Lunar Love Letter 🌒 - Mar 14 2023
estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Today's Highlights:
Important Dates
Journal Prompts
Yoga Off the Mat
Self Care Starter
Important dates this cycle (in EST):
Lunar Cycle Duration: 2/20-3/20
New Moon: 2/20
First Quarter (1Q) Moon: 2/27 ← we are here
Full Moon: 3/7 Worm Moon*
Last Quarter (3Q) Moon: 3/14 ← we are here
Spring Equinox: 3/20
Hello to your beautiful heart and soul 💜
We’re hitting the third quarter (3Q) phase of this Worm Moon* cycle, and we’re getting closer and closer to the Spring Equinox, and I couldn’t be more excited to see that day.
I. Am. Waiting.
Longingly.
The last several weeks, I’ve been feeling pretty glum. The long haul of winter is perhaps getting to me, even though it hasn’t been particularly harsh where I am. I’m also working through some deeply embedded wounds that I didn’t realize had surfaced until BOOM. They were screaming from all the dark corners.
Sometimes that’s the way the process works for me. I’m slow to pick up on it. I feel muddled and extremely unfocused, depressed, fatigued, easily agitated, and overwhelmed. I call it being in the soup 🍲.
Which seems fitting.
This part of the lunar cycle is about winding down and reorganizing, and that’s what being in the soup feels like to me – a deep reorganization of my essence at some smaller than cellular level (insert caterpillar 🐛metaphor here).
I do a lot of avoiding during this process. Not intentionally, and I notice it mostly in hindsight, but it’s a constant — right after a large bout of anxiety.
I liken it to conserving my energy.
It’s perhaps the most purposeful I ever am with where I invest my energy, time, and attention – because I can’t waste an ounce. It feels like it takes everything I have in me to do what I consider the bare minimum. Extraneous use is not an option 🚫.
Here are my bare minimums: There are two people (including me) and two cats that I MUST take care of. I must make sure we are bathed, that we eat, and that we sleep. That’s pretty much it, and it doesn’t have to be in that order. Everything else is extra. Or another day’s bare minimum when I’m in a better space.
Right now, I’m working on accepting the space I’m in and letting go of the traditional expectations I carry for myself – a version of winding down. Because I have the habit of winding myself up over things like this by piling on guilt or shame – and I can’t afford that.
So when it tries to creep in, I’m trying to remind myself that conserving my resources is incredibly important. Reframing is a form of reorganization.
Here are some journal prompts 📓 that might help inspire your own reorganization:
What’s something new or different you’ve noticed about yourself through this lunar cycle?
What’s something that can be reframed or reorganized to better support where you’re at right now?
Where are you scared to let go of the reins a bit and why?
How can you more effectively use what resources you have?
As you work through these, I hope you extend yourself the same loving grace that I know I can use right now.
At a 2017 speech at Parsons, Rihanna 🎶 asserted, “You should be celebrated for every aspect of your growth and your growing pains.” And that's gold. Let’s use that as our motto for this moment.
Looking at our shadow selves can be hard enough without piling on the other bullshit. So let’s celebrate the pains that can come with winding down and reorganizing because that means transformation is on the horizon 🌄.
So much love from my heart to yours during this 3Q moon 🌘
Yoga Off the Mat
One way I like to connect with my body on the mat is by noticing both sides of it separately – the right side independent of the left. This helps me sow down and notice my asymmetries and honor the differences that coexist within me. Afterward, I widen my focus to notice my body as the whole that it is – everything working together.
Off the mat, I think this same practice is incredibly vital for our mental and emotional health.
It’s really common to hyperfocus on things only at the micro level or only at the macro level, but we can benefit from remembering that multiple perspectives are not only simultaneously true, but they can also help us honor all of our being.
We are neither solely cells nor solely spirit.
Giving our attention to only one or the other can be detrimental to our personal evolution, but it also disregards the relationship that exists between the micro and macro. What happens within one affects the other, so it’s crucial that we regularly oscillate between the two to honor and grow all facets of our being.
The next time you notice you’re being hypercritical of yourself, pause, breathe slowly, and zoom out. How is that affecting your whole self? What can you draw your attention to that’s larger and perhaps more nourishing?
And conversely, maybe there are life circumstances beyond your control that seem overwhelming. When this happens, what can you focus on within you that provides a sense of stability or joy?
I invite you to explore this practice in rather dull moments so that it becomes a habit that’s easier to draw on during high intensity situations. Let me know how it goes 🥰
Self Care Starter
I recently invested in a mini trampoline!
Yeppers. A mini trampoline 🦘
It might conjure up images of 80s workouts, but I honestly wish I hadn't waited so long to bring this magic into my life.
It brings joy and playfulness into both my life and my daughter’s, it’s good for body movement, to work through emotions, to promote lymphatic drainage, and it’s just plain fun.
Hello, happy inner child!
Here’s the one I picked in case you want to check it out (bonus that it doesn’t have squeaky springs):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JC2ZHA?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
But if mini trampolines aren’t your thing, what’s something that could help your inner child rekindle some joy and playfulness? Being an adult can get way too serious sometimes, and we need balance (Spring Equinox, anyone?). What’s something that can help you find that?
Send me a message to let me know 💌
*The moon names and phase details given here are as given on the Farmers' Almanac website. There are many other moon names and stories from other cultures that are not included here, but I encourage you to do your own research. It’s fascinating!
**Any physical practice mentioned in this email should be done in an environment that is conducive to safety. You know your body best. Only do what feels right for you based on your unique situation. Please consult an appropriately credentialed medical provider before starting any new regimen.
All resources mentioned in this newsletter are included for research purposes only and are not affiliated with Zenful Mindings LLC.
