Seven of Wands
The Seven of Wands depicts an individual defending his territory and his successes. If you were conditioned to be a people-pleaser, like myself, we may lack the skills to set healthy boundaries with others. From personal experience, my egoic mind led most of my life which made me reactive and anxious. This allowed others to easily evoke a reaction and exhaust my energy. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, being of Mexican descent and deriving from an immigrant household, I did not fit within the framework of my culture, and society as a whole. As you can imagine, this exposed me to countless forms of discrimination, whether it was from my family, the public, or my religion. This enabled a sense of exclusion and isolation, as most of us have felt at one point or another.
If we had the opportunity to communicate with our childhood selves, what would we share with them? I would teach my younger self to speak up for himself. Honoring ourselves does not have to be communicated with anger or frustration, rather it can be communicated with patience and benevolence. We can speak up for ourselves with the intention to be the peacemaker. If an innocent child that caused no harm to others experienced a paramount degree of hate, I am confident that their light glistened so brightly. If you can relate, I trust that we emitted a light so bright and undeniable. Until recently, I could not acknowledge the intense love and light I radiate.
I recommend watching a Youtube episode released by Revolt titled "Michelle Obama: The Cross-Generational Conversation." The panel discussed several topics, one of them being the idea of setting boundaries. The first lady, Michelle Obama, was one of the panelists, and she shared that once we set our boundaries with others, their reactions are non of our concern. This resonated so deeply because I realized how I tend to be too "considerate" to others. However, when we are too kind, we put others first and ourselves second just to ensure they are comfortable. As I previously mentioned, I was conditioned in a household with narcissistic individuals who placed all blame and responsibility on me, rather than them taking accountability as the adults. They projected a narrative of being too difficult, so I constantly sought ways to improve to earn their validation. Unfortunately, examples like these are far too common which conditions us into a never-ending spiral of fitting other people's expectations.
After my spiritual awakening, I have learned to forgive my past circumstances and accept that everything occurred for a greater reason. While I am unable to foresee the future, I am trusting of the universe that one day I will have an epiphany where all the dots connect. Nonetheless, we are on a delicious journey where set healthy boundaries. We are on a journey where with bloom into the best version of ourselves, for ourselves.
