The process of change is like the lunar cycle. First, the moon is emblematic of change itself. Second, as it transitions through its regular stages from one new moon to the next, its energy and influence embody the classic model of the evolution of personal change.
This might sound hokey, woo-woo, or New Age. However, continue reading to understand how the quality of lunar energy during each lunar stage undergirds and reinforces the self-discovery, self-development, and self-actualization fundamental to successful navigation of change.
How We Typically Envision the Process of Change
Everyone experiences change every day. Some of these changes are simple and easy to deal with. However, many personal and professional changes necessitate more adjustment over a protracted period, especially the more transformative ones. Clearly it takes time and effort to earn a degree or become a new person. That’s why many people refer to the process of change as a “journey.”
Typical Change Models
The internet is replete with management, therapy, and coaching models of change typically consisting of stages arranged linearly, in a circle, or a repeating cycle (e.g., a spiral). The number of stages varies, but the overall evolution is quite similar. Here the process is presented in seven stages.
- The process of change is triggered by a catalyst, which could be an external disturbance or a personal choice. For example, you could lose your job or decide to leave it.
- As a consequence of this initial stimulus, aspects of your current life rupture or start to adjust.
- At this point, a natural process of grieving and reflection ensues. This stage can be characterized by more grief or reflection, but it typically has both. In addition, it can be short or protracted. It depends on you, your circumstances, and the type of disturbance.
- As grieving ebbs, your energy builds and you begin forming a new perspective that includes potential directions you could take. Perhaps you build new skills toward these aims.
- In time, you integrate your experience with these new insights, understanding, and skills. You sever ties or let go of what no longer serves you given the initial catalyst for change. You adjust or set new intentions and goals.
- These new ideas and skills allow your process to shift toward action. You experiment, plan, and take initial steps, navigate obstacles and limitations, and move forward toward realizing a new acceptable or desirable reality.
- In the final stage, you establish and settle into this new equilibrium.
Two Important Takeaways From This Framework
First, while the list presents the seven stages as linear and progressive, people typically digress and regress as they move through the change process. For this reason, popular diagrammatic models envision a change in the form of a circle, pie chart, wheel, spiral, or wave function through time. The point is significant change is rarely instantaneous or straightforward. Instead, it’s a process that gradually builds and reformulates a new temporary or semi-permanent outcome.
Second, you can easily become discouraged or fall into a self-defeating slump if you expect linear and constantly progressing adjustment to change but instead experience setbacks. Furthermore, if you ignore or pass through a stage such as grieving or reflection too quickly, unprocessed aspects of your experiences will stick with you and imprint on your life mostly in negative or challenging ways. And, you’ll likely repeat or revisit the unresolved stage until you sufficiently process it and capture its wisdom.
In conclusion, be realistic, stay open, do the work, and take the time you need to manage change.
Lunar Cycles – a Natural Model For the Process of Change
While I agree with these seven stages of the change process, I have a slightly different analog I like to use for myself and my clients. My model is tied to nature and its natural rhythms. Mostly, I like to build on what’s innate within a person as human being living within the Earth’s ecosystem, which includes the moon.
Aligning With Your Nature and the Power of Nature
The lunar cycle offers a model that is more aligned with nature and human nature.
As an avid nature and moon enthusiast, a Master energy healer, and a spiritual life coach who takes a whole-person approach for conscious living, I like to envision the process of change as the lunar cycle. I see how the different types of healing and coaching practices we use in sessions can harmonize with specific phases of the moon and the lunar energy associated with each phase. Some call the Moon Mapping.
Moon Energy in the Process of Reflection and Change
For coaching and healing purposes, I like that the moon is associated with change and is always changing. This is critically important to embrace because the notion that change is always happening and always possible is essential for healing and personal transformation. Denying the possibility for something new is resistance and a factor underlying the common experience of being stuck.
I also like that the moon moves through the darkness and illuminates the night sky, a time associated with the subconscious, emotions, the embodied mind, dreams, and spirit. Each of these elements is crucial for self-awareness, introspection, innovation, the illumination of the soul’s mission, the optimistic notion that change is possible.
Furthermore, while we tend to think of moon as an evening presence, when it’s waning or shrinking from a Full Moon into a New Moon, it actually appears in the daytime and hides during the night. Like dreams it dips into the deeply personal and spiritual darkness and abstruse realm of the night and serves up its wisdom for consumption and application during the active waking hours.
For these reasons, the lunar cycle is a hopeful nature model of change. And referring back to the seven stages to the process of change, it’s possible to line up the seven stages with the moon phases.
How the Lunar Cycle Conforms With the Classic Model of Change
By comparing the above stages of change with the phases of the lunar cycle noted in the table below, the similarities emerge. For example, stage one marks a catalyst or initiation of change as New Moon does. Stages two, three, four involve reflection and adjustment as well as the ultimate formulation of new ideas and means to move forward. This corresponds to the energy of the Waxing Moon.
The Full Moon involves clearing and letting go, which corresponds to process during stage five. Similar to the Waxing Moon, the Waning Moon’s energy is about reflection and adjustment, but the intention is different. Here the focus is continually releasing limiting beliefs that hold you back, and clearing away obstacles and residual stickiness. Finally, stage seven is about acheiving rebalance and establishing a new equilibrium. At this point, the subject can look forward and even set out on something additional and new.
See my blog post “Moon Energy | The Meaning of Moon Phases” for detailed information on the additional moon cycle phases and healing attributes of each phase of the moon.
