Pisces reminds us that we are all souls facing emotional pain. Without proper guidance, we tend to escape it. By doing so, we only weaken ourselves. I want to offer you a simple, effective way to face your emotional challenge and empower yourself.

As I entered adulthood, life became too painful. There was the pain of almost losing my brother to leukemia and then losing my mother to cancer. There was the pain of rejection and not being loved.

I was a highly sensitive child who did not learn how to work with her sensitivity. I did not know how to cope with all this pain, so there was only one thing I could do – escape it.

My first escape was with alcohol. As a teenager, I used to drink until I fainted. I often woke up with a splash of cold water on my face, finding myself on the nightclub floor. In my twenties, I escaped by smoking cigarettes and recklessness. I would sometimes wake up next to someone I did not plan to get in bed with. In my thirties, I discovered cannabis, and it has become my primary means of escaping. Whenever I felt challenged or down, I took a smokey inhale, and everything felt better.

My radical escape led me eventually to depression. It forced me to aim for a healthy life with yoga, meditation, and a healthy lifestyle, which I adopted in my mid-thirties. But my escaping did not end there. When I met my husband and started my fertility journey, and later when I was pregnant and nursed my son for three years, I could not consume anything unhealthy. Then, I escaped with chocolate and food, books, romantic comedies, and harmful thoughts.

It was a healthier way to escape, but still an escape from anything too painful. And sure enough, when I stopped nursing, cannabis got back into the picture, and my usage of it was intensified during harsh times and emotional heaviness.

Only recently, I felt empowered enough to tell myself, “Yael, you must stop escaping your pain. If something hurts, let it hurt. You are strong enough to deal with it. It won’t break you. You’ve dealt with so much shit in your life, you can totally do it”.

Acknowledging my strengths made me strong. Cultivating the belief that I could deal with anything made me capable of dealing with anything.

I made a promise to myself that I would never consume anything or do anything to avoid the emotional pain and challenge. I now know that when I escape my emotional pain, I hurt and weaken myself. I reinforce the belief that life is too much for me, and I need something to help me go by. 

Pisces is the sign of the soul. As such, it perceives the pain of being a human more than any other sign. It feels intertwined and connected with everyone and everything and has difficulty separating itself from the collective energy. It senses the waves of despair in the world. It is linked to every human who suffers anywhere around the world. It experiences the suffering that has always been a part of being a human. 

This is why Pisces is the sign that wants to escape more than any other sign. It realizes how hard it is to be a human in this world. It remembers what it was like when we were just souls, floating in a different dimension without pain, heartbreak, wars, loss, evilness, or harm. 

The high road of Pisces is to claim its power. Instead of escaping the pain, Pisces learns to heal it. Instead of resisting war, Pisces brings peace. But to do that, Pisces first needs to reverse the instinctual tendency we all have to escape our pain. This is the first and most crucial key to leading a life of strength and power, where you can fulfill your dreams and live the life you want. Life stops being threatening and scary – it becomes a place of love and joy. 

The best practice I found for withstanding my pain, fears, anxiety, and other emotional challenges I would usually escape is a form of Tonglen. I learned it from Pema Chödrön’s iconic book, When Things Fall Apart. 

The Practice goes like this: Whenever you experience emotional pain, fear, anxiety, or any other emotional discomfort, you breathe it in. Yes! You read it correctly. You breathe it in to say, “I am not afraid of you, you will not break me, and I can withstand you.” 

Then, you breathe out healing for all the people who experience the same emotional pain, fear, or discomfort. 

This is it. It’s very simple and so effective. It helped me deal with the most challenging situations, such as the anxiety I felt last week when my son had a 104° fever a few nights in a row and was not showing any signs of improvement. This is also why I did not write a post last week. 

When the Sun is in Pisces and Venus starts retrograding this week, find your strength and power. Stop escaping your emotional challenge and face it by taking it in. Turn the pain into healing. And don’t forget to let me know how it goes. 

Have a wonderful week,

With love,

Yael