Don’t let Blue Monday drag you down. Practice a bit of self-care to make it through. We believe in you!

The most depressing day of the year is upon us. Or is it? “Blue Monday,” which falls on January 21st this year, is largely an invention of the marketing industry. In 2005, a travel company developed a pseudo-mathematical calculation to determine which day of the year we most collectively feel like shit. It factored in things such as time elapsed since Christmas, and the time elapsed since failing at all our New Year’s resolutions. You know, hard science.

To be fair, it probably caught on in culture because … late January does kind of suck.

The post-holiday letdown is real. The fear of getting truly stuck in to a brave new year is real. And the burning desire to completely Konmari your life in preparation for 2019, while lacking the time and/or logistical support necessary to actually do it, is real too.

So how will we make it through this month? What will help? Here are a few ideas that you can build into your self-care routine, in no particular order. Or don’t. No pressure.

• Read. Get lost in a new story, poetry collection, or audiobook, even for just a few minutes, whenever you can fit it in. It’s like carrying around a little imaginary world you can escape into, without the energy-sapping quality of TV.

• Pick one drawer in your house and re-organize it. Yes, you can pick the easiest drawer. It’ll still give you a little boost of accomplishment to do it.

• Obtain an adult colouring book. No, not like “adult” adult, it doesn’t have to be raunchy. But it can be, I guess, if you want. Colour by yourself or with your kids. Maybe by yourself, if it’s raunchy. Ok I’m going to stop saying raunchy now.

• Do your nails. Or your brows. Or whatever little grooming thing you like to have done, that you can make time for. It can really make a difference in how you feel.

• Try a weighted blanket. Seriously. It’s cold, so you’re probably all about that blanket life anyway right now, and weighted blankets are a real advance in blanket technology.

• Watch some ASMR videos on YouTube. If you don’t know what ASMR is, uh … you’ll either love it or hate it. (You don’t have to watch them if you hate it.)

• Text a friend a meme about being grumpy. See what they send back.

And if all that fails to keep you from slipping into winter crankiness, then it’s okay to be cranky. Valentine’s Day chocolate is already on the shelves, and I think the science is fairly clear on chocolate being a mood-enhancer, so pick some up and hide it in a bag of frozen broccoli so the kids won’t see. Put on that New Order song and dance around. We can do this!