Why You Feel So Rubbish When Mercury Is In Retrograde & What To Do About It.

Okay wow, that’s a long title.

So, have you been feeling a little unlike yourself recently? Maybe you’ve found yourself being unmotivated, un productive, down, have absolutely no self-confidence and felt like giving up and crawling back to bed most days?

Then yep, me too.

But don’t worry, and don’t feel alone, cause there’s a good reason for this, well kind of.

Mercury is in retrograde right now, it has been since March 5th and will be till March 29th (hold on in there – we’ve almost made it!)

So you may have heard ‘mercury in retrograde’ thrown about recently, and wondered ‘what the bloody hell does that mean?’ I’m no Brian Cox but I’m gonna try to explain.

Well, basically what it means is; Mercury (the planet of course, I don’t know why I’m bracketing this as you all know Mercury is a planet) okay so anyways, Mercury is closest to the sun right, and this means it’s orbit is much shorter than earth’s. So three/four times a year, Mercury speeds past Earth (like everyone did in my Sports Day 200m race) and that is what is called a Mercury Retrograde period.

So, let’s get our science goggles on and explain it a little more. Imagine you’re on a motorway, and you’re driving along singing to The Greatest Showman soundtrack (how am I not bored of this yet?) and a car over takes you. Obviously that car is going faster than you right? Now, imagine it slows down and you over take it (whilst reaching the high note of ‘Never Enough’) the faster car would look like it’s going backwards. And this retrograde period creates and leaves a trial of turbulence and disruption on Earth. Please have a Google, as I’m sure there are people out there who explain this way better than me 😂

Now I have no idea if that makes sense, but basically Mercury is having a little nap whilst this is all happening, and everything that Mercury is responsible for, can go in to a bit of array.

So now you’re thinking ‘Mercury is responsible for what?’

Well, whether you believe it or not, the planets have certain roles within our lives which we don’t realise.

And Mercury is the planet of communication, commerce, and movement. So when it’s having a little nap and whizzing backwards through the solar system, it has an effect on us.

Now I realise, I may have lost you, I may be a step away from being Spencer Pratt with his crystals, but hear me out.

I never used to understand this kind of thing, but every now and then I’d feel terrible. I’d have no motivation, I’d have no get up and go, and would be so hard on myself. I’d check my period app and be nowhere near my period and found out instead – Mercury was in retrograde.

Although I try to never look up when the retrograde dates are, as I think sometimes psychologically, if we assume we’ll feel rubbish for a period of time, then we will, so I try to just see how I feel, but usually every time, I’ll end up googling and find out that indeed Mercury in Retrograde is happening and voila is the answer for my bad mood.

So I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how awful they feel on social media, and myself included. The past couple of weeks, I have felt not too sprightly. And I genuinely believe this is because of Mercury being in retrograde.

But what can we do about this?

Well not a lot really, it’s more of a case of ‘go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint and let this whole thing blow over.’

So what are the *symptoms* from Mercury being in retrograde?

You can feel :

Less motivation and proactive

Find you have setbacks with work, contracts (such as buying a house) and other projects.

Have a lot of self-doubt and question yourself.

Communications are all over the shop.

And you may find yourself having little energy.

And our everyday life can be affected too –

Technology can glitch, emails can go straight into junk, our phones play up, remember how last week Instagram just didn’t work for 24 hours – yep.

Even things like our daily transport can be affected ; late trains, delayed planes, hold ups….

So, if you’ve been experiencing any of those, I mean I definitely have, here’s how I’ve been trying to make myself feel better during the past couple of weeks.

1. Self care, self care, self-care

So self-care ain’t just a face mask and a bath. To me, self-care is anything that makes you feel good. That could be going to the gym, or not going to the gym. It could be cancelling plans to have a night in, but also could be making yourself go out cause you know you’ll have fun. But for me, my self-care is ; going offline, trying to keep up with the gym (but also giving myself a day off and not feeling guilty for it) watching films I love under a blanket, getting an early night, reading, listening to my favourite music, keeping up with my beauty routine ; hair washing, fake tan and nails, and in general just being kind to myself.

During a retrograde, you can find yourself beating yourself up, and comparing yourself to others. And it’s so easy to do, but be kind, and gentle on yourself. Basically do whatever makes you feel good, and you’ll find the retrograde period a bit easier to survive.

2. Don’t Make Any Major Decisions

You’re questioning everything right now, and don’t fear. You are doing fine! Try to hold off making big decisions till after 29th March, in the past couple of weeks, I’ve almost made a hair appointment, wanted to change my blog name and basically wanted to throw out all my clothes.

3. Self Reflect / Plan

Instead, use this energy to plan/ self reflect. So like I said above, I’ve been debating a blog name change, and a different change in my content, so I’m gonna start planning. Start making a vision board, start putting the plans in action, and we’ll see what happens in the next few months.

4. Gratitude

So I’ve been feeling pretty negative recently, and with this whole retrograde, that is so easy to do! So I’ve been trying to practice gratitude, I’ve been trying to write down 10 things every day that I am grateful for, to be fair some days, I say them in my head instead, but that’s okay too.

I’m trying to turn situations into positives, so when I had to take a deep breath because Frank had run on our white bed sheets with muddy paws when I’d only changed the bed the day before, instead of being annoyed, I took a deep breath and thought ‘how lucky am I to have a dog like Frank. Although he’s just got his mucky paws on the bed, he’s loyal, and I don’t know what I’d do without him.’

I find that when I write down what I’m grateful for, it makes me feel so much better and makes me realise how lucky I am! Try focusing on what you have, instead of what you do not.

5. Be Cautious

Use this time to be extra careful, be careful around glasses of water and your laptop (or a water bottle like what spilled all over my Macbook in 2017) make sure your phone is backed up to icloud. Review all contracts/legal documents carefully, didn’t take anything too personally, track parcels, re send emails, give yourself extra time when travelling.

6. Reach Out To Old Friends

Retrograde is a perfect time to re connect with old friends, send them a text, see how they’re doing. Meet up for a coffee, or a cocktail, you’ll be surprised how much better you feel for doing so!

All in all, if you’re feeling a little low right now and whether you believe in Mercury being behind it all, don’t worry as so many people feel the same way right now.

I hope this post has made sense, I just wanted to write something to mainly help myself as I have been struggling a little recently and wanted to talk about what to do/in the hope it makes you feel a little less alone.

Now, for some other things that may help ;

1. This post by Victoria about raising your vibration is perfect for anyone trying to be more positive during this retrograde period.
2. If you’re suffering with self-confidence/imposter syndrome, this podcast by Vix is perfect for making you feel a little better and will have you nodding along!
3. Book a reading with Blue Moon Psychic as it might help to clear your head and make you feel more positive. You can read about my reading here. 

Also a big thank you to Sonia from Blue Moon Psychic for her information about mercury in retrograde and how it can affect you. It’s been something I’ve been really enjoying to learn about, and hope you liked this slightly different post to normal!

I’d love to know if you’ve ever been affected by mercury being in retrograde and what you did to help your mood?