Summer - And How It Feels

I remember back in the day, during summer, the first thing I'd note when the newspaper came in was the temperature.  Knowing what the previous days temperature was and aligning what I'd felt about it was a matter of great satisfaction......god knows why, but it was.

Today current, live temperature readings are available at a click of the phone, and I still do it every once in a while. 

What caught my attention was this: it showed 'temperature 40° C' and then also said 'real feel 45° C' 

(screen shot from this morning so it's 26 and 27 :)

I've since been using this as metaphor.

About how 40 is fact....non changeable. And whether we want to make it feel like a 35° or a 45° is really us. Taken as metaphor into other situations, 35° would trend towards avoidance and 45° would be magnification.

Question then becomes, what do we avoid and what do we magnify? 

Are we magnifying our joys or are we magnifying our issues? What are we playing down? Which part of that scale are we on, and where would we like to be. 

It's an interesting thing to become aware of, and can be a powerful tool of self awareness, if used. 

Where this becomes even more pertinent...... is to be aware of our cut off points. Are they real, or are they in stretched zone. To extend the metaphor here, I know that my cut off with temperature is around 42°. Each degree above that I actually start to get a little cranky.....can't focus....anxious.....irritable...all of that. 

So, at such times to stay with 'real' and not get into 'real feel' becomes even more critical.

Trust me, this awareness has helped me get out into the heat at 40 (real feel 45) and get a lot of work accomplished, which otherwise I'd have stayed away from. What's more.... it's even enabling me to make a trip to Goa next week, summer notwithstanding.:)