How’s The Weather In Your Mind Today?

No, not outside your window—inside your head, your heart, your nervous system. How is the weather in your mind today? If you’re anything like me and the rest of us, your internal atmosphere changes daily, sometimes hourly, and for me sometimes by the minute.

What Is Your Inner Temperature This Moment?

My inner temp fluctuates, it is in fact in flux this minute. I was sitting calmly writing this article and my blood boiled over when I glanced my puppy eating another plant! Don’t allow these outbursts to be the ‘broken shoelace’ that ruins your day.

I was peaved for a moment and then I had to turn around so the little beast wouldn’t see me smiling. Then I thought of all the outdoor vegetable garden plants he has demolished.

And finally I remembered he is more valuable to me than the plants and it is my job to train the little terrorist, though I will be much hungrier this fall.

Changing my reaction to things has taken me decades of practice and stiil, some days are better than others. The first question I try to remember to ask myself is ‘How important is this?’. Usually my answer is ‘not very’.

Sometimes though the answer is extremely important and here is where the rubber meets the road. My real estate taxes doubling in the span of 2 years is a tough one that requires some planning. Going ballistic though is a waste of energy.

So many of us are trained to ignore these inner shifts—to power through, keep smiling, keep producing. But when we pause and tune in to our emotional climate, something profound happens- you can pivot right back to calm.

You can reconnect with yourself any time you choose. You can get honest, gently. And sometimes, you will even learn what you need most.

Simple Practice To Get An Accurate Temperature Read

When life feels like too much—too noisy, too busy, too uncertain—we rarely pause to ask how we’re really doing. We might snap at someone, zone out, or keep endlessly scrolling. But underneath all of that? There’s a quiet request from your nervous system asking you to please check in.

This exercise is one way to do that. It invites you to tune into your emotional state, name what you’re experiencing, and then engage with it creatively through writing and neurographic art. The goal isn’t to fix anything. It’s to understand, process, and begin softening the inner noise.

If you’re feeling scattered, heavy, or just unsure, this simple two-part exercise is here to support you. Through writing and neurographic art, you’ll explore your inner landscape and gently begin to soften what feels sharp. You don’t need to be an artist or a poet. You just need to be willing to meet yourself where you are.

Writing Your Inner Weather Report

Step 1: Close your eyes. Take three slow, deep breaths. Gently ask yourself:

“What’s the predominant feeling or energy I’m experiencing right now?”

Don’t try to change it or explain it. Just notice. Is it a drizzle of worry? A gust of frustration? A fog of uncertainty? A sunny patch of hope?

This step alone can feel like a small exhale. Simply recognizing what’s present is powerful. It reminds us we’re allowed to feel before we try to solve.

Sometimes, when what I am doing, no matter how much effort I am putting into it – it just is not working, I am on the wrong path. I tell myself, out loud, ‘Stop!’ Just stop. Then I…

Step 2: Write it out. Grab a pen and paper, and write your inner weather report. Use metaphors. Let your words be messy, honest, even poetic. Ask yourself:

• What does this feeling look like in weather form?
• Where do I feel it in my body?
• If it had a color, what would it be?
• If it made a sound, what would I hear?
• If I could move like this feeling, how would my body want to move?

There are no right answers here. Just awareness. Give yourself permission to explore the texture of your mood without trying to interpret or analyze it. It can be surprisingly revealing.

For example, if you notice a “thick fog of confusion,” maybe it tells you that your thoughts are moving slowly, that clarity is clouded, and that you’re in need of gentleness, not answers.

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Draw Your Neurographic Weather Map

Now that you’ve named your inner weather, let’s draw it.

Step 1: Translate emotion into line. Look at your weather report. Let your lightly held pen move intuitively across the page. Are your lines sharp like lightning? Slow and curvy like a gentle breeze? Tight and tangled like a tornado? There is no wrong way to interpret what you feel.

My first drawing was so jagged!

This process is not about making something beautiful. It’s about allowing your hand to express what your body and mind are holding. Often, people, including me, find that even after a few minutes of this line-making their emotional state can shift.

How can this be? Humans are wired to seek patterns. When we are experiencing a recurring flow of negative thoughts we need to break these patterns and drawing lines is a way to do this.

This breaking of patterns is a key element, as it aims to create new neural connections and transform the subconscious mind through art. 

If you feel hesitant this Step by Step Neurographic Art line Drawing Guide may help.

Or if a video of me drawing helps check this out!

Step 2: Soften the storm. Start rounding all the corners where your lines intersect.

The core of neurographic art is softening tension. As you round, breathe. Notice what happens as you transform chaos into curves. Does anything shift in your body or breath?

You might feel resistance at first. Or you might feel immediate relief. Either way, you’re engaging your nervous system in a deeply calming and regulating practice. You’re telling your body, “It’s safe to slow down.”

Step 3 (Optional): Add texture or color. If you feel like it, like I do, fill in your map with simple patterns or colors. Let your intuition guide you. Each added detail is a way of integrating your experience.

The act of filling space is both meditative and meaningful. Plus have you ever been miserable while adding color to anything? Not me!

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Reflection & Sharing Your Inner Weather Report

What did you discover in this process?

Did your weather shift, something unexpected show up? Did rounding the edges bring a sense of peace?

This exercise isn’t about “fixing” your mood. It’s about meeting it. Translating it. Being with it in a new way.

Many people find that once they give form to their internal experience, even something subtle changes—a softening, a release, a little more space to breathe.

By the end, your map may not look like much to anyone else. But to you, it holds truth. A snapshot of your emotional world. A reflection of your resilience.

This picture was one of my most eye opening drawings. It is nothing to look at and it changed the course of my day!

If you’re in the MindSketch Lab community—we’d love to see your maps and hear your reflections. Share a photo of your drawing or a snippet of your writing. Let us witness your weather. Let us celebrate your inner clarity.

Remember, this is a safe and supportive space. There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Just show up, be curious, and let your creativity flow.

You’re not alone in the storm. And the forecast always changes.

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The Actual Weather Forcast

When I need help planning certain events I look to NOAA for a real weather forecast. Me trying to figure out an extended weather forecast on my own would just be plain silly because I am not a meteorologist.

I feel in my entire life the world around me has never been so chaotic and upsetting to me as it is today. I need real time work arounds to manage these pesky feelings because I have a really good life to live and I can’t if I am crippled by fear, doubt, and other insecurities.

The weather I can read is my internal temperature. This is why I start my day or stop it mid-stream and pick up a pen or two and write some thoughts and/or draw some lines using the process I just demonstrated…

Share Your Experience!

We would LOVE to see your Inner Weather Maps and hear about your experience with this lesson! Share a photo of your drawing (or just a snippet of your writing) over in our private little MindSketch Lab Facebook community.

What did you discover? How did it feel to give form to your inner weather?

Remember, this is a safe and supportive space. There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Just show up, be curious, and let your creativity flow.

Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Marj Bates “I’ve spent nearly 40 years in addiction recovery, decades with The Artist’s Way, and teach The Artist’s Way Reimagined™, a slower, more supported way to work through Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way – blending creative recovery tools, neurographic art, and community to help people move through resistance and stay with the process.

I’ve also changed careers later in life than most people would dare — proof that it’s never too late to begin again.”

MindSketch Lab