Anthony Rella's Blog, page 2

The light reveals the maze we’re in.

Today, the mind and spirit touch and the terrain becomes clearer. If you feel like you’ve been in an elaborate and almost incomprehensible maze, that is not wrong. Only it’s a maze that shifts as we move through it, where what was once a dead-end now opens up to a new pathway, and a reliable […]

Soften the focus on what opposes you.

It is unfortunate that mindfulness went through its rising popularity, co-optation, and then rejection almost a decade ago. When mindfulness was taken out of its religious context and introduced to the public as a self-help tool, it was easy for corporate leadership to then adopt it as another opportunity for people to better manage themselves […]

Wanting to be chased; forced to chase.

As Venus moves into Aries, that embodiment of all we desire and value turns toward uncomfortable terrain. While she would be comfortable simply being sought after and admired, instead she is being called to be the initiator, to pursue, to be the one who leads in desire. We think of the one who initiates as […]

Every story is a filter.

When you take in floods of information daily, it’s normal and inevitable for the mind to start to organize them into simpler buckets so it’s easier to handle. So, instead of looking at thousands of people arguing with each other but sharing certain overlapping values, we start to imagine an archetypal being that we might […]

Chafing against constriction.

Social norms are the ways we make it possible to relate to each other and the ways we inhibit each other from actions that would cause too much harm or disruption to the group. Some words are unsayable, thoughts are unthinkable, actions branded as crimes that carry the consequences of expulsion or incarceration, all to […]

There is help.

We might be feeling both the sharp urgency to fight and the despair of feeling as though our blows are limp and flailing. Take a moment and notice all the people who care with you, care for you. You don’t have to like all of them, agree with them, or even consider them allies. But […]

Stubbornness is a costly virtue.

When feeling out of control, it’s good to remember that fighting is an option. You can plant your feet, shout no, and resist what is coming your way. But that is also a very exhausting, depleting response. It can be too reactive, too simplistic, and we can say no to too many things just in […]

Punishment is not leadership.

One lesson I took away from behavioral psychology is the limits of punishment for getting the outcomes you want. It has a function—when delivered in a timely and direct way, punishment decreases the behaviors you don’t want. But it doesn’t teach the behaviors you do want. All the punished one knows is that thing it […]

Say goodbye to what was; invite what could be.

Whether you like it or not, a chapter is closing and old ways of doing things are ending. There is suffering and there are opportunities in this moment. Life is not fully beyond your control but you must accept the things you cannot influence so you have more energy to focus toward what you can. […]

Don’t turn your back to the ocean.

I am taking a needed vacation from regular posting, and appreciating this moment in which exalted Venus in Pisces is in a friendly connection with flailing Mars in Cancer. Both love an ocean, where Venus is abundant and expansive in her great love for all beings, while Mars is the crab on the beach that […]