January is the most despairing month of the year; every year! So many set themselves up for a paralysing year ahead by setting lofty ambitions disguised as New Year Resolutions.
If successful, great. More often than not though, resolutions fail. To be exact, by the third Monday of January. There’s even a name for it; Blue Monday. A name that was coined as a PR stunt by a travel agency intent on promoting summer holidays right at the moment people are feeling at their lowest!
January should be the month for self-healing and reflection. Not for suffering from the January blues or being at your most bruising on yourself on Blue Monday.
Prepare your home to prevent the January Blues from creeping into your home.
5 Tips to Prevent the January Blues
1. Address the loneliness aspect of January
December is the month of get-togethers. Family members come around, work parties, and gatherings.
By the time January rolls around, everyone is back to life as usual. All work and no play. Embroiled in the dramas in their own lives, they have little time to visit, or to video call.
2. Frame something motivational while avoiding ambitions
Framed quote posters or inspirational graphics are frequently used in January as an aid to help people stick to resolutions, aka goals for the year ahead.
The trouble with that is, by the time Blue Monday rolls around and there is a high likelihood the resolution has failed, the framed quote will only serve as a reminder of failure. Think things through and frame something that will uplift your mood regardless of whether you fail or succeed at any goal you set.
3. Design with colour
January is a bitter month. Cold, wet, dark, and gloomy with very little to inspire and far less motivation to get out into the outdoors to brave the harsh weather.
More time is spent indoors in January and given the huge transition from bright and sparkly décor in December to bland in January, it is no mystery why people suddenly feel a drop in mood right after Christmas.
Get some colour in your décor. Change your frames to coloured frames, or even just a coloured mount within your frames. On the side tables and mantels where the festive ornaments once sat, replace them with sparkly tabletop frames, personalised frames, or colourful ornaments.
The biggest missing component will be the tree. Large, leafed plants can be an ideal replacement. Real or fake.
4. Create a photo montage
A photo montage is so simple that anyone, regardless of experience with art projects, can successfully pull it together.
All it requires is more than a single photo. The aim is to create a storyline using visuals only.
In the vast majority of montages, it is a collection shown together. As an example, multi-photo frames can be used to house together anything from 2 to 25 photos in a single frame. Those can be photos of people, such as a family collection and wedding photos, etc.
Montages can also be used to create a collection of any specialist hobby someone has. As an example, a photographer specialising in trainspotting may create a photo montage of the best photos taken throughout the year. The same can be done for any subject.
You do not need to be a photographer either. If you don’t take the photos, you can find them online, in hobbyist magazines, or even taking photos of product packaging and then framing those as part of a montage.
5. Try something for one month only
Swap the traditional New Year’s Resolution for a one-month trial of any hobby or interest, other than joining a gym. Take up one aspect of photography, such as flat lay that can be done with anything indoors, or micro photography that can be done in the garden, painting, read some books that have skipped your attention, sew, knit, try completing a difficult jigsaw. Anything that can be done indoors that takes your mind off the harsh reality of January can only be a good thing.