Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

‘Blue Monday’ is fast approaching and with it for some of us there will be increase in stress and anxiety levels.

Falling on the third Monday of January – January 20 for 2025 – it has been deemed the most depressing day of the year due to the combination of post-Christmas blues, the gloomy weather and many people being in ‘the red’ with credit card bills or stretching their December pay cheque with five long weeks to financially manage.

But the January is a good time to reflect on the year past and to think about your intentions for the year ahead, insists Galway psychotherapist and holistic counsellor Mary Lynn.

“I do this on January 1 myself – I prioritise this practice as the start of my self-care and personal development for the year, and I feel it’s a good template to start as I mean to go on. I gifted myself a lovely notebook a few years ago just for this exercise,” she reveals.

She invites her clients to reflect on the year gone, looking at all areas of the life, be it personal, professional, friends, family, exercise and social activity.

“By reflecting on the highs, lows and in-betweens, they may notice a gap or their attention might be brought to an area of their life where they feel they should invest more time and energy going forward for the new year. I remind the client of the importance of noticing what they have done and what has happened rather than just focus on the negative and what they did not achieve.”

She doesn’t particularly focus on new year resolutions but asks them to identify what particular feeling they would like to have in 2025.

“Start small with incremental changes so it does not seem too daunting or overwhelming and to focus attention on effort rather than the end result. That might be a feeling of being more present or to slow things down or to become more intentional with their time.

“Working with the intention of a feeling is far more achievable and successful than new year resolutions as resolutions usually start off great such as going to the gym, starting a diet, but if and when something puts you and your resolutions off course that’s when many people  give up and the cycle of shame and feeling bad about yourself starts all over again and many clients report feeling a like a failure.”

Instead of focusing on success or failure, Mary prefers to focus on effort and getting nearer or closer to that feeling or intention each time.

“What you focus on expands and this does not happen immediately it takes time and practice. For example, if the feeling is being more present in life, the client would write down what being more present in their life means and would look like and feel in their life.

Pictured: Psychotherapist Mary Lynn believes we should think about the feeling we want to create for 2025.