Raise your hand if you feel anxiety or depression when it rains? It’s pretty common for most people to feel this way with rainy weather. The dark sky, the crying rain, and the cool damp air…it all screams sad for some people. I myself love rainy days. One of my former employers used to say, “It’s just one of those days you want to curl up with a good book by the fire and eat cookies all day.” Unfortunately, it gives our daughter anxiety. She plays over and over in her head what would happen if the wind gets too strong, if the lightning strikes our house, or if someone gets in a car accident. After a particularly difficult morning (which is pretty common), I decided to try to see if we could change her brain a little bit.
Our Minds are Like a Train
Our psychologist tells us, “Your mind is like a train and it’s used to traveling on this track of worry.” On this rainy morning, she refused to get on the bus to go to school. Everything was a fight that morning. Breakfast, clothes, backpack, lunch, the bus, her brothers…all of it. I’m totally used to this fight, but since our family is on this journey to get better, I needed to see if I could come up with a solution. What if we could see if she could look forward to the rain, instead of dread it? What if we could change the track of worry, to a track of anticipation? So that day, I went and bought her some rain boots. 
Turning the Rain into Joy
When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do was play in the rain with my rainboots and my umbrella. My umbrella was pink and had a cat carved on a wooden handle. I loved that umbrella. I would pretend I was Mary Poppins and would stomp in the puddles until my fingers were numb from the cold. The thought struck me that I really wanted my daughter to have this same experience. When she came home, I told her the next rainy day we were going to play in the rain. Now she had something to look forward to. Every time it even kind of looked like it was going to rain, she was excited instead of worried. And here she is, enjoying the rain. She was all smiles and we loved being together talking about how the rain is God’s gift to the earth.
Could this work for you?
Is there something that gives you so much mental stress that you could divert your mind into excitement instead of worry? Could you maybe tell yourself, “I think I’m ready for this challenge today”? Is there some creative way you could trick your mind into believing that you’re actually excited about something you usually stress about? Have you ever done this yourself? I would love to hear about it in the comments! Please share!
What a great idea to try to retrain her brain! I love that you took something concrete and attached that to her anxiety to melt it away. I would get over my fear for a fun new pair of shoes too! <3 Jamie
Thank you, Jamie!
A journey to bravery – what a fitting title. The you for writing this and sharing. We can all benefit from this type of thinking. WE need more empowerment.
Aint that the truth, Meg! There’s far too much negative around us and life moves at such a fast pace. We need to slow down, appreciate life and savor what it’s giving us!
I am not a big fan of the rains either. And I can relate to what your former employee said as that’s exactly what I would love to do too. I think another reason i don’t like stepping out is because of my feet getting wet. And while the boots sound like an awesome idea to help change the mind, I like your positive outlook towards it. 🙂
Thank you, Sapna! I think staying inside eating cookies all day would be fun any day, right? 😉
Awww, I love that you are going for a different outlook and trying a different approach for her. I actually LOVE rain. It helps me sleep. I love to sit on our covered porch and watch it rain…it’s peaceful to me. My family also lives in a desert so it’s rare and we appreciate it when we get it. But on the flip side, we were close to the Houston are during the hurricane…we got 37 inches in 2 days, but our ranch did not flood. A few weeks later we had a light rainstorm and many people had ptsd from the devastation that they encountered during the hurricane flooding.
Oh, my goodness, that’s so, so sad. My heart just aches for anyone having to go through the devastation of those hurricanes. Understandable why they get PTSD from such a traumatic event.
For someone who lives in a country where it rains all year round, it hard to train my mind about being caught in the rain almost everyday. It has rain from everyday since Monday this week. I love running but when I see a rain cloud, I don’t go. I might try running in the rain and see how that goes 🙂
Doreen, we have a neighbor in our area that runs rain, snow, sleet, or shine. She’s a die-hard runner and she absolutely loves it! From what I understand, running in the rain is more fun than running when it’s not raining. I’d like to try it as well…maybe after the snow melts. 😉
Will give a try ?. Speaking of which, about to leave for work and its pouring!??
I love this. Such a great idea to give her something to look forward to instead of being afraid. One of my twins has anxiety about storms, so I will have to try this with him. Thanks for the great idea.
Yes! I highly recommend trying it. It worked really well with her and now she looks forward to every rainy day.
I am anxious to go out at night. I don’t know why. I avoid it. My husband time to time get me to a concert or diner and actually the experience is good. What I do is always remember that how fun it is so I can overcome my anxiety.
This is so interesting and such a great idea. Way to turn a negative into a positive. Loved this read!