Contents
The “Blue Monday” thing is a sham and we will tell you why
Psychology
Experts explain that it is yet another opportunity to create needs and thus sell specific products or services
The concept of «Blue Monday»was coined in 2005 by Cliff Arnall, a researcher at the University of Cardiff in the United Kingdom who, through a mathematical formula which he devised himself placed the third Monday of each month as the date of the year in which we are most depressed. According to the expert, this supposed feeling of sadness occurs due to a sum of variables such as the light shortage (because the days are shorter), the weather (cold or winter weather), the downturn after the Christmas holidays, the frustration at not having implemented the proposed resolutions in the first days of the year, the January slope or the extra expenses that you have to face after Christmas shopping.
The truth is that this formula has no scientific basis nor is it something empirical, but 15 years later we are still talking about the effect of “Blue Monday” and we even continue to believe that it may be one of the saddest days of the year. But as Mª Pilar Berzosa Grande, clinical and health psychologist and teacher at UNIR, points out, this supposed influence has much more to do with a psychological effect than with something real. “If you are experiencing a specific moment of sadness, you will be more attentive or focus your attention on those things that are linked to what makes you sad,” he explains. Something that Dafne Cataluña, director and founder of the European Institute of Positive Psychology, also influences, who explains that the people who could be intensely affected by Blue Monday are those with habitual tendency to fall into sadness, or that are more negative and find it difficult to find the positive side of things or even those that are more sensitive to changes and feel that even a seasonal change can affect their mood.
One more opportunity to create needs
In addition, the UNIR professor highlights the fact that this supposed effect is also usually used by the media and advertising agencies to sell your products or services every time a certain emotion surfaces. “It is the same that happens with virality or with mass movements. If the rest feel that way, so do we. It is a kind of chain effect ”, comments Mª Pilar Berzosa, who also warns of the risk that some people really feel that their sadness is due to external factors, as he explains, we should not leave our state of mind in the hands of what comes from outside. “Emotional factors can be modified if you are aware that the change comes from yourself,” he argues.
It is true that, as Dafne Cataluña recalls, feelings of depression or mild sadness are the order of the day for most, precisely because sadness is one of the basic emotions that contributes to our being functional and emotionally intelligent. «Sadness is a emotion, a reaction of the mind that allows you to take a moment of reflexión before something that has happened that has hurt us. In fact, the body stays cold and we don’t want to do the things that we used to like, because it is a time to think, “he clarifies.
But if on a day like “Blue Monday” you do not feel anything special, it does not mean that you are stronger or more stable, just as if you feel especially sad it does not have to imply that you are a weaker or unstable person. «As a psychologist I usually recommend working on emotions from the acceptance. It is not advisable to block the emotion or avoid it. True emotional management is achieved when we welcome sadness, listen to it and decide a step for the situation to change ”, explains Dafne Cataluña.
It seems clear then that our emotions are ours, but what we can do to relativize the assumption depressant effect of “Blue Monday” are the actions proposed by the founder of the European Institute of Positive Psychology.
So you will relativize its effect
- Make a list of things you can give thanks for and be thankful.
- Practice sports (releases endorphins and helps you disconnect and feel better)
- Dedicate some time to the leisure activity that makes you enjoy and enter a state of «flow»
- Talk to a trusted person with whom you can feel free to express yourself (when we speak, emotions are transformed)
Another effective formula may be, as proposed by Berzosa, focus on the solution and in messages that bring us satisfaction or joy instead of recreating ourselves in sadness or how badly we feel.
Can we fall into a spiral of sadness?
To avoid falling into a spiral of sadness it is important that we focus on the behavior that we have, according to Dafne Catalunya, so that, in some way, we force ourselves to do the basic things, even if we don’t feel like doing it. In cases where sadness is deeper, something as basic as getting out of bed and taking a shower can be one of the simple gestures that makes our body move and generate sensations.
And the same happens with Social interactions. “When we are sad we do not want to see anyone, but if we make the effort we will end up connecting with positive moments and emotions that will provide very valuable information to our brain: our state of mind depends on what we decide to do at all times”, he says .