Blue Monday

Today is January 22nd. If you are reading this post on a day other than the 22nd, consider yourself fortunate. You have survived Blue Monday. If you are reading it today, well, try to hang on until tomorrow. According to an article in thisislondon.co.uk, the entertainment guide of the Evening Standard, Blue Monday is "the unhappiest day of the year."

The Standard writes,

Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year's resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.

January 22nd was chosen based on a formula developed by Dr. Cliff Arnall, a psychologist at Cardiff University, who came up with the following six criteria:

• weather
  
• debt
  
• time since Christmas
  
• time since failing our new year's resolutions
  
• low motivational levels, and,
• the feeling of a need to take action.

Makes sense to us. Here is the full article.