The main theme for February is “MANAGEMENT”
We initiated the year with two eclipses stirring the pot of intensity creating numerous opportunities to crack open the potential for growth, expansion, new ideas, and intentions. The energy has been forward moving, barely allowing us to catch up with ourselves enough to sift through the bounty and put it all in order. The challenge now is that we have just a little too much on our plates and we can be confused and stressed about how to be up for the task, get it all done, and know where our priorities lie and what the next step is.
We are faced with the danger of falling back on what we know, on where we are comfortable, putting all our energy into what is familiar rather into something new that has landed in our field. Navigating this new landscape requires paying closer attention to the signs and landmarks using your inner compass and managing your distractions in such a way as to notice when you get off track.
Management as a theme for this month covers management of your inner life as well as management of your outer life. Management is a responsibility for what you do now with your new-found inspiration even if you see a challenging road ahead. There will always be an aspect of inner management as well as one of outer management. Inner management has to do with lessons learned and the discipline to change belief systems, patterns and perceptions that only you can change. Outer management has to do with the practices, habits and behaviors that come from those belief systems, patterns and perceptions.
For example, if you just had the courage to leave a job or a relationship, managing that transition comes with the discipline of making an inventory of gratitude for what you received from the past experience or situation as well as an inventory of where you are complete with certain patterns or lessons you do not wish to repeat. This is managing the inner work. The outer work would be to take proactive action steps towards what you desire in a new expression of both situations. Remember that what is in your field will attract the support you need in moving forward, therefore, you want to eliminate the distractions and mixed messages that will cloud and confuse what you attract. If you still hold the belief that you do not deserve better than you had before, then that is what you will create.
There are many areas of management that should be considered in your responsibility this month. Managing your priorities is first on the list. It is crucial that you discern what is your priority as opposed to someone else’s for you. If your priority is to spend more time in your garden but your partner thinks it is a waste of time and that you should delegate it to someone else, you will need to evaluate how high a priority it is for you as well as the motivation behind it. If you are setting priorities for yourself out of resistance to someone else’s authority or from a place of passive aggression, those priorities are not authentic and will never fit in well in your greater management plan. So, tell the truth about what is truly important to you especially in light of your new-found ideas, inspiration and commitments you made to yourself as we entered 2020.
(There is help with this on the Monthly Support Audio)
The other important area of management is around distractions, energy leaks and boundaries, especially around practices and habits that are detrimental to your balance of energy. This includes the distraction of other people’s drama or their attachment to where they perceive your focus should be. Probably the most difficult practice is to say no to someone that you have been enabling or carrying a burden for. This happens a lot in families, close relationships and work containers. Sometimes it is a true karma or agreement but most of the time it is unnecessary and can even block another’s freedom to choose. Once another gets used to your enabling behavior, it takes more effort on your part to cut it off.
A huge distraction is falling into old habits and patterns of behavior that you are familiar with in an attempt to quiet the instinctive center that always gets a little freaked out with the push for change. The survival mechanism is to go back to what it knows and is familiar with even though it is old energy and old news. If you find yourself doing the same old thing as a distraction, become aware and conscious of it and use some discipline to be proactive about refocusing your action.
Managing your time is, of course, included in this discussion and definitely touches on boundaries and distractions. And, managing your fear patterns (Stubbornness, impatience, martyrdom, self-deprecation, arrogance, greed and self-destruction) is part of managing your inner life. When you fall into these behaviors they are triggered by fear, and that fear needs to be managed. Managing your body and its needs as well as managing the balance between your inner and outer life, your social and alone time, your spiritual practices and your day to day responsibilities, and the energy required to feed a new project or direction, are all to be considered this month.
(The Power Path to Boundaries and Protection can be helpful this month)
If at any time you feel overwhelmed, go through this list of questions as a way to organize the management of what is on your plate, your priorities and distractions.
What is my priority today? Why is it a priority?
Does it make me happy or satisfied? Is it an important step or responsibility towards an authentic goal?
What can wait until tomorrow?
What can I delegate?
Where am I distracted?
What am I doing for myself today for self-care?
What is unnecessary?
Where am I being pressured and is it my responsibility? Where is the pressure coming from?
Within or from the outside?
What am I avoiding and why?
What am I afraid of?
What do I still need to complete, eliminate or clear out that is either a distraction or no longer serves me?
Do I feel balanced? What is not being fed?
What practices have I done today to help in my balance of inner and outer life?
Where have I wasted time?
What can I do today to raise my vibration and bring joy and beauty into my life?
Keep an inventory of your answers and this map of questions will give you much clarity and help you to create a good management plan for what’s new, what’s old, what needs to change, what has changed, what is in transition, what is part of your inner life and what is part of your outer life.
