This Monday is Blue Monday, supposedly our lowest day of the year, when we’re broke, exhausted, freezing and sick of the relentless dark. Add in global chaos and economic pressures and it sounds unbearable.
Is Blue Monday a well-researched phenomenon? No. It originated as an advertising campaign to sell holidays in the sun. Yet while the roots of the phrase lie in marketing, the feelings it taps into are real: the genuine post-holiday slump, financial strain and short, dark winter days that affect our mood. Many people experience milder forms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) from lack of sunlight, and studies in affective psychology show that Mondays tend to be rated lower for pleasure and energy compared with weekends.
So while Blue Monday may be manufactured, the January blues are not.
The start of a new year is often conceptualised as a fresh chapter where we can leave the bad behind and head hopefully into something new. That can be helpful for those who have enough self-belief in a positive future. But for those who are suffering — chronic illness, grief, a difficult job, financial precarity — the year looks full of impending dangers and hurdles to overcome.
And this month feels interminable. It’s the longest month in psychological weight. There are no bank holidays until spring. The grey stretches ahead with no breaks, no relief in sight. Time moves differently when we’re in distress: minutes drag, days blur. And crucially, you can’t imagine any other mood. You feel trapped in that state; to get through weeks of cold and dark feels impossible.
Even if you pay no heed to the “new year, new you” mantra, the ambient pressure is everywhere. Social media fills with other people’s resolutions. Research shows there is a genuine “fresh start effect” — people are more motivated at the beginning of the new year. But 80-90 per cent of resolutions fail by mid-February. The initial surge fades and we end up worse than when we started.
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While most of us find January tricky, there are those for whom the volume on blueness is turned up. The elderly are a section of the population whose psychological struggles rarely get airtime. They might feel blue in January for concrete reasons. Their aches and pains, for example: arthritis often worsens in cold weather. They may not dare venture outside for fear of slipping on ice when falls for them can be seriously perilous. Isolation is compounded when the weather makes it dangerous to leave home.
Research shows that January has the highest rates of relationship breakdowns: divorce lawyers call the first working Monday of the year “D-day” (divorce day), when couples who struggled through Christmas finally separate. For children and teenagers caught in this, January becomes the month when their family structure fractures.
Anyone who experiences relationship difficulties feels January’s weight more heavily.
So what can we do to help ourselves? We can’t transcend January or manufacture spring now. Instead we can learn to “winter” — to move through this season in a way that feels deliberate rather than something that must be endured. Here is what I recommend.
Treat light as medicine — try to get outdoors for 10-15 minutes every morning
Before anything else, light. Not as metaphor but as medicine. Your circadian rhythm — the internal clock that governs sleep, mood and energy — needs light signals to function.
Get outside within the first hour of waking, even for 10-15 minutes. Whatever the weather, daylight is 10-20 times brighter than indoor lighting. This tells your brain it’s daytime, helps to regulate cortisol (your wake-up hormone) and sets up better sleep later. If you absolutely can’t get outside, sit near a window while you have breakfast or a cup of tea. The effect is dose-dependent: more light exposure equals better mood regulation.
For those who experience significant low mood, a light therapy box (10,000 lux) for 20-30 minutes every morning can make a measurable difference.
• Eat dinner at 6pm (and other winter health boosters)
Your brain needs endorphins, serotonin and dopamine — get 20 minutes of exercise a day
Exercise is the most evidence-based intervention for low mood we have, as effective as antidepressants for mild to moderate depression. But January makes movement feel impossible. We’re tired, it’s dark, it’s cold. So we need strategies that account for resistance.
The magic number is 20 minutes. That’s the threshold where mood-boosting neurochemicals — endorphins, serotonin, dopamine — kick in. A brisk walk counts. Dancing in your kitchen counts. The movement matters more than the intensity. Even better: pair movement with something you want to do. Listen to your favourite podcast while you walk. Walk with a friend. Save a particular playlist to dance to while you make dinner. The association creates pull rather than push.
For those who genuinely can’t face the outdoors, YouTube has countless free dance workouts, yoga sessions, even videos where you march in place while you watch scenic routes. It sounds ridiculous until you try it and realise you feel better afterwards. Every single time.
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Music can activate multiple brain regions at the same time — make playlists to shift your mood
Music is neurologically powerful: it activates multiple brain regions simultaneously, including those that govern emotion, memory and motor control. You can use it strategically to shift your internal state.
Create mood playlists with intentional emotional trajectories. A morning playlist that starts gently and builds energy. An afternoon slump playlist that’s uplifting without being manic. An evening wind-down playlist that helps you to transition from day to rest.
