Beat the blues

We're back! Join us as we launch series two. Abbey and Mike chat about the January blues and offer their tips on  how we can beat them. We'll turn your 'Blue Monday' into 'YOU Monday'.

Transcript

Abbey O'Hara 0:04
Welcome to the happy hour. This podcast focuses on mental health and is perfect for HR professionals and business leaders and managing a team, but it's just as suitable for you if you're focusing on your own self care or finding ways to nurture your own well being. Listen, as we take a light hearted and upbeat approach to all things mental health, as well as growing on our own experiences. Enjoy. Hello. Hello and welcome back to the happy employee podcast, this is series two.

Mike O’Hara 0:48
Yeah, we didn't think we'd get past episode one of series one I don't think when we first started so don't go back and listen to series one, if you haven't. That's nowhere near as professional sounding as this one will be and that's saying something.

Abbey O'Hara 1:02
So, for those of you that haven't listened to us before I'm Abby and I'm co founder of start within. And I'm also an employee engagement and communications consultant, and I'm Mike and I'm the co founder of start within, and I'm also the Director of Training delivering mental health and wellbeing workshops Mental Health First Aid training, things like that. Yeah. So before we get started on series two I thought we'd have a little look back at what series one was all about. And, yeah, I've managed to get stats here, and the podcast made it to every single continent. Wow, I didn't know that every single one of 32 countries, really, and that's countries from, you know, the UK and the States, Australia but then, reaching out to countries in Africa, we've got Vietnam, Brazil, and Barbados, just lots of random places they're actually listening to us to my guest today. So thank you to everybody who has downloaded and supported the podcast. And the fact we've gone global is just, I can't really believe that but obviously very happy to hear. It's brilliant. I'm really, I'm really pleased and really proud and yeah last series if you have listened we have lots of special guests from the CEO of Mental Health First Aid England. We have a fitness instructor we had a lawyer, we had people telling us about puppy therapy. We had a whole range of hosts and I just want to let you all know that we've got lots more exciting guests coming up in this series as well. Yeah, we've had lots of really kind offers for people to come and participate on the podcast. And we've also been able to secure some, some pretty special individuals to come and share their story as well so we're really looking forward to that. Yeah. So, before we get stuck in what you've been up to since we last spoke there Mike. It's been really busy from start within perspective delivering a lot of training being invited to give a lot of kind of talks and things like that but in addition to that, there's two main things I think that stand out for me since we kind of finished the series one, The first of which was, we were lucky enough to be firstly nominated and then I was able to win the inspiration award. The inspiration award for championing mental health in the workplace normalising conversations around that I was. Yeah, I was presented with the award virtually unfortunately but it was presented by Colin Jackson, who's the Olympic athlete didn't even expect to get shortlisted so to win it against some really amazing people was just incredible. And thank you to everybody who supported I think we've done it start with him we wouldn't have got anywhere without you. And the second thing really kind of instigated by the latest lockdown here in the UK is our lockdown lock ins if you follow us on social media which I hope you do, you will have seen us advertising this quite heavily over the last couple of weeks. And we wanted to provide a safe, non intimidating non judgmental space and a fun space as well for people to come and just get a little bit of human connection see a friendly face so we've recreated the kind of pub atmosphere where we have pub games a bit of a quiz, we pop the jukebox on anybody and everybody can join, and we're just trying to lighten the load for people like me and ourselves, just to bring people together because, as you'll know. If you are a follower of what we do it start within that idea of connection and community we feel is so, so important for mental health and it can really bring you out of some, some dark places, or if you just fancy, a change a bit of a break in space to breathe or a bit of a laugh, listening to me and Abby. Yeah, tell some silly stories, whatever it might be. So yeah, if you are keen on doing that we'd love to see you on the lockdown lock ins and that's a Thursday night, and if you're listening from the in