#selfloveforthesummer

Less Impatience, More Kindness

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Today’s meditation was skipped due to it being orders day.

Dragon Tarot and Less Anxiety Affirmation CardsToday’s draw is The Star card, which is traditionally a representation of hope, optimism, and the connection between ourselves, the world around us, and our spirituality.

When this card is combined with the affirmation card for today, the message that I see here is about patience and self care.

I have been struggling with this a lot lately.  My inner voice seems to feel that my spiritual growth and transition to a more self-care focused balance is not moving fast enough.  It blames me for holding on to what is familiar and comfortable, which hangs up the process of moving forward as I struggle with letting go.

The cards today speak of making sure I am trusting the process.  Trusting that things will work themselves out at their own speed, and to focus on caring for myself and being kind to myself as this process unfolds instead of focusing on the speed or whatever failings or momentary hurdles I can use to beat myself up with along the way.

DECK USED:  DRAGON TAROT AND LESS ANXIETY AFFIRMATION CARDS

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Questions for June 23rd and 24th

She Whispers Her Truth Oracle and Dragon TarotWhat brings me joy?

Foi, Force Puissance and Two of Cups

Something that helps in fostering my joy is in finding balance in my life that allows me to move forward with confidence and sure footing. I like it when things are steady beneath my feet, allowing me to feel strong and well grounded as a result. It gives me a sense of freedom that I don’t feel when things feeling unsteady.

How can I live in abundance?

Nous sommes toujours là and The Lovers

Remember that your guides are there to help you in making good decisions. Don’t ignore their advice or disregard what they have to say, for it’s with their help on your side that you will live a fuller and happier life filled with good things.

DECK USED:  MEET THE SELF ORACLE AND DRAGON TAROT

#DiscordTarotolicsJun2021 Challenge Prompt
Topic: Self-care for the Full Moon…

Dragon TarotReading Summary: Take some time to examine your path and make sure it is aligned (Judgment) with where you really want to go (Three of Wands) and what your intuition has to say on the matter (The High Priestess).

Take Away: Sometimes our actions do not align with what we want, either through stubbornness, subconscious influences, or old habits. This full moon is a good time to take a moment to examine your actions and make sure that they are aligned with your purpose and the direction you want your feet to head on life’s path.

DECK USED:  DRAGON TAROT

Daily Self Kindness

I tried to pace myself a bit with the orders today.  I’m not sure how good I did at it, but I did use the balcony and plants there to help a bit.

Self Care Within the Fray

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Today’s meditation was skipped.  No excuse, I just didn’t get to it.  Tomorrow is an orders day, so I will pick back up on Friday morning.

Botanica Tarot and Less Anxiety Affirmation CardsToday’s draw is the King of Wands (Pomegranate), which is traditionally a representation of a projective alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s drive, willpower, passion projects, enthusiasm, and interests. This often translated into themes of leadership that involve connecting to their followers through zeal and enthusiasm, successful entrepreneurship, and weighing impulsivity with responsibility.

When you are driven and inspired, it can sometimes feel like whatever you do is never enough. I run into this often with my business.  There’s always so much more to do, and you’re so focused on the enthusiasm and pushing to make things work and thrive that you forget…. you need to also take care of yourself.

The King of Wands combined with today’s affirmation card is a reminder that you can’t finish everything before taking that break. Instead, take the break, and then go back and do more.  Taking care of yourself, even when pushing and striving for something to succeed, is extremely important and should be a part of the process.  Not set aside for a more convenient time.

DECK USED:  BOTANICA TAROT AND LESS ANXIETY AFFIRMATION CARDS

CoffeexTarot’s Self Love For The Summer Prompt
Questions for June 23rd & 24th

Botanica Tarot and Inner Compass Kids CardsHow can I better balance my positive and negative emotions?

Lion and Five of Pentacles (Hellebore) – When the going gets tough, it’s time to shine. Tap in to your skills and those things you enjoy doing and that you’re really good at, and use them to balance out those times when you’re feeling especially negative.

