Have you heard what time of the year it is…that’s right, mercury retrograde. Tis the season of romantic disasters, crippling nostalgia, resurfacing wounds, and collective chaos. Fret not for this time isn’t all bad, but it certainly didn’t earn its fitting nickname, “retro shade” for nothing.

Mercury retrograde has become popularly known as a celestial phenomenon that has intrigued both scientists and spiritual seekers alike. Scientifically, Mercury retrograde occurs when the planet Mercury appears to reverse its direction in the sky, a visual illusion created when Mercury’s orbit around the sun happens in less time than Earth’s, 88 days to be exact rather than 365. This period is often associated with disruptions in communication, technology, and travel. However, rather than seeing it as merely a time of chaos, we’ll dive into how you can harness this cosmic event to reflect, realign, and rejuvenate. Let’s uncover how this retrograde phase can be a powerful opportunity to transition into the next chapter of your life with intention and clarity…

Although by common misconception mercury retrograde is a time we would like to avoid and distract ourselves from it until it passes, a time governed by chaos and disruption of flow, I believe avoidance from a little mayhem is wasting potential for deep and productive shadow work. Mercury retrograde has an energy that might feel like it’s working against us, but what if that is the point? A consistent period of time that brings out the negativity, the pain, the anger, and the unhealed and resolved traumas so that they can be released from within us so that we can move on. If there is a new reality you desire, a new experience you’ve been wishing for, or even an alternative life you desire. Then this is a necessary process to go through in order to not carry your past with you any longer. Mercury retrograde or not, your wounds need to be healed to move on and time can’t do all the work for you. If you truly desire to move forward in life, to embody your greater potential rather than settle for where you are. Then let this shadow period show you the way to your wounds, and let your healing show you the way to your desires. Let me guide you through what you can expect to experience during Mercury retrograde and how you can navigate this hard time with the intention to let it work for you, rather than against you.

unfortunately, we can’t bypass our way into a new reality and expect to become a higher version of ourselves without healing first. This is the universe’s way of letting us let go.

“your new life will always cost you your old one”

Here are 3 major themes you can expect during mercury retrograde, and how to navigate through them

Trigger’s

Being triggered is an opportunity to respond differently, life is full of obstacles constantly pushing us to learn and gain wisdom to keep walking forward on our paths. Mercury retrograde does not nearly fall short of this. When you become aware of this perspective you can see clearly what’s really going on here. Mercury retrograde is a prime time for things to surface one last time to allow you to tie up the loose ends to your past, triggers, shadows, and wounds are all one in the same nature. When these things are coming up in your life, they are coming up because they are asking to be given attention, they are asking to be healed. Where we find ourselves going wrong and getting stuck in a loop is when we attach ourselves to these feelings through thoughts, when we attach our thoughts and believe them, We identify with them and our emotional bodies will act as if we are this experience. This is not what we want, so when triggers come up we want to become self-aware and notice what is coming up for us. When we see it we can begin to work through it, and begin to understand what the root of our pain is through evaluation.

It’s hard not to feel clouded by the habitual emotional response you feel when something triggers you, usually when we are triggered 99% of the time we believe it is what triggered us that is at fault when this couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything in our external reality is a mirror of our inner one. This includes people. The people you attract into your life are always attracted to you because you are vibrating at the same frequency, you share a likeness. Relationships act as our largest teachers in life as it is through them that we most often going to find our triggers. This is really a blessing in disguise finding a trigger is finding a key to open up a wound that was tucked away from the surface that you may not have even known needed to be healed, but without enough self-awareness to harness this power triggers will merely exist as your enemy, but they are not, they are a part of you, and you should not be your enemy.

Next time you feel yourself triggered keep these following steps in mind, intended to redirect your energy.

Firstly, become aware that everything in your life is a mirror reflecting yourself to you in different ways. Once you accept this concept you can naturally see situations from a new perspective.

try sorting out exactly what triggered you. I find it helpful to write this out or speak this out to yourself or someone with an unbiased opinion that won’t judge you, you want to somehow release it from emotion alone and understand it through language so you can better understand and process. Don’t hold back, be completely honest and raw with yourself.

