From the Atlanta Journal:

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/health/stories/012306worstday.html

It figures: Today is year's worst day

By SHELLEY EMLING
semling@coxnews.com
Published on: 01/23/06
London - Having a bad day? No wonder. According to one scientist, today,
Jan. 23, is the gloomiest day of 2006.

Cliff Arnall, a health psychologist at the University of Cardiff in Wales,
has devised a formula that combines personal and seasonal factors to
calculate the year's emotional low point.

Arnall said January is a time when people are simply working and don't

a lot of events or holidays to look forward to.

They are struggling to cope not only with the bleak weather, but also with
debts from holiday spending.

It's also a time when people are starting to feel like failures because
they've broken their resolutions so shortly after making them.

On paper, the formula looks like this:

W + (D-d) x TQ

-----------

M x NA

The variables are (W)eather, (D)ebt, (d) monthly salary, (T)ime since
Christmas, time since failure to (Q)uit a bad habit, low (M)otivational
levels and (NA), the need to take action.

"All these elements converge to make for a very unhappy day on the 23rd of
January," Arnall said.

He said his formula holds true for the United States as well as Britain,
except perhaps in places such as Texas, Florida, or California where

weather could help lift the day's depressing mood.

But Arnall said there are ways to beat the late January blues. Instead of
trying to turn over the same old new leaf every New Year's Day, he
suggested, why not resolve to make a change in a different month, such as
March or April?

"I also advise people to do the unusual every January," he said. "Go for a
walk in the woods or just get out and about."

Arnall suggested groups of friends could throw parties to celebrate the
23rd, since being around people you like can boost your spirits. People

could resolve to make a budget for their holiday spending next December.

Leslie Godwin, a Los Angeles-based author and life transition coach,

that January is a tough time of the year. She encouraged people to

whether the weather's bad or not.

"Exercise releases hormones that give us a sense of well-being, and it
should be seen as an antidote to feeling down or blue," she said.

But even if you aren't exercising, there is some good news: It's only six
months until what Arnall figures will be the happiest day of 2006 - June

"In June, there is a lot more of an emphasis on nature, with plenty of
flowers and trees in full bloom," he said. "There's also the likelihood

people are seeing more of their neighbors because of more daylight."

It might be expected that a formula for unhappiness would be created in
Britain. According to Ruut Veenhoven, a sociologist at Erasmus University
Rotterdam and creator of a new "life satisfaction index," Britain is

below 20 other nations, including far poorer countries like Ghana, Mexico
and Uruguay, when it comes to happiness.

The index, which asked people in 90 countries to rate how happy they were

a scale of 1 to 10, found Malta to be the happiest country, with the

States ranking 13th alongside Guatemala, Norway, and Uruguay.

It figures: Today is year's worst day