Did You Know Weather Controls Your Mood

Ever see Men in Black 2?

Agent K says to Laura Vasquez, “When you get sad, it always seems to rain.”

Laura responds with, “Well, lots of people get sad when it rains.”

Agent K then finishes with, “It rains BECAUSE you’re sad, baby.”

Uhhhhh, that got me. Deep.

I felt those lines like he was talking to me. I don’t make it rain cause I am sad, but it really was an eye opener when you thought about how the weather affects your mood sometimes.

Dull gray days when it’s raining or feels like rain, the air is heavy, or some other change in the weather makes you feel a certain way. It’s not ridiculous, it isn’t a coincidence, it’s science.

The most well-known mood/weather disorder is SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Most people have felt this way at one time in their lives. If you are in sync with your own body, you may have noticed there are days when it is gray outside, the air feels heavy, or some change in the weather steals all your energy away.

Amazingly, the weather can affect your mood. Are you familiar with SAD? This is when the sunlight is lower in the sky and there is a lack of serotonin (a neurotransmitter central to the stability of moods).

Even if you do not have a clinical diagnosis of SAD, most people have a lighter step, a feeling of happiness and positivity on sunny days as opposed to cloudy days.

The Sunshine-Mood Connection

When temperatures are between 70 and 80 degrees F, most people show a boosted mood and feelings of well-being.

This isn’t a conscious thing; it seems to be that way. However, if the temperatures become extreme (too hot or too cold), there is a decline in happiness, and negative emotions are more prevalent. The thing about these research results is that populations all over the world, no matter where you hail from, experience this biological response to temperature.

Do you listen to a mood-boosting playlist the same way I do?

I think we inherently know what the body needs… it is fascinating.

Humidity

I can remember days when the humidity just made the heat feel hotter, and it’d drain you of energy.

This, too, isn’t just a coincidence or merely something psychological; the humid air actually affects the amount of oxygen your body gets. If your body is getting less oxygen, then it has to work harder to maintain your equilibrium.

So while your body is silently busy adjusting fluids and keeping you alive, you are just aware that it is humid out, and your body has no energy to do anything or deal with anything.

Barometric Pressure

Oh yes, barometric pressure, some people don’t really know what that is, but for those of us who can feel a storm coming on (or achy knees), you can feel the pressure in the air changing. This can make you feel irritable, crabby, less patient, depressed, and headachy.

It is hard to believe that even subtle changes in the normal air pressure can shift your mood.

It’s even possible that lowered barometric pressure can make your depression symptoms worse.

Wind Speeds

If you have spent an evening sitting at home and you hear the wild wind outside, do you normally comment out loud? ‘WOW, listen to that wind! ‘

Well, that can come down to your genetics and neurochemistry.

As we said earlier, serotonin is your mood regulator, and some people are more sensitive to fluctuations than others. It’s like how caffeine affects you; your friend cannot have any coffee or she gets shaky, while you can drink five cups a day with no ill effect.

So you might be one of those people who just are not that sensitive to these changes of serotonin, or you might be extra sensitive to the changes, and when the wind increases, so does your level of anxiety and restlessness.

It’s just what makes us all so unique.

Patterns

If you’re like most people, you have a smartwatch or a health app that lets you track your steps, calories, food, water, and moods, so what happens if you integrate weather data into your application?

So many things can affect your sensitivity to the weather:

- Where did you grow up?
- Where do you currently live?
- Stress levels.
- Sleep quality.
- Nutrition.
- Time spent outdoors.

So all these factors might affect how bright sunlight hurts your eyes if you are not used to being in natural light, just the fluorescent lights of your office, or you used to live in Florida and loved the heat, but now that you have moved to Maine, you find it way too cold, even if the temperature outside is the same as it was in Florida.

Keeping track of what the weather is or will be and in the past how it affected your mood or energy or tolerance for tasks, might steer you into managing your schedule to pick and chose what you feel you can handle of days the weather is good bad or if you are usually indifferent to the rain, that sort of thing could help you on a daily basis.

So protect your emotional well-being and schedule lighter commitments.

Prioritize self-care, and you might even be able to schedule doctor appointments or therapy sessions when you’re historically in a better state of mind (sunny days) or maybe even when you might not be in a sunny state of mind (whatever you think will be more helpful).

The Complex Relationship

Mood and the weather are probably not something you have thought much about in the past, but once you include the metrics in your routines, you can do simple things to help your body on days when you know you might need it:

- Stay hydrated and grounded.
- Moving your body (yoga, walking, tai chi) can be relaxing, good for muscles and mobility, and good for your soul.
- Take part in community events that can be affected by the weather.

The event itself overrides your feelings about the weather, and you may offer someone support if the rain gets too bad, the sun shines too hot, and the socialization is good for your well-being.

Conclusion

If your emotions can’t change the weather, you can certainly help yourself cope better when you change your reaction to unexpected weather and plan your life accordingly.

Not everyone will find this helpful, but if you take the time to do your own research on your habits, attitude, and mood swings, you might find something surprising in the analysis. The nice thing now is that you actually know yourself better and can take steps to improve the situation and increase the quality of your life.

You can do it!

Regardless of whether you’re the ‘Light of Zartha’ or not.