the UK, it's between 730 in the evening and 830 UK time. And it's helping me as well. I mean, in the evenings now I feel like I've completed everything on the telly it's too dark to go outside for a walk and you feel a bit like, what should I do now. And so it's really helping me and I'm really enjoying that community aspect of it as well. We know a lot of people are particularly in the UK here for example we've got a lot of parents we speak to who are finding the homeschooling tough for example, having to work at the same time we speak to a lot of managers who know that their employees might be feeling a bit disconnected. At this time, perhaps not feeling that they can replicate that kind of workplace atmosphere. So again, it's just that safe space it's the same time, same place every week. And you can join, and just get a little bit of a break and a laugh and come together in the pub, which is unfortunately something we're not allowed to do at the moment, which I know we all enjoy. So yeah, please do check that out. So that's the main things we've been up to, I think, but I'm raring to go series two. Okay so enough looking back, look forward at about it because it's a Monday today. Yeah, the January blues I'm sure everyone's heard about January blues. But today, the 18th of January is officially Blue Monday. So, if you've not heard of that before, Mike what is Blue Monday. Yeah so Blue Monday is the third Monday. In January, every year and it's been scientifically proven or so we're told to be the saddest day of the year. And why do you think that is, well I think the information that supported that kind of claim in the past has been that it's the weather's not particularly nice in January, it's dark it's cold it obviously comes straight after the kind of festive period, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. We usually take a break at the end of December and then we're back to work. And within that festive period we might have spent a lot of money much spent a lot of time together in years gone by December can be a really busy month as well so coming out the back of all that sometimes we're feeling drained with feeling lethargic we're feeling tired, we're feeling the pinch on our finances. Yeah I'm waiting for payday right now. We're also perhaps feeling that pressure to make a fresh start or to set resolutions, things like that. So it can be a time when we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as well so yeah historically January is a month. And also, specifically Blue Monday, has been a day to kind of reflect on how rubbish, it can be at this time of year, especially with a pandemic thrown on top of it as well. Yeah, it's a really, really tough time for everybody. I don't think any of us have fully got used to what's going on. And the third thing we really want to we're hoping we won't have to but add into that the January blues Blue Monday wherever you want to call it, then it starts to be a really tough time for people at the moment. But what we want to do today is take Blue Monday and turn it into a new Monday option and make this Monday all about you know blue inside. So you've got a little bit of a mythbuster there haven't you Mike about Blue Monday. Yeah so Blue Monday was actually introduced the phrase was coined in 2005 and was part of a marketing campaign to sell holidays, actually, so by telling people that this was a really sad day. It was the saddest day of the year. It was designed to inspire people to jump online and order a holiday. There was allegedly some science that support it, but since that's been kind of debunked by all of the experts that are out there. We know, as we discussed there that January can be a tough time for a variety of different reasons. But Blue Monday specifically being the saddest day of the year. I don't think it does us any good to concentrate on that. And as, as you said, That's why we're going to try and say the positive, from this time of year. From this day specifically and move forward with it. So I've written down now first next and talk about how we can beat the blues, but before we do that I thought what if we might do a little exercise because we're turning blue Monday into something positive. A little bit of word association. And I always like to throw you into these things. So let's think about positive things associated, the word blue, and take it into. So I'm going to go first. Okay, blue sky. Yeah, that's always nice. I thought blue suede shoes. Elvis classic it's a nice song. Toe tapping I'm going to go blue suede shoes, okay well I'm just gonna go like rhythm and blues blues music in general. Okay, I'm gonna go with the popular early 2000s Uk boy band blue Tunes Back in the day, favourite song. I like the collaboration with elton john sorry seems to be the two great heroes on one track.

