What is ‘Brew Monday’?
The third Monday in January is sometimes referred to as ‘the most difficult day of the year’ but this is a myth, we all have our good days and our bad days, and those aren’t for the calendar to decide. So to help stop this myth about Monday being ‘blue’, the Samaritans are instead encouraging us all to start conversations over a brew! Reach out and connect with family, friends, colleagues and loved ones.
Any day can be a Brew Monday. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Monday morning or Saturday night, or if you’re drinking green tea, black coffee or orange juice. If you’re sharing a cuppa and listening, you’re doing it right.
Click here to visit the Samaritans website to find out more about Brew Monday and how you can get involved.
How to be a good listener
Once someone starts to share how they’re feeling, it’s important to listen. This could mean not offering advice, not trying to identify what they’re going through with your own experiences and not trying to solve their problems.
For more suggestions about how to be a good listener, take a look at the Samaritans SHUSH active listening tips and their little tips to help someone open up.
What is ‘Blue Monday’?
January’s third Monday, “Blue Monday”, is thought to be the most depressing day of the year. Spoiler: it isn’t, and we wanted to remind people that depression is a serious condition that can affect people on any day. “Blue Monday” originated as an idea in 2004 when psychologist Cliff Arnall was asked by travel firm Sky Travel to come up with a formula for the January Blues. The formula was based on the factors likely to cause low mood, including the time since Christmas, motivation levels, and the weather. However Arnall later admitted that the formula was essentially pseudoscience and urged Brits to “refute the whole notion” of Blue Monday.
It is pointless to try and identify what the most depressing day of the year is because it would be different for each one of us. As different as each person’s circumstances are. And it is also important to distinguish between temporarily feeling down, which we all relate to from time to time, and experiencing depression or a mental health problem that can be quite disabling for our day-to-day lives.
However, despite the fact that Blue Monday isn’t real, there can be seasonal variations in our mental health. Some people might be experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder with symptoms of depression that come and go in a seasonal pattern (and are usually more intense in the months with lower daylight). Bodily changes in the winter can affect our hormones and impact our sleeping and eating habits, as well as our mood. To find out more about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), click here.