How the month shows up:
YOU PERSONALLY
This month is all about the personal. If you are not managing your personal life well, there is no way you will manage anything else well. Getting involved in other people’s management of their issues, drama or challenges is only a distraction unless it is your work as a counselor, coach or guide in this area and then some good boundaries around your work are appropriate. And, if you are in the business of helping others, it is imperative that you take the time to focus on your own management as well. Sometimes those in support positions for others will put themselves last and suffer for it.
The discipline required this month for good management has much to do with staying present and noticing what comes up around your processes. Is there resistance? Are you tempted to fall into old habits and behaviors? When are you reactive instead of proactive? A big area of discovery may be how to better manage your inner life of spiritual practice and well-being, with your outer life of responsibility, moving forward and creating the next new thing on your path. Don’t forget to use your practices as well as to ask for help from your allies when you need to. Work with the list of questions above and most of all do not judge yourself when you fall off the wagon. Just reset and get back on.
RELATIONSHIPS
This is an exciting month for relationships as you get to explore the new ones that have entered your life as well as do some deep work on changing patterns that have brought you less than desirable ones in the past. You also have the potential to refine your relationship with responsibility for yourself and your disciplines. Those of you who do not have a good relationship with the word “management” will get to explore that as well. If you have any resistance to the word bringing up a fear of limitations and entrapment, it would be good to redefine that relationship and see that “management” can actually bring you freedom from confusion and chaos. Especially those of you that are stubborn may have some resistance to the container that “management” has to offer.
Those of you that are exploring new relationships or desiring to bring a new relationship into your life have the opportunity to manage that part of your inner patterning that has attracted a different sort than what you desire now. The outer management requires discernment around whom you spend time with and recognizing more quickly when to cut something loose that is not working. If you are nurturing a new relationship, you need to make the effort to spend quality time and to manage that time wisely.
HEALTH AND THE PHYSICAL BODY
The theme of self-care is with us this year and managing that self-care may take discipline especially for those of you that tend to put yourselves last. Part of the discipline is having good boundaries around your personal time, taking care of your health and well-being. The physical body is like a barometer for what needs attention. Stress is also a marker for what needs to be managed more practically. If you are overworked or worried about issues that are not yours to fix, your well-being will suffer. Instead of self-judgment, use the opportunity to organize the management of your health in a better way.
Your perception of yourself will also affect your health and well-being. Can you have better health? Do you deserve better well-being? Do you have a tendency to sabotage opportunities for healing and improvement? Where are you attached to your story? To the extent you are attached, you limit the ability to move forward and then all you are managing is the past.
Be present as much as you can and practice neutrality around any health issues. Have compassion for the body and give it what it needs despite any judgments from your personality.
Challenges this month will mostly be around feeling overwhelmed, scattered, out of sorts, exhausted one day, inspired and energetic the next. Watch the adrenals, digestion and tension around the jaw, eyes and head.
BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS AND PROJECTS
This the area where “too much on your plate” becomes evident. As you prioritize, keep in mind that what may have been a priority for you around a partnership or project before, may not have the same relevance now. Be willing to manage in a way that your past agreements and structures fit into a new container instead of trying to fit new ideas and projects into an old configuration. Remember that you are now operating in a new landscape and new landscapes may require new architecture and new management. There is no reason to remove the old. Just take the parts that are still useful and transfer them into a new container.
There may be a need to do some house cleaning as part of your management. Certain business practices may need to be changed, perhaps projects completed or released, and new blood brought into partnerships. Don’t be afraid to set good boundaries around energy leaks and distractions or to take something off your plate that can either wait or that is not right for you at this time. On the other hand, if a project or a new idea is really inspiring and it keeps raising your curiosity, follow the thread and take a risk especially if it feels right.
ENVIRONMENT
Managing the environment boils down to managing your own environment as you really cannot manage the greater environment. The only thing you can manage around the greater global environment is your own reaction, acceptance, and flexibility. Be willing to reconfigure your plans without wasting time and energy in resistance to changes that may be weather related. The same goes for the political environments around the globe and the social environments worldwide as well. Anger, disappointment, frustration, aggression, despair are all negative vibrations that will never create anything good. Focus instead on hope, love and the endless creative potential for the collective to manifest a positive future. No need to know how, just hold the intention from a place of neutrality.
The personal environment can be more easily and tangibly managed. We are still in the inspired place of clearing and releasing stuff. The simpler your life is, the less to manage. Delegate what you can, release what you can, simplify what you can. Surround yourself with people that are simpler to be around and make sure that your environment works in ways that supports you without effort.
