Donnaleigh: Dear Tarot – How Can I Reduce Stress?

People a-flurry, at the grocery store carts are rushing and pushing, the cashier is making no eye contact, the traffic is pushing through the red lights as fast as they can to get every second in lest they miss this one and are forced to wait through the next light….and the highway is full of cars driving at full speed to get to their destinations.

Cymbals clashing, drums smashing, lightening thrashing…..

WAIT!

Stop.

Take a breathhhhh…….

Breathe.

In a moment of silence, I paused to ask Tarot… “What are 3 things we can do to reduce stress?”

Three simple cards were pulled.

Knight of Wands
6 of Cups reversed
4 of Swords

Much wisdom here.

1. Knight of Wands

Do something creative. This is not a card of pentacles, of money or business, and is not necessarily even practical. It is passion. What do you love? What is your busy life pushing out of your life that is meaningful? Doing something creative is in itself an act of meditation because you are letting your soul sing, taking pause to let your spirit alight.

This is doing something, not because it has to be done, but because your passion sings for it to happen. It is not related to business (pentacles), it is not related to relationships (cups), and it is not related to what we worry about daily (swords). This is your inner fire. Your enthusiasm. It’s the pilot light within you that is often overwhelmed by the forest fire of responsibilities. A creative venture is a vacation in itself, where ever you are. An inner journey. Whether it is through a book, through art, photography, building, creating, making, gardening, concocting, riding a bike to nowhere….what ever it is that makes your fire spark…this will create a diversion for you that will create an inner smile.

2. Six of Cups reversed

This is an interesting one. The first image I had was of Eckhart Tolle speaking of “living in the now.” We spend every waking moment thinking of what was, what will happen in the future, but rarely are we present in the moment. Is anything stressful truly happening when we are in a stressful moment? Or are we creating a stressful environment with our thoughts of what might be or what might have been? The 6 of Cups is about nostalgia and this card asks us to push aside the memories or connections and live in the now.

This is also a card of giving, as one child gives a cup to another. Being reversed, this creates an energy of receiving rather than giving. We are giving to others from our cup of reserves each day. A cup can only hold so much fluid before what we give disappears and the cup needs refilling. What can you do to refill your cup? Do you take time to receive or are you putting out energy endlessly, all day? Does there come a time when you can stop giving out and just take a moment to breathe and take in even simple air?

This is also the card of friendship. What valued friendships have we left on the back burner because we’ve squeezed every moment out of our time, and which acquaintances do we have that stir our stress level and feed that fire of anxiety? Which people do we let in that nurture our peace and which activate a furnace of stress? Think carefully about what you choose to allow in your space and in your world.

3. Four of Swords

This is a card of stillness. Of stillness. Of sleeping late for a day, of not doing, of taking pause…even considering a time of meditation. This may mean slowing down from running mode enough to take a leisurely walk through a woods with no destination, to paddling gently in a lake with silence and splashing water around you. But there is no destination in this card, and inner stillness. Swords are of the air element, of thought, and there is stillness and smoothness of thoughts, like a still, glass lake under a peach sunset. Have you taken a moment to still? Is every moment in a store line seen as stressful? Is waiting at a stop sign a time of stress rather than of stillness and being absorbed in a moment of sacred life, a gift of a still moment? How can we redefine the moments we think might be wastefully unused by high activity and realize that they are moments of rest?

Get your sleep, and don’t compromise moments of quietude by a cyclone of activities that can overwhelm the silence. A respite lies within you.

Once in while, let the silence be. And use it to stop and contemplate: “what would I create today through my passion that my time keeps me from achieving?”

Then do it. That thing you’ve been waiting “for someday” to do. Let the emails go for an afternoon. Save the grocery shopping for tomorrow. The laundry will still be there when you are through, it won’t run away. Things will wait, and time will pause while you feed your soul.

What does tarot advise for stress?

Create. Let go. Live in the now. Receive. Rest your mind. Slow down. Be still.

Here’s wishing you a tarot-filled week.

Warmly,

Donnaleigh
www.Donnaleigh.net
Hear my tarot radio podcast at: www.Tarot Tribe.com