4 motivational tricks to beat the January blues

Try these quick and easy ways to give yourself oomph from breakfast to bedtime during the dark, dreary winter months.

With the excitement of Christmas over for another year, it’s back to the daily slog with dark mornings, long, cold nights and bad weather doing little to lift our mood in the first few months of the year.

But when you’re felling ‘bleugh’, these easy-peasy tricks can give you an energy boost to help you face the day with renewed enthusiasm.

1. Wake up your body

When you get out of bed in the morning, do a short series of deep-breathing exercises and stretches to gently wake up your body. Then, when you head downstairs for breakfast, briskly climb back up and down the stairs again a few times until you can feel your blood bumping with energy.

2. Eat

Have a warming breakfast, like a steaming bowl of berry porridge, and perhaps a healthy bowl of soup for lunch and a hearty stew for dinner. Not only are these meals comforting and good for you, but they keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Eating food full of nutrients will naturally make you feel healthier and more energised, but for an added boost, you could take a daily vitamin too. Swisse Women’s Multivitamin is a great option, packed with vitamin D, which is the sunlight vitamin, so it’s particularly important to keep your levels topped up in the dark winter months.

Still feeling peckish between meals? Try one of these healthy snacks for all day energy.

3. Freshen up

Use cucumber wipes or a facial spritz to freshen your face, and nip to the loos to clean your teeth, using a blob of minty fresh Oral-B toothpaste. Also try tying your hair up high on your head so you can feel cool air on your neck. These small steps will leave you feeling completely invigorated.

4. Take a power shower

If you’re lacking the motivation to leave the house, jump in the shower. Use a zingy citrus or mint-scented shower gel to awaken your senses and, if you’ve got time, wash your hair with a shampoo and conditioner from the new Herbal Essences Daily Detox collection, which uses mint to refresh and revive your scalp and hair. Finish with a blast of cold water to get your blood pumping and you’ll be good to go.

Do you have any energising tricks that get you going? Please do share them in the comments section below.