Blue Monday
Even though “Blue Monday” is in the rearview mirror (thank goodness) some of you may still be feeling its blahs.
Wisdom Wednesday is here to brighten your day with an exploration of its pleasant ways of communicating.
Inner Wisdom – it makes you – YOU
- it is your sense of what is “right” and what is “wrong” for you
- it is your values
- it is your compass for making decisions
- it is your voice of reason
- it is your sense of justice and informs your position on social, political and religious matters
inner wisdom – positive, negative and neutral
Imagine messages from your inner wisdom being filtered through this meter. They register either positive, negative or neutral. We have explored the negative ones. You are more aware of those that register neutral.
And below is example that registers positive.
“Blue Monday” is know as a low mood day for a large number of people.
Let’s imagine you felt this way on Monday at work. To combat it, you went for a walk. While walking, you felt the sunshine on your face and started thinking about being on the beach. Your inner wisdom registered these thoughts as positive and you started feeling better. Before you knew it, you had your phone out, scrolling while you walked. You searched warm destinations and were excitedly making plans. As you remembered your credit card balance from your vacation a few weeks ago, you started to feel bad again (negative alert from inner wisdom).
So you put your phone away and headed back to work.
Blue Monday Mood
In light of your credit card balance and your recent time on the beach, you realized that taking another vacation didn’t fit with your plans. Yes, thinking about it felt better than your “Blue Monday Mood” and it would be very, very – okay – VERY NICE, but it still doesn’t fit with your plans or financial goals for the year.
Instead, you downloaded the photos that made you feel good
and made a photo collage. Then posted the collage entitled
“Blue Monday, Meet Wisdom Wednesday”
in your work space. This visual felt good and encouraged you to push through the dreary work day. You happily did your work, inside and warm, focused on having enough money to go on the next vacation you’ve already booked.
Positive alerts from your inner wisdom, while quite pleasant, require a word of caution. While we much prefer these positive communications, they still have to be placed within the larger picture of your life. Alongside other pieces of information. Like in the example above, when you are able to place the alert in the larger context you still experience the pleasant feelings associated with the alert. And, you can use the pleasant feelings and what initiated them to help you through the blah and neutral days of January and February. This is a good strategy for other blah days too.
I hope you enjoyed this Wisdom Wednesday post and that
you’ll share it with others – especially in light of the recent Blue Monday. Just remember to give me credit as the author
Elizabeth Lacey specializes in Women’s Emotional Health Counselling with in-person, phone, online and Walk & Talk Therapy Sessions.
Elizabeth Lacey MSW RSW
Oakridge Counselling – Ontario, Canada
www.oakridgecounselling.com