Once you have a clear comprehension of what exactly triggered you, make it about yourself, remove them or it from this completely and focus on where you can see this within yourself. If someone made a hurtful comment about you, did it trigger you because you believed it? Do you feel this way about yourself? Why? Once you identify the wound, healing begins to take course.

you don’t have to push away emotions or try to bury them to make yourself feel better, once they flow through you freely and you respect them as a teacher they will be released. It’s because of all the things you stopped from letting yourself feel in the past that are the reason you experience triggers. These suppressed feelings are still being carried in your emotional body, still trying to flow through you, let them. This is why you are being triggered, your body wants to let go.

The key is to become aware of how you feel and become conscious enough to show up differently, you have the power to control your emotions and react intentionally. Sometimes it’s hard not to give in to the heat of the moment, but when this happens take the time you need to feel through the emotion and let it pass through your body, knowing that it is just an energy flowing through you. When you begin to react to these obstacles differently you begin to embody your next level version of self. So take advantage of this energy and use it for self-evaluation, your triggers will lead you right to the parts of yourself that you are ready to shed and develop new beliefs, new habits, and a new version of self.

Nostalgia

A large theme during Mercury retrograde is nostalgia, the past creeping up on you to make you feel like you lost some kind of fulfillment you’re lacking in the present. What is it about the memories of your past that are making you feel like you are lacking in your present? Nostalgia often leads to the general feeling of lack in our current reality, it’s a gateway to noticing how much we don’t have instead of what we do and this will lead us to feeling immense dissatisfaction with our life.

“Wanting a positive experience is a negative experience, accepting a negative experience is a positive experience”

surrender to the resistance! The resistance is what you are unsatisfied with in your current reality, what you are trying desperately to avoid experiencing or letting go of. What are you waiting for to have a different turnout? When you are holding on to something too hard, the universe will keep pushing you to surrender it. If you are avoiding an experience, expect it only to become more potent. Despite your best efforts and self-manipulation, whatever it is about this situation that is not working for you will become amplified until you are forced to surrender to it. This energy is heightened during Mercury Retrograde and you can expect it to be challenging to resist a soul-aligned pull. Your current experience is intentional, there is a reason for why you are here right now. When you resist it, you are resisting your flow into the present phase of life, one that is necessary and full of lessons, and opportunities for insights to keep moving forward.

you can’t wish yourself into happiness and fulfillment when you are going through something you are trying to avoid perhaps recognize what exactly it is you’re trying to avoid, and once you pinpoint that you can begin to understand how maybe this could be working for you, you can use it in your favour. The truth is the universe doesn’t make mistakes and is just waiting on you to recognize opportunity towards your desires. You might not be able to see the bigger picture but the universe does, and we need to go through things that are uncomfortable to be stretched out to our potential. Obstacles are the language of the universe, and when you learn to understand it, life can flow with less resistance to what is.

To help deepen your understanding of this concept, I’m going to share with you an example that you can perhaps relate your own experience to.

Throughout the last few months, things in my life felt as if they hit a wall. I felt a lack in my life very strongly. I wasn’t going out, making memories, I wasn’t experiencing connection, I wasn’t involved in romantic interest. I felt deeply alone and like I was left with nothing but a bunch of broken pieces. I resisted this, tried to make plans, and felt myself largely comparing my life to other young people my age, who seemed to be making the most of their youth, while I was working, burning out, and spending most of my time in involuntary solitude. It took some time for the self-evaluation to click because I was so clouded with self-pity, but feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to change my experience. What else could I do but surrender to it. I sat with this concept and pondered on how this could work in my favour.

