Lots of retrogrades (and introspection) affecting us this month,
giving us the chance to review our growth since the start of the year.
We are slowing down, making sure we have solid foundations.
April 5th at 10:06pm (pacific): Saturn Retrograde in Sagittarius. April 9th at 4:14pm: Mercury Retrograde at 4° Taurus. April 10th at 11:08pm: Full Moon at 21° Libra. April 15th at 3:18am: Venus (currently R) goes Direct in Pisces – exalted! …and Jupiter Retrograde in Libra until June 8th!
And TODAY, Sunday, retrograde Venus in Pisces is squaring retrograde
Saturn in Sag at exactly 27°.
Partnerships are being seriously
reevaluated this week. Relationships regarding love and business are
tested to see if they can withstand the pressures of long term
commitment. Saturn doesn’t fool around. Are you willing to do the hard
work necessary to keep your pledge to another person? If yes, the
relationship has a strong center and will probably be a lasting one.
But if they are castles built of sand, they will diminish.
This is an important time to take inventory of what’s working and
what’s not working, and to gauge the commitment level of each person.
This tension will be accented by the Full Moon in Libra tomorrow, and
Venus’s’ stationing at the end of the week. There are four planets retrograding together this week. That’s pretty amazing! I can’t remember the last time this happened. In general, all of us need to:
Re-evaluate things you’re committed to.
Re-examine your VALUES and adjust if necessary. What’s most important?
Start with getting grounded; take each day as it comes.
Don’t expand into future worries – but deal with what’s in front of you right now.
“Being more creative may be as easy as pretending you are. Creativity, that abstract muse, is increasingly thought of as essential not just to artistic pursuits but also tobusiness success. Who doesn’t want to be more creative? Or, conversely, who wants to be more formulaic and rote?
A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland indicates that, much like how stereotypes about women being bad at math can lead to womenperforming worseon math tests, treating yourself like a stereotypical creative genius can lead to more creative thinking. In two different experiments detailed inPLOS ONE, the researchers primed more than 200 undergrads majoring in several different forms of art or science to imagine themselves as either a stereotypically creative professional (“an eccentric poet”) or a stereotypically stodgy one (“a rigid librarian”). The students then completed theUses of Objects Task, a standard psychology test to measure creativity (as you might guess, you brainstorm various uses of objects). A control group completed the task without being primed to imagine themselves as having any specific characteristics or jobs.
The researchers found that the ability to think outside the box isn’t a static personality trait. It’s malleable, and influenced by stereotypes. Students who imagined themselves as eccentric poets were able to think of more (and more original) uses for objects like bricks than students in the control group. Students who imagined themselves as rigid librarians came up with significantly fewer creative uses than the control group. Not only did thinking of themselves as eccentric give students a creative boost, but thinking of themselves as rigid became an impediment to creativity.”
What a good excuse to declare yourself an artist and act super wacky.
1. They don’t hide their anxiety, they hide their symptoms.To have concealed anxiety isn’t to deny having it – only to do everything in your power to ensure other people don’t see you struggle.
2. They have the most anxiety about having anxiety.Because they are not comfortable letting people see them in the throes of an irrational panic, the most anxiety-inducing idea is… whether or not they’ll have anxiety at any given moment in time.
3. They come across as a paradoxical mix of outgoing but introverted, very social but rarely out. It is not that they are anti-social, just that they can only take being around others incrementally (which is mostly normal). Yet, on the surface, this may come across as confusing.
4. They make situations worse by trying to suppress their feelings about them. They are extremely uncomfortable with other people seeing them in pain, and they don’t want to feel pitied or as though they are compromising anyone’s time. Yet, they make things worse for themselves by suppressing, as it actually funnels a ton of energy into making the problem larger and more present than it already was.
5. They are often hyper-aware and highly intuitive. Anxiousness is an evolutionary function that essentially keeps us alive by making us aware of our surroundings and other people’s motives. It’s only uncomfortable when we don’t know how to manage it effectively – the positive side is that it makes you hyper-conscious of what’s going on around you.
6. Their deepest triggers are usually social situations. It’s not that they feel anxious in an airplane, it’s that they feel anxious in an airplane and are stuck around 50 other people. It’s not that they will fail a test, but that they will fail a test and everyone in school will find out and think they are incompetent and their parents will be disappointed. It’s not that they will lose love, but that they will lose love and nobody will ever love them again.
7. It is not always just a “panicked feeling” they have to hide.It can also be a tendency to worry, catastrophizing, etc. The battle is often (always?) between competing thoughts in their minds.
8. They are deep thinkers, and great problem-solvers.One of the benefits of anxiety is that it leads you to considering every worst case scenario, and then subsequently, how to handle or respond to each.
9. They are almost always “self-regulating” their thoughts.They’re talking themselves in, out, around, up or down from something or another very often, and increasingly so in public places.
10. They don’t trust easily, but they will convince you that they do.They want to make the people around them feel loved and accepted as it eases their anxiety in a way.
11. They tend to desire control in other areas of their lives.They’re over-workers or are manically particular about how they dress or can’t really seem to let go of relationships if it wasn’t their idea to end them.
12. They have all-or-nothing personalities, which is what creates the anxiety.Despite being so extreme, they are highly indecisive. They try to “figure out” whether or not something is right before they actually try to do it.
13. They assume they are disliked.While this is often stressful, it often keeps them humble and grounded at the same time.
14. They are very driven (they care about the outcome of things).They are in equal proportions as in control of their lives as they feel out of control of their lives – this is because they so frequently try to compensate for fear of the unknown.
15. They are very smart, but doubt it.A high intelligence is linked to increased anxiety (and being doubtful of one’s mental capacity are linked to both).
"“One feels as if one were lying bound hand and foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless,” Van Gogh wrote in one of his many letters expounding his mental anguish.
And yet the very melancholy that afflicted him was also the impetus for
the creative restlessness that sparked his legendary art. In his diary,
the Danish philosopher and poet Søren Kierkegaard — one of the most
influential thinkers of the past millennium — wrote that he often “felt
bliss in melancholy and sadness” and thought he was “used by the hand of
a higher Power through [his] melancholy.” Nietzsche, too, believed that
a certain amount of suffering is essential to the soul." I've personally experienced depression throughout my life, and it seems so prevalent in today's society. Maybe it's more out in the open and more people are talking about it. I want to share any information I find on it, just so people can be informed and supported. It's hard to see any positive, life enhancing effect from depression, and that's why this article is so wonderful to find.
I manage my depression with exercise, diet and being sociable. If I don't feel like doing anything, my adorable dog makes sure I do! But another great way to work through depression is creativity. I often turn to music, writing or bead working when I feel depression coming on, and it always gives me a sense of accomplishment - makes me feel like I'm moving forward in my life. Depression touches everyone's life, either personally or through our personal relations. What are some ways you manage it?