Unknown 9:43
So I'm gonna go with blue.

Abbey O'Hara 9:46
There we go. There we go. Let's go for another round. Obviously you squirm. Yeah, and there's a cop his desk Blue karaca karaca. Oh yeah, that goes into alcoholic drinks just used to go straight to the alcohol. I'm going to go with this. See, the seeds bloat, and I'm thinking back to holidays that I've been on unfortunately not recently. But I've got some really happy memories of being on the beach and being in the sea and just feeling nice and chilled, and it being a happy time so I'm gonna go let's see. There you go. I say we have a silly thing for us to do but all I've tried to demonstrate there is that we can take something that's seen as a negative and always try and find some positives in it. I really like this idea of sort of positive reframing so taking something negative and actually kind of flipping the way we think about it and almost making ourselves consider the positive, because even by doing that we buy ourselves maybe a minute of not thinking about that negative thing. At the very least, and at the best, we think, actually, it's not so bad we put things in perspective. And we can kind of move forward with it. So if we go back to how we are going to beat those January blues then, what are your ideas what can we be looking at doing right now to, to not feel so low. So one of the first things that I think is really important particularly right now when everything does seem so difficult. And it perhaps feels like everything's going wrong. And we can't do anything that we want to do is to look at where we can find gratitude in our lives so that might be making a list of things that you can be thankful for it might be the real kind of basic things and I think, actually the pandemic has really taught us what's important, it's forced us to kind of look inside and see what's important that might be family, it might be friends. It might be having a roof over our heads, it might be having a job of work, it might be having a health, whatever it might be, there are some real kind of core fundamentals one or two. Hopefully three or four or five six things that we can find within our life to be kind of thankful for that might be something that you're thankful for that you bring to the world your own strengths and qualities or it might be actually a person who you can be really thankful that you've got in your life, who's been able to help you in the past or is actually keeping you going right now so I think gratitude is really underrated. We don't do it enough. Yeah, definitely. No, because if I sink and stop now about, you know, once the pandemic is over everything that I want to do. Everyone is desperate for a holiday everyone's desperate to travel and get in the sun again. But is that the first thing I'm going to do in the pandemic is over, or is it that I want to go and hook my family. You know I'm desperate to see my now and I haven't been able to see her, obviously for so long and you know that just really grateful to be able to hug her again that's just realise now is so much more important to me than sitting on a beach somewhere tropical. Yeah, I think gratitude is something that we're always after attaining the next thing, aren't we always want something better and something more for ourselves and that's good. It's good to have ambitions and goals and we'll probably talk about that in a little bit but I think gratitude and looking inside sometimes, taking a minute to do that and actually, perhaps journaling that so actually getting it down on paper is a really effective way of putting those thoughts down and then sitting back and looking at them and maybe you can keep that sheet of paper that post it note wherever it is, you can keep it to one side and you can take it out when you're feeling a bit blue, for example, and just remind yourself that there are things to be thankful for. So you mentioned goal setting. Obviously, it's the new year, new year, new me as resolutions you know we're all trying to be more fair or do dry January or trying to lose weight, eat healthier. Yeah, what

Unknown 13:45
do you think about that well

Abbey O'Hara 13:45
I think what's been really encouraging and this has taken what I've seen on social media and things like that has been actually people this year have been saying look, I'm just going to try and get through, get through to the end of the day, and I think the pandemic has actually made people put less pressure on themselves to achieve what might in previous years. We haven't seen as but probably our unrealistic goals. So I've seen a lot of people say there's no way I'm doing jet dry January this year, but just for everything that's going on, obviously, that means that it's probably on the happy employee podcast we don't advocate the use of alcohol to kind of self medicate for any stresses and strains and it's something we do, genuinely seriously have to sort of keep an eye on as well that's just an example but it's nice to see when people are being a bit kinder to themselves and going a bit easier on themselves in January, but it is a time when naturally. We set goals and we we set our ambitions for the year ahead. Now I think we should still do that this year. I've said that it's important to be kind to ourselves and not to ask too much. I think that it might be the tendency in this year, based on what's happened in the last year or so to not make any goals or certainly ambitions because of the amount of uncertainty around, but goals are actually really good for our well being and the reason for that is they give us a sense of drive and purpose and they also give us a sense of control we set our goals is something that we can control and actually maybe not necessarily the outcome but we're in charge of setting out what we'd like to do, and having a sense of future and hope and optimism is actually a really important indicator of our well being as well so I think goals are actually really good for our well being. In terms of setting them though, I think, as you said they're sometimes we're a bit over ambitious and sometimes we're a little too vague as well. I was lucky enough to give a talk alongside a lady called Lucy Griffiths, the other day, who was always the founder of a company thrive at work, and she talks a lot about tiny habits and this idea of tiny habits and I thought that was really cool and it's something definitely that I'm going to try and take on and what she said was, it's not about having quite big abstract goals like I wouldn't want to be more fit to I want to be more successful because firstly, how do we quantify that and secondly, how do we actually achieve that. It might be okay I want to be more fit that's my end goal so what is my immediate goal well it's actually to do one press up today. And that might seem silly but if you do that one press up you get it done you find the motivation to do that tiny tiny habit. Then you can celebrate that. And then it's much easier to keep up with and then you can build very gradually from there. So, in terms of setting goals this year, I think. Anyway, it's a nice idea to use this tiny habits kind of framework, but within a pandemic. I think it's probably even more sensible to do that. I feel like I definitely need to get on board with the tiny habits thing because I go harder I go home Don't I have a bit of a dream I have wacky New Year's resolutions every year. I've been wanting to start a podcast last year though. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it does pay off having these crazy goals but yeah I've decided to take her ballet I took her playing piano

