Always take the weather with you

I was driving back from an appointment the other day and I felt really quite positive and happy!  Strange, I thought.  How can that be!    Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a particularly negative person, but just recently, the dark mornings, cold, damp weather, rising prices, job uncertainty, bad news in the press...need I go on.... have all contributed to a general dip in mood.  I say dip but in all honesty, at times, I've hidden under the duvet not wanting to face the day.    This is obviously a totally disproportionate response to my life (which is fine) but felt very real nonetheless.  It's hard not to get caught up in the doom and gloom we are constantly fed via the many forms of media which now inhabit our lives.   So, what changed my mood?  I was driving along, Adele's new CD playing, both of us belting out "Rolling in the Deep" - (I do a great harmony), when I realised that the SUN WAS SHINING!  Doesn't it cast such a better glow on life?  I could have climbed atop a windy hill, whilst wafting my dirndl skirt, I felt that joyous!

This all tied in really nicely with a meditation I was preparing for a weekend workshop.  I had chosen to do a "Mountain Meditation", which is a nice grounding meditation.  In a nutshell, you visualise a mountain;  it might be a huge dominating one, or soft and undulating.  It may be within a moutain range, on it's own or hidden behind another.  You consider the size, shape and colour of your mountain;  is is dark and grey with it's summit hidden in the clouds?  Or is it green and pleasant, dotted with flowers.  One of my favourite bits is when you ask participants what the weather is like on their mountain?  As you sit there pondering this during your guided meditation it's amazing what it can reveal.  When I was doing mine recently, I found that my weather was very blustery!  To me, this represented the fact that my mind was full of ideas, thoughts and feelings that kept buffeting me about. I couldn't focus because I was being pulled this way and that!   I'd not even realised that's how I felt but this meditation helped me take a step back and realise just what was going on!    So you could say that the weather is a great metaphor for mood and you can be your own barometer - all you have to do is go up your mountain and pay attention to the weather. 

In the words of Crowded House......"Always take the weather with you".

Have a good week.

Mindful Missyxx