Blue Monday, typically the third Monday in January is said to be the most depressing day of the year. It’s now known that this was coined in a press release from Sky Travel back in 2005, and Cliff Armall whose name was on the press release now campaigns against the concept of Blue Monday. In fact back in 2018, Arnall told a reporter that his intention was actually “to inspire people to take action and make bold life decisions”.
Whatever the background to Blue Monday it’s always useful to have an opportunity to talk about wellbeing and mental health. Which let’s face it we are way better at today than we were back in 2005! But there’s always more we can do.
We first developed our wellbeing toolkit at the beginning of the pandemic – and you can still download it for free.
Developed by Emma Bridger (who is a positive psychologist), this 8 week programme is grounded in the latest thinking and studies on wellbeing. The wellbeing toolkit covers the following topics;
Week One – Resilience
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on resilience
- Three overarching strategies to help you become more resilient
- A free eBook around everyday resilience
- Information about meditation and links to try it
- Links to mental health support
Week Two – Emotional Intelligence
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on emotional intelligence
- About emotional intelligence – what it is and the four attributes you need
- The common characteristic of high and low ‘EQ’
- A quiz to test your own EQ
- The traits of EQ – worksheet
- Developing your EQ – what you can do
Week Three – Achievement
- Introducing the PERMA model
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on achievement
- Examples of people with a Growth Mindset
- Developing a Growth Mindset
- Link to Carol Dwecks Ted Talk
- Downloadable fact sheet on Growth Mindset
- About ability vs effort praise
Week Four – Relationships
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on Relationships
- Why healthy relationships are so important and how to develop healthy relationships
- Fact sheet – tips to building relationships
- Your positive energy network
- Link to Kim Cameron’s Ted Talk
- Video from ’The Reset Show’ on managing energy
Week Five – Engagement or ‘Flow’
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on Engagement
- What is flow?
- Link to Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s Ted Talk
- Model – Emotions in flow
- The art of disengagement
- Link to eBook – Managing energy, not time
Week Six – Positive Emotions
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on Positive Emotions
- Link to Barbara Fredrickson’s Ted Talk
- Introduction to Broaden and Build theory and model
- Positive emotions at work
- Rewiring your brain for happiness
Week Seven – Meaning
- Video from Wellbeing Lunch on Meaning
- Victor Frankl’s exploration of ‘meaning’
- Link to meaning in life questionnaire
- How to find meaning
- Finding meaning at work
- Introducing Ikigai (model and video)
Week Eight – Overview
- A reminder of the health footprint of the pandemic and impact on mental health
- Finding the positives from this opportunity to ‘Reset’
- Link to ’The Reset Show’
- How we can help you
- Link to mental health support
The wellbeing toolkit is a gift from us and delivered direct to your inbox. We really hope you find it interesting and useful. And if you are struggling today, or indeed any day, please know that there are lots of places you can go to for help.
Find out more about NHS psychological therapies and services available to you here.
For urgent mental health support visit the NHS website here, or you can text “SHOUT” to 85258 for free from all major UK mobile networks.
