As far as your average weekday goes, Monday morning would have to rate as one of the, if not the, most detested times.

The distinction largely depends on what you got up to on the weekend.

A lazy Sunday evening in front of the television, safe in the knowledge socks and undies are in clean abundance, makes facing Monday morning that little bit easier.

But when that lazy Sunday evening follows a lazy afternoon that followed a big night, Monday morning can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Add to that a wintry day or as I like to call it, weather induced Monday-itis, and you have all the ingredients for a rotten day.

At the other end of the spectrum: beer o'clock, Friday afternoon. Even better when the sun is out and forecast to stay that way for the next few days.

You'd think it fairly logical that we are happiest when the working week is coming to an end.

But apparently not.

Apparently it's all an urban myth, a self-fulfilling prophecy of moody Mondays and Thank God It's Fridays.

At least that's what the experts are telling us.

Professor Charles Areni, from the University of Sydney, has found 'Monday morning blues and Friday afternoon highs are largely a figment of our imagination.'

In the recent study, hundreds of Sydneysiders were asked about their mood variations throughout the week.

The results showed that we are just as happy on a Monday as we are on a Friday and, surprisingly, Wednesday or 'hump-day' was found to be the low point.

It's just that we remember and expect Mondays to be depressing.

In other words, not all memories are created equal.

The good news is that we can train our brains to remember positive events more often while also re-interpreting negative events... all in all leading to a much happier working week and life in general.

It's called positive psychology and, according to Dr Timothy Sharp of Sydney's The Happiness Institute (www.thehappinessinstitute.com), it's simply a matter of practice.

Just like our physical body has knee jerk reactions so does our mind. They're called automatic negative thoughts or put more simply, bad thinking habits, and psychologists have identified the top ten.

Waking up begrudgingly first thing on a Monday morning would come under the umbrella of 'fortune telling'. That is, anticipating an outcome and assuming your prediction is an established fact.

'Overgeneralisation' is another one, where we assume that if something bad happens once, it's destined to happen again and again.

And I'm sure we're all guilty of 'personalising' at one point or another - thinking that what people say or do is some kind of reaction specific to you. Like blaming yourself for someone else's rudeness (another common symptom of Monday-itis).

Yep no doubt we've all succumbed to at least one of the top ten faulty thinking habits.

But according to Sharp, we can train our minds to think otherwise.

In a nutshell, it means recognising and noting unhelpful thoughts (the more often the better) and replacing them with more useful thoughts.

Because, as Sharp explains, thoughts are just thoughts, they are not facts.

But Monday morning blues? Well now that's an established fallacy.

As far as your average weekday goes, Monday morning would have to rate as one of the, if not the, most detested times.

The distinction largely depends on what you got up to on the weekend.

A lazy Sunday evening in front of the television, safe in the knowledge socks and undies are in clean abundance, makes facing Monday morning that little bit easier.

But when that lazy Sunday evening follows a lazy afternoon that followed a big night, Monday morning can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Add to that a wintry day or as I like to call it, weather induced Monday-itis, and you have all the ingredients for a rotten day.

At the other end of the spectrum: beer o'clock, Friday afternoon. Even better when the sun is out and forecast to stay that way for the next few days.

You'd think it fairly logical that we are happiest when the working week is coming to an end.

But apparently not.

Apparently it's all an urban myth, a self-fulfilling prophecy of moody Mondays and Thank God It's Fridays.

At least that's what the experts are telling us.

Professor Charles Areni, from the University of Sydney, has found 'Monday morning blues and Friday afternoon highs are largely a figment of our imagination.'

In the recent study, hundreds of Sydneysiders were asked about their mood variations throughout the week.

The results showed that we are just as happy on a Monday as we are on a Friday and, surprisingly, Wednesday or 'hump-day' was found to be the low point.

It's just that we remember and expect Mondays to be depressing.

In other words, not all memories are created equal.

The good news is that we can train our brains to remember positive events more often while also re-interpreting negative events... all in all leading to a much happier working week and life in general.

It's called positive psychology and, according to Dr Timothy Sharp of Sydney's The Happiness Institute (www.thehappinessinstitute.com), it's simply a matter of practice.

Just like our physical body has knee jerk reactions so does our mind. They're called automatic negative thoughts or put more simply, bad thinking habits, and psychologists have identified the top ten.

Waking up begrudgingly first thing on a Monday morning would come under the umbrella of 'fortune telling'. That is, anticipating an outcome and assuming your prediction is an established fact.

'Overgeneralisation' is another one, where we assume that if something bad happens once, it's destined to happen again and again.

And I'm sure we're all guilty of 'personalising' at one point or another - thinking that what people say or do is some kind of reaction specific to you. Like blaming yourself for someone else's rudeness (another common symptom of Monday-itis).

Yep no doubt we've all succumbed to at least one of the top ten faulty thinking habits.

But according to Sharp, we can train our minds to think otherwise.

In a nutshell, it means recognising and noting unhelpful thoughts (the more often the better) and replacing them with more useful thoughts.

Because, as Sharp explains, thoughts are just thoughts, they are not facts.

But Monday morning blues? Well now that's an established fallacy.