'January Blues' | Wellbeing is a year-round issue, not just for one winter month

If there’s one word that follows January right now, it tends to be ‘blues’.

It’s an oft-used phrase to encompass the back-to-work ‘blues’ as well as that January feeling of ‘meh’ that many people have. January Blues can be beaten, or so we’d all like to think. There's even 'Blue Monday' which falls on January 15th this year - a PR stunt by a travel company which has, of course, gained traction and become a big focus of much wellbeing debate in the early weeks of the year.

Surely it's no bad thing to draw attention to these feelings, especially at this cold, grey time of the year in the UK? However, gimmicks aside, the word ‘blues’ actually has a lot more to it than you might first imagine, and when we take it in a deeper context – to imply a negative feeling, decreased wellbeing and mental health challenges, it suddenly becomes more serious.

‘Beating’ the January Blues isn’t as simple as a wellbeing mantra to start off the year, and, more importantly, supporting staff wellbeing needs to be seen as a year-round endeavour, entrenched I policy and practise, not just gimmicks and seasonal efforts.