Rainy Days & Mondays

Being a child growing up in the 1970's, I can clearly remember my parents playing their Carpenters' records. These old albums still evoke strong memories every time I hear one of the songs come onto the radio...on the oldies station. When I hear "I'm on the top of the world", I can imagine my father singing along in the car. "Close to you" never failed to bring happy tears to my mother's eyes. However, the song that seems to be playing on perpetual loop in my head this summer is "Rainy Days & Mondays". The refrain from this song is:

Hangin around, nothing do to but frown

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down....

Nostalgia can be a wonderful feeling. However, even though I can remember this song on long car trips, playing in the background of my parents cocktail parties, and simply as a piece of the memory book that creates my mental pictures of my childhood, I have to say that these lyrics have rung far too true this summer in Maine. It has rained 26 days out of the past 39 days. It hasn't just been foggy or simply disappointing summer weather. It's been a utterly, miserably soggy summer. When weather forecasts predict a minimum of ten more days of downpours, it can be very disconcerting emotionally.

What is a yogini to do? Drown herself in her swamp-like backyard? Or, soldier on and find rainy activities to keep our spirits up? As appealing as sinking up to my ankles in what used to be a beautiful lawn sounds, I vote for soldering on...and finding ways to keep my happiness factor up, even if the weather is choosing not to cooperate. One of the most wonderful ways I've found to break the rainy day blues is to switch up our usual schedule. As simplistic as this sounds, just moving around, experiencing our every day life in different ways, is an effective method for chasing off the blues. Although my children are now older, I can vividly remember swapping out the kitchen table for the living room, for evenings in which picnics are rained out. They enjoyed nothing better than throwing a blanket down on the living room floor, lighting a fire in the fireplace and creating a camping feeling by even letting the kids roast marshmallows over the fire to make S'mores. However, this last activity did require intensive burned marshmallow removal from the hearth. Regardless, we were able to break the wet doldrums, have a great deal of fun, and get out of depressing funk. We still play games in that same spot, put on music that lifts us all up and change the mood from sarcasm to sensational, on the very worst afternoons. Even if you're on your own, imagine how much more pleasant it will be to sit on the floor, eating picnic food, than to stare out your kitchen window at gray skies.

Another wonderful way to beat a case of rainy-day-itis is to create a movie festival. With older children, or even on your own, it's fun to create a Oscar nominated (or Oscar winning) film festival. We have done this with great success, and this past weekend was a bonanza of movies that were all nominated in the past year's Academy season. Slumdog Millionaire, Defiance, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and others graced our DVD and helped us create an entertainment atmosphere. On nights that we would normally be heading our separate ways, or even just outside, watching high quality movies can be an enriching experience to share as a family...or to treat yourself with. If Oscar fare isn't your cup of tea, why not try an action packed weekend, featuring heist films, or a family marathon of Disney's best? Why not invite your closest friends over for Cosmopolitans and a "Sex & The City" retrospective"? Have fun with creating an atmosphere that creates a mood for your theme...knowing that your friends and family are just as wrung out from the weather as you are. By creating a movie fiesta, you will not only be entertained, but have a great deal more fun than mindlessly flipping through the channels. Cook treats that can enhance your theme....a Vegas-like buffet spread for an "Oceans 11" theme, canapes and champagne for chick flicks or peanut butter & jelly, cut out with Mickey Ears cookie cutters, before you sit down to a night of the Little Mermaid and The Lion King.

As a yogini, I must also add that rainy days, as depressing as they can be just as July is beginning, can be a wonderful time to deepen your yoga practice. Yoga is more than exercise. It can help ease your state of mind. Practicing at least 4 rounds of Sun Salutations can be a powerful method of getting your endorphins moving, allow the heat to rise from your belly and to create energy out of doldrums.

Sun Salutations have a proven impact on stimulating the part of the brain that helps us feel incredible joy, so the more rounds you can practice, the more stimulated that region of your brain will become...and the better you will feel. In ending Sun Salutations with Lightening Bolt pose, as seen in the picture to the left, you can channel the activity outside into a dynamic asana inside...and also gain definition in your quads and shoulders to boot. Lightening Bolt can be held for as long as your body is feeling mighty, or can done in sequential flow. However your practice finds its path, adding in elements from the 'outside in' can bring a natural link between the world outside your door, and your practice on the mat.

Reading your way through a series of books you've wanted to tackle, window shopping in catalogs, trying new recipes to cook, visiting museums, and volunteering at places like your local library (who are often swamped on rainy days) can bring a sense of vigor to the gray sky slump, too. The key to overcoming "rainy day and Monday" melancholia is to find ways around it. Shaving cream fights, water balloons (the kids are wet already!) and slip and slide in the rain can get even surly teenagers out the door and into a spirit of laughter. Most of all, take just a few moments at the beginning, and end, of each day to count your blessings. Rainy weeks or not, there are an infinite number of things to be thankful for. Gratitude can be great mood elevator....and it can also help you to see that rain, while inconvenient for our short summer season, can also bring opportunities we wouldn't have had otherwise.

The realist sees reality as concrete. The optimist sees reality as clay. ~Robert Brault