Blue Monday

Are you feeling down? In a foul mood? Feeling irritable? Fed up of the rain clouds and spending most of the day in the dark? Well you are not the only one.

Today is officially Blue Monday. Cheer up! It's not just you!

All over the land worn out workers are hanging on for the end of the month pay cheque after overspending at Christmas. The dark nights are not helping, nor are the failed resolutions set out with such hope at New Year. To make things worse, those expensively purchased Christmas memories are fading fast. So says Dr Cliff Arnall, a psychologist at Cardiff University who devised the Blue Monday formula. Does it make it any better now you know your mood can be calculated? Probably not.

Where T equals time since Christmas, D equals debt, W is weather, d is money due in January pay, Q time since failed quit attempt, M general motivational levels and NA is the need to take action, today, he calculates, we are in trouble.

Here is the formula: 1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA.

In short the Monday morning of the last full week of January is a deeper shade of blue than any other of the year.

But enough with the misery watch the video above of the sublime New Order and their 1980's classic Blue Monday that should cheer you up!