Hello, hello friends. Welcome back to another week and another episode of Tarot Reflections. How are you this fine day?
On my end, it has been a bit of a roller coaster of a week when it comes to my emotions. There were multiple emergency and crisis situations at work that required my entire team to be on the ball and adapt as the situations required. While I can't get into the details surrounding the emergencies of course, they left me feeling frustrated with our systems that are broken even on a good day. But when you add in the inflation and global supply chain problems our society is currently experiencing, our broken systems become a million times worse.
On top of that, I discovered some information related to my personal life that took a hit on my self-esteem and mental wellbeing. It showed me that while I have come a long, long way in healing post-heartbreak and in this transitional period of my life, I am not fully out of the woods yet.
Then, of course, there are the lingering effects of Roe being overturned. There's the racist, sexist, and homophobic rhetoric that continues to gain ground, not just in the US but here in Canada and around the world. This white-supremist, cis-male centric movement scares me and I feel like as a society we're trying to ignore it, to downplay the risk it brings. But ignoring it and minimizing it is just letting it grow stronger and more powerful.
All that to say, there have been a lot of emotions this week. A lot of heavy emotions. And the predominant emotion I've been feeling is anger.
So today, I want to talk about anger: how it plays a role in our lives, how it's important to address and feel our anger, and how we can use a righteous anger to level up and grow.
I feel fairly confident in saying, if you're listening to my podcast right now you're probably angry about something. Whether it's the continued COVID-19 pandemic and our, let's say collective decision to give up trying to prevent the spread to vulnerable populations. Or the overturn of Roe and the implications that decision has for human rights not only in the US but across the Western world. Or the pain and anger that comes with challenges in our personal relationships or the loss of someone important in your life. Anger is an inevitable emotion we'll all feel — and likely we'll all feel it often.
We often associate anger with the quote-unquote bad emotions or unhelpful emotions. And while anger can lead to some very destructive behaviours, it's not inherently 'bad' on it's own. Anger, when respected and managed, can be a very useful emotion and a healing emotion. In fact, hiding or ignoring our anger can often lead us to the overwhelming and unhealthy behaviours we want to avoid by avoiding our anger.
It's the mismanagement of anger that causes problems, not the anger itself.
Anger often comes as a result of a trigger. It can be triggered by danger to your self, such as the anger you may feel while driving down the freeway and someone cuts you off. That anger is felt to that driver because their actions put your safety at risk.
It can be triggered by injustice, perceived or real. This is the collective anger we're feeling right now with the overturn of Roe. It's the anger we see and feel every time another Indigenous, Black, or Person of Colour is killed by a police officer.
And it can be triggered when we feel vulnerable, sad, or rejected. All those feelings inspired the anger I felt through the grieving process of the heartbreak I experienced this year.
Anger is often trying to tell us something. Sometimes, it's a survival response telling us to fight. Sometimes, it's telling us that something is out of alignment with our values or that something isn't meeting our needs. And sometimes it's telling us to slow down and feel our emotions in order to make a change in our selves and our lives.
This is one of the reasons why it's important to feel our anger. To listen to it in order to figure out what it's trying to tell us. What we need in our lives that's missing, that's causing that anger.
It's also important to address our anger so that we can manage it appropriately. Unmanaged anger or mismanaged anger can lead to violent outbursts, physical altercations, and it can increase the stress in our bodies, ultimately impacting our physical health too. Again, it's the mismanagement of anger that causes problems, not the anger itself.
So how can we channel our anger in productive ways in order to grow and strengthen our sense of identity.
This idea of using anger for self-improvement was inspired by the last counselling session I had. It took me quite a few weeks post-breakup to feel any anger around it. And when that anger finally came, it felt wrong. It felt unhealthy. I felt like it was just going to pull me down and hold me back.
So when I saw my counsellor, I asked him what do I do about this? How do I let go of this anger I don't want to be feeling?
Of course, I had to feel the anger and he was quick to remind me of that. But he said something that really shifted my perspective and allowed me to see my anger in a new light.
He said, "I think what you're feeling is a righteous anger. You have a right to be angry and you should be angry. And you can use that anger for change. Use that anger to move forward in relationships in a different way."
Essentially, I needed to use that anger in order to strengthen my self-esteem and feelings of self-worth so that I can better advocate and listen to my needs in relationships. I need to use that anger to grow so that when I meet someone new and see some of the yellow or red flags early on, I feel confident enough to walk away then and there. And while I've only dipped my toes in the dating pool again so far, I'm already seeing a change in how I approach exploring romantic relationships.
Anger is unavoidable. But it's an important emotion to recognize, explore, and feel. It can be used to help us find clarity and grow in our self-esteem and self-worth. And it can be a driver for change.
And now, onto this week's reading.
Our general message from the Universe this week is through... the six of cups.
This is a great card to pull during Cancer season, it really amplifies the family-driven, healing energy the moonlit crab brings.
This week, we need to indulge our selves in the nurturing, loving environment that comes with our closest family and friends. We need to allow ourselves to bask in the comfort and happiness of the familiar in order to heal.
If you can't physically be with your people this week, spend time reminiscing on the happy memories you share with them. Truly happy and blissful memories hold a lasting warmth to them, an echo of that moment that does not fade.
Remember, when we talk about family, especially in spirituality circles, it doesn't necessarily mean the people you are related to through blood or marriage. Often, our chosen family is much more powerful, stronger, and more comforting than the relatives we share DNA with. Let family mean something unique and special to you.
Finally, our mental health message for the week ahead comes from... the High Priestess.
Oh our beautiful High Priestess is calling us to look inward this week. To listen to our inner voice and our intuition. To seek new levels of understanding for ourselves.
This card is guiding us to do some solo, introspective work this week. Set aside some time to be alone with your thoughts and emotions, to explore your deeper wants and desires, to give yourself permission to go after your goals and those dreams you've been too afraid to vocalize. It's a week to get to know yourself again.
With a deeper understanding of your self, you can make informed decisions to level up your life and connect with your calling. With a deeper understanding of your self, you'll be empowered to make meaningful actions towards strengthening your mental wellbeing. With a deeper understanding of your self, you'll be able to recognize changes and fluctuations in your emotions and inquire what they might mean or why they may be happening.
That's everything for this week friends. Be sure to subscribe or follow Tarot Reflections so you never miss an episode. I'd also love it if you'd leave a rating or review if you enjoyed today's podcast. If you didn't, then don't worry about it. If you want more juicy content on mental health and life with mental illness, you can follow me at meganmentally on Instagram or head to my website at www.meganmentally.com.
Until next time my friends.