In light of recent events in my personal life, I decided that today I needed a solid mental health day. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how I can be more mindful with my mental health and overall mental wellness but I never had a solid answer. For someone who suffers from OCD and General Anxiety, sometimes it can be pretty hard to sort out all the thoughts going on in your head. It’s as if you know how to pin down those thoughts, but they’re always just out of reach. It’s maddening at times. We’ve all been there; it’s that top shelf you just can’t quite reach to open up and see if what you’re looking for is there. So what was my solution? I went to good ole Barns and Noble.

While I was there, I have to admit, I got immediately side tracked. Each time I go to Barns and Noble, it’s a bee line to the toy/Harry Potter Merchandise section. Yes I am 26 years old. No it won’t change anytime soon (if ever, honestly). Anyways, I digress! So I walked around for a bit, browsed many books that were mostly found in the fiction sections, and collected a few along the way. Finally, I landed in the self help section which was indeed my original target. However, once I got there, I noticed that Tarot decks were also there. I thought to myself “huh, that’s odd. Why are fortune telling decks in the self help section? What the heck does that have to do with self help!?” And then I realized it had EVERYTHING to do with self help.

You see, if you don’t know already, Tarot cards are a whole deck of 52 cards with pictures on them just like you would find in a deck of playing cards. Each means something a little different, and some are more important than others. You think of a question, or a situation going on in your life, and you tailor the number of cards you flip to what exactly you’d like to see from that situation. For example; if it’s a simple “yes or no” question, you draw one and the cards connotation and explanation can tell you the answer. If you want to go further, you can draw three cards and set them to reveal something like “past, present, and future” or “how I view this situation, how the other person views the situation”. When you draw a card, the booklet will tell you what each mean! When I thought of Tarot, I had always just simply pictured some ominous fortune teller with a big mole on her face in a room that smelled like moth balls just flipping cards over and interpreting them for me. I hated that, how could a stranger know what my life holds? I don’t even know what my life holds. However, the friends that accompanied me to Barns and Noble came up from behind me told me that Tarot wasn’t just that, it’s actually a self help tool.

You see, Tarot is a guided way to make you make sense and analyze a situation. It’s not in the cards, it’s in your mind’s eye. You can cut the deck and re-draw as many times as you like, and chances are you’ll always come to the same conclusions. It’s a way to help you analyze and make sense of things in your life. And for someone like me who tends to see her mind as a maze, Tarot has illuminated the floor of my mind to the reveal the way out of it.

So for those of you struggling with making sense of your thoughts, or for anyone who just would like to practice mindfulness and analyzing your situations in this life, head down to your local book shop/Amazon page/etc and pick up a deck that looks the prettiest to you.

And honestly, stop in the toy section. You’re never too old to stop in the toy section, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Until next time!

Abbey