3 Tips for Inner Peace – How To Survive A Mercury Retrograde

You slam your fist in the table and if you knew that it wouldn’t have severe repercussions you would definitely be beating up your computer by now!

That severe anger that technology and other forms of glitches and set-backs can cause within us can be incredibly debilitating if not down-right dangerous (road-rage anyone?).

When Mercury is in retrograde technology, communication and travel seem to go a little more haywire than normal (and to the non-astrologists here, it simply means that the planet Mercury, ruler of communication, is moving backwards).

If you are an entrepreneur, Mercury retrograde can be the craziest time of year, where just about EVERYTHING goes wrong (contracts misunderstood, computer and other technology glitches, credit cards bouncing etc.)

The trick, when Mercury is in retrograde, is to GO WITH THE FLOW.

The less you fight it, the more you simply breathe through it the better. See, when the ruler of communication is moving backwards, everything slows down.

To use this annoying time wisely, the best you can do is to move into a state of deep reflection and contemplation, because Mercury will show you everything that no longer serves you (I am using this as a GREAT excuse to put the new Mac computer on my wish-list!)

So here are 3 tips for you that you can use when Mercury shows its annoying face and how Mercury teaches you to become a true zen-master:

1. What stories are you telling yourself?

Whenever something goes wrong, we begin to tell ourselves a story: “Urgh, this ALWAYS happens to me!” or “Why am I the ONLY one in the world with these kinds of problems!” or “God, what have I done to DESERVE this!”

The first thing you want to do is OBSERVE and take note of these stories. The second thing you want to do is step away from them. Acknowledge that they are simply stories you tell yourself about being special, and NOT the truth!

This really comes with practice, but a Mercury retrograde is the best time to do this in because you are more self-reflective during this time.

So practice letting go of the stories you tell about yourself that keep you small, keep you ‘special’ in your struggles and that keep you feeling bad about who you are being.

2. What is no longer serving you?

Clean up your life, both physically, socially, emotionally and mentally. This could be old clothes that no longer fit you or that doesn’t serve the person you truly want to be, or it could be friends that are not supportive of who you truly are. It could also be letting go of old mental or emotional reactions to things that have just become a habit, like yelling when the peanut butter jar won’t open (this used to be me, by the way!).

And yes, if you are an entrepreneur then take a GOOD look at which communication systems no longer serve you. Is your internet modem crashing here and there (mine is!)? Is your computer so slow that you are wasting your time watching it freeze and restart constantly (you are wasting money here!)?

3. Let go of perfectionism

We are so incredibly scared of things going wrong without having a broader perspective of the ACTUAL repercussions. Whenever something goes haywire ask yourself this question: am I going to die? No? Ok, great! No danger. Next step is to ask yourself: Given these circumstances, what can I do? Instead of going into deep self-criticism about how you screwed up this and that. Yeah, you made a mistake, or you screwed up, so what! The faster you can stop criticizing yourself the faster you will find a solution to fixing whatever problem may have been caused.

So during this time (until 17th March) just sit back, relax, allow yourself to screw up, take a deep breath before you bang your fist into the computer and practice, practice, practice! You will become a zen-master in NO time!