156: How Weather Impacts Our Mood
SHOW DESCRIPTION
Have you ever wondered why you are feeling down even when you have no reason to feel that way? Do you look outside and have an immediate drain in your mood? Kevin came up with this topic after discussing his moods after coming back from Hawaii. We got onto discussing how moods might be affected by the weather.
There is an actual mental condition that most people go through without even realizing it most of the time. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects your mood with specific weather patterns. Some of us notice that we are more prone to sadness and depression during rainy weather or more prone to anger and frustration during warmer weather. This is usually an unconscious mental response to our environment.
It is important to recognize the many different things that influence our emotional state. When we recognized the things impacting how we feel we can take steps to correct it and/or make conscious efforts to change how we are viewing our situations. If the rain gets you down, add a UV light to your work space. Try getting as much sun as possible because the sunlight helps your body metabolize the vitamins necessary for your physical health and produces healthy body and brain chemistry that affect your moods.
To improve your mood in weather you don’t necessarily like, try looking for the positives in the weather. If you don’t like the grey, rainy days, look for the positive side. Rain brings growth. Here n the Northwest, we get a lot of rain, but everything stays so green and beautiful. Sometimes all it takes is the conscious effort to change the negative into the positive.
If SAD is affecting you so much that you can’t see the positive, there are other avenues that can help. Go on vacation during the worst parts of the seasons that bother you. Try setting up different lighting or add oxygenating plants for your office space. If it truly is so bad that these don’t work, seek professional assistance from medical or emotional professionals. Maybe look into moving to a climate that is more in line with boosting your moods. The point is, understand what affects your mood and take control. You have the power to change how you feel. Stay positive my friends.