How can I build more confidence in myself?

Sea and Knight of Wands (Passiflora) – You don’t always have to lead, in order to allow your passions to shine. Someone else can take a turn at the wheel now and then. When you let this happen, you will be able to see that even when you’re not steering the ship, you’re still along for the ride and the boat still gets where you want it to go.

DECK USED:  INNER COMPASS KIDS CARDS AND BOTANICA TAROT

#DiscordTarotolicsJun2021 Challenge Prompt
Philosophical Question: Do people need other people for true happiness?

Botanica TarotTwo of Pentacles (Blue Waterlily) – Balance. Too much of anything is always not a good thing; same for too little. Contact with other people as necessary, but only in good measure. Too much, or too little, leads to an imbalance and siphons away happiness.

King of Wands (Pomegranate) – Sometimes it is only with the encouragement of others that we find our true calling and our passions. And sometimes we need their help and their support to go after our calling. Even those at the very top need others. The crown is of no use if there’s no one to lead, after all.

Justice (Gladiolus) – Through color association, this card ties in to the balance card on the left (Two of Pentacles). It is about finding balance, and the cause-and-effect of either being in balance… or out of balance. This is the repercussions that come from the choices you make.

Take Away: The answer is yes. People need other than people in order to be truly happy. But, the amount of time and connection needed between people is different from person to person. Some people need more, some people need less. The key is to find the balance that works for you.

DECK USED:  BOTANICA TAROT

Daily Self Kindness

After my eye appointment, I stopped by the park and took a peaceful two mile walk. It was an easy walk, since it was all level ground and mostly paved, but it was a nice bit of time in nature all the same, and I wore my new hiking boots to break them in a little bit.

Time Off Is Allowed

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Today’s meditation was skipped because I was super eager to get online with Gideon.

Family Tarot and Less Anxiety Affirmation CardsToday’s draw is the Empress card, which is traditionally a representation of nature and earthen energies, abundance, nurturing, and sacred femininity.

Here in the affirmation card, we have a reminder that we are more important than the things we need to do.  This is a reminder I often need to hear, and combined with the Empress card, this is very clearly my cards calling me out on worrying about the business and work when I’m supposed to be wallowing in what is pretty much my last day off.   Tomorrow, of course, will be a relaxing day, but it will also be the day that I hope back into work and start to catch up on the orders that have piled up while I was off work.

The cards today are an encouragement to make sure that I am getting the time off that I need (and deserve), even if it can sometimes be hard to allow that to happen.

DECK USED:  FAMILY TAROT AND FLOWER FORTUNE CARDS

CoffeexTarot’s Self Love For The Summer Prompt
Question: How do I overcome negative thoughts about myself?

Family Tarot and Backyard Blessings CardsReading Summary: Remember all that you’ve gone through and the survivor that you’ve become (Three of Swords). Moving forward, work at focusing more energy into the concepts of lightheartedness, cheerfulness, and anticipation.

Take Away: It’s not enough to fight against that negative narrative in your head, you also need to remind yourself of all the good you have done and all that you have accomplished along the way.

When you allow yourself to acknowledge and accept that you’ve done well, it encourages more positive emotions and attitudes to step forward, creating a sense of adventure and rightness where before there were shadows in which that inner narrative could easily hide and whisper from.

DECK USED:  FAMILY TAROT AND BACKYARD BLESSINGS CARDS

#DiscordTarotolicsJun2021 Challenge and Sacred Grounds Tarot Club
Topic: About opportunity…

Family TarotWhat is blocking me from my intuition right now?

End game struggles of moving on (Ten of Swords), and the need to find a meditative rest and balance (Four of Cups).

I need to relax.  Let go and let things move forward without hindrance or pushing.  Letting things just flow along at their own pace isn’t really one of my strong points.  I can fake it now and then, but in truth, when it comes to myself and my own life, I most often find myself with the need  to either push… or resist… far more often than feeling the relaxed and easy energy of letting things move at their own pace.

