Today marks the start of Children’s Mental Health Week, organised by the charity Place2Be, with this year’s theme: "Know Yourself, Grow Yourself." The aim is to help children and young people across the UK embrace self-awareness, explore their strengths, and understand how personal growth can support their well-being and resilience.

While we now know that "Blue Monday" is more of a marketing myth than a scientifically proven phenomenon, the feelings it evokes—low energy, lack of motivation, and post-holiday blues—are all too real for many of us in mid-January. The concept, coined by a travel company in 2005, dubbed the third Monday of January the "most depressing day of the year" due to factors like cold weather, dark days, and the financial aftermath of the holidays. Despite the questionable origins, it's true that winter can bring mood lows, often linked to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), reduced sunlight, and the general dreariness of this time of year.