Strength - Find It!

Some of you may or may not be aware, depending on how many of these posts you have read or how many videos you have watched on my channel, but besides the Magician, the Strength card is one of my favorite cards in the deck! I actually keep this card and the Magician card on my personal altar for empowerment. This serves as a visual reminder for the attributes that I am trying to embody in my personal and professional life. It is like a physical vision board and I like to sit and meditate in front of it when I need to feel centered or guided.

The Strength card is just a beautiful image to behold. Depending on which character you are looking at - the maiden or the lion - you will have a different message about what kind of strength is needed for a situation.

When I look at the lion, I see a need for courage, tenacity, and a fierceness required to stand one's ground. This is not a gentle strength. This is the strength I think of when I hear Katy Perry's "Roar." This strength requires you to confront your problems and to be assertive when dealing with difficult people.

When I look at the maiden, I see a need for compassion, inner strength, and the ability to stay calm in the midst of a crisis. Let's say your lesson has gone off track and chaos ensues like the Friday before a vacation; you may want to snap, but instead you are able to keep your composure and dig deep to guide everyone back to the task at hand. That's the strength of the maiden that I'm talking about. This strength is gentle, nurturing, and often uses humor or another tactic as a way to diffuse a difficult situation. I always think of the saying "music soothes the savage beast" when I look at the maiden on the card.

But the Strength card also has another meaning. It requires you to stop and ask yourself, "what are my strengths?" In this case, your strengths are your special gifts and talents that you can use to help you when times get tough or use just to make your good days even better. Some people don't give themselves enough credit for their strengths or really even know what their strengths are. This is especially important to consider as a teacher. Sometimes you can get in a slump and question if you are in the right profession. You may feel like the biggest failure in the world. This is when you need Strength the most - this is when you need to get reflective and try to remember what your strengths are. You wouldn't have made it this far on your journey without them!

This week, try to stop and think about the situations you are facing at work and the kind of strength you need to deal with them. Also, make time to think about what your special strengths are that make you a wonderful teacher!

All my best,

Amy