Monday the 18th of January 2010, i.e., the third Monday in January, is being dubbed ‘Blue Monday’ by the media as recent research indicates that it is the most depressive day of the year. We’re all hit by the reality of the debt we got into last year and particularly over Christmas, we’re plagued by the few pounds we all pack on on average over the festive season, and what’s more, the gloomy weather is compounding it all to make Britons feel extremely down in the dumps today.
‘Blue Monday’ is nothing to mock either, we’re not just talking about a collective wave of malaise flowing over the country, we’re talking about people seriously contemplating their blackest thoughts during the month of January, with the height of depression really hitting home today as the pressures all around us mount up and cause us all to feel really overwhelmed by our lives.
Well, if today really is the most depressive day of the year – and we’ve no reason to disbelieve the media and the research findings, why don’t you think about making a significant change in your life and moving abroad, seeing a new country, adopting a new culture and broadening not just your physical horizons but your personal and spiritual ones too. Travel broadens the mind, so they say, so why not begin on the path to a whole new you in 2010 by exploring the options open to you in another country? It is possible – and we’ll show you how.
In all the nations I’ve lived in in my life I have never heard about the third Monday in January being the most depressive day of the year…and I have lived in industrialised nations and on holiday islands, I’ve worked hard abroad throughout the month of January and I’ve sunned myself on a beach too – and whether I was working, resting or playing, I never felt dissatisfaction in my own life, nor did I get the impression that those around me were melancholy. But being back in Britain right now and I can really feel the sense of deep routed and deep seated unhappiness all around me…
It’s no surprise that Brits drink too much and that there is an increase in the number of middle class, middle age alcoholics who are quietly notching up their beer and wine miles on the nice leather sofas in their nice suburban homes. These people have got absolutely nothing to look forward to. Just as those who are living below the poverty line, on the breadline or ‘quite comfortably thank you’ have nothing to look forward to in the UK other than a ‘decade of debt,’ according to all the news sources you tap into at the moment.
The UK is drowning in a sea of debt, it is a nation being taxed to the hilt by stealth and by brazen daylight robbery, it’s a country crippled by a foot of snow and then flooded when the snow all melts. Employers generally have no respect for their workers, having been taught that life is cheap by a government that went to war for oil (allegedly). We’ve been encouraged to get into debt during a decade when the balance sheets were being doctored to make us all think we were wealthy as our houses rose in value and credit became exceptionally easy to come by…and now, as we tot up the mountain of money we owe to banks, credit card companies, the tax man and even our family or friends, and we realise we have nothing that makes us happy to show for it, of course we’re going to feel ‘blue.’
If you’ve packed on a few pounds, are fed up at the state of your pale face in the gloom of the early morning light in the bathroom mirror as you get ready to commute to work in the dark on an unreliable and extortionately expensive train, and you know that in reality you cannot spend your way out of trouble to try and make yourself feel better – after all your home is already bursting at the seams with ‘stuff’ bought to enhance your life which failed in its efforts to do so – it really is time to make a very dramatic change to your life.
You can sit there contemplating your blackest emotions and looking for a fast way out – or you can truly believe that actually, there is a better way open to you in life. Why do you have to stay in the UK and watch the country fall on its knees under debt as boom has once again turned to bust? Why do you have to stay in a country where there is a leader in power who no one voted for – not even members of his own political party? Why do you have to stay in a job where you may think you’re valued, but when cut backs are made, you’ll discover that actually, you’re as disposable as the paper cup you drink your coffee from in the morning.
To get to a position in life where you can feel truly happy, you need to find personal satisfaction – for you that may be a case of becoming your own boss and having more control over your destiny. Alternatively, it may be as relatively simple as moving to a nation where the sun shines for more than just a few days every year! Perhaps you’d like to live in a country where life is more important than work, where people don’t define you by ‘what you do for a living’ but who want to get to know you for who you really are. Maybe you could trade up or – who cares – even trade down and start a new life living in a new country not crippled by the woes of the UK.
The situation in Haiti at the moment should serve as a reminder to us all that life can be suddenly cut short, altered forever or damaged irrevocably in the blink of an eye – so rather than suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in your own life, why not look to your own future and make it a more pleasant prospect from today. If you would like to move abroad why not begin by thinking about where you would like to live and/or what you would like to do. If you’re in a skilled job now perhaps your skills will easily transfer overseas – in which case, why not target some international employment agencies with your CV, see what’s available.
If you have a given nation in mind, begin by researching their residency criteria – do you need a job offer to move there, can you just relocate thanks to your British passport, (see, free travel and relocation options are a good reason to be British!), or have you got to go through a visa application process. Learn what it is you need to do, and then start doing it. There is nothing like being proactive in your own life for the betterment of your current position to make you start feeling very positive and empowered again. With positivity and empowerment comes the continued strength required to find the best route out of the UK and into your new life abroad.
Stop dreaming and start acting! No one out there is going to be able to guess what it is you want and need in your own life to make it better, you have to determine where you want to be next year on the third Monday in January – then you have to believe you can make it happen! There are forums and websites, books and resources out there to help you…you are not trapped in your currently life, you hold the power to change your life for the better, now, and you hold that power in your own hands…
