Using the Moon cycles to raise our self awareness

People ask why I follow the cycle of the Moon, what it has to do with self awareness and how it can possibly connect with the counselling and coaching work that I do.  They believe that it is far too woo woo and that I will not be taken seriously  if I am seen to be working with the Moon.

For me the Moon phases tie in with every aspect of our personalities, allowing us the opportunity throughout the month to look inwards as well as outwards, at what we desire to have, alongside what we want to release.  It allows us to live intentional lives instead of just drifting through life allowing events to carry us and direct us. We are taking control and steering our own ship.

The New Moon is a time to look at what we want to create, the feelings we want to experience.  Every New Moon is coloured by the astrological sign it falls in so we can focus on one particular area of our life asking ourselves if we are living in balance in this area.

We can focus on the lifestyle we truly want to be living. We cast off from shore knowing where we want to be heading but sometimes we don’t realise that we are blocking our own path, we might be carrying too many attachments to other people, places, possessions or emotions  for us to easily achieve our goals.

The Waxing Crescent Moon is a time to remind ourselves why we set our intentions, we might find that we hit a period of storm, and we need to draw on our courage, we can look at our New Moon lists, like a map or compass, keeping us on course. We are full steam ahead with our our intentions at this stage.

The First Quarter Moon is when our ego might get in the way, the voice in our head telling us that we aren’t good enough, it is a time to look back at previous decisions we have made and the lessons we learned from them. Remember, you are the captain of your ship.  Sometimes this can be the difficult part, taking responsibility for our decisions and actions.

The Gibbous Moon  allows us to pay attention to detail, to tweak our plans.  This is the time to review the course, do we need to slightly alter it in any way?

Full Moon is a time to release outcomes to our intentions, as we often set intentions with an outcome in mind,  and this may not be the outcome that is right for us.

The Full Moon falls in a different astrological sign each month which flavours the energy,  allowing us to focus on a particular area of life in the same way as the New Moon, alongside looking at the larger picture.

We can only act on our previous experiences and the limitations of our own minds so it is still very important to let go of all attachment to outcomes, we are then less likely to get in our own way with our manifesting and intention setting.

The Full Moon is a good time to forgive ourselves and others. Even if we achieve our intention we may not be happy as we are still holding on to negativity.

Scientific studies have shown that forgiveness is one of the most powerful things we can do for our physical and emotional health, and it is recommended that we practice forgiveness meditations on a daily basis. Forgiveness meditations often use imagery, which ties in well when working with the Moon.  We can imagine we are harnessing the energy of the Moon to remove certain emotions or  to send them into the Universe.

During the Full Moon we also look at how grateful we are for how far we have come, for the people in our lives and for what has gone right for us since the last Full Moon.  Having released negative emotions along with our forgiveness practice we are now filling ourselves up with positive emotions and memories.

The Disseminating Moon is a time to allow ourselves to breathe, to relax, to trust in ourselves.  The forgiveness and loosening of attachment at Full Moon may have stirred emotions up for us, and we need to remember to take care of ourselves at this time.

The Third Quarter Moon may bring up challenges for us, and we may need to re-evaluate our course, altering it a little, all of our challenges have messages and this is a time to listen and acknowledge them.

The Balsamic Moon is the healing, soothing phase, when we have been through the rocks and are now in a safe harbour, with calm seas,  ready for the next New Moon to arrive and to begin the cycle again.

So you can see how the Moon allows us to live consciously, to truly see ourselves, seeing the light and the shadow, to allow what needs to be seen to be visible and what we need to hear to be heard, and we are given these opportunities every month.

Moon cycles also tie in well with work that therapists and coaches give to clients.  As humans we use ritual a lot in our day to day life even if we do not realise it.  We often have a set morning routine, everything is completed in the same order every day for the same amount of time. We find rituals comforting, we know what is coming next, so we know how to deal with it.

We use ritual to good effect when working with the Moon.

We write our intentions down which in itself is so powerful.

We write a forgiveness list which we often burn, imagining the thoughts disappearing with the list, allowing it to go out into the Universe, it also means that nobody else can read what we have written so we are more likely to be honest with ourselves.  Therapists often tell their clients to write things down and to burn them.

We write a gratitude list which we can keep to show us the positive things from the past four weeks no matter how small these things are, again this is a therapeutic tool.

We are encouraged to continually reflect and focus on finding balance in our lives, because every New Moon and Full Moon fall under different astrological signs which also have their own traits. It is so easy to lose balance, we might not realise that we are too self critical or too judgemental of others but working with the Moon shows us where we are not in balance and allows us the opportunity to take action.

So my answer to those who ask why I use the Moon cycles as it does not sit easily with coaching and therapy is that it sits very easily alongside coaching and therapy.

Many things that we use today that are mainstream including meditation were not so long ago seen as woo woo so who knows maybe we will all be looking more closely at the planets and the Moon in future.