Q. I am especially interested in how to stay strong in what is real for me, positive and hopeful for the future

A. Well, dear, here is the thing, the key words here are “real for me” and truly, what else is there? You can do the energy protections of zipping up or shielding or containing or clearing and cleansing, and those are all very helpful of course. You can do the grounding and visualizing and connecting with chakras. You can move your body through space and time in ways that feel gentle and healing and supportive to you. You can eat what you like and test your theories and see what happens.

But overall, each one is living their truth no matter what. One might forget or feel swayed or impacted by other people’s expressions of their realities, but at the end of the day, so to speak, you go home with yourself and you know what you believe. You know what is real and what is not. You know where to put your energy and where your energy is drained from you without permission.

We think the question might be more about how to trust yourself, and how to recover when your reality is impacted from outside. Following your gut instinct and noticing what signals are resonant for you, this is the basis of trust. When your gut says hold still but you flail around anyway, look back and see what it was that you denied. (Note: the “why” is not important, but look for the “how” and the outcome.) When your gut says hold still, and you do hold still, investigate how that went.

When things happen in your reality that are not of your choosing, you have some choice in the impact. You do not get to choose all of it, and you are not bad or wrong if things don’t go to your liking, or even if you get hurt. A lot of time is spent some days on “what might I have done differently” but may we suggest looking forward at these times instead. Save your energy for the question “what might I do now?”