What opportunities am I missing as a result?

Achieving greater stability (Ten of Coins) and more joy (The Sun). This easy going skill that I struggle with would allow me to find a greater sense of stability and enjoy life more.  It’s something I need to be conscious of, and work at bringing into my life, as it will also give my intuitive gifts a greater amount of freedom.

DECK USED:  FAMILY TAROT

Daily Self Kindness

Super hot sexy time with Gideon definitely counts as a self kindness.

Leave It All Behind

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Today I did a purge, cleanse, and grounding hike in the forest.  I took one of the steeper trails up into the rainforest to ensure that my stalker would have a hard time following, and brought J along with me for protection.  After a couple of hours of steep uphill climb (the purging through exertion and sweat), we stopped at the lake and I took a swim (the cleansing), before then leaving J at the lake and going off into the woods for a skyclad meditation lying upon the forest floor (grounding).

The meditation lasted about an hour before I dressed and returned to the lake, and from there J and I hiked back down to the trail head. On the whole it was immensely refreshing and wonderfully cleansing, and I haven’t felt so good in a long time.

Vox Arcana Tarot and Less Anxiety Affirmation CardsToday’s draw is the Queen of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of a receptive alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s finances, resources, health, home, manifestation, and the physical world.  This is the area of one’s earthly pleasures and how one balances life’s needs and responsibilities.

I see the Queen of Pentacles in this reading combined with the affirmation card for today as a celebration of the rainforest hike and meditation that took up a good part of my day today.  I have been needing time in nature for quite some time. Usually at this time of year I’m out in the woods at least a couple of times a week.  That hasn’t been the case this year due to… well, stalker issues.

The Queen of Pentacles and the accompanying affirmation card in today’s pull is about making sure that I truly allow myself to fall into nature’s embrace and leave the stresses and worries of day to day life behind during this time.

DECK USED:  VOX ARCANA TAROT AND LESS ANXIETY AFFIRMATION CARDS

#DiscordTarotolicsJun2021 Prompt
Topic: About happiness…
CoffeexTarot’s Self Love For The Summer Prompt
Question: What is my heart feeling? How can I encourage more joy and happiness in my heart?

Vox Arcana TarotWhat is my heart feeling?

Overburdened (Ten of Wands) and in need of rest (Four of Swords).  God yeah.  I know that I’m over the half way mark now in my time off this week, but it feels like I haven’t gotten even close to enough rest and restoration.

It always feels this way for some reason.  It’s like the first couple of days are “oh I feel great. What do I need rest and recovery for?” and then by the last few days I’m dragging ass and whining in my head about needing more days off.

How can I encourage more joy and happiness in my heart?

It’s all at your fingertips now (The Magician), you just need to add in some gratitude (Nine of Pentacles).

I’ve been getting a lot of reminders lately from the cards to reboot my gratitude practice.  This practice is a part of the meditation, but it’s also a part of something else. I don’t benefit as much from just mentally going over the things I’m grateful for as I do from actually putting time focus into truly and deeply acknowledge these things each day.

DECK USED:  VOX ARCANA TAROT

Daily Self Kindness

I had a very wonderfully long hike in the woods today, and I took J with me for safety.  I also chose a hike that I knew would be hard for most people to follow, and that had a “bottle neck” spot (at the lake) where I could leave J to keep watch while I went on to get my meditation and all that done in safety.

The Known and the Unknown

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IMG_2411Today’s meditation was just a bit over ten minutes long and was one of the guided meditations from the Calm app combined with a interval timer for my piriformis stretches.

The focus of today’s meditation was about gratitude, and the benefits of including a practice of gratitude in your life. A lot of people, especially pessimistic people, snub the idea of a gratitude practice.  But the thing is? It actually helps.  It helps you see the world in a brighter light, and helps make sure that we don’t sink so deep into pessimism that we become bitter or depressed. Focusing on gratitude and what we appreciate in life is a part of finding a more optimistic and positive outlook in life and… I’ve come to realize over time that this is something a lot of people need.  Myself included.

