Thought For The Day #4

Broadcast 15th of July 2013 on BBC Radio Bristol

Currently, my favourite part of the day is the first 5 minutes after a shower, when I’m not a restless, sticky mess of clothes and sweat. Yeah (sighed), we’ve reached that rare watershed in the UK where it has been hot enough, for long enough, that it is socially acceptable to express frustration at the heatwave.

Apart from the obvious annoyances, like having to remember sunscreen and dreading the overheating on public transport, I’ve noticed a more subtle one. I get this niggling feeling that I, ‘should be making the most of it’. I can’t just slouch about the house like normal. I’m plagued by visions of TV ads where hipster kids laugh and frolick in city centre fountains. I suspect this is payback time from all the occasions I’ve blamed the winter for my lacklustre motivation. It’s like my mind is saying, “go on, get out there and show them how happy you can really be”. Good work summer, you’ve called my bluff.

The fact of the matter is that sometimes the circumstances of our experience just don’t match up to how we feel about them. That applies to bad weather too; we might be out getting the weekly shop in the most awful wind and rain, but for some reason we feel happy. Feelings are like that, they come and they go, often without reason or warning. What’s important is not to get too stuck on them. Because if we can notice ourselves feeling grumpy in good weather, then so too can we catch ourselves feeling happy in bad weather.