Our team sorts through all blog submissions to place them in the categories they fit the most - meaning it's never been simpler to gain advice and new knowledge for topics most important for you. This is why we have created this straight-forward guide to help you navigate our system.
And there you have it! Now your collection of blogs are catered to your chosen topics and are ready for you to explore. Plus, if you frequently return to the same categories you can bookmark your current URL and we will save your choices on return. Happy Reading!
Is it really the most depressing time of year?
Here’s Gemma’s take on what is most commonly known as the most depressing month.
I sit writing on what is officially known as ‘Blue Monday’ and as the BBC define it:
” Blue Monday – also known as the most depressing day of the year.
Coined by psychologist Cliff Arnall in 2004, it falls on the third Monday in January every year.
He came up with it after a holiday company asked him for a “scientific formula” for the January blues.”
I was intrigued by this, and not to rub it in, but I have had an absolutely brilliant day! The sun has been shining, I have been doing the job I love (working in a school, teaching children), I’d remembered all my equipment, my sandwich at lunch tasted great and then I finished the day with a spot of yoga, as insisted on by my daughter and a home cooked meal. Lovely.
So, it got me thinking, as well as Blue Monday, January also has a bad reputation and reading a self help website I came across this statement:
“January is the cruellest month. It can feel more like a nightmarish 5-year time prison than a 30-day month. If you’re a university student, your firstessays and mocks of the academic year are due around now. For good little worker bees, various projects ramp up as the New Year begins to pick up speed. And that to the fact that it’s freezing and there’s only 5 hours of daylight a day, that’s a helluva cocktail for bad mental health.”
Hmmm. And there it is. Helpful comments about January. It sometimes feel like a cruel marketing ploy to get you actually believe it and this fits so well with one of the mindset sessions I was delivering to a class of Y5/6 children.
In this session we were talking about success, people we admire and what qualities these people have. It was lovely actually, even though I often get the usual YouTube celebs, footballers or famous singers, I also got stories about family members, mums and dads who ensure that they have a happy childhood, tea on the table and clean clothes to wear.
We then watched this video and I ask:
What did all these people have in common?
What qualities do they have?
The children came up with some cracking answers today such as determined, resilient, perseverance, self belief, desire to learn to name but a few. And the bit that rings with Blue Monday? All these people ignored what other people said and kept on going.
There has been a lot of research into the impact that other people’s opinions, words and actions have on others. The mouldy piece of fruit that when looked at the next day, has spread to the fruit around it in the bowl.
“a single negative word can increase the activity in our amygdala (the fear center of the brain). This releases dozens of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters, which in turn interrupts our brains’ functioning.” (Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman)
This is true about the medias desire with “Depressing January” and “Blue Monday.” The more we hear these words, the more we begin to believe it, the more we live up to the truth. But we have the power to change and not follow the opinion of someone else if we don’t want to. We have the power to change our thinking to more positive ones and defy the laws of expectation. What we do need is out backpack of skills that the children rattled off today. A determination to not let the cold weather and dark mornings affect our mood but flip the script in that the stars are always best in winter months, the owl, I can hear near my house, is out and about at 6pm and the crisp walks with our wellies make family time magical. Resilience that things will pass, bad things come and go, but we can learn from them. We persevere when things get tough and believe that happiness is something we create, not something ready made and we have the power to make January amazing, the start of new things, exciting projects, new adventures and endless opportunity, as long as we want it enough.
We have a saying here at Grow Your Mindset, “What you think, you will become.” Think sad, upsetting, depressing thoughts and the behaviour will follow. Think positively, with happy and optimistic thoughts and well….you know the rest.
To read more about the effect negative words have on our brain visit:
The author
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Are you looking for solutions? Let us help fund them! Nexus Education is a community of over 11,000 schools that come together to share best practise, ideas and CPD via online channels and free to attend events. Nexus also offers funding to all school groups in the UK via nexus-education.com
Established in 2011, One Education is a company at the heart of the education world, supporting over 600 schools and academies. Our unique appeal as a provider is in the breadth and synergy of the services we offer, supporting school leaders, teachers and support staff to achieve the best possible outcomes for their pupils and staff.
School Space is a social enterprise that has empowered schools for over 12 years through their profitable and hassle-free lettings services. So far, they’ve generated over £5 million in revenue for education, helping to connect over 200 schools with their local communities.
Operoo is a school operations and productivity platform. We help thousands of schools and trusts to eliminate slow, expensive and repetitive tasks. Operoo helps schools streamline and digitise processes, drastically reducing the associated costs: From student pre-admissions, permission forms, payments, and school trips; to medical information and emergency contacts, incident reporting, staff agreements, and more in over 100 languages.
Unify is an online sales and marketing tool that allows users to create tailored personalised documents in moments.
There’s nothing special about the energy we sell. In fact, it’s exactly the same energy as all our competitors provide. But there is something special about the way we do it. Where others complicate the process, we simplify it. Where others confuse customers with hidden terms, we’re an open book. And where others do all they can to make as much money from their customers as possible, we do all we can to make as little. Everything we do, we do it differently. Our customers are a privilege. One we’ll never take advantage of.
Securus provide market-leading monitoring solutions to safeguard students on ALL devices both online and offline. We also offer a full monitoring service, where we carry out the monitoring on behalf of the school, freeing up valuable staff resources. From the smallest school to large MAT groups, Securus offers safeguarding protection for all!
As European leaders of Time Management Solutions, Bodet offer Lockdown, Clock, Bell & PA Systems. Harmonys, our five-in-one IP/PoE Bell System, provides a unique customisable lockdown or panic alarm alert. Melodys, a Wireless Bell System, is useful where wiring can be difficult.