Unknown 16:53
and went to

Abbey O'Hara 16:57
go cold water swim in and I was too scared to get in the cold water. I'm just a bit. How do you feel when you look back on those things, you haven't achieved. And I'm not saying you should try and make you feel that way. Clearly, but what we're trying to suppose articulate is that we've got a lot of pressure on ourselves. Yeah, I am. I agree, I beat myself up that I haven't been to me know that I'm not keeping up with the piano practice but when you stop and think about it like that Why. Why are you putting this pressure on yourself no one else needs me to be able to play piano. So why am I pressurising myself to learn to play piano. Yeah, it's a real kind of fine balance I think between having ambition to feel like you're moving forward but also being kind to yourself. I've actually not made a new year's resolution this year. I think this is the first year, I've not done it. And, like you say, we've, we've lucked out and you know sometimes I'm someone that always needs something going on. And then the next thing that I need to go to be working to, but I think with everything that's gone on the last year, I've kind of enjoyed relaxing a little bit more, I would never have, you know, lay down on the sofa with a blanket and just sat and watch Netflix all day before because I'd felt like I was wasting my day whereas now I really see the importance of that and, you know, I might be having those days, a little bit more than I'd like to at the moment, but I don't want to beat myself up for it anymore. Sometimes I think you need those kind of things you're listening to yourself on you're listening to what you need. So I think that's, yeah I think you raise a really good point. So yeah goal setting, I think it's good for us. And within that. I think as well. It's important to prioritise a sense of community as well. We talk a lot about this. Start within. So within those goals clearly when we make goals we often concentrate on ourselves and what we need to achieve that year personally or how we need to personally develop as an individual, but I think the last year or so has taught us the importance of community and coming together around something bigger and actually powerful important how important a feeling of belonging is to our well being the last year or so we've been pushed apart, more than ever, and we've all really felt the strain of that, as human beings I often say this, we didn't evolve in isolation we evolved as groups so actually when we're making our goals this year. How can we build into that coming together with other people, or can we set goals where actually, it needs someone else to support us and it almost forces us to reach out for support. Because again, if we bring others along with us, we're going to have a much more fulfilled experience, and with a filling that need inherently as human beings that we have to connect with other people so maybe make. I don't know, half of your goals, individual task orientated goals for yourself your own development and make the other half things that you can do either as a group to connect with people or be at virtually the moment or maybe things that you can do for other people. We talked a lot about this before we've had a whole episode dedicated to in Episode One around doing something for other people to boost your own well being so can you employ that kind of selflessness to your goals as well. It's all part of this sense of community that can be really, really important. So, as we said earlier as well we've, we've been in this pandemic for 10 months now. So I think that shows a huge amount of resilience from everyone that we're all still here and still go in. So if we can get through the past, 10 months we can get through January can't wait. Yeah. Resilience is a word that's used a lot I think sometimes rightly sometimes wrongly. And sometimes we hold ourselves up to achieve unrealistic ideas of resilience. And it's really important to articulate that if we don't feel resilient on any day or we do feel a little bit down or we're struggling and that doesn't indicate weakness, and it's certainly a strength to be able to admit, and reach out for support. And like you said I think actually we can all give ourselves a big pat on the back for the resilience that we've all shown. We've all been in the face of what is a global crisis, resilience is defined as being able to adapt and cope in the face of adversity and we've all done that to a person so I think we have to really congratulate ourselves for that. And we've showed that we can do it exactly as you said and ways to perhaps, keep that going. And not to become kind of fatigued with everything and to retain that resilience just a little bit longer hopefully might be to actually look at what we do when bad things happen or when things go wrong. So, one exercise that I know we've both used before, is this idea of harmful or helpful. So what we do in case of adversity and it can help actually to just grab a piece of paper draw a line down the middle and give yourself two columns harmful and helpful and think about okay when something goes wrong, or something bad happens, or something frustrates me or I'm encountering any kind of difficult emotion. How do I react and then think about the helpful things you do. And then think about perhaps the negative coping strategies, the things that serve to make you feel more frustrated stressed. Can you give an example. Yeah. So, something that might be helpful for me at the moment if I'm encountering stress or something that's difficult to deal with. Might be taking the dogs out for a walk and I did say dogs plural because we have gained another one in the last week I was expecting you to say that in, in your news last podcast, but they didn't come into it yeah anyone who's been on any of our kind of sessions or anything like that we've probably heard, Pat our first Greyhound on the podcast before falling off the sofa