Right now, in my little part of the world, we are experiencing a heatwave. Not records in terms of temperature, but more uncomfortably, records in terms of humidity. Humidity normally only experienced in far northern Australia, not the traditionally mild and temperate Sunshine Coast. Yes folks, it's one of those days when the saying, “You could drink the air” feels like a definite reality and you feel like you are living life walking through a bowl of warm soup.
It seems like everyone is cranky, irritable, lethargic and sleep-deprived - probably because the “feels like” OVERNIGHT temperature was something like 30 degrees (86F).
But as the Byrds expressed in that timeless song Turn Turn Turn…
“To everything there is a season. And a time to every purpose under heaven.” And yes my friends, humidity too has its purpose
Now before you start swearing at me and saying, “well he's obviously been affected by the heat”, bear with me a moment…
This weather makes us do a couple of things. It forces us to stop or slow down, it forces us to breathe, and it forces us to notice everything that irritates the **** out of us. These are probably things that have irritated us anyhow, things that have quietly demanded change, but that we pushed into the back of our awareness because we were too busy. And now here they are, staring us in our red sweaty faces. And that is where the magic happens.
The first step to changing something is becoming aware of it, accepting it, and then coming up with a strategy for change… A way to make things more like how we want them to be, while at the same time going easy on the self-criticism and still managing to be kind and gentle with ourselves.
Every season is an opportunity for change, an opportunity for growth, and an opportunity to know ourselves just a little better. So like a group of beautiful suntanned Swedes in an aromatic sauna, how about we just smile, sigh, stop to look into ourselves a little… and joyfully sweat this out together. Just think of how good we will feel on the other side!
