Mindfulness Through the Stars Is a Personalized Self-Care Guide, Powered by the Zodiac
Self-care and mindfulness look different for everybody.
The routines and practices that I swear by to keep my mind, body and spirit well, might leave you totally cold, and what works for you might sound like homework to me. Knowing yourself is the key to understanding your personal version of self-care, and Mindfulness Through the Stars by Ashley Flores (also known as YouTube's The Amateur Guru) is a book designed to help you do just that with some guidance from the zodiac.
What exactly can you learn from this Zodiac Wellness Guide? Keep reading to discover some of my favorite insights.
It All Starts With Self-Awareness
It's difficult to help yourself if you don't know yourself, which is why most of this book's themes revolve around self-awareness. Knowing who you are includes knowing what you're great at, and what you're not, what you actually want and don't want from your life, and what propels you forward in your day-to-day life. Once you're aware of the real you, you can embrace your most authentic self. You stay true to yourself, and don't allow others' thoughts and opinions to sway you. Self-knowledge is also the key to practicing self-love, which is core to self-care.
This book starts with a thorough explanation of this, including important questions for each sign to ask themselves. For example, I'm a Sagittarius, and one of the questions for me was, "Do I put myself, or others first? Am I living for me?" This is definitely something I struggle with, so right away, I felt like this book was on the right track in getting me to hone in on myself.
(Mindfulness Through the Stars via Mango Publishing Group)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Every zodiac sign has its upsides and downsides, and while in most areas of life can be good to focus on the positive and not dwell on the negative, understanding both sides of the coin is important to becoming a better person overall. My sun sign is Sagittarius, while my rising sign is Leo and my moon sign is Pisces, so I thoroughly read all three sections of the book to glean the most information I could about myself.
First, the good. I found that most of the positive traits listed in the book were representative of me. I can be caring and honest, confident and funny, loveable and creative. However, there's bad there, too. Based on my signs I might also have a tendency to be forgetful, patronizing, overly emotional, self-pitying and likely to forget about my own needs. Those last three were all tied to Pisces, my moon sign, which describes the inner self or emotional nature. I've always found my moon sign to describe me better than my sun or rising sign, and what I found here made that even clearer.
How to Be the Most Evolved Version of Yourself
Learning about your more negative traits shouldn't make you shrug your shoulders and expect others to deal with you. That's why the book also talks about the evolved version of each sign—which means dealing with these flaws in productive ways to work past them.
For Sagittarius, for example, the book recommends setting boundaries and placing my loyalties wisely, protecting my well-being in a mindful but not paranoid way. For Leo, it said I should go out of my way to share my vast knowledge with others, and help push them to have the successes I've had. And lastly for Pisces, it suggested being more aware of my emotions and channeling them into productive and creative channels. The last of these is something I definitely focus on doing in my life, which has been part of my personal self-care journey for a long time.
The book's self-awareness tips for each sign are a further part of this evolution. Again, for my Pisces moon, the book suggested that I have a strong creative outlet, that I express gratitude and that I open up emotionally to my loved ones. While these are all things I work on, I did find having a reminder to be valuable, too.
Affirmations
Affirmations can be a powerful part of your mindfulness practice, and here, Ashley Flores suggests five affirmations each for every zodiac sign. Despite always believing that my signs were quite different, I found it interesting that there was some overlap between the affirmations for Sagittarius, Leo and Pisces.
Repeating small messages to yourself, such as "I am patient," "I am not concerned with the opinions of others," "The only validation I need is my own," "I put myself first," and "I am the best version of myself," can truly make a difference in your day. I know that these have for me.
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