“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

~ A. A. Milne

Do you feel the intensity in the air? I do. The combination of Mercury Retrograde and the Eclipse season present a wonderful opportunity for growth, but also poses a great deal of tension.

This Mercury Retrograde in Aries feels icky, like something is awfully wrong and you can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. Or maybe you can pinpoint it, but you have absolutely no control over the situation.

Hanging in between the Lunar Eclipse and the upcoming Solar Eclipse, which many of us will be able to watch, adds up to the mix of feelings. It is exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

Aries is telling us that through this swirl of energies, we need to find our strength. We need to realize that we are stronger, more capable, and more lovable than we think.

Many of us were taught to be submissive. Some of us are staying small in order not to pose a threat to others, or not to attract the evil forces of jealousy. When we do that, we give our strength away. We start believing that we are weak. We forget that we were only pretending.

Many of us are willing to put up with things that we should not put up with. This used to be my story. I lived through abusive relationships with men who got upset with me for everything I did. I allowed them to yell at me for things I did out of love for them. And I stayed because I loved them, even though they kept hurting me.

But throughout time I got stronger. I learned to appreciate what I had to offer. I started realizing that I had a choice, that it was I who put myself in a weak position, and it was I who could change that. I recognized my victimhood and decided that I no longer desired to be a victim.

“You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you”, is a brilliant quote by Joshua Fields Millburn. We can and we should choose people who want us to be big and strong. People who are not intimidated by our power and do not try to make us feel weak, helpless, and incapable, just so that they can feel strong next to us.

Strength has several layers, and they are all intertwined. Physical, mental, and emotional strength influence one another. Physical activity promotes physical strength. Meditation, focus, learning new things, and challenging our mind, promote mental strength. When it comes to emotions, many of us learned to repress ourselves in the name of strength. This repression is the very thing that made us lose our strength.

To be strong means to be able to look reality in the eyes and see it for what it is. It is not as easy as it sounds. We are so used to trying to beautify things, to push our pain and fears away, to dismiss them and to say that everything’s going to be alright. Strength means admitting our pain and our fears and knowing that we can deal with them.

But strength also means to be able to stand up tall and say, I am not going to let pain and fear win. I am not going to let the circumstances win. I am going to find my purpose and give it everything I’ve got. I am going to fulfill myself and my dreams and live the life I want to live.

This eclipse is giving us a chance to connect with our strength, but strength would not fall on us from the sky, even during the eclipse. It is up to us to do the work. We should ask ourselves:

1. In which aspects of my life do I feel weak, helpless, or incapable? What do I need to do to get stronger?
2. Do I feel physically, mentally, and emotionally strong? If not, which practices can help me get stronger?
3. Do I give my power away to others in the name of love, and then remain weak, small, or depleted? Or do I feel empowered by the people around me? What changes do I need to do to surround myself with people who support my strength?
4. Are there habits that make me feel weak? What do I need to let go of to be stronger.

I’d love to hear about your eclipse experience. Tell me how you transformed weakness to strength, or how you plan to do it.

Happy New Moon and Solar Eclipse in Aries,

With love,

Yael