You may notice this post is coming to you later in the month than usual...

Anyone else feel like March has taken all you habits, put them in a cocktail shaker, and you have to humpty dumpty them back together again?

My month has been dominated by travel *hey NW Tarot Symposium peeps!* so as I come back to reality, I realize that it's hard to resume my normal routine...Getting out of that routine has illuminated the habits that are no longer working for me.

I pulled these cards back in February and boy have they been playing out for me throughout this month!

Okay, let's lay our March theme out:

Here's the techy breakdown for you Lenormand Learners:

Book + Bed = Learning about our comfort zones

Bear = The bear is our focus card here. With the bed and whip sandwiching him, this points to our habits and routines that comprise our comfort zones.

Whip + Heart = Freedom through discipline. Repeating an action/habit to get a desired result

What does this mean for my life?

This month, we are becoming more aware of our day to day habits...especially the ones that are not so helpful. We all know deep down which habits are not the most beneficial to us...perhaps we're not eating the best food, or we're spending too much money, or we realize we waste too much time on that dumb phone game.

Although we may have known on a visceral level that we need to change, we have not yet sprung into action or fully acknowledged that this habit is unhelpful to us. Sometimes, we don't even realize what the habit is because it is so second nature!

As we work our way through March, this habit becomes conscious and unbearable to us, so much so that we MUST change...or at least try!

Okay, so what is your habit? If it doesn't come right away try listening to that little nagging feeling you have....it lives there. Have your habit in the forefront of your mind as you keep reading.

How do we change? Check your shadow.

Freedom lies at the edge of discipline. In order to transform our habit, we need to continue to try and try again.

But...in order to try and kick our habits, we need to have some understanding of WHY we have that habit.

Believe it or not, some part of us likes that habit.

WHAT?! I know...it's crazy to think that some part of us likes being unhealthy or broke or (insert unpleasant side effect of habit here). But believe it....some part of us LOVES this habit. Otherwise, we wouldn't continue to do it. Most likely, there is a very deep down part of us that uses that habit as comfort and uses this habit to slap a bandaid over a deeper wound.

The cards are asking us to begin the process of understanding what we are soothing and why that habit soothes it. I know...this can get a bit deep and plunge down into the scary depths we don't want to explore.

You don't have to fully unearth all your deep dark secrets to get answers. You just have to acknowledge why you LOVE this habit. What about it do you love deep down? This is all part of shadow integration which is a deeper subject which others have written a vast amount on. I like this short post from Witch Magazine exploring the subject if you're curious about your shadow.

But here's the comforting thing: we ALL have these habits or did at one time or another!

I'll get a bit personal here...

As an example, I am trying to minimize processed food in my life. When I get stressed, I want chocolate and eat something bad. But why do I do this? For me, I realized I want to distract myself from the stressed feeling with another feeling of tastiness. This is how I soothed myself as a kid when I didn't know how to process something - I would distract myself with junk food.

So, this month I am paying attention to the feeling that triggers the craving. When I start feeling stressed or anxious, I practice getting curious and thinking "ooh, I'm feeling anxious right now. Why am I feeling anxious?" Then, my attention drifts from the stressed feeling, to investigating the feeling.

Just keep on it.

Remember here that you do not have to solve the problem this month. Just try! If you are starting to get curious about a habit you want to change, then you are on your way. The whip shows us that repetition is key.

In our fix it mindset, we are likely to jump to self judge and think "I am changing this habit 100% right now." This thought process sets us up for failure since we are not likely to succeed the first time we try (if you do, you are truly one in a million). So it's important to be kind and gentle with ourselves and instead of all or nothing.

So, be kind to yourself.

When you feel your habit coming on, a good mantra is "I'm getting curious and I am figuring it out."

If you are even acknowledging your habit this month, you're on the right track. When we become really aware of our habit, it is harder for it to survive in the light of day if it doesn't serve us.

Remember, your worth is not defined by one action. You can do this.

Keep on shining :-)