or something but yeah we've gained Harry as well this week so I'm really happy with that. But yeah, I know that taking those guys out for a walk, is something that I will do when I'm encountering perhaps overwhelming emotions, just to give myself a bit of headspace a bit of exposure to nature a bit of exercise I know that that helps me talking is another thing that, obviously, I like to do as you can probably tell, and getting things off my chest is another kind of helpful strategy that I use to maintain my own resilience it just helped me to cope a little bit better. So what is the harmful section. So something like we talked about alcohol and we joke around it but if we are using that increasingly to cope with feeling overwhelmed, then that's just going to add to our levels of anxiety, stress, worry fear unease whatever it might be. It might be actually snapping at people becoming short and our response to others, perhaps, isolate ourselves even more so withdrawing away from people. It's not about judging ourselves for what we do, whether it is helpful or harmful. It's just about taking a look inside ourselves, kind of, as we did with gratitude earlier on, that we talked about, is actually looking inside and thinking what do we do, acknowledging that acknowledging that sometimes we will go to that harmful, but trying to focus on okay these are the helpful things that I know that I've done in the past have worked. Can I prioritise those Can I bring them to the front of my mind and cut out almost train myself to think that okay when something bad happens, I go into autopilot and I do those things that I know, keep me going, and maintain my resilience so I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel here I think that as I said we've done really really well as a, as a global population to keep going in the face of something that we've never been. We've never encountered before but just to keep us going because I'm aware that kind of locked down fatigue, can be a thing. That's what I was about to say is that, you know, maybe the first lockdown were when it was sunny, it was new, it was, you know, shiny we didn't, we didn't know what to expect we could still see a light at the end of the tunnel and we're all working towards. Later in the year but it was good, it's going to be better and then we've all been working towards. next year when it will all be better and now we're here in January 2020 wallet is still the same. And it's rubbish weather, and we just don't know when it's going to end anymore so I feel like a lot of people are kind of losing that that resilience and losing that determination to carry on at the moment, while all of that stuff that you've just described, puts us to the test anyway. So that's what I think where's the capacity in that so when something goes wrong we get some bad news or something goes wrong in the home or, you know, anything can happen life does throw these, these things at us. If we haven't got the capacity to deal with it, because of the time of year because of the pressures that come with it being January because of the length of time we've been locked down and not able to see people and all of this stuff. Then it's important to think about how we react. That's why we're talking about this being a human day, as opposed to believe that by thinking about how you react. And if you are worried about things and you are struggling, then one of your helpful coping strategies can be to identify those people who you know you trust, and you're willing to share these difficult emotions with and to reach out to as well. So there's a lot we can do in terms of preventative measures for when things might go wrong, because they will because life throws these things. And I guess that all ties in nicely with the last thing that I was going to talk to you about and that's self care, because that that describes a lot of the things that you're describing there it's all about how we look after ourselves how we be kind to ourselves. So I was just wondering if he had any self care tips that you could share that could help us now. Yeah, I mean we've we've talked about this a lot, and we've called start within. After all, so that is really what we're founded on isn't and looking after ourselves and looking inside and seeing what we can do to nourish our well being. And it's going to be very, very different for everybody. Something I'm quite passionate about at the moment is this idea of thinking. So getting things down on paper, or typing them out or writing a blog or sending somebody a message or an email or something, something to get all of those competing worries that might be circling in our heads right now, out onto paper or onto a text onto a computer or even just verbalising them. I think at the moment I'm seeing how important that is. For a lot of people, myself included, so thinking, would probably be my top one at the moment. In terms of the UK lockdown. Certainly one of the things we're allowed to do at the moment thankfully is still to get outside for a walk. And I don't think we've ever seen as many people out walking, but I think that's fantastic. Luckily, I'm really grateful something I've got gratitude for is that I kind of found walking a few years ago, we've done a podcast on it as a means to kind of more positive mental health and well being and so I will always advocate that probably even more so than a lot of more kind of demanding exercise because I think sometimes when you're out for an intention run or you're doing a circuit or going to the gym. That's all really good and it's really positive but you're not getting a chance to stop and take in nature energy and things like that, or even if you are in a built up area, just be able to notice the things around you. And I think we're able to do that increasingly at the moment because everything's a little quieter and we've got the time to do it so yeah taking time to get out for a walk would be my other one.

