This year, women might experience things in sets of three. Annoyances. Minor grievances. And frustrations.
With Hard Wood, everything comes in threes.
"You take things too much to heart, Anne. We all make mistakes. . .but people forget them. And Jonah days come to everybody.
Marilla Cuthbert, from Anne of Avonlea
Women might have Jonah Days far more often than they'd like to in 2021.
A Jonah Day is when three things go wrong...in a row.
The saying comes from the Biblical story of Jonah & the Whale. When Jonah, one of twelve minor prophets in the Bible, gets thrown overboard to calm the storm, he is swallowed whole and spends three days in the belly of a whale. Finally, he agrees to go to the city of Nineveh to prophecy and is spat up on the shore.
So, while we might not be able to completely avoid Jonah days, there are some things we can do to minimize their frequency and negative effects.
Honor Your Needs
1) The first step toward honoring your needs, is valuing feeling good - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. If you don't value having personal wellbeing, you won't make the effort required to do the things that provide the desired feelings and states of being.
2) Women tend to go years, even decades without getting their needs met. Something I learned from Alison Armstrong, is that needs come in two categories. Determine what you need to be "fine" or in good shape - in your body, mind and soul. Differentiate that from what you need to be "happy". Our culture focuses a lot on doing things that make us happy (in the moment), but the daily needs we need to actually be in a good place go unmet for weeks and months.
3) Once you've determined what you need, journal about how you can be, do and have more of those things consistently. Schedule them into your days, weeks and months. Have a Needs Conversation with the people in your life who you know care about you. And take full responsibility for getting your needs met. Make sure to include your Favorite Things. Remind yourself why you value feeling healthy and happy, well and good.
Honor Your Boundaries
1) You get to choose who you give your time and energy to. No one deserves access to you.
2) Wait to respond to emails and texts and reply to messages until you are ready. You don't owe anyone (except young children) your immediate attention. Discern what is a true urgency and what can be attended to when you are in a good or better place.
3) Much of the conversation around boundaries tends to be related to establishing and reinforcing them with other people. This act of kindness toward yourself starts with honoring your own boundaries. Our culture applauds those who push the boundaries and exceed the limits, even at great detriment to their health and wellbeing or personal life, in an effort to break records and set new standards of excellence. Respect yourself enough to take breaks when you need to rest, quit working at a decent hour each day, go to bed to get enough quality sleep and take the weekends off. Work on honoring your commitment to respecting your own limited time and valuable energy.
Honor Your Space
1) Clean up your digital space. Unfollow people who don't share your values and participate in normalizing things that hurt humans. Turn off the notifications for all of your social media accounts and groups. Delete the apps from your phone if they are keeping you from being productive and mindlessly scrolling.
2) Feng shui your Southwest sector. Make sure your water feature has been turned off or removed. Add two red candles and light them for an hour each day. Keep a Himalayan salt lamp or fairy lights on, or place a lamp with a red lampshade in this area of your home.
3) Hard Metal elements have a carefully selected "inner circle". For this personal element, it's made up of themselves and 5 other VIPs. Trusted confidants and wise advisors. Sacred warriors and genuine caregivers. Your number of special people may be larger or smaller, depending on your personal element. The mission, should you choose to accept it is to: find your people. The souls who will gather with you at the round table to help you, council you, comfort you and stand in their Sovereignty with you.
Set yourself up for success by being in a good place everyday, by honoring your needs. Don't let the world (or the algorithms) dictate what, when or how you do anything, by honoring your own boundaries. And have your inner circle of trust established, so you can phone a friend when the inevitable Jonah Day comes along.
