How To Be A Thermostat So You Can Control Your Own Weather

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Do you absorb or moderate the weather around you?

“You’re such a barometer”,  I muttered to myself.

The label sort of came out of nowhere one day.  The barometer was a big part of my childhood but that was long ago.  It’s funny how memories surface.

This was another one of those days when I was unable to shake the sense of foreboding brought on by a conversation I’d had.  This person wasn’t looking to me to solve their problem but their mood was contagious.

All the what-ifs of life became a heaviness that settled into my bones.   Restive and anxious and unable to focus on anything, I’d absorbed the atmosphere.  I was a barometer.

What is a barometer?

A barometer measures atmospheric pressure.  It doesn’t affect the temperature or change the weather.  It merely registers the high or low pressure of the atmosphere,  giving an indication of the short-term forecast.

The barometer pictured above holds a lot of significance for me.  It was my Dad’s.

This barometer hung on the dining room wall and he consulted it throughout the growing season.

Crop readiness and good weather

The first was a given, the second was not.  In the summer when the grass was ready to be cut, my Dad  stood in front of the barometer, tapped it’s face a couple of times, watching the needles intently.

I watched

Tap. Tap. Before mowing, after mowing, before baling, before loading the bales on the sloops and stacking them into the barns.

Tap. Tap.  There was always a second crop, and sometimes a third.

A shake of his head, a slight slump of his shoulders and my heart sank.  A nod, a quick step and  I felt glad.

It wasn’t as though I understood the implications of his readings.  And my parents never talked about money or lack of money or how poor crops would affect us.  But  I absorbed the subtle shifts of body language and tone.  I was/still am a barometer.

Look at the face of the picture above.

The inner circles of the barometer face say clearing in one direction and threatening in the other.

Do your moods swing depending on the moods of those around you?

It’s much healthier to be a thermostat

A thermostat regulates itself regardless of what’s going on outside.  It senses the temperature and performs actions to maintain the desired set-point.

It’s not insensitive to what’s happening in the environment.  But rather than being subject to temperature changes, it takes action to moderate it.

A thermostat has agency.

It has a chosen temperature to maintain.  As soon as it dips in relation to the temperature outside, it triggers a response that overrides the drop/rise and brings it back to the set-point.

That said though, the thermostat is only as effective as the furnace and thermometer it communicates with.  If that communication fails, the system is subject to the external environment.

The thermometer tracks the internal temperature and initiates a response from the furnace or air-conditioner when the temperature strays too far from set.

How do you become a thermostat?

1. Choose your set-point

   • Be your own weather-maker.  It doesn’t mean that your emotions are flat-lined.  That definitely is not the point.  Emotions are knit into our fiber.
   • The world needs people who rage against injustice, weep with the hurting, and laugh with joy.
   • Choosing a set-point means that you control the weather instead of the weather controlling you.
   • Rather than a visceral response like a barometer, you choose your response.
   • Did you know that anger is a default emotion?  We see it most clearly in young children.  They throw a temper tantrum when often it’s an inability to cope with disappointment, or fear, or embarrassment, or discomfort etc.  As adults, many of us haven’t learned either.
     

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2. Understand what affects your thermometer

   • Know your triggers.
   • When you don’t know your triggers, they take you by surprise and you’re subject to the vagaries of the weather.
   • You will be much better equipped to moderate the weather around you if you know your typical response to situations.
   • The danger here is that you’ll avoid circumstances that make you react.  Don’t.  Rather, go into the situation prepared and ready to maintain control.
     

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3. Keep the furnace running smoothly.

   • How you prepare, matters.
   • If anger is a default emotion for you, learn to dig down to see what’s really going on and learn strategies to help you cope.
   • Keep your self-talk positive
   • Implement a mindfulness practice.  This allows your brain to experience calm and reset itself
   • Often it’s a feeling of helplessness that elicits the barometer effect.  Rehearse in your mind acceptable responses to triggers so when/if the situation arises, you’ll be prepared.
   • Seek out people who are positive supports
   • Exercise regularly and eat healthy nutritious food.  These play a huge role in brain health and overall well-being
   • Listen to calming music
   • Read books that help you grow

Habits are powerful.  While establishing good habits takes time and failure and restarts, it’s worth it.

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
― Gandhi

If you aren’t the gatekeeper of your mind, your mind will be your prison.

Our minds are fickle and gravitate to the negative.  It’s the flight, fight, or freeze response.  Don’t be subject to every change in the weather.

Be a thermostat.

~Priscilla

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P.S.  Everyone needs a cheat sheet.  Download the graphic below for quick reference.

Click Here! 

Thank you for sharing this post! I appreciate it 😊