As I write this at my London home, there is a gale force wind blowing and rain lashing down. This is supposed to be the worst spell of sustained windy weather we have had in the UK for a while.

It must be bad because I woke up this morning to a puddle in the bathroom where water has leaked in from the ceiling, having come through the roof.

I really feel sorry for the roof man when it comes to be fixed – I am on the third floor!

Pause for thought here – I wonder how he chose to become a roof man. Did he one day wake up as a child and said to his parents that he wanted to reach high and become a roofer? Perhaps he had a fantasy to be Spiderman.

Anyway back to my point about the weather.

Today despite the gales and rain, to me it is a beautiful day! Yes – you read that correctly. It is a truly wonderful world we live in and whatever the current weather, that is just part of the tapestry of life.

It is a miracle and a wonder that we are all breathing and that you are even reading these words.

What I would like everyone to get is that the weather is just the weather! Yet especially here in the UK, our lives seem to revolve around it.

Often we complain about the weather, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, but every thing has a reason. We need the rain to sustain growth so instead of complaining it has spoilt our plans for say a picnic, we can appreciate it as the force that has helped plants, fruit and vegetables grow.

How often do you talk to friends and family and comment on the weather?! For example, every time I speak to my mother, her second question is usually about around what the weather was like in London.

I guess after 30 years of living in the UK, she can now consider herself to be fully integrated in the British way of live – she talks and moans about the weather just like everyone else.

The funniest thing is none of us can directly do anything about the weather!

Well, we are all responsible for global warming, but that is a story for another time. And we focus on the weather so much in our everyday conversations.

Earlier this week, when I had the flu, a friend sympathised with me for being “under the weather”!

It always amazes me how many people seem to allow their mood to be dictated by the weather.

The worst culprits are weather reporters who say things like the weather forecast is dismal, gloomy or miserable.

These weather reporters have the power to dictate how you are going to feel that day. For example, when they say it is going to be a dull, miserable day, half the nation begins to feel miserable!

Listen closely to the language used next time you are checking out the weather and be prepared to be surprised. That is certainly the case in the UK, but may not be so in other countries. Please let me now what it is like in your country.

The weather is just weather regardless of sunshine or rain and our weather reporters are affecting a whole nation’s psyche with their direct implied association of our moods with the elements. The point is you can choose to feel sunny inside you, no matter what is going on outside you.

From today, determine that you will be the one who will decide your mood, come what may in the course of your day and regardless of what else is happening in your life.

And I am starting a campaign here for weather people to just tell us about the elements – e.g. whether it was going to rain or shine so we can dress accordingly and carry a brolly if necessary.

Stop telling us how we should be feeling!

And next time you are about to have a conversation with a friend about the weather, just pause, get present to all the goodness around you, smile and say:-

“What a beautiful day!”