Healing and Coaching Practices For the Lunar Cycle
The intent and benefits of these different healing and coaching practices correspond well with the nature of the specific energy of a particular lunar phase. And, aligning practices with lunar energy can galvanize the coaching process to fulfill coachee’s desired outcomes.
Referring to my coaching and healing toolkit for illustration purpose, I can note some practices that are applicable at anytime or during any lunar phase. These include, but aren’t limited to, the use of powerful questions and conversation, energy clearing, energy healing in general, chakra balancing, metaphor work, and internal sensing for the felt sense of a situation or potential action.
Blending Natural Forces With Pragmatic Needs
Of course you benefit from doing the work when need to do it. Each coaching and healing session should reflect your needs and intentions at the time. Frankly, you can’t practically pause your process to wait until the appropriate moon phase arises. However, when possible you can prioritize your work to avail yourself to the power of natural lunar forces.
It’s important to recognize that each person and situation has their own characteristics and dynamics that determine the best choices for action and care. The speed of the healing and coaching process can vary considerably across coachees and from one coaching topic to another.
Still, when aligning with the moon, it helps to be cognizant of your specific intentions and the aim of a specific healing or coaching session because energy will follow intention.
Finally, working with lunar energy is more of an art than a rigid exercise. People are dynamic making it impossible to predict what will come up at what time through the healing or coaching process. Furthermore, all issues have a mind, body, and spirit component even if not readily apparent. Thus, any number of different approaches or practices are suitable for a given session. The point is to avail yourself to lunar energy when it makes sense. If the process moves slower than one lunar phase, you can simply pick up on the energy once it cycles around again.
Working With the Energy of Liminal Waxing and Waning Phases
These intermediate or liminal stages of the Waxing and Waning Moon are ideal for most coaching practices which tend to utilize reflection, introspection, and study or assessment. Some common practices are journaling, identifying lessons learned and how to narrow the focus, oracle cards and other types of readings, inner work, dream analysis, and different means of weighing priorities. Both mediation and all kinds and perspective opening exercises are appropriate at this point as well. What is different between the two lunar stages is the intentions or underlying questions raised.
Waxing Moon energy is about declarations and affirmations, reflecting on your accomplishments, coaching skills assessment tools, taking or breaking down steps, and moving forward. It’s also an appropriate time for vision work, Shamanic Journeying, and dreaming and scheming in general.
Waning moon energy is associated with taking responsibility, and identifying and removing of obstacles. Shamanic extraction, Integrated Energy Healing (IET), checking for lessons learned, opening your focus to alternative means and opportunities, IET Soul Star Clearing, energy clearing (smudging), energy healing in general, and ThetaHealing are all practices that work well with waning moon energy of release and removing obstacles and limitations.
Working With the Energy of New Moon and Full Moon Phases
Both the New Moon and Full Moon energies are about action. Action during these phases are stronger and definitive. Therefore, take decisions during these phases. Declare commitments, initiate a change, or acquire something new during the New Moon. Clear, release, or end something on a Full Moon.
Technology and Moving Away From Basic Human Nature
Nowadays technology takes the place of nearly everything. When it comes to healing and coaching that can mean emoji communication, apt-driven therapy and fitness guidance, digital life planners, online self-paced education, and curated news and information.
Reminding my clients of their strengths, capacities, and innate human nature is paramount given the extent to which the modern world embraces technology and mass consumption. Unbelievably, looking inward toward the self isn’t an automatic or natural inclination anymore.
The Rise of Technophilia
Technophilia is simply the over-enthusiasm for or love of technology
Modern societies put a great deal of stock in changing the environment and developing technology for convenience, ease, and enrichment. No doubt new technologies are alluring, but technophilia promotes and captivates people with some new devices that seem to offer little in the way of convenience, ease, or enrichment. In fact, they can sometimes can create frustration, risk, and alienation.
Technology Substitutes For Human Capacities, Strengths, and Relationships
This is troubling because these new devices often sidestep or override natural processes. After all, they’re invented to replace something a person would otherwise do for themselves. For example, ride a bike instead of walk, or tap a button on a remote rather than get up and change the channel. The extent of technophilia is particularly troublesome for acquisitive consumers fascinated by new gadgets and technologies. The strength of advertisement and social media is a significant factor.
Unfortunately, technophilia can and does distort our natural relationship with nature and ourselves. It causes us to overlook our natural human tendencies and capacities and the benefits we could derive from aligning more with whole selves, our natural surroundings, and natural relationships.
This isn’t a technophobe’s tirade. It’s simply an acknowledgement of tradeoffs and potential abuses that can have unhealthy and undesirable outcomes. The rapid evolution of technology and transformation of life as we know it may seem like a fait accompli and out of your control, but it isn’t.
Empowered With Moon Energy
Now that you know how the lunar cycle supports the process of change, will you consider taking advantage of it and the influence of its different energies? Will you adopt or set assistance using the healing practices mentioned here, or elsewhere, and pair them with specific lunar stages?
And, will you from time to time reflect on your whole human nature and how you can bring more of yourself and your powers into your life and align more with nature and its powers to show up how you truly are and be empowered in making your important choices.
For More Information on Lunar Energy and Change, See:
- How to tell if the Moon Is Waxing or Waning.
- Coaching and energy healing taking a whole-person approach.
- Mind-Body-Spirit Blog and search for moon, lunar, and/or change.
