Welcome to HuffPost Canada’s (almost) daily guide to helping you pick up an easy, everyday ritual that can make your life a bit better, in a small but significant way.
Canadians are stressed out, anxious, and are feeling disconnected from each other. Every Monday through Friday, we’ll share a tiny tip to help you feel good. We’ve got your back.
Today’s habit: Get someone to read you your tarot cards for fun.
For whenever you’re feeling: Like you’re curious about tarot reading, like you want to try something new, like you want a fun way to have your life questions answered.
What it is: While there is no science backing the uses of tarot cards, they have been around for centuries, and are one of the most popular devices of divination (crystal balls, tea leaves, runes, and pendulums are other divination tools).
Although the tarot cards’ uses have changed over the years, modern-day tarot cards represent finding insight and meaning through the divine.
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How it can help: Again, we want to reiterate that tarot cards aren’t based in science or facts. That being said, they can be a fun, and even meaningful way, to find answers and insight to life’s little questions. Here are a few ways tarot cards can help you find a bit of clarity in 2020:
1. They can help you decide what to focus your time on
If you’re trying to figure out how you should spend some of your time in the new year, a tarot reading can help. Certain cards can point out your positive traits — maybe you’re kind and empathetic, a hard worker, a good listener, a talented crafter.
Whatever your talent may be, a tarot reading can clarify what you’re good at and help you understand how to improve.
2. They can help relieve stress
Whether you believe in the power of tarot card readings or not, most of us can agree that they’re fun, and when we’re having fun, we’re a lot less stressed about the things that are keeping us awake at night.
Maybe we want to know whether to pursue a relationship — just the act of asking and discussing your question with your tarot reader can help relieve a bit of that stress and pressure. And if the answers provide any clarity, even better! Having a little bit of clarity on an issue, even if you came by it through a deck of cards, can help you make a decision, which will take that stress off of you.
3. They’re an act of self-kindness
Some people sew, others pull out a tarot card from a deck. Daily acts of self-care and self-kindness can be crucial in protecting our mental health, and if doing a tarot card reading helps your mind relax, then we’re all for it.
“On a most basic level, doing a daily card pull is a space that you carve out just for yourself — and that’s nothing but positive,” Jessica Dore, a Philadelphia-based clinical social work graduate student and tarot reader, told Brit + Co.
Finding space for yourself is paramount to having a healthy mind, and if a tarot reading can be a great time to connect back to yourself without judgment. According to Dore, self-readings can provide introspection, which is always a good thing.
How you can start: If you’re completely new to tarot, it can be a bit overwhelming. Do you buy a deck and learn the cards by yourself? Do you go to a tarot card reader? Should you ask a friend? Can you do it online?
I would suggest going to a local tarot card reader (but do your research first!) before investing in a deck.
“Consult with an experienced professional who can be trusted,” Fashion magazine notes. “Modern serious authentic and ethical tarot readers are not ‘fortune tellers’ or mind readers. Real tarot readings become a therapeutic process for gaining valuable insights. A good tarot reading will affirm your own intuition and opens up more questions and options as part of a process, so be discerning when it comes to choosing a reader.”
Once you experience your first reading, you can decide whether it’s for you or not. If it is, there are lots of great decks for your perusal. Our favourite is The Wild Unknown, which has gorgeous nature illustrations. If you prefer something more classic, check out the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which you can buy online or at local bookstores.
How it makes us feel: Although I personally don’t believe that tarot cards hold the answers to my many questions, I still find it fun to lay a deck out, ask a question, flip the cards, and try to decipher what it means.
There’s something a bit healing about asking a question out loud and then really thinking about the answer. It makes me reflect on why I’m asking that question, and what I want the result to be.
And, to be quite honest, it’s even a bit magical.
Read more:
And that’s your habit of the day.
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