DATES AND TIME FRAMES
February 1-7: It is easy to feel overwhelmed during this time even though the energy feels more stable than it has in several weeks. The Chinese astrological year of the metal rat is in full swing and you can use the intelligence and resourcefulness of this totem to help with beginning to look at your priorities from a place of pragmatism. This is also a good time to set in place good practices that will help you stay disciplined with your distractions so you can better manage your thoughts, ideas, schedules and projects.
Beware of both worry and impatience as the two will surely derail any sense of ease and flow in your day. If your personality insists on these behaviors, give them a short and concrete amount of time to express themselves and then cut them off. This goes for any expressions that are not useful. Give them some time to share their 2 cents and then cut them off.
This is also a good time frame to evaluate where you are getting too involved in other people’s drama as a distraction and where you are wasting your energy trying to fix what is not yours to fix. You cannot carry burdens for others, don’t worry about what you cannot change, and stay in your own lane as a good management practice. How you set this month up with being conscious and present with your process this week will determine much of how you will navigate the month.
There is good help on the monthly Mp3 for this month’s energy management.
February 9: Full Moon in Leo is Sunday, February 9 at 12:33 AM Mountain Standard Time (MST). In some time zones this will be late evening/night on Saturday February 8and in some time zones later the morning of the 9th. Certainly, this Full Moon should be honored the night of February 8 as that is when it will appear the fullest.
This moon is good for grounding, generosity, courage and the support needed to show up in your life in a bigger way. We are all striving for more; becoming more powerful, wise, accomplished, conscious, successful, satisfied, happy and fulfilled. Allow this full moon to feed your self-confidence so you can be all those things. Forgive all the times you have been hard on yourself for the illusion of “not doing it right”. Take in as much sunlight as possible and honor the masculine in yourself, the quality of taking action, and the ability to manage your energy in a productive way.
In this surge of energy, you may experience things feeling a bit out of control. Stick to your own sense of management and don’t get caught up in any drama that is taking place “out there”. Your best service is being a grounded focused example of stability in the midst of turmoil and chaos.
February 8-14: The energy around Valentine’s Day is a collective agreement to focus on love and relationships. With that being said, there is definitely an opportunity to evaluate your relationships and discover how you are managing them consciously or unconsciously, and what you are doing out of old habits and where you are making changes to accommodate something new. Put some effort during this time into your self- care as it relates to relationships and getting your needs met. Where do you have expectations of relationships that are not practical for your present life but that you are still using as a measure from a past imprint?
Nurture your relationship with yourself during this time and discover how best to manage some new practices that will enhance and improve your self-care, discipline and personal growth. If you are disappointed by something or someone during this time, use it as an opportunity to look at your expectations. Are you giving the universe the freedom to bring you what you want without strings attached? Or are you trying to micromanage with an attachment from where your desire will be fulfilled? This falls under the do’s and don’ts of the management of attachment. Just set your intention and the let it go.
We also review the idea of loneliness at this time. Any separation that you feel with others is a mirror of the separation you feel with yourself. You should be your own best friend. If you are not, there is work to do.
February 15-21: Things get a little squirrely during this time and you may have a challenge with your discernment around what is yours and what is not. There are good lessons around boundaries and good lessons around taking the courage to switch paths when you find yourself starting down the wrong one. It is better to say,” Oops, I made a mistake, sorry not doing that…” than stubbornly persevering in the wrong situation just to save face or to be right. You will be tested during this time so pay attention to what is yours, what is not yours, your distractions, energy leaks, what is on your plate, what you said yes to and what you are saying no to. Step up to your responsibilities but don’t take on unnecessary burdens.
Some of the tests may come as delays to projects you were so sure had a green light. Be patient, and if some areas of your life are not moving quickly or are delayed, focus on something else. Good management always includes being able to shift gears when necessary to work with what is in front of you rather than being too attached to a previous plan.
February 22-29: This is leap year so we have an extra day in February. We are able to review some of what has solidified as part of good inner and outer management, as well as what has not survived the gauntlet of chaos, indecision and overwhelm. Although the times seem a bit more settled, there is still great amounts of movement, growth, evolution and change. Do not underestimate the seemingly quieter times. There is a lot happening under the surface.
Beware of getting lulled into apathy and be careful not to fall asleep. This is where you need to continue being vigilant, conscious, awake and present. If you are not managing your life, someone or something else will step in to manage it for you and you could lose control over how you wish things to unfold. So, stay awake, enjoy your life and your friends, stay in humor and continue looking forward!
February 23: New Moon is Sunday, February 23 at 8:32 AM Pisces Mountain Standard Time (MST) More on this New Moon will be sent as an update to our Power Path email list. (sign up above, at top)
Blessings,
Lena