“Mum, mum, mum, guess what? I’m so excited - I got the Wordle in one go today, and I didn’t even get any clues! Look, it’s ‘SHINE’ - I thought this word was a bit too easy, but I tried it anyway and I got it. I just can’t believe it!”

This was from daughter #3 earlier this week, the one I usually need to convince to get out of bed each morning to go to school - but not that day. Do you think I heard the end of her disbelief and excitement on my 40 minute drive to school up and back?! That small win changed her whole outlook, and she was literally ‘shining’ all day. I’ve never been so thankful for Wordle.

But also that same day - which I’m now coining ‘SHINY Day’ - I think a bit of shine hit me in the face as well, in the form of Astrology - another ‘entertainment modality’ some of us use on occasion.

Hopefully you haven’t stopped reading as soon as you saw the word ‘Astrology’. I was once a cynic. Sure, I would often read the star signs in the back of a glossy magazine, never really taking much notice of what they had to say - unless it was something exciting that ‘might’ happen to me. It wasn’t until I went through some physical and mental health problems along with a serious-questioning-of-everything phase of life about 10 years ago, that I started to read up on alternative therapies and divination. Traditional medicine and psychology just weren’t cutting it for me. I did have 4 children in 5.5 years - so that might have had something to do with some of my issues (!), but then I started to ask myself ‘why’. Why do we do the things we do? Why isn’t traditional medicine helping me? And who was the person I had become after this enormous upheaval in my life?

It took a Naturopath (and some modern medicine) to eventually heal me from the physical trauma my body had gone through after all those babies - the extreme hormonal imbalances and mineral deficiencies - which also led me to other alternative therapy modalities such as Numerology, Kinesiology, and eventually a little Astrology. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, these modalities take a whole-of-body approach, and take into consideration a range of other data usually not used by modern science. My heart began to take the lead over my brain in regard to my self-care, and my intuition for understanding what I needed was growing by the day.

Yes, I know - there is no scientific evidence to suggest that astrology is real:

“Astrology has been rejected by the scientific community as having no explanatory power for describing the universe. Scientific testing has found no evidence to support the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. Where astrology has made falsifiable predictions, it has been falsified.” Wikipedia

BUT, scientists generally also don’t believe in naturopathy…..

And my respected obstetrician (a very lovely man I might add who delivered two of my babies) definitely didn’t believe in ‘post-tubal-ligation syndrome’, which I believe I suffered from after having my tubes tied after my fourth child. He said to me when I raised the possibility that I may have PTLS:

“Who told you about that, google? It’s just a made up name. Your symptoms have arised because you’re no longer on the pill!”

Of course I smiled politely and thought, “well, he’s the Dr, he would know” - but in the back of my mind I was thinking about the thousands upon thousands of woman I had found across the world on a PTLS Facebook page that had almost identical symptoms to me after their tubal ligation.

I subsequently underwent the operation to have my tubes untied due to the success many of these women had in resolving their symptoms. And I’m happy to report that the operation, along with the naturopath guidance I received around the same time, completely changed my life around.

I began to form my own conclusion - just because there is no ‘scientific evidence’ doesn’t mean something doesn’t exist.

So it’s fair to say that I don’t believe everything that science has to say, based on my own personal experiences.

Which brings me back to ‘SHINY Day’.

I dropped my daughter at school, then went to my favourite cafe to catch up on some emails. One of those was an astrology blog post from the previous week which I happened to read that day (I became more interested in astrology when I was living in the US, but haven’t followed it much since I’ve been home in Australia). I’d had a particularly frustrating week, so many issues were confusing me - mostly in regard to trying to get my daughter to school - but then I read the following:

“Courage infuses you now, and you’re likely bored of patience and confusion, so you may want to cut through and demand answers or push for resolution now. However, be aware that Aries energies can tend towards irritation and bluntness. For best results, don’t make things about you. Do your best to be compassionate and understanding. Do your best to deal with what shows up and don’t take things at face value.”

WOW – this really resonated with me. Even though it wasn’t specific to myself, it was a general reading (and just gobbledygook according to scientists anyway), it really helped me process the confused emotions I’d been experiencing. I’d struggled to get clarity, and questions seemed to be going around and around in my head all week. At times, I’d become quite impatient - and it showed.

Of course, I want to always be in that frame of mind where I can control my emotions – where I’m standing strong in my own values and beliefs, not being swayed by what surrounds me; but let’s be honest, that’s hard at times, and we’re all human.

But it was the following that I read about an hour later that really added the SHINE to my day, and reinforced my thoughts that Astrology can be a powerful tool:

“Jupiter in Aries: Igniting New Dreams, Adventure, and Growth

Jupiter moves into Aries on May 10, 2022 and begins a whole new 12-year cycle of energy in your life based on who you are now. Jupiter expands every astrological theme, and in Aries, we are gaining the courage to be more of ourselves than ever before.

Aries develops your self-confidence, independence, self-knowingness, and going into the deeper truth of who you are in this lifetime. Jupiter follows behind Chiron in Aries, which from mid-2018 to early 2022, opened wounds in your sense of self to heal and acknowledge at a deeper level.

Now Jupiter wants you to have the rewards and benefits from that phase of your healing journey. Jupiter moves to 8 deg 43 minutes Aries until July 28, then retrogrades back into Pisces before returning to Aries on Dec 20, 2022.

A new area of your life is beginning, and Jupiter is ready to assist you in these beginnings, adventures, projects, and new energy experienced.”

Molly McCord (my go to astrologist)

“WOW, WOW, WOW” I said to myself – mid-2018 to early 2022 was when my whole life changed – when our family sold our house, moved to the US, then returned again during COVID. It was a profound time for me – of learning, unlearning, and healing. Layers of conditioning were removed, and with that, came some raw pain. If Molly tells me that I’m now going to be rewarded for going through that healing phase, and that my self-confidence, independence, self-knowingness and going into the deeper truth of who I am are going to be developed further – then I’ll take that thank you very much! Sure, I’d like to think that I could do all of this completely on my own with no ‘supernatural’ support, but it doesn’t hurt to believe in the possibility that outside forces are guiding me.

For those of us that are on the more sensitive side and have developed people-pleasing tendencies throughout our life due to whatever childhood circumstances we went through, I find any positive guidance can be really beneficial.

We need to learn who we are again, without all of the layers, and without pleasing anybody else. It’s finding the truth of who we are at our core, that gold nugget that is buried deep within us. Whilst we need to be responsible for our own behaviours and actions, and should not blame anyone or thing for how we react to a situation, having a reason that helps us understand ‘why’ we’ve behaved a certain way, can help in the process, and not make you feel quite as unhinged. Astrology can act as a wonderful guide.

I think, as long as we don’t let any of these ‘modalities’ take over our lives, and we just use them as tools for positive reinforcement, or entertainment, then that’s probably a good thing - for me, anyway.

Wordle helped my daughter SHINE that day. On other days it’s her artwork, featured throughout this post. And at other times, it’s her sense of humour and wicked laugh.

For me, Astrology helped me SHINE that day. Other times it’s when I’m taking photos, enjoying a nature walk at the beach, or singing and dancing with my kids.

Some days it can be hard for us to find our SHINE - we feel surrounded by darkness - but on that day, like Ali thought in the morning - SHINE was just too easy, it surrounded us everywhere we went.

So I guess my message today is this:

Whatever makes you SHINE…..do it…… for the ripple effect this will have on the world around you will help so many others have their own ‘SHINY Day’.

‘SHINY Day’

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