What became clear was that I asked for a new life, I decided to start working on personal projects to elevate my future, but my desperate effort to avoid being alone was distracting me from being alone enough to spend the time I needed to work on my self-development, so in the language of the universe, it became harder and harder for me to be avoidant. I thought about what I asked for, what direction and outcome I wished my life to have and thought about if all the things I felt like I was missing out on were really in alignment with my goals, or just a distraction I wanted to experience because I thought that’s what I’m supposed to be experiencing at 21 based on what other people are experiencing. But the truth is if you want a different life than everyone else, you need to take a different path than everyone else. It became clear to me that this time alone was necessary, to work on myself, to remove negative influences, to sort out what I wish to remain in my life and what no longer serves the version of myself I’m becoming, once I surrendered to what I was avoiding I was able to use it in my favour, make the most of it. This is alchemy. This is how you move from one life to another.

the universe wants you to have your heart’s desires. When you desire, it is because you’re meant to have it. The universe will try to shift you on this path but you have to be willing to walk it, to let go of the things you don’t full body yes, want. But if you’re still holding on to the attachment, to the fear that if you let go you will be in lack, Then there will not be space for what you truly desire, you can’t have one foot in each door. If you desire a new life, you can’t have the safety net of your old life, you need to close the door to the past, lock that door and throw away the key. If you are ready for a new life, surrender to the journey of getting it.

Past Relationships

“Your commitment to the future must be greater than your attachment to the past”

Mercury Retrograde has a way of bringing out the worst in us, and the worst in us often lies in the past, specifically when we were in that relationship, you know the one I’m talking about. With all the emotions flowing through us and the unhealed wounds that were only deepened in some of our relationships, this is a confusing time for us to navigate. A largely shared experience during Mercury Retrograde surrounds our love life and relationships that ended. With all that is coming up for us in regards, it can be tempting to go back. Understand that this is not the time to be going backwards, you’re not thinking about your ex because it was meant to be but rather because there is a lesson still lingering within the relationship that is vital for you to understand before you can move on. This is an opportunity to heal, not to repeat an experience for the same outcome.

The person who hurt you cannot be the same one to heal you. If you are fighting the temptation of reaching out or responding to someone who reached out, it’s probably because they left you with questions still unanswered. You haven’t moved on from what transpired and the wounds that needed mending in this relationship still need it, but you’re not going to get closure by going back, you will only be left with more questions.

The closure comes from within. The pain someone left you with only became pain because it triggered unhealed parts of yourself. It’s easy to put the blame on someone else but at the end of the day, you are the one left with the pieces. When you recognize the hurt they caused is a shadow for you to alchemize, you take your power back. It’s not about them anymore and you can see your triggers were that necessary mirror revealing where you needed to heal.

The pain will weigh you down forever from a relationship that hurt you. because when you put the blame on the one who hurt you, you’re also placing closure outside of yourself. You want them to hold responsibility, to take that weight off your chest, but you take the responsibility and give yourself closure by learning the lesson, identifying the wounds and understanding that it’s not about them, it was always about you, and what you needed to heal to be led towards your destiny.
If you never make it about yourself you will never heal because you will never think it’s you that needs to heal. Waiting for an apology or a reason so you can make sense of their actions towards you is a dead end. How they are is not your business to figure out, you are only responsible for the emotions you carry. Take your power back and know that they were nothing more than key for you to see within yourself.

“We are all lost souls walking each other home”

although it’s a new life we are after, it’s important we don’t bypass the strings that keep us tied to our past, if we want to move forward after this shadow period we must sort through and release our suppressed energy that does not serve us any longer

As you may have gathered by this point, Mercury retrograde is a time to purge. expect that when big changes are around the corner, space will first be made. If it leaves let it, this is a time to shed old skin and let go of the version of yourself that doesn’t match the person you want to become. Close the door to the past by letting your emotions be seen, respected and released. Move both feet into the realm of new possibilities. When Mercury Retrograde comes to an end you can expect to be ready for new intentions and new direction. You can expect to jump into a new reality now that your loose ends will be all sorted out.

Mercury retrograde is your cosmic cue to hit pause and tidy up life’s messy corners. Expect some hiccups, but see them as chances to revisit and refine. Embrace the chaos as a chance for growth, and use this phase to align your path with newfound clarity. So, grab a metaphorical mop and get ready to clean up—this retrograde might just be the cosmic reboot you need!