If you haven’t heard about this month’s upcoming solar eclipse, you must be living under a rock.
Millions of people from all over the country are flocking to the 70-mile band from Oregon to South Carolina where the total eclipse will be visible for a brief few minutes on August 21st. Oregon alone is attracting one million visitors, with 30,000 concentrated at the Oregon Eclipse Festival, a one-week gathering of international electronic music and art.
So what’s with all the hype about this eclipse? Don’t eclipses happen every few months?
Eclipses do happen fairly regularly, but what makes this one so special is that it’s the first total solar eclipse in 99 years to stretch coast-to-coast across the United States, and the first to grace the skies of the lower 48 states in 38 years.
Besides eclipses being a rare natural phenomenon—arguably one of the most magnificent the earth has to offer—they are also believed to bring meaning and significance to our lives and can be an accelerator for growth.
What could the eclipse mean for us in 2017?
I recently spoke with one millennial astrologer and writer to get the scoop on what the eclipse could signal for us this August. Meet Tanaaz Chubb, the co-creator and founder of Forever Conscious, one of the most prominent mindful lifestyle blogs with over half a million monthly readers. Chubb is also the author of, “The Power of Positive Energy” and a contributing writer for the Huffington Post.
This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, Chubb shares an astrological perspective of this month’s eclipse and how you can leverage it to your advantage.
Below, read Chubb’s tips on tapping into your maximum growth potential with the upcoming solar eclipse.
Solar Eclipses Represent A New Beginning.
If you’ve been considering ending a relationship or leaving behind a job that’s no longer the right fit for you, now could be the time to do it. According to Chubb, eclipses represent a time of transition as one thing comes to a close and another begins. You can capitalize on the upcoming eclipse by opening up a new chapter of your life, such as taking a new career initiative.
Ancient cultures like the Incas and the Mesopotamians considered eclipses an omen, while the Navajo regarded them as a symbol of cosmic balance and order.
“Eclipses or solar eclipses are usually points of new beginnings, so there’s something shifting,” Chubb says. “With the lunar eclipse we had earlier this month, something would have been calling you to wrap up, to cut something out of your life, and the solar eclipse that comes after it is about bringing in something new. That can be something physical but it can also be a new way of being, a new idea, or a new belief.”
Eclipses Can Produce Unusual Effects.
In the 1950s, Nobel Prize-winning economist Maurice Allais discovered the “Allais effect,” whereby gravity is slightly altered during an eclipse. Pendulums can be observed swinging faster and suddenly changing amplitude when the sun and the moon line up. Don’t worry too much about the Allais effect, because NASA assures us that there’s no evidence eclipses have any physical effects on humans. Psychological effects, however, are common—including stress, difficulty sleeping, impatience, and mood swings.
It’s a good idea to be prepared for the effects that can accompany the eclipse. To navigate the eclipse smoothly, Chubb recommends using controlled breathing to help soothe anxiety and regulate your mood. “Work with the breath, close your eyes, put your hands over your heart to connect to that inner you and take ten deep breaths in and out,” Chubb says. Science shows deep breathing tricks the neurons in your brain into thinking you’re relaxed, and alters your state of mind accordingly.
Eclipses Can Provide Emotional Insight.
Chubb believes the planetary alignment can cause us to experience subtle energetic shifts. “If the moon can affect the tides, and our bodies are made of 70% water, what do you think the moon’s influence is on the water in our bodies?” she says.
Chubb recommends to create deliberate space for yourself to feel any unexpected emotions that arise with the eclipse. With the potential for heightened emotions, the eclipse could be an opportunity for you to get more in touch with yourself and revisit past emotions that you haven’t yet resolved. If the emotion is painful, consider that you have the opportunity to greet the emotion with new compassion and presence than you ever have before, which can facilitate healing.
“Often our instinct is to resist the painful emotion or say, ‘I shouldn’t be feeling this,’ but it actually prolongs the emotion. It’s much better to say ‘This is how I feel’ and own it. Cry if you need to. It’s amazing how quickly an emotion passes when you just own it,” Chubb advises.
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This article originally appeared on Forbes.com