Difficulty at the beginning of things is something we are not always encouraged to embrace.
The Sun just entered Taurus and Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the beginning from the I Ching is our hexagram host for this next week.
That is appropriate, as Taurus, a feminine, fixed, Venusian earth sign can have a tough time getting started with things, unlike Aries.
To push past difficulty at the beginning I suppose I could talk about things like the “five-minute rule,” mentioned in the book Feel Good Productivity. It recommends selecting a task you have been postponing and give it your full attention for just five minutes. Then stop and decide if you need a break or are now in the flow enough to continue.
Or if five minutes is too long, we could talk about Mel Robbins’ Five Second Rule. Not surprisingly, her Moon sign is Aries: “From the moment that you have the idea, you’ve only got five seconds to take action, otherwise it’s gone. Write it down, schedule it, send an email to yourself or make the request.”
Or I could recommend Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art and all the antidotes he provides in it for dealing with Resistance.
Mercury and Venus are still in Aries, so you may find greater ease in overcoming difficulty at the beginning of things, even as we begin Taurus season.
But I would rather talk about my favorite children’s book, Ferdinand the Bull. Here is a Reel I made about the book three years ago. The bull is the symbol for Taurus and this book captures the essence of Taurus well.
Taurus season is a time for us to seek our safe space, just like Ferdinand does:
In bullfighting the safe place is called the querencia. For humans the querencia is a place in our inner world. Often it is a familiar place that has not been noticed until a time of crisis. Sometimes it is a viewpoint, a position from which to conduct a life, different for each person. Often it is simply a place of deep inner silence.
Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
It is from this center that growth begins. As the I Ching says, “Times of growth are beset with difficulties. They resemble a first birth. But these difficulties arise from the very profusion of all that is struggling to attain form. Everything is in motion: therefore if one perseveres there is a prospect of great success…”
