Category: Safety

Blue Monday

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Apparently today is Blue Monday.

N&K at the immersive Van Gogh exhibit in August 2021.https://www.imagine-vangogh.com/

The 3rd Monday in January is the day where it all comes to a sad peak of the post-holiday blues, credit card bills, dark nights and perhaps health concerns from all the rich food.

There is definitely something to this, we think. 

Everyone is excited about the summer.

Autumn is about getting ready for school, hunkering down for winter.

Winter can be beautiful with snow here in P-N-dubs. But, in the lower mainland, the snow quickly becomes an unpalatable mess of mud, salt, slushy snow and rain.  Yuck! 

So, we look forward to the Christmas festivities.  Takes our mind off of the gross weather and on to the pleasantries of baking, shopping, wrapping, eating & partying.  Of course, this year, Ommi forced us to retreat to our safe bubbles. No work parties, no Secret Sanat, no extravagant dinners with a bunch of fab friends…

Reality sets in… hence Blue Monday.

What can I do about it if it’s reality?

We’re not saying you should ignore reality. What we’re saying is that this is a good time to get reacquainted with self-care & joy.

  • Connect with loved ones virtually
  • Engage in self care
  • Get back to healthy eatingTry exercising – especially walks on the brighter weather days
  • Take your medications as prescribed (when feeling blue, it’s easy to forge
  • Talk to your health professional about the SAD lamp or other ways to copeKeep a regular sleeping schedule
  • Enjoy what you have. Be mindful.
  • Put your worries in a box for a few hours. Worrying all day will not help solve anything.
  • Talk about it or journal
  • Think about fun stuff to do. When was the last time you painted? Sledded? Collaged? Read a novel? Took your pups or kids out for a fun walk? Played a video game? Made a snowperson? Made a slideshow of photos? Snuggled your pet or loved one?

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Some of these suggestions might not even float your boat. And that’s okay.  But you’ve got some other ideas in that noggin of yours.  So get to steppin, you beautiful beast.

This list might be overwhelming.  Pick 1 or 2 things that seem interesting and go from there.

What are Nals & Kells doing?

I’m getting back into writing this blog.  Kells is still recoveringfrom Christmas cheer. & we are both doing another session of burly classes this month.

Why hello there, 2021 and N&Kers!

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Sorry lovelies. Both Kells & I have been MIA during the past few months.

The pandemonia has affected us all greatly on a personal level. And if you’ve been working through this time, you know the precautionary measures have been stressful as well. For employees as well as for your customers, clients and gen pop.

For those folks who have lost their jobs or their businesses… it’s more than just losing income. For some, it’s losing part of their identity. Worries and uncertainty have increased. (I’m not a big fan of that B uncertainty.)

Even if you were planning to leave, the pandemic affected your choice. Choice is empowering. But some have chosen to leave out of concern. Not all job sites are following safety protocols. So though it might have been a personal choice to leave, it put a strain on household finances.

Some folks had the opportunity to work from home. This also came with relationship struggles. Kids were out of school with not a whole heck of a lot to do. Students didn’t get the education they were expecting. Graduations didn’t happen or looked radically different.

Pandemonia has challenged those folks who are retired, too. There may not be a loss of income. But there was a huge losses in social lives, activities, recreation, exercising… surgeries and healthcare were put off.

The whole reason for calling COVID-19 a pandemic is that it is highly contagious and deadly. This virus has taken a lot of lives. This virus has changed quality of lives. There is a profound loss for families, friends and communities.

I can remember a day early in the pandemic in March 2020… Trudes had already announced All Canadians must stay at home. I was walking outside on my lunch break, taking advantage of the lovely weather.

I suddenly realized there was no sound around me for those few moments. No cars, no air brakes on trucks, no buses, no people, no pups, no coffee shop lingerers. I don’t even remember chirping birds or puppy barks. That area is typically bustling at lunch. (Well the entire day, really.) The only sound I could hear was paper gently nuzzling the street in the spring wind.

It was amazingly fascinatingly surreal. How could a microscopic thing –and to boot, one that I hadn’t seen myself–impact us on an individual, municipal, federal and global scale? This thing that’s not quite living is changing our health, economy, societal structure, relationships, state of being… It was a particularly a-ha moment for me. I felt like I was viewing a slo-mo video. But nothing visual was really going on.

Anyways, so here we are in 2021.

New virus variants, some Canadian airlines volunteered to remove sunny destinations (temporarily), masking/distancing/vaccine-ing. Living with the new normal.

Kells & I love to be positive. We love to put a smile on people’s faces. We both try to enjoy life and get inspired to write and take fun photos for y’all. This helps both K & I to be mindful of the positives that life has to offer. But it has been a struggle in the past months. So, we wanted to let y’all know that though we’ve been a bit MIA, we still love and appreciate you N&Kers. And we’re going to bring you more content. Stay tuned! xo, N&K

How are you guys managing? Drop a comment below.