Christmas is over. It’s cold. It’s raining. You’re wind battered and the looming darkness of each evening make you pray for the sun god to return. Yes, it’s January.
We’ve come up with a simple list to ease you, your friends, family and strangers through this horrendous month.
Help yourself by helping others.
1) Pay Someone’s Bus / Train / Luas Fare
You’re queuing in the rain to lob your change in to the Dublin Bus charity box when there’s a delay! The person in front of you has forgotten to top-up their Leap card and has no change. “FEAR NOT fellow human being, I am here to help!” You pay the fare and shrug it off like a modern day Rockefeller. “No biggie.” Little acts of kindness have big impacts and the tale of your heroic act will forever be regaled in the annals of time.
2) Smile
Simply smile. Walk the streets with your head help up high and smile at those you make eye contact with. Say ‘hello’ or a classy ‘evening’. This brief and friendly human encounter with someone could mean more than you think. But be careful not to overdo it though, too much and you’ll be on the next bus heading for looney town.
3) Free Lunch!
The next time you’re preparing your lunch or buying it, make some more or buy an extra sambo. Give it to a colleague or even better the homeless person you pass daily. You’ll get kudos from your colleague or help someone in a less fortunate situation. Just don’t go handing out that quinoa salad with mackerel, no one wants that.
4) Donate Blood
It may seem like one of the standard entries for a list like this, but the Irish Blood Transfusion Services see a steep decline in donors every January. You may not be able to meet the person you’re helping, but just be happy that you could save someone’s life by simply donating something you have by the bucket load and can produce without even knowing. DO IT! Log on to www.GiveBlood.ie for more info.
5) Elderly Neighbours
Aul’ Mary down in No. 56 is probably alone again this evening, listening to the wireless, flicking through old photo’s and having her tenth cuppa. Go and talk to her, make it a weekly thing. Give up even 30 minutes of your time a week and make someone feel a little less isolated.
We hope some of those ideas will get you over the January blues and spreading the love. And if you are like us, a good dose of retail therapy always helps!
Have you any other tips for us to beat the January blues? Add your in the comments below or Tweet us them 