, no money, new year’s resolutions that mean we are miserable on our diet, forcing ourselves to exercise and even enduring dry January with no Chenin in sight! No wonder it is so Blue!!

Also, more seriously, I learned this week that here in the UK "UK households have suffered the sharpest fall in the amount of cash they have available to spend for almost eight years, amid a worsening cost of?living crisis?driven by high inflation and rising energy bills." – and that is something to be taken seriously.

SO many people are dealing with additional challenges right now – whether as a result of Covid and the hurdles that gave us, perhaps a business that is wobbling due to a lack of trade – even in a situation where financial issues are causing people concern whether linked to rising energy bills or the fact that many foodstuffs have increased in price recently as a result of Brexit, and so on.

So whether we are happy to sign up to the Blue Monday idea or not, it makes GOOD SENSE right now to be looking out for self care opportunities and doing all we can to boost our mental wellbeing.

We can’t stop the decisions that the Government are making and the stories that the media are reporting – we can’t change the credit card bill that we are looking at – or the TAX payments many of us will make at the end of this month. We can’t change the weather, the increasing cost of living or the fact that food prices have increased but we CAN CHOOSE to invest in wellbeing to counteract the negative impact such events might have,

I don’t mean putting a positive spin on it and perhaps pretending all is well – that takes up a lot of energy to kid ourselves and put on that face – but instead what we can do is think about the pillars of wellbeing that we can invest time and energy on. Please listen in to this weeks' Really Useful Conversations podcast where I will discuss each of the Pillars in turn and offer ideas for investing in your own well-being and also ideas you can discuss with your team?

If you do have concerns about anyone - team member, colleague, friend or even family member, it is so important to have a conversation with them and let them know about your concern. Help them to express how they are feeling, talk about what's bothering them, and if you can signpost them to professional help, how to go about doing that.

I've put together a one page overview we use to have confident conversations about mental health concerns, and you can access that here

If you want to take this any further and offer some development opportunities to your staff, I am offering a discounted rate to encourage as many organisations as possible to invest time, energy and effort in this critical area. Drop me a note?

Conversations matter. Conversations can change and save lives. Please make sure your people have the skill and confidence to have such conversations and that you are creating a culture where such conversations happen frequently, honestly and authentically.

And now for a brew :) Take good care x

PS Look out for tomorrow's Really Useful Conversations podcast - available on all your usual podcast platforms or HERE