*Eleditor’s note: Astrology isn’t a religion. We’re not sure it’s a science, either. It’s magic, maybe. But, as with feng shui, say, things affect things. So as long as we don’t go blaming our problems on the stars, as long as we assume responsibility for our own actions…well, hell, a little auspicious coincidence and applicable wisdom can’t hurt. 

For an explanation of how energy affects you please click here.

Events over the last week will likely have played havoc with our energy and many of us will be noticing this in the fluctuation of our emotions and feelings.

We may have been swinging from feeling up, positive, empowered and in control one minute to feeling down, negative, weak and as though we don’t know who we are or where we are heading to next.

The good news is that this week everything will slow down and start to balance out, partly thanks to Mars turning retrograde on April 17^th. Mars’ influence will push us towards introspection and looking at how, if we allow it to, history will repeat and repeat until it dramatically affects our present and future

By turning inwards we can snip away at anything that needs to be loosened and freed and in doing so we will create much needed space to fill our lives with an eclectic mix of people and experiences that resonate with our soul and also that are genuine, sincere, heart-connected and meaningful.

Pluto turning retrograde on April 18^th means the focus is now on looking towards the past and through reflection we can break down old structures and rebuild a solid and sustainable personal transformation. We will find ourselves pondering over anything that is unresolved or unhealed and situations, especially surrounding communication, that have been pulling on our energy reserves and keeping us feeling submerged and held back.

Now the time has come where we can finally let go of any destructive or dysfunctional behaviors and dynamics that we have been involved in so that we can allow ourselves the opportunity to evolve towards new ways of being.

The full Moon in Scorpio on April 22^nd will challenge us to see how we play this energy out, whether we remain in the comfort of what we have always known or whether we take dramatic leaps forward.

“The planets are setting the scene and bringing situations to the stage but the answers will be ours to find on our own.” ~ Crystal B, Elephant Journal

This week, rather than focusing our energy on what is going on out there with cosmic activity, we can make the most of this phase by turning everything inwards to try to make sense of the significant alterations that have been silently but very noticeably and painfully occurring within.

When anything that happens on the outside strongly affects us, it is an indicator that something needs to be addressed on the inside. Every time we feel even the slightest tickle of friction, it means that something internally is calling out for our attention so that we acknowledge, understand and process that belief, emotion or feeling. We are being triggered and how we react and respond is ultimately our choice.

The recent energies may have been evoking intense feelings of unworthiness, jealousy, resentment towards others or just general overall insecurity in who we are and how we express ourselves.

We can benefit from reminding ourselves that our perception of ourselves is often illusionary and we can unfairly and harshly be impatient and put ourselves down or forget to show self-compassion and empathy.

It is also essential to remember that how we are perceived in the world, whether by a loved one, family member or beyond, is totally out of our control and realistically, is nothing to concern ourselves with.

It doesn’t matter how hard we try to make someone like or appreciate us, people will judge us through their own experiences and also due to the small amount of time (in the scheme of our whole existence) that they have interacted with us. It can never be a balanced or completely fair judgment, as what they perceive is not the absolute whole of who we are.

Therefore, we can turn the focus right around and instead of wasting precious energy worrying and fretting about what people may or may not think or feel about us, we can use the energy to work on aspects of ourselves that we feel are out of alignment with who we are now and who we wish to become or un-become.

As long as our expressions are fueled with good intention and we are not deliberately or consciously harming anyone else in any way, then we have no reason to berate ourselves or feel hurt or disrupted by other people’s judgment and condemnation. Even if we do make errors, we can pull ourselves back into place and make amends for where we fell out of line, and the most effective way we can do this is by learning from it and changing our behavior.

“What other people think of you is none of your business.” ~ Paulo Coelho

This week it is time to stop looking into the mirrors of all the people around us, and instead look at the person who is looking in the mirror.

We might have noticed that over this past week, particularly over the weekend we have absorbed ourselves in other people’s criticisms of us, or have become very aware of how we are negatively critiquing others.

We can become so over-interested in what other people think and feel, we can forget to think and feel about what we think and feel about ourselves.

Only when we look at this can we really begin to do the work that is necessary to free ourselves from old patterns of behavior and rid ourselves of thoughts and feelings that no longer serve us and highlight and enhance the parts of ourselves that are our strengths.

We can choose at any moment a different way of thinking or feeling and we can also decide to pay our attention to what we want in our lives rather than what we don’t want. When we say “pay attention” we can imagine this as a currency and we are depositing it into our future. Even one moment of “paying attention” to whom we want to be or how we want to live our life, adds value and eventually, with enough time and effort paid the life we want to live will naturally manifest.

It is time to go within and remain there for as long as we need to until we find answers, firstly to why we are over-concerned with other people’s judgment and secondly to what parts of ourselves now need to evolve. It is not always easy to go within, but when we are concerned with how other people view us, we will not only remain stuck, but we will also be feeding our insecure and inferior feelings.

We need to get to know ourselves a little bit more and then no one else’s perceptions will ever be able to cause us harm. No one else can ever know us as well as we know ourselves and we can try to remember that whenever we feel judged in any way.

We are unique and only we know all of our accumulated experiences; no one else has existed exactly as we have.

By remembering this we can also turn this notion outwards and remove any expectations that we may have for other people. We will always be disappointed if we expect that people will think, feel, act and behave as we would want them to. Each person is an individual with their own set of experiences and they will never constantly reach the bar if we place it at an unrealistic level.

Whenever we hear someone tell us that we are wrong to think or feel or behave in a certain way, or that we should or shouldn’t be acting according to their expectations we can use that moment to step firmly into our personal power and choose what feels right for us and not what is “right” or “wrong” by anyone else’s standards. People will always judge, we will never get away from that, but the only judgment that really matters is when we have self-reflected and judged ourselves internally on our own. And we can try to judge ourselves with compassion and unconditional love and use it as a tool to build firm and loving foundations on which we can safely grow on.

This week is about accepting parts of ourselves we have previously denied, rejected and hidden away and tending to unresolved pain and old open wounds so that we can heal, transform and ultimately find relief from the past and gain a sense of freedom.

The most profound thing we can remember in any period of emotional upheaval, uncertainty, conflict or disruption is the old proverb: “This too will pass.”

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Author: Alex Myles

Editor: Travis May

Photo: Flickr/Maegan Tintari