Feeling blue? There might be a reason

If you felt a little funky yesterday, you had every reason in the world. According to some learned experts, Monday, Jan. 22 was "blue Monday," the unhappiest day in the entire year.

A combination of Christmas bills, ugly weather and lapses in your New Year's resolutions collide to make that one day just downright miserable, the experts say.

Scientists say this time of year we all experience some "down" moments. If you take the reasons listed above and add in low motivational levels that hit this time of year, there's no escaping "blue Monday." Of course, those smart experts who tell us we should feel so bad also have recommendations for changing our attitude. Unfortunately, before next Jan. 22 rolls around we will have completely forgotten their advice and find ourselves slipping back into that depressed mode.

I find this somewhat amusing. The "experts" offered a list of things we can all do to improve our lives so that we don't experience these blah days of January. Are you ready? They suggest quitting smoking (if that applies), eating better, exercising more or getting a new job. Now I could be wrong but it seems to me that "experts" give this very same advice for just about every ill that plagues society. How many times do we need to be told to eat better and exercise more? If that's the best they can offer, I strongly suspect next Jan. 22 will be the same as this year.

In another somewhat related news item, a British newspaper Monday morning interviewed the person they said was the happiest man on Earth. They didn't just pick this character randomly. They conducted a series of brain wave tests to determine who could generate the most "happy" thoughts and who could block out the most negative thoughts. The winner was a Frenchman with a desk full of college degrees. He gave up his career to live with Tibetan monks and study Buddhism. He was able to generate massive amounts of positive thoughts through meditation.

So maybe the answer is meditation with less exercise and sloppy eating habits. But who wants to live in Tibet to find out?

Cheer up! Today is Jan. 23 and, according to the experts, the outlook is all up from here.