I can’t express to you enough the importance of creating your own weather.
This becomes particularly important when you live in a chronically overcast, gray, cold, rainy place like Buffalo, NY.
If I let the weather dictate my mood, I’d be chronically miserable.
Instead, like the Good Mother herself, I gather various ingredients from what’s available in my immediate surroundings and cast a forecast over my day that’s aligned, predictable, and intentional with the mood I’m looking to nurture.
Music is a fundamental key in this practice. The vocals, instruments, and added sounds play at the exact vibration I’m looking to resonate at. And so rather than look outside at the literal weather, become miserable, and try to think myself into a joyful state… I’ll listen to music that matches what I would define as a joyful frequency and let it pull me upwards and outwards of my mind and into my body.
Mindful consumption is a strong second in the practice. Like food to the body, what gets consumed via the eyes, ears, and other senses has a direct impact on our inner weather. Watch news, gossip, and hate-based media—and so, too, will your mind become. Watch art, contribution, and love-based media—and so, too, will your inner weather become.
And digestion is an under-discussed third. Like food to the body, if you never stop eating—regardless of how healthy the food is—your body is going to feel like it needs to explode. We have a daily calorie limit for a reason—and the same should be true with the amount of minutes we spend consuming. The rest of the time? Digesting. Meditating. Relaxing. Playing. Being.