Minerva

Minerva is a champion of community life.  She shows extraordinary caring, concern, and practicality, yet can be warlike when defending her home.

As a Minerva, you are a community nurturer and nature lover who handles the challenges of society with expertise and finesse.  You are responsible, intelligent, and capable in all that you do.  You are a born teacher and a “Supermom.”  Your civic-mindedness helps others succeed, and you like to receive recognition for your creative abilities to support community life.  You love arts and crafts and always find creative ways to express your love for others – on the job and in the home.

Weaknesses

• Inclined to get too involved in others’ affairs
• Repressed frustration with self and others
• Prone to feelings of guilt and resentment
• Need to rationalize overindulgence
• Tendency to feel overburdened
• Overly critical of others

You probably received little appreciation or praise as a child, and this early conditioning causes you to feel dissatisfied with yourself and your performance.  You tend to judge yourself too harshly, and may be too critical of others as well.  As an adult, you may also have a large family with lots of pets in order to feel your loved returned.

Your basic need to be justly rewarded creates an unconscious desire to gratify yourself, particularly when you are frustrated.  As a result, you often overindulge – perhaps by eating too much (to feel loved).  Instead of recognizing your need for self-caring, especially for self-love, you probably rationalize a poor self-image by saying something like, “Fat is beautiful”. You formed these poor health habits at an early age, and, if left unchanged, they can lead to a number of blood sugar problems, including low energy and poor circulation.

Because you fail to realize your virtues, you sometimes feel unloved and unappreciated for your contributions to family and/or community.  Since you often see yourself as duty-bound and responsible for everyone, you can easily be overly put-upon and used by others, and then feel resentful or guilty about your feelings.  Instead of verbalizing your pain, however, you tend to internalize your emotions, making yourself physically or emotionally ill.

Meeting Your Creative Wellness Challenge

Because you tend to make excuses for your low self-esteem, you need to identify your problems and alter your detrimental habits to restore your health.  By improving yourself, and drawing on your natural ability to rejuvenate yourself, you will find the energy you need to be the nurturer that you are.  To make the most of your Minerva personality, you can

• set goals for yourself
• join a dance or exercise class
• go on a diet with a support group
• set time aside in your busy schedule for daily meditation
• take classes in a favorite subject and share your knowledge with others
• participate in community activities, like picnics, craft shows, and festivals to feel emotionally secure and creatively challenged.

You’ll discover that others will recognize the changes that you are making in yourself and will compliment you for your efforts.  What a nice reward to be recognized as the “community mom” – a real role model to all