4/24/17 by DeDe Hinrichs
If you know me, you know I love the moon! It reminds me of the cycles of life. The moon is full 2-3 days out of a 28 day cycle, about 10% of the time. The moon is in its dark (new moon) phase 10% of the time as well. The other 80% of the time the moon has some percentage of light and darkness.
That being said, our lives mimic this cycle. 10% of our life we can expect those mountain top experiences (full moon). 10% of our life we can expect the dark days (dark new moon). 80% of the time we are somewhere in between. I call this 80%, the mundane part of our life. It contains the duality of life, some light and some dark – some “good” and some “bad”. Too often I find myself dreaming about or clinging to the mountain top experiences or dreading and resisting the dark times instead of being present in the moment I’m in. What if, instead, I could find peace and happiness in the mundane parts of my life? Those day in, day out days that don’t seem to be anything special? This is a good place for me to put some effort, don’t you agree? What can we do to bring happiness and peace to these days? I know for myself, one answer is to be present and aware of what is happening in the NOW moment instead of ruminating about the past or worrying about the future.
When those mountain top experiences show up in your life, be fully present instead of trying to cling to the moment. It will cycle through, just as the full moon cycles through. Know those days will come again. Same can be said about the dark times in our lives. Be fully present in these times instead of resisting. Know these days will soon pass and they too will show up again sometime in the future. It’s the cycles of life and the moon is there to remind us of this each night if we are present enough to notice it.
We can use the energy of the moon to assist us in creating our life. The new moon (dark moon) is a time when the energy promotes brain storming. What brilliant ideas can you come up with?
As the light creeps back and begins to illuminate the moon, the energy of the moon is ripe to help us create actions steps to move forward with those brilliant idea(s) we came up with in the new moon phase.
The full moon in all its glory is about celebration! How will I celebrate my diligence in moving forward with these ideas? How will I celebrate just being alive? This is a time to pat yourself on the back for what you’ve accomplished and give yourself a break if you aren’t as far ahead as you intended. It’s all good. Another new moon will soon roll around to give it another go, if needed.
As the dark begins to reduce the light, the energy of the moon is accelerated to help you begin to let go, release the should and should not’s (and those to-do lists) and clear out anything that is no longer working for you.
Here’s an example that I did quite some time ago: On the new moon, I decided to walk a minimum of 30 minutes every day. During the first phase of the moon, I came up with my action steps and put it into motion. Two weeks later, on the full moon, I reflected on how much better I felt after just two weeks and made myself my favorite whole food, plant based dinner with sparkling water. I told myself I was doing a great job (even though there were a couple days I wasn’t able to get my walk in). As the moon began to grow dark, I released my drill sergeant inner voice. That critical inner voice wasn’t helping me or making me feel happy and peaceful. I re-evaluated my original action steps. I realized there were going to be a couple days each week that things get in the way of being able to get my walk in. I made some changes to my original plan and decided to walk a bit longer each day and walk at least 5 days a week instead of every day. This offered me the flexibility my life needed. I cleared out the critical voice and the inflexibility of doing it every day.
Before I knew it, the new moon had returned and a whole cycle (28 days) had gone by and I was left with a new habit. What would I create for the next moon cycle?
This is a very simple example of how you can use the moon phases to your benefit. You can do this with anything you want to implement into your life or anything you want to move out of your life. Give it a try!
Happy Mooning, DeDe Hinrichs