Early this morning, Mercury entered assertive Aries and the moon moved into determined Taurus, making this a great day for being direct and standing your ground. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re bound to run into conflict — the objective today is simply to prioritize your needs and wants, rather than those of the people around you.

You might have some extra energy today; you’re ready to show the people around you what you’re made of. Your challenge is to make the most of your high spirits without overdoing it and burning out. It could help to be intentional about scheduling breaks, or to think hard before taking on additional commitments. You don’t need to hold yourself back — the best thing to do with inspiration is use it — just keep in mind that the more you do now, the more rest you’ll need later.

What you probably want most today is just to relax. You’ve been working hard lately, and while sometimes it’s enjoyable to push yourself, eventually you’ll need a break. The problem is that others keep asking for more. Maybe your boss wants you to take on new responsibilities, maybe your friends simply need your emotional support, but whatever the case, they’re demanding more than you have to give. Don’t be afraid to say no; in order to reset, you have to defend your boundaries.

Sometimes it feels like you’re always adding new elements to your life: new friends, new activities, new goals. Mostly, you appreciate that aspect of yourself — the world is vast and exciting, and you want to experience as much of it as you can. But it’s impossible to continuously load up your life with more of everything without eventually getting tired. Today, it might feel good to do less, turning down invitations and quitting the projects you don’t really care about. Opening up a bit more space in your life will remove some stress and make it easier to enjoy yourself again.

You try to approach new people with an open mind, but even so, you’re sometimes quick to judge. As much as you’d prefer to evaluate people based on their behavior — as opposed to their general vibe — you can’t always help it. Today, though, trust your intuition. You’re perceptive, and your first impressions tend to be reliable. There’s always the possibility that you’ll have your mind changed later on, so stay open to it — but for now, let your instincts guide you.

You enjoy it when others praise you for your creativity, sense of humor, or style — but sometimes, you start to worry that these are the only qualities anyone else values in you. You fear that if you aren’t inventive and glamorous enough, or if you’re simply having an off day, your friends will lose interest. Today, take a break from worrying about all that — you don’t owe anyone a spectacle. The goal right now is to be you, whether you’re feeling lively and fun or quiet and thoughtful.

In your more pessimistic moods, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’re on a downward trajectory: You imagine that nothing you do has any impact, and you can’t see that changing anytime soon. Today, though, let some wild hope break through the gloom. Maybe a few small things will go your way; maybe you’ll get some much-needed help. Even if things haven’t gone the way you wanted, you haven’t been defeated yet. You’re still here and still fighting; the bleak future you’ve envisioned for yourself isn’t set in stone.

You’re not someone to make decisions lightly; instead of mindlessly heeding to your impulses, you try to weigh your options and gather all the information you can. In a perfect world, you’d keep pondering the issue until you landed on the ideal path forward. The trouble is that in real life, there’s rarely a single, objectively correct course, but multiple possibilities with their own pros and cons. Today, stop stressing yourself out: Just make the best judgment call you can, and start moving forward.

Lately, it’s been hard to believe that your actions can make a difference. As much as you want to help your friends or improve your community or change the course of your own life, you worry that you just aren’t up to the task. But today, if you’re feeling discouraged, it’s probably because you’re thinking on too grand a scale. Focus instead on what you can actually control, no matter how insignificant it seems, and you’ll find that all the small steps add up.

Most of the time, you’re good at keeping your ego in check, but occasionally, you take it too far. It goes beyond simply remembering that you aren’t better or more important than anyone else — you start believing that you’re somehow less worthy than others. Today, fight that creeping insecurity by remembering all the things you’re good at, or by accepting other people’s compliments without deflection or self-deprecation. You’re every bit as deserving of happiness and success as anybody else.

While you’re happy to listen to your friends talk about their feelings, you might be hesitant to open up about your own. Ideally, you’d probably prefer to pretend you don’t have emotions at all — at least, not complicated or inconvenient ones. It seems unbearably embarrassing to admit to anyone else that you experience insecurity or confusion, so you try to keep it to yourself when you do. Today, though, it might be hard to hold back. Instead of exhausting yourself by trying not to reveal your true feelings, it’ll be a huge relief to tell your friends what’s going on.

You’re not afraid to be a little eccentric, but that doesn’t mean you’re chaotic. You might be happy to disregard other people’s rules, but you operate according to your own inner logic, a deeply embedded code that you’re reluctant to break. Today, though, remember that consistency doesn’t mean never changing. If the rules you’ve created for yourself no longer make sense, adjust them. If you’re in need of a surprise, or simply a change of pace, then make it happen: You’re in charge.

It’s easy to get stuck in routines that don’t actually make any sense for you, or to adhere to trends that you don’t even like. Over time — so gradually that you don’t even notice it happening — you become so accustomed to the way things are that you forget that there are other options. Today, remember that if something doesn’t feel right, you don’t have to do it. If a person makes you feel bad about yourself, you don’t have to give them your time. You get to decide how to live your own life.

Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.