Like many others, I’ve never really looked forward to Mondays or the return to work after the weekend. There was a time in my last role when Mondays felt heavy long before they arrived. Even thinking about going back to work would cast a shadow over the weekend. By the time Monday came, I was already braced for the week ahead.
Often, as soon as I walked through the door on a Monday morning after saying good morning my next sentence would be downbeat, setting a negative tone for the week before it had even begun. At the time, I didn’t fully recognise how much this had become part of my routine.
A colleague gently pointed this out to me. They noticed how negative I had become and shared their concern that others might notice too including how it could affect my work. While difficult to hear, that conversation became an important turning point. It helped me recognise how my own inner narrative was shaping not only my experience of Mondays, but also the environment I was bringing into work.
My consistent complaints about Mondays eventually led this same colleague who was hearing my growing negativity to suggest that I attend a seminar with them run by an organisation called Action for Happiness.
Action for Happiness developed what they call the 10 Keys to Happier Living a set of evidence-informed strategies grounded in research on wellbeing. Part of this work looks beyond traditional measures of success, such as GDP for wealth, and instead explores what contributes to happiness, gratitude, contentment, and overall wellbeing at a societal level.
What this research highlights are that some countries with relatively low financial GDP score highly on measures of happiness and life satisfaction. One well-known example is Bhutan, a country that has less in financial terms but places a strong emphasis on wellbeing through its focus on Gross National Happiness (GNP).
Through consistent attendance at the seminars, and by beginning to engage with the 10 Keys to Happier Living, something gradually shifted for me. What stood out was not a push towards forced positivity, but an invitation to change what I was measuring. Much like Bhutan’s focus on Gross National Happiness rather than financial output alone, I began to value how I was arriving at the start of the week with kindness, intention, and connection rather than judging Mondays purely by productivity or pressure.
Language plays a role here too. The phrase “Blue Monday” itself carries a powerful message. Blue has become shorthand for something negative a colour we associate with low mood, lack of energy, or dread. We hear it in everyday language too, when we say we are “feeling blue.”
When we use these phrases, they can quietly shape how we expect to feel. The inner critic is quick to adopt this narrative, turning the start of the week into something to endure rather than something to meet often before the day has even begun.
For many of us, Mondays aren’t blue because of the work itself, but because of the voice that greets us when the week begins. The inner critic often shows up early with familiar messages: you should feel more motivated by now, you’re already behind, this week is going to be just as hard as the last. By the time the day has properly started, that voice may already have written the story of the entire week.
What I found particularly helpful about the 10 Keys to Happier Living is that they offered a different measure altogether. Rather than asking how productive I was, they invited me to consider kindness, connection, mindfulness, learning, and meaning. Where the inner critic pushed urgency and judgement, the keys offered perspective and compassion.
With time and practice, my negative view of Mondays and of the week ahead began to soften. Mondays were no longer something to endure, but something I could enter with intention. I began to arrive at work with a more grounded and compassionate outlook one that I needed, and one my colleagues and clients deserved.
The impact wasn’t limited to work; it filtered into other areas of my life too. Monday no longer felt like a verdict on the week ahead. It became a starting point one I could meet in the moment, with intention rather than judgement.
A Gentle Invitation
If Mondays feel heavy for you, it may not mean that your work or your life is wrong. It may simply mean that the inner critic has taken the microphone.
The invitation is not to love Mondays, but to notice the voice that meets you there, and to ask whether a kinder, steadier one might also be allowed to speak.
In the same way that Gross National Happiness invites us to measure life beyond wealth alone, moving from the idea of “Blue Monday” to simply “It’s Monday” allows us to meet the start of the week differently with presence rather than judgement, and with optimism, hope, belief, and acceptance rather than dread.
With thanks to Action for Happiness for their ongoing work in offering practical, compassionate ways to support wellbeing one day, and one Monday, at a time.
If you’re curious to explore the 10 Keys to Happier Living for yourself,
you can find more at www.actionforhappiness.org
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