Five-card spread, health and fitness (?)
Oct. 15th, 2017 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodygranuaileI decided to do a health and fitness question today when I did my Tarot spread, partly because I feel like I might be coming down with something a little (my throat's all scratchy; I otherwise feel fine but it's worse now than it was earlier in the day), and because I've been extra bummed out lately by being able to get back to what I'd begun to consider my "standard" or ideal weight. I had to let my favorite corset out a few inches to wear it to the party last night, which highlighted that extra weight for me, although I've generally been thinking about it with some frequency lately, probably because I'm turning 30 soon and I'm afraid my metabolism might be slowing down.
I used my vampire deck, and the cards ran out as follows: Ten of Cups, The Lovers, The Moon, Seven of Swords, Six of Pentacles.
The Ten of Cups, here representing the past, is Joy. This card refers specifically to harmony in personal relationships and to having all the external elements of your life fulfilled and in balance. I don't know if in this case it is supposed to represent good health in and of itself, if it's supposed to mean that I got into the situation I'm in for good reasons (for having lots of awesome friends and family to eat and drink and stay up late with?) or if it goes back further than that, to when I used to have people to work out with and coincidentally was in better shape. It could also be reminding me that while I might be internally cranky about my weight, I have in actual fact been perfectly healthy for quite a while.
The present card, representing my current thoughts, feelings, and actions on the matter, is Major Arcana VI, The Lovers, representing Choice. The choice I have been mulling over in my head lately is basically "Should I make significant lifestyle changes to my diet, exercise plan, drinking habits, etc. and if so what should they be?" On a shorter timeline, I will have to make a choice about whether or not to skip work tomorrow if I don't feel any better after a good night's sleep. Which choice the spread is talking about is unclear to me at this point. The card usually refers to major decisions, though, and taking a sick day tomorrow would probably only have major ramifications for how my Monday goes. Sometimes the card actually does refer to romance or new relationships of some sort, and the Louis book suggests "You may find yourself buying new clothes or otherwise improving your personal appearance to attract new love into your life." I'm not sure that's really why I want to get back into the sort of shape I was in when I was 22, although it probably couldn't hurt to sit back and closely examine all my motivations.
The hidden influences card here is Major Arcana XVIII, The Moon, which basically itself represents hidden influences, so nice going there, Tarot. I kid, sort of. The Moon represents deep instinctual forces, past conditioning affecting present behavior, dreams and intuitions, deceit, lies, confusion, all that kind of stuff. It suggests I am "entering a period of fluctuating moods and uncertainty during which you must confront unconscious forces in order to proceed." If the choice in the previous card is indeed about making lifestyle changes to be healthier, this I guess would indicate that I need to figure out what's holding me back from doing the healthy thing already and that it's likely some sort of emotional dysfunction or deeply ingrained bad habits. I guess it is time to try to pay more attention to the signals my body is giving me naturally rather than trying to have the super willpower to enact major changes just because they sound good? Or something?
The advice card is the Seven of Swords, which, despite being a sword card, is not terrible: It's the Stealth card, representing doing the unexpected. I am now fairly at a loss for what is supposed to be going on in this health and fitness reading. Maybe I should shake up my workout routine? The card advises "Do not become your own worst enemy. You will need to be diplomatic, crafty, or evasive to deal with the opposition and reach your goal." Does anyone know how to be "diplomatic and crafty" in a way that can outwit 15 pounds? Between this and the Moon card, I think we're looking at trying to figure out a way to somehow train or trick myself into developing better habits, rather than my usual setting of clear goals until I get tired of them. I don't know what this would look like. A lot of these cards are not really coming off as being very physically grounded. Maybe I should be focusing more on mental health than explicitly targeting physical health; that stuff can certainly have an effect on the immune system and appetite and things of that nature. Maybe I need to be on the lookout for someone who is affecting my mental health negatively by screwing me over, thus making it harder for me to be physically healthy?
The final outcome card is the Six of Pentacles, the Generosity card, representing "getting what you deserve." It often refers to material gain, helping others, financial assistance, etc. Work paying off, that sort of thing. What I'm getting from this is either that if I can be crafty and diplomatic enough I'll finally get that raise, which would certainly be good for my stress levels, or more generally, if I can work out the mental health stuff that the earlier cards seem to be pointing to, my physical health will sort itself out. Which would be good.
Overall it's looking to me like the big choice to make is what avenue focus on in terms of fixing my health and fitness, and that it's probably a better idea right now to be working on mental health and psychological issues rather than trying to force myself to make deliberate changes to my diet and exercise. If I feel better in my brain, hopefully it'll be easier to do things like do proper workouts rather than wussing out on them first thing in the morning because I haven't slept well, or whatever.
So. How do I go about taking better care of my mental health? Should I scale back on some of the stuff I'm over-committed to? Meditate more? Journal more? I've been doing a bit more self-care-y types of things lately, but it's clearly not enough. I don't think I can really afford to go back to therapy. I've been doing on-and-off better than I was early in the year, but I still spend way too much time stressing myself out about politics and stuff. I definitely have been having problems with focus and motivation for the entire year. I don't want to be thirty.