Research from music psychology shows that choosing tracks that match your mood first (what is called the “Iso principle”) then gradually shifting towards where you want to be works better than jumping straight to cheerful music when you feel terrible. Start where you are, then guide yourself somewhere else.
Combining movement enhances music’s emotional power. Put on three songs and dance — badly, alone. That’s it. Nine minutes. Your mood will improve.
Small moments, like enjoying the smell of coffee, can anchor us back to the present moment
MARIA KORNEEVA/GETTY IMAGES
Practise focused attention (doing the crossword counts)
When we’re stuck in rumination — what I call the “shitty committee” in our heads — we need activities that absorb our attention fully enough to quiet that critical internal chatter. These are deliberate practices in focused attention.
Puzzles work brilliantly for this. Jigsaws, crosswords, sudoku: they require enough concentration that your mind can’t wander to worry simultaneously. There’s completion satisfaction built in too — this gives you small wins when everything else feels endless.
Colouring books for adults are structured creativity with immediate visual reward. The repetitive motion is calming (similar to bilateral stimulation in trauma therapy, which helps us to process difficult emotions and memories) and interrupts anxiety loops by giving the brain something to focus on.
Embroidery, knitting, any handcraft that requires a pattern — these engage your hands and your attention. There’s strong research on the mental health benefits of crafting: reduced anxiety, improved mood, sense of accomplishment. Plus you create something tangible when January makes everything feel pointless.
The key with these activities is that they need to be challenging enough to absorb you but not so difficult that they create more stress.
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Connecting with other people calms your nervous system
Social prescription, where GPs can prescribe community activities, art classes, groups for walks or volunteering, is one of the most significant developments in mental health treatment. Professor Daisy Fancourt’s research at UCL shows that social prescribing can be as effective as some medications for anxiety and depression, with none of the side-effects.
Why does it work? When we feel separate and alone, we don’t feel safe. Our nervous system starts to scan for threats. Our imagination of future bad events overrides our present moment. We’re not in our bodies, we’re somewhere else, catastrophising about what may never come.
Connection is the opposite of this threat state. When we feel seen, heard, connected to others our nervous system registers safety and we can think more clearly.
Start small. Text a friend. Join a club or group activity. Choirs are brilliant, as are pottery groups, walking groups. Local libraries, community centres and apps such as Meetup have activities for every interest and budget.
Even if you can’t speak about what you’re going through, being with other humans while you do something together shifts your physiology. Our nervous systems co-regulate; we literally calm each other down through presence.
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Structure ‘glimmers’ into your day to spark feelings of warmth
“Glimmers”, coined by the therapist Deb Dana, a clinician and lecturer specialising in complex trauma, are the opposite of triggers. They’re small moments that spark a sense of safety, warmth, connection. A favourite mug. Your dog’s greeting. A beautiful view. The smell of coffee. They anchor us back to the present moment, away from the threat spiral.
You can deliberately create glimmers that imbue your day with that little shine. Fresh sheets on Monday. A candle you only light for evening tea. Your cosy slippers. A particular comfy chair that’s just yours. These small rituals signal to your nervous system: we care for ourselves. We’re safe enough to pause.
When to seek help
If you experience persistent low mood for more than two weeks, loss of interest in things you normally enjoy, significant sleep or appetite changes, or thoughts of self-harm, please speak to your GP. The January blues are real but clinical depression is different and needs professional support. There’s no virtue in suffering alone when effective help exists.
Social prescribing, talking therapy and in some cases medication all have their place. The goal isn’t to tough it out, it’s to get support so you can actually live your life.
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Don’t fight January — be curious
One of the deepest truths about wellbeing is that to be well means to face reality as it is. The gap that damages us isn’t January itself, it’s the space between how we think life should be and how it is. That gap is where madness lives, where we spiral into “it shouldn’t be like this”, which blocks us from the present moment.
When we think of January we often grip internally against it, against the cold, the dark, the difficulty. When we open ourselves to look at this time of year with curiosity instead, that changes our perspective.
The goal is not to try to find spring energy but to “winter”. As Katherine May writes in her bestselling book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, we don’t need to fight the season or pretend it’s not happening — we need to prepare, adapt and rest into it, to find the grit to live through January while we seek out small comforts. This closes the gap between expectation and reality, allowing us to work with the season rather than against it. When we allow ourselves to truly rest in winter, it becomes a crucible, the ground on which everything else can grow.