The Monday Myth

Hola Everybody,
Just to clarify a little regarding yesterday's blog: the blog really wasn't about praise per se. It was about uncovering what it is you feel you lack by silently giving it to others. If you attempted the exercise described, you would have understood this. One responder stated she was having a hard time doing the exercise because everybody in her life always gave her praise. I highly doubt that and if I had her in my office, I guarantee that within fifteen minutes we would be uncovering a whole stack of material for this exercise. Nevertheless, that's not my purpose here. That's work...

We all have aspects of our personality that are reactions to what we felt we lacked as we developed. It's normal -- part of the developmental process of every human being. If you can't find something you didn't get enough of it just means you're not looking in the right places, or that you're perfect.

::sigh::

It's Monday, the day I deconstruct popular myths! LOL

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-=[ Monday, Monday ]=-

It's common folk wisdom that Monday is the most depressing day of the week. Seems like many popular songs get a lot of mileage out of the accepted notion that Mondays are uniquely depressing. On the surface, it would appear logical enough that if we enjoy the freedom and activities of the weekend more than weekday work, then it should follow that Mondays suck.

In fact, some studies found that more suicides take place in the United States than on any other day of the week. However, when we focus on how the average person feels, we see a different story unfolding. A group of researchers at SUNY at Stony Brook, foe example, decided that if a blue Monday syndrome really existed, they would have to do more than ask people whether they believed their moods were foul on Mondays. And in fact, when asked, most people do say this (duh?!). However, what people often say about their emotional state may be more about their internalized assumptions than about what really happens.

Without revealing what they were looking for, the SUNY researchers asked forty-six married men to answer some questions about their moods every day for three months. Then they did the same thing with another fifty-eight men -- this time simultaneously getting the men's wives to report on how their husbands were feeling. All the results pointed in the same direction: The men were most cheerful during the weekend, but Mondays didn't depress them more than any other day of the week.

Taking on yet another approach, the researchers asked more than 600 men to fill out a questionnaire designed to measure, or be sensitive to, depression. Each subject filled out the form only once, but different people got it at different times of the week. It turned out that Monday's subjects didn't feel any worse, on average, than those who received the measure on other days. It would seem then that -- at least for men -- Mondays are really no more depressing than the rest of the week.

Love,

Eddie