David's Tarot and Less Anxiety Affirmation CardsToday’s draw is The Priestess card, which is traditionally a representation of the subconscious, intuition, hidden inner knowledge, and… well, secrets.

The affirmation card speaks here about what other people are thinking about you.  In therapy, assuming or worrying about what others are thinking about you is called “mind reading”.  Mind reading is not possible.  Not in this way.  Not in the ways that are being referred to in this card.

There are simply some secrets we’re not able to know, and others still that we are not meant to know.

It’s important to remember this, and not let yourself assume the worst about these things you don’t know.  Doing that just drags you down.  Instead, allow some secrets to remain secret and instead focus on the things that uplift you instead of those that make you feel uncertain and alone.

DECK USED:  DAVID’S TAROT AND LESS ANXIETY AFFIRMATION CARDS

#DiscordTarotolicsJun2021 Challenge Prompt
Philosophical Question: What is something you believe but cannot prove?

Daily Pause OracleReading Summary: That one’s confidence can be boosted through meditation and allowing for hope, optimism, and an appreciation of the beauty all around you.

Take Away: Okay so  hear me out.  Logically it makes sense, and everybody says that’s how it works.  And sometimes?  You can even look at how you focus on these things and it appears to make a difference.

But how do you prove it?  Especially to a skeptic.

I’m really not sure you can. There’s just too many other extraneous influences that could have an influence and be fingered to take the credit instead.

DECK USED:  DAILY PAUSE ORACLE

The Sacred Grounds Tarot Club Prompt
Questions for June 16th thru 19th

David's TarotHow can I better manage my inner critic?

Five of Swords – You’re going to have to work at it, fight at it, and be determined to win at it in order to come out on top.

What do I need to know about my intuitive abilities?

Six of Cups – It’s not your just your guides that are there to help you, but your ancestors as well. Don’t leave them out of the equation.

What is blocking me from my intuition right now?

Ace of Swords – New ways of seeing things, thinking about things, and communicating can sometimes be confusing. You need to ground and cleanse.

How can I move through my intuitive blocks?

Queen of Pentacles – Again, ground and cleanse. Strong nurturing energy is needed, as are squishy hugs.

DECK USED:  DAVID’S TAROT

Daily Self Kindness

I…. can’t remember what I did for self kindness on Wednesday (I’m playing catch-up).  I’ve had the week off, though, and been working at giving myself a break and not working this week, so that counts.

Taking Stock of Personal Boundaries

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Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and was a guided meditation from the Calm app. I did not include my piriformis stretching because the meditation was done at my aunt’s house. (I also had a nap after.)

The focus of today’s meditation was about criticism and how to better deal with it when it’s offered.  Some people are assholes, and others just don’t know how to deliver criticism in a constructive way. Neither of these mean you have to take criticism personally when it’s directed your way.  Just listen and hear what they have to say, and if there’s a seed of something useful in there, use it and let the rest just fall away.  The insult, whether intended or not? Isn’t worth worrying over, only the info and lesson are worth consideration.

TV Series Tarot and Less Anxiety Affirmation CardsToday’s draw is the Knight of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of an active beta energy, personality, or person in the area of ones resources, finances, home, health, work, or manifestations. It is about actively pursuing ones basic needs and work related endeavors.

The imagery in this card, with the close inspection of the coin the man holds, speaks to me of examining ones foundations and values.

This process is especially important when one is dealing with their own personal boundaries that are mentioned in the affirmation card for today. Personal boundaries are not about restricting you, instead they’re about ensuring others respect your space and energy.

I am often quite rigid in my boundaries as a good majority of them are set by my moral compass … but not all. The message within these two cards combined is that it’s important to look at your boundaries and make sure that they have value and are working for you.

It doesn’t matter if they are working for other people, but rather if they hold value for you and why. Looking at your boundaries in this way helps reinforce them, and also helps in sorting out the ones that you’ve grown beyond or are no longer working for you.

