Blue Monday is coming – but why buy into it? Use the power of reframing.
Blue Monday is coming this week. But why buy into this idea?
I had a client once, who was depressed that their business had gone bust. It was a totally understandable emotion to a devastating event in their life. They had since lost confidence in their ideas and skills and had a pretty low mood generally. They told me that they had been like this since 2011. Frozen for years.
Then I got thinking…2011? At that time we had just suffered the biggest economic crash in modern history. Hundreds, thousands of businesses went bust. All sorts of quality, cherished businesses took the hit because of bankers’ recklessness. So I put this idea and time-frame to them…and they thought about it a while and a smile spread across their face. “Yes, I suppose it wasn’t just down to me,” they said. They could see things from a new perspective. That is reframing.
Reframing the problem
Reframing is where you take a set of circumstances or experiences and see them through a different lens. Sometimes it is the bigger picture, sometimes it’s from another person’s point of view. It is a very effective tool in counselling. I like to use it a lot.
So this weekend I was going to write a blog about ‘Blue Monday’. That is apparently the most miserable day of the year, caught, as we are between the revelry of Christmas and the next pay cheque. And the weather is cold. You can see why some sociologist, psychologist or economist constructed this as a concept
Who makes this stuff up?
But as I thinking on what to write about Blue Monday, I felt my mood dip, so then I asked myself, why am I doing this? Who makes this stuff up? To what purpose? So we can all be miserable together?
I began to reframe Blue Monday.
Firstly, the name. What blue are they talking about? The blue of a Wimbledon sky?
The blue of the Caribbean sea? The blue of our planet when seen from space? Blue can be beautiful and life affirming.
I refuse to buy into a miserable Blue Monday. I choose to reframe it.
I’ll probably even wear blue on Monday. It’s a beautiful colour.
If you are feeling blue, let me help you reframe it.
You can send me a message on 07879 297714 or email me on lori@loriwhitetherapy.com.