For Shakespeare: Tarot for my Semester

Shakespeare asked: I have a question for Tarot Queen (since you give me fabulous readings every single time). How is my semester going to go? If the cards could just give me a general idea what to expect by December, when everything calms down, I'd love to know. I know you don't do futures, per se, but since I know overall WHAT is going to happen, I'd like to know HOW I and my family will respond to it.

It's not that I don't do futures, but I struggle with time frames and yes or no questions. Yours is a good one, so I'll see what the cards will tell me. We'll start with the three card spread, past (immediate), present and semester future.

Past - Ace of Cups (reversed) - stress, anxiousness, difficulties gettings tarted. This is likely all about the worries you had about finding work and the resultant uncertainty.

Present - Justice VIII (reversed) - imbalance. Your fears in being too idle have pushed the pendulum too far in the other direction (or you fear that may be the case). But, what will happen?

Future - Wands VI - This is a happy card, a card of good tidings like achievement of desires and realization of goals. Clearly, your trepidation is unwarranted and you will amaze even yourself with what you manage to accomplish. Damn, hon, that's excellent. Now, I'll pull a card to see if there's any impact on your family.

Ah, Ace of Pentacles (Coins) - looks like it's all good. Prosperity, satisfaction, fulfillment. I think it works for everyone.

Lee and I were actually at a reading circle on Saturday. We can't read our own futures and haven't been able to (or each others) since we've been together. When we're together we affect each other. So, I thought maybe someone else could give us readings. You know the rune we BOTH pulled for our future? The blank one that says "Not gonna tell you."

Perhaps I should take the hint.

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For Aron: Real World Panic

Aron said: ZOMG! I'm going to go into the real world, with responsibilities and other adult stuff *starts sucking thumb and rolling around in the fetal position* Tips, please?

[I had to redo this. For reasons unknown, the first post got lost.]

Yes, Aron, I do.

Tip #1: Don't panic. You're a thinker. You understand the importance of responsibility. Your priorities are straight. You know how much work it's going to be. Believe me when I tell you that you are ahead of most of the people your age, in fact many people much older. What you face is unlikely to be as devastating as your fear of it. Let it go and you will be better off.

Tip #2: Have a plan. Don't let worries and responsibilities overwhelm you. Address them rather than letting them pile up. As each new challenge comes, look at it as a puzzle to be solved and evaluate your options. If you take them face on, determine a path to address them, you'll find they weren't as frightening as you had envisioned.

Tip #3: All work and no play is not healthy. It is, in fact, a recipe for burnout. Find something, some activity, that allows you to destress, that relaxes and revitalizes you. It could be a video game or a favorite book or a physical activity or cleaning your home. Whatever it is, don't neglect taking time to do so. If you take no time for yourself, your life loses it's balance and you can become lost.

Tip #4: Laugh whenever you can. The world will never have too much laughter.

Tip #5: Having a laser kitty would be cool beans.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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For Bob: Fear of Flying

Bob asked: Here is a good one. Just made up my mind, I am going to China for the total solar eclipse in July, HELP ME, I am terrified of flying, suggestions?

Well, Bob, I’m pretty excited you’re going. Seriously. It may take me more than one blog post to address your issue, because it depends on the cause. Is it the confined space? Fear of heights? Fear because you don’t understand the principles of flying? Was it a traumatic past experience?

How we deal with this fear depends on what is causing it. In some cases, therapy, including hypnotherapy, can be helpful as can medicines. In others, if, say, the fear is of the mechanics of flying, education into how flying works is effective in addressing the fear. Research into virtual reality to treat aerophobia has not shown much success.

You are certainly not alone. Fear of flying is quite common. Wikepedia has a list of famous people who share your fear .

There is an excellent rundown of the fear of flying, the causes and some of the steps one can take to address it at this website . In part, it says:

Therefore, if you have a fear of flying, before seeking treatment you might want to ask yourself several questions (along the lines of the vignette presented above):

1.	What exactly were the circumstances of the flight on which the fear of flying symptoms first appeared? Why were you flying? What happened just before the flight? What happened during the flight? What happened just after the flight? (Try to recall the facts, as well as the exact words of anything that was said.)
2.	What was happening in your life before the fear of flying symptoms developed? Did you experience any major life changes before the fear of flying symptoms developed? Did anything happen that left you feeling uncertain or conflicted before the fear of flying symptoms developed? Had anyone done anything to you that had left you feeling emotionally hurt and angry before the fear of flying symptoms developed?
3.	What exactly might a fear of flying prevent you from doing? How do you really feel about not doing it? Maybe you don’t really want to do it. Or maybe you feel guilty about doing it.

If you can narrow down what scares you, perhaps I can give you more help. I think the website I have linked, though, is probably a good place to start. Fortunately, you have some time to address it.

1. # JD at I Do Thingson 15 Mar 2009 at 3:02 pm edit this

   Excellent response. Fear of flying is nothing to sneeze at, especially a long flight over water. I used to be terribly fearful of flying, but I’ve been able to control it with pills. That’s not everyone’s best solution, but it works for me.

   With a background of anxiety disorder, I know what causes my fear: fear of having a panic attack at 30,000 feet and not being able to “get out of there.” I’ve worked thru all the scenarios, how safe planes are, etc, but nothing helped until the pills.

   For a while, I’d be nervous before flying until I took my pill, after which I felt fine. Now I’m not even nervous thinking about a flight, because I know the pill always works.

   Just my 2 cents.

   I’ll be back with my own question, once I come up with one.

2. # Bobon 15 Mar 2009 at 5:03 pm edit this

   Thanks JD, what kind of pills do you take, brand, ect?

   Thanks for the post on my question Stephanie. I have had one bad experience while flying, my very first time flying, coming into Toronto in a thunderstorm we dropped quite a bit, they said we hit an air pocket, but I had the fear of flying before then, just boosted my or justified my fear, so I’m sure it didn’t help.

   I think if I was knocked out I wouldn’t mind because deep down inside I know the flight will probably go okay, logically look at the numbers, not that many crashes.

   One of the problems is no control, the plane makes a sudden movement, I’m a write- off, I don’t know what is going on in the cockpit, plus all the odd sounds the plane makes, again because I have not flown that much I don’t know what is normal and what isn’t.

   One thing I find helps is talking about it, putting it down on my blog, also one thing I have going for me this time is I am going to be going to fulfill a lifelong dream, so if I die in a crash so be it. Going to seminars and meetings, which I hate, I feel that if I die in a crash I died for no good reason, to do something I hate, I have a seminar coming up in October, the month when ice will probably form on the wings and make us crash, and for what , some stupid meeting,lol.

   If I think about it logically it doesn’t add up, no reason for the fear, yet I have the fear and I don’t know why.

3. # fliton 17 Mar 2009 at 10:58 pm edit this

   I’ll be flying for the first time in years this summer…. s’long as none of my students are working anywhere near MY planes, I’m good

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