Unknown 28:09
What are you what do you do,

Abbey O'Hara 28:10
I was going to say, Take time but take time off to take time off work so if you're lucky enough to be someone that has been working since March. I know so many people that aren't taking those days off work and they have at the moment, depending on how your year end works at work, but I know a lot of people where they have something ridiculous like 20 days to use it by April, because they've because they've thought oh I've not been on holiday this year so why would I take a day off. In fact, they're all breaching burnout, but they've not had a day off in a year. And, yeah, I know that, like it's good to keep busy it's good to have that routine, but I feel like it's really important to have that screen break and have that time to slow down and switch off from things now and again, even if you know you do it at the weekends and we might be struggling of wondering of ways to film them at the moment, but I still think it's important to take that little bit longer and take time to rejuvenate and reset and it all ties in as well we've got the New Year's refreshing than a year so why not refresh yourself as well. 100%,

Unknown 29:21
we're taking a genuine opportunity to disconnect properly. And you can still do that.

Abbey O'Hara 29:26
Yeah, and I've written a blog about that. Actually, as well as on our website at the moment if you go to start within.co.uk slash blog. Nicely done. I can actually give another plug back to the episode we had in series one where Simon Blake, the CEO of Mental Health First Aid he raised that point as well around taking the holiday that, particularly the UK trade unions have worked so hard to establish for us, because it's there to give us that break it's not necessarily there to take holidays to go on a beach somewhere we obviously love to use it for that purpose when we can. But it's to give us a break we're not designed to work all day every day indefinitely. And I think the lockdown is actually, and the pandemic has made some people feel that way. Yeah, so if you are a manager or you work in HR encourage your team to say, let's get everyone to have that time that they were entitled to

Unknown 30:21
and use

Abbey O'Hara 30:22
some of the things we've talked about to kind of give them a more optimistic viewpoint on it. It's not about saying you need

Unknown 30:27
to take your holiday.

Abbey O'Hara 30:28
And that person is then resenting having to feel like well I'm just going to sit in my house anyway. There is a lot we can still do for ourselves so use some of the tips and the techniques and the ideas that we've discussed, to kind of make a more attractive prospect. Yeah. The final thing I was going to say then is that we did that little bit of word association. Earlier, I think I want. Okay, so now going to do about January because I thought that would be a nice way to round up and say, you know, January, isn't that bad. What are the good things about January. Okay, so my first one is January so yeah you know like shopping. Everything's reduced at this time if you just tried twice as much, but there we go. I think for some people, the kind of being able to reset the house and actually clean and tidy everything down I think at Christmas you get a lot of stuff that kind of accumulates got the decorations that's obviously lovely but after that you kind of get to strip everything away tidy everything away to a bit of a kind of clean up I think that feeling of a fresh new start can be

Unknown 31:39
something that appeals. I'm going to say

Abbey O'Hara 31:42
snow. And I know a lot of people think

Unknown 31:47
again of Milan

Abbey O'Hara 31:50
mean again in the traffic and again you can type out that negative thing and I actually quite liked that thing if you're always going back to when you were a kid on you when you look at when you open the curtains and you see snow on the ground and get that little kind of childish grin on your face. Yes, I agree.

Unknown 32:11
That was your one wasn't it.

Abbey O'Hara 32:13
Other things in January. A lot of new TV actually launched a lot of new TV series and at the moment, one of the only things we can do is sit and watch the TV so a lot of new kind of TV programmes films a chance to get stuck into some new series and binge some new series think that comes with January. Yeah. And one thing that I noticed on my walk today was snow drops coming through. So all those winter boards that you might have planted last year, or the crocus's snowdrops that kind of thing are going to start jumping out now. My one would be that we're past the kind of shortest day of the year. So, the days are getting longer evenings getting brighter, those kind of things. Three things really important you got more time. I feel like maybe not in a usual maybe in a usual year December's a bit crazy. So I feel like, not many people have plans in January so you can actually do what you want with your weekends and sit back and relax a little bit. I mentioned, we've got enough of dog. But you know that's that's a lot of things that we can come up with generic things that, you know, actually isn't that bad about January. Yeah, perfect and that can all go into everything we've talked about gratitude, thinking what there is to be thankful for around January. Goal setting so what is there to look forward to what can we plan for January with this things we can still do. And then, as we said, keeping that resilience going in the face of what is a tough time of year. There are things that we know that can help and it's just about identifying them and prioritising them as well. So hopefully those tips have inspired you a little bit today. Hopefully, even cheered you up a little bit less blue more about you. Yeah. and nothing else we've distracted you from Blue Monday for what 40 minutes or so. And it will soon be Tuesday. Okay, well thanks for listening guys yeah thank you everybody and look forward to. Entertaining you for the rest of series to. Enjoy. Thank you for listening to the happy employee podcast. You can find out more info@startwithin.co.uk

Transcribed by https://otter.ai