It’s time to celebrate all the little things in life, according to an annoyingly upbeat Belgian campaigner. But what if whingeing is actually good for you?
April may be the cruellest month – but January is easily the most depressing. The weather outside is frightful and, around this time, everyone’s despondently giving up their new year resolutions. It’s dreary and dark and, if you’re the complaining sort (which, you may have noticed, I quite definitively am), there’s – waves hands vaguely at our crumbling dumpster fire of a planet – a lot to complain about. Indeed, a new report has found that champagne sales are sinking. Not just because of dry January, but because people can’t find much to celebrate.
Enter Isabelle Gonnissen, a Belgian woman who seems to be annoyingly obsessed with positivity. She wants all the whingers and whiners out there to change their tune and celebrate the little things in life. Several years ago, Gonnissen launched a 30 Days Without Complaining challenge in Belgium; this year, she’s reportedly bringing it to the Netherlands. According to the NL Times, the campaign launched on Blue Monday (the third Monday of January), which is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. It probably isn’t, by the way. Rather, Blue Monday is a pseudoscientific PR stunt that entrenched itself into our consciousness because it feels kind of true – but I’m not going to grumble about that now. In fact, I’m going to try not to grumble at all. There’s no way I can give up complaining for 30 days, but I’ll heroically give it a go for the next few sentences.
Continue reading… It’s time to celebrate all the little things in life, according to an annoyingly upbeat Belgian campaigner. But what if whingeing is actually good for you?April may be the cruellest month – but January is easily the most depressing. The weather outside is frightful and, around this time, everyone’s despondently giving up their new year resolutions. It’s dreary and dark and, if you’re the complaining sort (which, you may have noticed, I quite definitively am), there’s – waves hands vaguely at our crumbling dumpster fire of a planet – a lot to complain about. Indeed, a new report has found that champagne sales are sinking. Not just because of dry January, but because people can’t find much to celebrate.Enter Isabelle Gonnissen, a Belgian woman who seems to be annoyingly obsessed with positivity. She wants all the whingers and whiners out there to change their tune and celebrate the little things in life. Several years ago, Gonnissen launched a 30 Days Without Complaining challenge in Belgium; this year, she’s reportedly bringing it to the Netherlands. According to the NL Times, the campaign launched on Blue Monday (the third Monday of January), which is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. It probably isn’t, by the way. Rather, Blue Monday is a pseudoscientific PR stunt that entrenched itself into our consciousness because it feels kind of true – but I’m not going to grumble about that now. In fact, I’m going to try not to grumble at all. There’s no way I can give up complaining for 30 days, but I’ll heroically give it a go for the next few sentences. Continue reading… Life and style, Mental health, Health, Society