Anyway, food for thought, but step 1 in self-care is going to be taking NyQuil and going straight to bed.
I used my vampire deck, and the cards ran out as follows: Ten of Cups, The Lovers, The Moon, Seven of Swords, Six of Pentacles.
The Ten of Cups, here representing the past, is Joy. This card refers specifically to harmony in personal relationships and to having all the external elements of your life fulfilled and in balance. I don't know if in this case it is supposed to represent good health in and of itself, if it's supposed to mean that I got into the situation I'm in for good reasons (for having lots of awesome friends and family to eat and drink and stay up late with?) or if it goes back further than that, to when I used to have people to work out with and coincidentally was in better shape. It could also be reminding me that while I might be internally cranky about my weight, I have in actual fact been perfectly healthy for quite a while.
The present card, representing my current thoughts, feelings, and actions on the matter, is Major Arcana VI, The Lovers, representing Choice. The choice I have been mulling over in my head lately is basically "Should I make significant lifestyle changes to my diet, exercise plan, drinking habits, etc. and if so what should they be?" On a shorter timeline, I will have to make a choice about whether or not to skip work tomorrow if I don't feel any better after a good night's sleep. Which choice the spread is talking about is unclear to me at this point. The card usually refers to major decisions, though, and taking a sick day tomorrow would probably only have major ramifications for how my Monday goes. Sometimes the card actually does refer to romance or new relationships of some sort, and the Louis book suggests "You may find yourself buying new clothes or otherwise improving your personal appearance to attract new love into your life." I'm not sure that's really why I want to get back into the sort of shape I was in when I was 22, although it probably couldn't hurt to sit back and closely examine all my motivations.
The hidden influences card here is Major Arcana XVIII, The Moon, which basically itself represents hidden influences, so nice going there, Tarot. I kid, sort of. The Moon represents deep instinctual forces, past conditioning affecting present behavior, dreams and intuitions, deceit, lies, confusion, all that kind of stuff. It suggests I am "entering a period of fluctuating moods and uncertainty during which you must confront unconscious forces in order to proceed." If the choice in the previous card is indeed about making lifestyle changes to be healthier, this I guess would indicate that I need to figure out what's holding me back from doing the healthy thing already and that it's likely some sort of emotional dysfunction or deeply ingrained bad habits. I guess it is time to try to pay more attention to the signals my body is giving me naturally rather than trying to have the super willpower to enact major changes just because they sound good? Or something?
The advice card is the Seven of Swords, which, despite being a sword card, is not terrible: It's the Stealth card, representing doing the unexpected. I am now fairly at a loss for what is supposed to be going on in this health and fitness reading. Maybe I should shake up my workout routine? The card advises "Do not become your own worst enemy. You will need to be diplomatic, crafty, or evasive to deal with the opposition and reach your goal." Does anyone know how to be "diplomatic and crafty" in a way that can outwit 15 pounds? Between this and the Moon card, I think we're looking at trying to figure out a way to somehow train or trick myself into developing better habits, rather than my usual setting of clear goals until I get tired of them. I don't know what this would look like. A lot of these cards are not really coming off as being very physically grounded. Maybe I should be focusing more on mental health than explicitly targeting physical health; that stuff can certainly have an effect on the immune system and appetite and things of that nature. Maybe I need to be on the lookout for someone who is affecting my mental health negatively by screwing me over, thus making it harder for me to be physically healthy?
The final outcome card is the Six of Pentacles, the Generosity card, representing "getting what you deserve." It often refers to material gain, helping others, financial assistance, etc. Work paying off, that sort of thing. What I'm getting from this is either that if I can be crafty and diplomatic enough I'll finally get that raise, which would certainly be good for my stress levels, or more generally, if I can work out the mental health stuff that the earlier cards seem to be pointing to, my physical health will sort itself out. Which would be good.
Overall it's looking to me like the big choice to make is what avenue focus on in terms of fixing my health and fitness, and that it's probably a better idea right now to be working on mental health and psychological issues rather than trying to force myself to make deliberate changes to my diet and exercise. If I feel better in my brain, hopefully it'll be easier to do things like do proper workouts rather than wussing out on them first thing in the morning because I haven't slept well, or whatever.
So. How do I go about taking better care of my mental health? Should I scale back on some of the stuff I'm over-committed to? Meditate more? Journal more? I've been doing a bit more self-care-y types of things lately, but it's clearly not enough. I don't think I can really afford to go back to therapy. I've been doing on-and-off better than I was early in the year, but I still spend way too much time stressing myself out about politics and stuff. I definitely have been having problems with focus and motivation for the entire year. I don't want to be thirty.
Anyway, food for thought, but step 1 in self-care is going to be taking NyQuil and going straight to bed.