You probably know your Sun Sign along with a few of the characteristics that describe how you behave and what is important to you. And I imagine you have read your daily horoscope at least once. But astrology is much, much more than Sun signs and daily horoscopes. Based on your date, time, and place of birth, the positions of the planets, the sun, and the moon, form your own personal map. This birth chart tells a story about you and your life journey.
The sign the moon occupied when you were born colors your emotional temperament and shows what makes you feel safe and secure. It explains what brings contentment as well as the quickest and most effective way to relieve anxiety. And, while you may not have thought that how you take care of yourself is connected to your life purpose, in astrology the position of the moon at the time of birth describes both.
Doesn’t it make sense that it would be difficult to know your life purpose if you ignore your body, mind, and spirit? A commitment to yourself allows your purpose to unfold, just as a commitment to being in college allows education to unfold.
Because self-care is linked to destiny if you do not know your life purpose—and if you are like most people, you have more than one—the easiest way to find out is to invest in a self-care program. Your Moon Sign provides information about a tailor-made program just for you.
Why is it, do you think, that a healthy, balanced level of self-care—especially for women—is in such scant evidence? Rather than investing with gusto, many people do not treat themselves very well at all. They overextend themselves to meet other people’s needs, ignore their own desires, and exhaust or even deplete their energy reserves.
There is little that demonstrates a greater kindness than taking care of your physical body, your emotional and mental health, and nurturing your spiritual life. And the benefits are huge. When you are doing what you feel like you are “supposed to be doing” there is nothing quite like it. You are energized, your mind is sharp, you feel a “rightness” about your life. “This is what I was born to do,” you think.
If you are like many people, you may wonder where you would find the time to discover, let alone invest, in your life purpose! And the reality is, “life-purpose” is such an abstract concept that it can be hard to know where to start—difficult to wrap your mind around.
But making changes in your self-care program is doable. Even a minimal investment will open up pathways you couldn’t see before, stimulate your imagination in ways that could not happen before, and give you the energy that was not previously available to you. Once that ball starts rolling and gaining momentum, you will reach a point where you will not consider sacrificing your health and emotional well-being; you will not put yourself last on your list. Why? Because you change your intentions to things like:
- I want to get good nights sleep because otherwise I won’t be sharp tomorrow.
- I want to make sure I get enough protein today in my diet so I will be at my best.
- I want to make sure I make my yoga class so I will feel flexible, renewed, and centered.
- I want to arrange for some down time so I can replenish myself.
If you include you as an integral and important part of your vision for your relationships, family, and the world, your self-care program will be at the center of your life rather than an after-thought.
Here are a few suggestions for you to add to your self-care program.
- Mental health: Commit to a Complaint Fast. Complaining prevents you from connecting to your life-purpose. Complaints push away, rather than draw anything toward you. Complaints discharge energy without changing anything. Complaints are about a story rather than about your feelings. When you stop complaining, you transform your and other people’s perception of you from a victim to someone who carries herself with dignity and self-respect. You stop insisting that other people take care of you and become someone who is in charge of her own destiny.
- Emotional health: Compliment someone every day. Receive compliments graciously always. Those who regularly express gratitude speak of it as actually changing the way they look at life. How could something seemingly so little yield such tremendous benefits? Research suggests that the more you focus your attention on gratitude, the more you notice what you are grateful for and, subsequently, the greater your feelings of contentment and well being. For any gratitude-practice, remember to receive as well as express appreciation.
- Physical health: Move, Bend, and Breathe. Move your body so you get everything circulating. That way you will have the energy to commit to your life-purpose. Bend so that you prevent your body from stiffening and to help you maintain a flexible outlook overall. Breathe. Fill your lungs with air and breathe the air out all of the way. You will cleanse your lungs of stale air. Plus you will oxygenate your blood and calm your nervous system.
- Spiritual health: Inspire others; inspire yourself. What inspires you? Integrate into your daily life whatever expands your soul and opens your heart. Watch the sun set, listen to beautiful music, sit quietly without distraction, read poetry or inspirational quotes. Blog
Sometimes we behave as if our life is a “test life” with no instructions. The beauty of astrology is that it provides us with our own personal life-book. It doesn’t tell us the decisions we will make. How we choose to exercise our free will is up to us. But the birth chart does describe our personality components and our journey over time.
