Libra

libra1.jpgLouise’s tarotscope: This year got off to a faster start than you thought it would, and perhaps faster than you’re comfortable with. You might have a lot to complete, quite suddenly, and January begins with you galloping into the month. When we have a feeling like this, it’s a reminder about change. One thing I find is that if we feel really busy, we often make time seem smaller because we say that we haven’t got time to do everything. This month, take back your power over your time, because if you go full speed on everything you’re excited to do, you’ll get tired fast. Catch yourself before that happens. This month is a lot about releasing pressure, especially if you’re someone who piles a lot of pressure onto themselves—that you’ve got to achieve and get things done. January asks you to step back a little. There’s a big neon sign blinking, “Where do you want to place your attention?” Start with that one thing, instead of trying to do everything at once and then feeling like you can’t accomplish everything, or as though you haven’t got the time, and that if you don’t do it all, you’ve failed.

Enter the power of the list! Some people really like list making, and I think it’s the same type of task as that goal-setting I mentioned for the year ahead. Write your list, but don’t attach punishment to it. If you write your list and you’ve done five of the 20 things you’ve written, don’t think of that as a terrible defeat; the only reason you’re making lists is so that it’s out of your head and onto paper. It’s clearing a bit of headspace.

This month’s energy can bring up fear of being out of control, or worries you might have regarding outcomes during various points in the year. We love to know the future, but the future is a wave of water, fluid and prone to change. I like to think that the future is none of our business, and the present moment is the only thing that’s our job—that’s where we do our work! It’s a bit like you’ve got a steering wheel—just put your hands on the wheel and be here now, with the things you’re doing today. This is why people talk about the present moment so much: It’s cool because it’s the only thing that’s real, it’s the only thing you can actually work with. Any opportunity you have this month, bring yourself back to what you’re doing right now. Sometimes right now is just…having a soda! “Right now” sometimes means lying down on the floor to chill for a second, and that’s your happy place— looking at the ceiling. It doesn’t have to be that you’ve achieved something, it just means calling yourself back to now. It’s not your job to “win” January. Allow yourself to do what you gotta do, one thing at a time. It’s your life. You’re allowed to steer it without worries and obsessions.

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Dylan’s advice: Water can always teach us lessons. My favorite lesson is “CALM THE HECK DOWN, MAN,” which the bath yells at me whenever I need a reason to chill. Make your January ritual a next-level, multi-ingredient present moment full-body soak festival with one VIP (you). Find the lock on your bathroom door, light your candles, do whatever you do to make it cozy. Draw a hot bath that might include bags of green or herbal tea, special bath salts, lavender or rose essential oils, or my personal obsession, Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath. Bumping Enya at moderately loud volumes to drown out yapping siblings outside the bathroom door is highly encouraged, if you want to go full “busy mom seeking moment of peace in her hectic lifestyle” on yourself. That would be cool. If your pet is part of your recipe for relaxation, make like Mariah. If you don’t have access to a bathtub, try to find a moment with a body of water into which you can release some of your worries: Write them on pieces of paper so they can dissolve, or lay them on rocks you find on a beach or pennies that you can skip into a pond or fountain. January, for you, isn’t about sprinting ahead, but about soaking up one thing at a time, achieving a chill that is so core to a sense of balance for Libra, the sign of the scales.