The holidays are over, and a post-holiday funk has begun.
The twinkling lights are packed away, you polished off the last of the holiday cookies, and your inbox is threatening to unionize.
It’s the beginning of January and you feel… blah. Or meh?
This time of year is filled with pressured promises to do better over the next 12 months. Resolutions, goals, and expectations roll around in your head, but none of them motivate you to do much.
If anything, they make you want to grab a pie on the way home from work.
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Why the Post-Holiday Funk Feels So Real
The emotional whiplash of going from 30-plus days of festive atmospheres, back to the mundane grind, leaves you feeling kind of empty.
The Post-Holiday Blues are real.
You go from being surrounded by family and friends, celebrations, gift exchanges, and sweet treats around every corner, back to a daily routine without a trace of holiday buzz.
Those holiday treats, gifts, and cheer have been replaced with diets, detoxes, or some form of torturous exercise.
January is a gloomy weather filled buzzkill that needs something more exciting.
The Secret to Beating the Post-Holiday Blues
What’s the secret to beating the post-holiday blues? Fun, play, and laughter.
January feels like a drag because it carries the weight of expectations for the year ahead and punishment for what we didn’t accomplish in the year that just passed. So, you erase fun, play, and laughter from the agenda so you can stay focused on your more serious goals.
You don’t see joy, silliness, and spontaneity as necessities that support your more serious goals and expectations.
Fun, play, and laughter are critical to your happiness and well-being. They produce the energy that fuels your motivation to reach your goals. The produce “happiness chemicals” like dopamine and oxytocin that decrease your stress, while increasing your creativity and cognitive functions. (Cognitive functions = sharp thinking and decision-making.)
Dopamine gives you a motivational boost, while oxytocin builds a sense of connection and trust.
The positive thoughts and feelings you get from moments of lightness and laughter make you feel more empowered, confident, and open-minded.
Practical Ways to Add More Fun, Play, and Laughter to Beat the January Blues
When Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, asked people what made someone fun, the most popular answers were things like spontaneity, a willingness to be vulnerable, and an appreciation of the small joys.
“The primary thing that separates people who attract fun from their peers is their attitude,” Price said.
How do you cultivate a mindset that seeks more fun, play, and laughter?
- Be easy (or at easier) to laugh. This means you look for more reasons to laugh. When you are focused on perfection, productivity, or even profit, you lean toward a serious, work-focused mindset. It’s not looking for joy or happiness. In those serious moments when you can feel your stress building, take a moment to seek out something to laugh about.
- Lose the guilt about having fun. It’s not a waste of time. It’s not selfish. It’s healthy and makes you a better, more focused person. When you feel better, so does everyone around you. We don’t realize the amount of energy and brain space that negativity wastes.
- Injecting fun into your day is not about adding to your schedule, rather it’s about swapping things out that don’t bring you joy. Or, at least, finding a way to make the boring, mundane, or annoying more fun.
Some of the ways I have added more fun to my days:
- Including my friends in my exercise routine.
- Experimenting with new hobbies.
- Plan a “day-cation” to somewhere close.
- Trying one new food or restaurant each month.
- Take a few minutes each day to check-in on a friend.
- Add more comedy to my television diet.
- Know exactly where to look at funny animal videos when I need a laugh or pick-me-up.
Some of these activities require more effort or time than others, but I have a variety of things in my arsenal that can adapt to the amount of time I have.
January Doesn’t Have to Be All Resolutions and Regret
January doesn’t have to be a long, dreary stretch of ‘meh.’ By prioritizing small moments of joy, you can make it the month where you rediscover what lights you up.
What is one playful activity that you can do to add more fun, play, and laughter into this week?
