Wendy Grace
My husband suffers really badly with the January blues, whereas I don’t. This has an impact on the atmosphere in our house and I’m finding it difficult. What should I do?
This is difficult as I am sure you depend on your spouse as do your children, and when he is sluggish or low it of course has an impact.
Firstly it is important to sit down and talk to your husband about what is causing these feelings. The worst thing you can do is be accusatory or nagging him about his current state of mind, this will certainly make matters worse. Remember you are a team and you need to look at tackling whatever the root causes are together. Of course, often the January blues is just a combination of winter days, Christmas being over and getting back into routine. So the best thing to do is change the routine!
Trying to help your spouse is something you can look on as a huge positive, as most of the ways to beat the January blues you can do together or as a family. Don’t see it as getting him out of the blues, or as a problem you need to fix, instead see it as an opportunity to do lots of positive things with the whole family.
Nearly all the remedies for beating the January blues are positive things for everybody to get involved in.
Family activity
Set aside each day of the week to do a family activity, something that you all enjoy, this could be watching a family film, taking a walk together or enjoying some of those board games you got so much fun out of during Christmas.
Do make sure getting exercise is a part of it, get moving and get fresh air and do it as a family, why not plan a family hike this weekend?
Make sure you set aside some time for just the two of you together as well as trying to help your husband get some ‘me time’ for himself, is there something he loved doing that has stopped? Could you be the one to encourage him to take up that old hobby that he loved again?
Often negative thoughts and confidence knocking niggling in our heads can make us feel down, are you doing enough to boost your husband’s confidence and make him feel valued and appreciated?
Try to start and end the day with thanking him for something or saying something uplifting, of course this can be as simple as saying I love you.
Why not as a family at dinner time start with each person saying a prayer of gratitude, something they are thankful for happening that day. Each evening you can all write them down on a little piece of paper and put them in your gratitude jar, and at the end of the week look back over them. Being grateful has been proven to improve mental wellbeing.
So get out, get time together and be grateful!