DECK USED:  TV SERIES TAROT AND LESS ANXIETY AFFIRMATION CARDS

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What takes me out of my comfort zone?

Fantastic Being CardsThe Stars (Aspirations) – Stepping away from what’s comfortable and familiar to try something new and different. Letting go of things that aren’t working so that these new and different things can flourish and fill in the gaps.

Sphinx (Awe & Wonder) – When I need to self-appreciate it creates a sense of discomfort for me. I’ve slowly learned to take compliments and even appreciate them, but directing such sentiments toward myself is much more difficult and… awkward.

Axolotl (Regeneration) – Loss.  I can deal with a myriad of different painful experiences, but loss is not one of those that I handle all that well. The feeling of powerlessness makes picking up the pieces after loss and finding a way to reform and move forward feel a bit like fumbling around in the dark.

DECK USED:  FANTASTIC BEING MANIFESTATION CARDS

#DiscordTarotolicsJun2021 Challenge Prompt
Topic: Draw or write something free form inspired by the card(s).

TV Series Tarot(Knight of Cups) Alfred is a brave turtle owned by Miss Maggie Penelope Tweedman. He lives in a spacious glass house where he watches over her while she sleeps at night, and each morning he comes out of his little log shelter to greet her good morning and have his bath in the bathroom sink, where she scrubs his shell til it gleams.

(Queen of Cups) She changes his water in the pond beside his shelter before she leaves each day, and before he’s left alone, she gives him lush, yummy leaves to munch on all day.

Each day it is peacefully quiet other than the ticking that is a part of every hour of every day. Each day  is the same, and he goes about his life well cared for by Miss Maggie, who comes home in the evenings every day with a cricket treat for him to eat and play time outside his home where he’s taken on great adventures to other realms.

(The Tower) Then one day, Miss Maggie did not come home at the end of the day.  The light sky became dark and he was left alone for much longer than usual.  His glass home sat in the dark with no lamp to shine light upon him and no cricket treats to eat.  Surely the world is coming to an end!  Surely someone has forgotten about him, and Miss Maggie is gone, and his old soul wept at the sudden change of events.

For two days no one came and his water became dirty.  He was so hungry, and so alone.  He emerged from his shelter each morning seeking his lovely Maggie to come care for him, but she didn’t come. Nor did she come in the evenings any longer to bring him treats.  And then someone that was not Miss Maggie showed up and peered into his home. He was lifted out, poked and prodded.  Examined. And he knew this to be the end.  Of course, Alfred could not read.  For the uniformed human with the yellow emblem on his shirt that slipped him into a dark safe place that Alfred thought for sure was the end of his time, was actually simply packing him up to take them to Miss Maggie’s new home.

DECK USED:  TV SERIES TAROT

CoffeexTarot’s Self Love For The Summer Prompt
Question for June 15th & 16th

Flora Healing CardsWhat does self-love mean to me?
Foxglove (Convincing), Aloe (Restore), Delphinium (Amend)

Self-love means to me that there are things I can do for myself to help me recover from working too hard, and adjust  how I do things so that I don’t have to work quite so hard going forward.  It is also a topic that requires a bit of nudging and pushing for me to participate in and keep up on. I do not always feel that I deserve these kindnesses and gentle but restorative acts.  Sometimes I don’t feel that I have enough -time- for them, which means fitting them in and getting them done can often require a bit of coaxing and a lot of nudging.

A self-love message for my future self.
Lily (Whorl) and Hyacinth (Waves)

Be less rigid and lean into those skills, abilities, and tools in your arsenal to take you forward when things feel hopeless or out of control.  Everything in life is an ebb and flow, and nothing is ever truly still.  Do you want to ride out the shifts of life’s currents? Or stay still and sink?

DECK USED:  FLORA HEALING RESTORATIVE CARDS
Daily Self Kindness

I took along not just my sister, but also both Z and J with me when I went to my aunt’s house today.  The two extra guests to feed and entertain kept her so distracted that she didn’t have an opportunity to be rude or snide.