Winter Blues & The Pursuit Of Happiness

The holiday season is filled with joy. We’ve spent two weeks with family and friends, drinking and binge eating delicious food and partying like there’s no tomorrow. And then along comes January and the post holiday blues.

January can be a hard month. Money is tight and the nights are long and dark. But winter blues is just a state of mind!

As the temperatures drops, we all head back into the office and typically get slammed with work and spend our days thinking how on earth we are actually going to stick to our completely unrealistic new year’s resolutions. It’s not really surprising that January is the most depressing month of the year but here are a few tips on how to stay positive.

Longer Days are Upon Us

With the winter solstice on December 21^st, days are only getting longer and that means more sun! This means it’s easier to get out of bed in the morning and spend that extra time before work planning and organising your day. Productivity is key to positivity.

A Fresh Start

Think of January as a fresh start! Set realistic goals for yourself and fight hard to achieve them. It is after all one of the quietest times of the year so use this to your advantage. Make a few silly mistakes last year? Use this month as a clean slate leave the past in the past. Look for new and exciting opportunities and go after them!

Time for yourself

Did you party too much last year? Are you a workaholic? When is the last time you submersed yourself into a romantic novel? An unbalanced lifestyle is never a good thing. Set aside some ‘you time’. Join a club or take that class you’ve always wanted to but ‘have never had the time’. Set aside at least one hour a day for yourself even if it’s just to sit alone and think. This will give you the ability to look at your life from a completely different point of view.

Cut the ties and spend time with the right people

We’ve all had a ‘toxic’ friend. The friend that pressures you into going out, the friend that encourages you to have ‘just one more drink’ on a school night or tells you it’s ok to go into the office late. They are selfish. They do not have your best interest at heart and they are certainly not your ‘friend’. Cut the ties this month and surround yourself with people who genuinely care about your wellbeing because if you don’t, they will hold you back.

Make the Decision to be Happy

This is the most important. Only you can decide to be happy. Don’t be the victim, don’t throw yourself a pity party, make good decisions around good people. We all make mistakes but they don’t have to ‘ruin your entire life’. Take a step back and think about why it happened? How can you fix it? Smart people learn from their mistakes. Stupid people keep on making them.