Ways you can beat the January blues

There are several reasons why we normally feel down in January, but mostly due to stresses. Christmas has a way of producing anti-climax feelings where you feel low for having had a great time over Christmas and now it’s over, or that you did not get to have a good time yet everyone else seemingly did.

January, coming right after the festive season, is always standing in the shadow of December’s merriment. It is the time of the year when we have to deal with the side effects of Christmas and New Year events.

While you might have added a few kgs, your wallet will likely have gone the other way, and as a result, January isn’t the time when you feel freshest and most confident.

Your body and mind is bound to feel exhausted after all the organizing and travelling over the festive season and the financial blow-outs only make things worse. Yet everything needs to start over again in January, right at the time when you feel you need to retreat and have some good rest.

Although the festive seasons comes around year in year out, and on the same days, no less, we still get caught off-guard by depressive tendencies that follow the merrymaking – the January Blues  

Considering everything that could drag you down come January, we look at some simple strategies that can help you avoid the January blues.

Most people tend to come up with resolutions around January because of guilt, but guilt isn’t the best long-term motivator. You are likely to make some vague and difficult resolutions such as being more organized, saving more money or maybe losing weight.

However, what you don’t realize is that these impromptu resolutions are bound to fail and they are only going to leave you feeling worse about yourself.

When making your New Year resolutions, ensure that you go for simpler targets that you are certain you can manage, then do them and feel better. This will encourage you to do them again and again until you achieve your desired goal.

There is probably some specific things that are making you feel sad or anxious. You can consider making a list of all the things giving you a hard time and try to add possible solutions to them.

There is power in writing things down and if you feel the best solution to an issue is to ask for help, do not hesitate.

Despite the time off work, it is likely that you still didn’t get enough sleep over the Christmas break. Well, sleep is vital to the body’s development and wellbeing and lack of it can form a vicious cycle – not having enough sleep can cause bad mood and depressive feelings which in turn affect your sleep.

Ensure that your body gets some quality sleep. You can start by making sure that you go to bed on time and have the level of lighting, noise and temperature aiding your sleep.

When you are feeling blue, the temptation to lock yourself away and stay alone may be strong but doing this only increases those sad feelings.

Instead of wallowing, surround yourself with friends and loved ones who will lift your mood. Christmas is over but it doesn’t mean you can’t invite people over for dinner or maybe go out.

Each year is different and instead of waiting for this one to happen to you can try to make it different from the start.

Come up with some ideas and maybe find a close friend to bounce them on until you find that one thing that you would love to achieve, do or learn this year.

You then need to work out the steps you need to take and come up with a plan and start the first step. Taking charge of your year from the word go will make you feel engaged and leave no space for January blues.