So tonight marks the first full moon of 2021. We survived 2020, and while I was questioning if 2020 stole a couple of weeks from 2021–I’m confident that we’ll survive 2021 as well. I missed a few months of new and full moon goal setting throughout 2020–and I will basically blame that on the pandemics (both the SARS-CoV2 and the ever rampant stupidity pandemic) for missing them. I have realized that when I do take the time to reflect on the questions for the full moon, or the other activities one can do during the new moon–I feel a little calmer (at least for a day or two).

I decided that instead of having a single word to try to define 2021, I would have several and picked: growth, creativity, curiosity, happiness, and prosperity. In addition, I’m working on refining my core values and merging them with my strengths while working on strengthening a weakness or two.

What are some questions to reflect on during the first few days of the full moon? According to “Moonology: working with the magic of the lunar cycles” by Yasmin Boland, they are:

Have I been too self-centered, egotistical, or proud?

Have I been treating the people around me like minions?

Have I been arrogant, vain, pushy, or pompous?

Have I been expressing myself creatively enough?

Have I shown myself enough self-love?

If I were to number the above questions 1-5, my answers would be as followed:

1. After last year, I think I can safely say that I haven’t been self-centered or egotistical really about anything. But I can say that I’m proud that I survived the year without having any type of major mental breakdowns. Though over the past year, I have defended my beliefs in everything from wearing masks and social distancing to why I think schools should be taught virtual–defending those stances did upset some people, and several have un-friended me on Facebook. But I’ve gotten to the point where I have very little time and energy for certain types of people.
2. No, I haven’t been treating the people around me like minions. I live at home with my parents currently–there are no minions here.
3. Again, nope I haven’t been arrogant, vain, pushy, or pompous. People will probably say that I’m usually the opposite of quite a few of those adjectives.
4. No, I haven’t been expressing myself creatively enough lately. While I have been trying to write more posts for the blog, it has been a little too chilly for walks at Boomer Lake (while I know I can bundle up–I’m more worried about the temperatures, condensation, and possibly wrecking a $600 digital camera that I currently can’t afford to replace). I am going to be trying my hand at cross-stitching, plus I’ve come up with an idea or two for trying to mend the afghans that my pup chewed holes in.
5. Again, this one is basically a no, that I haven’t been showing myself enough self-love. While I’ve been sticking with a consistent workout schedule for the past eight months–I still need to work on improving my mental, spiritual, emotional, and social health habits. Over the past few months, I’ve realized that I’m just starting to come out of the total and complete burnout that I was keeping myself immersed in for years (more on this in another post). I’m working on ways to process and deal with stress (that don’t revolve around eating chocolate constantly), reconstructing the negative self-talk, plus trying to acknowledge and work with my inner critic/anxiety instead of against it. I’ve also decided that I’m still keeping the word diet out of my vocabulary and working on improving my relationship with food.

So a good portion of this year is still going to be focused on self-care/love. This will still include a daily workout (my current year schedule will be finishing up Muscle Burns Fat Advance in the early part of February, then on to Barre Blend, then the live versions of 21-Day Fix/21-Day Fix Extreme, a 3rd round of LIIFT4, a 2nd round of Morning Meltdown 100, a 2nd round of 10 rounds, and then finishing the year with either Country Heat or CIZE), evening meditations, oracle/tarot card readings, listening to podcasts, reading, journaling, time outdoors, and just trying to reconnect with my inner spirit/voice.

Looking at my chart–the Leo full moon is also going through my 10th house (or my career zone). I’m still considering myself on a semi-‘reboot break’ (since 2020 took all my plans and threw them out the window with the pandemic)–but I do need to start trying to figure out what I’m doing with the second half of my life.

I have a couple of ideas bouncing around in my head in terms of possible paths, but I need to do a little more research to make sure that those ideas/paths will let me focus on my strengths (learner, intellection, input, achiever, deliberative/ideation/arranger, creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking), while also improving one or two of my ‘weaknesses’. In addition I want to ensure that the paths, plus my strengths are also connected to my values (vitality, spirituality/inner harmony/peace, creativity/curiosity, learning/knowledge, and evolution/growth/transformation/openness)–some of which are identical to some of my strengths.

I’ve put health (mental, physical, and spiritual) as core values–because I’ve learned the hard way that trying to focus solely on my career lead me to becoming burnt out on everything. I’ve only started rediscovery my joy of learning, reading on different topics, and other things over the past six to eight months. I won’t say that I’m back to ‘normal’ yet–because I’m not. But I’m slowly getting there–but to fully get there I also need to prioritize my health above all else, or I will fall back to the bottom of the pit of burnout again if I neglect them.

So what are my goals for the Leo full moon?

1. Continue with my fitness schedule–to begin with finish up Muscle Burns Fat Advance and then move on to Barre Blend.
2. Write down the current ideas I have for going freelance/independent/remote, in addition to also seeing what other industry positions may be of interest, plus figure out other ways of earning a little extra income
3. Spend time working on crafts–and doing more than just color-by number. I’m talking learning to cross-stitch, patch up the afghans, making jewelry, doodling, coloring, and once the weather warms up–getting back up to Boomer Lake with my camera.
4. Meditating, oracle card readings, reading different books on spirituality, and hopefully finally setting up my altar for doing my card readings.

All of this while reminding myself: “Progress over Perfection”, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life, if you keep re-reading the last one”, and “Not caring what other people think is the best choice you will ever make”.