Retrogrades are not negative, they simply shift us around so we can get back into alignment.

Retrograde energy is also highly feminine and in these patriarchal times, on a subconscious level, many of us struggle to accept and integrate feminine energy into our every day lives.

-The Retrograde Effect April 2017

I’ve been actively practicing the art of not panicking since five planets (Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Pluto) went Retrograde this year, starting with  Jupiter on February 6th. I knew that if I was going to make it through without losing it, I would have to at the very least cultivate more patience than usual, not only with other people but also with myself.

It hasn’t always been successful. I like things to be where I need them to be, I need things to function as I need them to and I need to be able to communicate as well as I can, whenever necessary.

During Mercury Retrogrades in particular, my husband and I have an understanding. We have to be extra patient with one another, because we know that misunderstandings are rampant between us at this time. We can speak and not hear one another or communicate plans or ideas or needs and come away with different interpretations of what was intended. So we try to keep it simple. That’s been going pretty well.

For me, panicking and over reacting is a whole other beast that occurs personally all year round. I judge other people for panicking all the time so clearly, I have work to do. But during the retrogrades I have set my mind to pausing whenever I run into a perceived problem because I have a tendency to imagine only the worst whenever I run into a roadblock, obstacle, or any form of discomfort. It’s exhausting, stressful and I’m beginning to discover, unnecessary. More often than not, I have had been able to align outcome with my ability to calm down and problem solve.

What can I do with what I have? Usually more than I think.

I read this article recently about how when any planet goes retrograde, we are forced to use our feminine energy more than the masculine which is energy we’re more accustomed to employing like %95 of the time. As women, even as men, we have no idea how out of balance we are with our hearts. I don’t even think we understand what it means to operate using our Feminine energy to navigate problems in our work and relationships, because what it requires a shifting in consciousness from what we’ve been conditioned to believe is vulnerability as weakness, instead of a path to deeper connections, creativity, community, trust and access to support.

It’s work though. I have a short fuse sometimes, and little patience more often, and the terrible habit of stopping when I feel like I can’t figure something out. It can start to loom large and fester and become bigger than it really is. So what I’ve been doing instead of panicking or rather after panicking (LOL!) is figuring it out. Figuring out how to do something is comparatively easier than figuring yourself out. But that goes hand in hand.

When you start to push past your comfort zone by applying yourself to achieve an external goal, you are re-wiring internal conditioning. You’re learning something new about yourself that you were never allowed to learn formally. What else can you learn when you re-teach yourseff?