Turning Blue Monday into YOU Monday by bringing the sunshine back into your life

As you will know if you have been following our blog this month, we have been turning January into Jan-you-ary, and using this dark and grey month associated with detox into a positive opportunity to focus on your own wellbeing.  While spring is just around the corner, you may already have seen that today being dubbed Blue Monday by the powers that be, and so it seems that there’s no better time to really take a moment to look after ourselves.

What is Blue Monday?

According to the eternally reliable Oxford English Dictionary, Blue Monday is:

“A Monday on which one feels gloomy or dispirited, especially because one has to return to work after the weekend… (in the northern hemisphere) [that’s us] a Monday in January, typically the third Monday of the month, that is characterised as the most depressing day of the year.”

Meanwhile, Wikipedia elaborates, explaining that the idea came from one psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall in collaboration with Sky Travel: “The concept was first publicised as part of a 2005 press release, which claimed to have calculated the date using an equation.”  The weather appears to have a lot to do with it, and perhaps the stretch between payday around Christmas and at the end of the rather long month. 

That said, the Independent once reported on it, and while there is a significant amount of PR spin in this depressingly dubbed day, there is also rather a lot of research into days, times and reasons when we feel most happy. It includes, but is not limited to, information from the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) National Well-Being Programme, research by Professor Lord Richard Layard, of the London School of Economics, a co-editor of the World Happiness Report

So what can we do to make Blue Monday better?

Well, like we said, while tradition has January as a month of going without in the name of health, we see wellbeing as an opportunity to take away the negative and add the positive into our lives. That might be making efforts to get rid of a bad habit, take up a good one, or make time for things that make you feel good in your life. Perhaps that’s carving out more time dedicated to a good friend, taking time to read a book or spending more time outdoors. 

So, it might be Blue Monday. It might be melancholy because it’s grey out, Christmas has been and gone and summer is still just a bit too far away. However, here are a few ways to bring the sunshine back into your life, and make this Monday a little less blue with something to look forward to.

You don’t have to travel to the Caribbean to do it. Why not try a little sunlight therapy this season? For example, Rudding Park has a sunlight therapy room which allows guests to benefit from real sunlight simulators that recreate the same spectrum of light as the sun but without the harmful bits. 

Donnington Valley also offers an Aqua Sun Mineral Treatment, where spa-goers immerse themselves in a warm mineral bath containing 21 minerals from the Dead Sea, covered with a UV canopy. This canopy is an excellent source of Vitamin D and not only effectively treats SAD but also helps alleviate dry skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, acne and stress. 

You can also try the Sun Meadow Room at K West Hotel and Spa, featuring specially designed UV lights for light therapy treatment. Whilst the sound of birdsong and a running stream fills the room, spa goers relax under gentle lights that feel like spring sunshine, encouraging the production of Vitamin D and serotonin.

Or there’s the Beach Hut at The Three Horseshoes Spa, where you lie on a bed of warm sand, and the 25 minute experience takes you from darkness to sunrise to peak sunshine and then sunset. Relaxing music and essential oils complete the ‘holiday’ experience. It is ideal for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) to top up Vitamin D levels helping beat winter blues and this can even stimulate the metabolism.

Inspired, but want to keep searching for the perfect spa experience to make today all about you? Contact Spabreaks.com to speak to one of our Spa Consultants on 0800 043 6600, or visit our website.