Picture the scene: I’ve spent the entire week dreaming of the weekend. I’m no party animal so all I have planned is books, baths, and home-cooked meals three times a day. Quiet, calm, heaven.
Only, when the weekend arrives, it’s sunny and warm. A rarity in Britain and even more so in my home in Scotland. I should go out. I should go to the park to read. I should see my friends. It’s SUNNY, what am I doing indoors!?
But I don’t want to. My plans involved solely being indoors, at home. Which I stick with as a plan but feel guilty all weekend for doing so, and I worry that I’m missing out.
Sound familiar?
Well, apparently, this is called ‘Sunshine Guilt’.
What is sunshine guilt?
According to Dr. Nadia Teymoorian, a psychologist from the Moment of Clarity Mental Health Center that spoke with Bustle, sunshine guilt is that regretful feeling that settles in whenever you stay inside on a nice day, and it can be especially upsetting if you assume everyone else is outside and living their best life.
Apparently this is more common with people that live in cold places such as Scotland and Ireland. That checks out.
However, mental health campaigner and broadcaster Neev Spencer spoke with The Metro and said that the issue could be that we’re watching people enjoy sunny days on social media and assuming they’re happier and having a better time than we are.
He said: “Always ground yourself in the knowledge that what you see isn’t always what you get. You may see your friends or colleagues having the “time of their lives” in the sunshine, but bear in mind that if that were truly the case, they might not have had the time to take quite so many carefully curated pictures for their Instagram stories. Being present will always be 100% cooler than not.”
Being present in the bath, reading a book, is better than taking selfies on the beach. Commit that to memory.