Venus and Saturn square off this morning, making everybody a bit emotionally fragile right now. Don’t be surprised if you’re moody for no apparent reason, or if the people in your life seem unusually sensitive to criticism. This isn’t the time for inflexibility or tough love — everyone, including you, could use some compassion. Don’t be too stubborn to give it.

When you’re going through a hard time, your immediate response might be to get angry, or turn it all into a joke, or to pretend that nothing’s wrong. But today, all your usual coping mechanisms might not pack their usual punch. Instead of trying to keep up appearances and convince everyone around you that you’re fine, it might be better now to ask for — and accept — your friends to be gentle with you today. Nobody’s too tough to need kindness, not even you.

There’s a part of you that worries you’ve wasted your life. You’re afraid that all the opportunities are behind you, and that if you haven’t reached your goals by now, you never will. Today, it’s easy to convince yourself that all the best moments of your life are in the past — but it isn’t true. There are amazing moments still ahead of you, and it’s your job to notice them when they arrive.

Some people always seem to treat you like your ideas, your preferences, and your time don’t matter. It’s maddening to be around them, but there’s also a part of you that sees it as a challenge. You imagine that if you could only show them that you’re a good person, that you’re worth their time, things would change. Maybe it really is possible to change their mind, maybe not — either way, today, stop giving these people your energy. Direct it toward the people who don’t need you to prove that you’re special.

Others don’t always give you credit for it, but you’re incredibly good at making things happen. You might go about it in a roundabout way, but you’re far from a passive observer. Today, however, it might be tough to get the ball rolling. Maybe your motivation is low, or maybe external factors are standing in your way. Whatever the issue, trying to force your plans through is likely to end in frustration or worse; sometimes, all you can do is wait.

Today you might feel torn: Half of you wants the people in your life to show they care about you, while the other half wants to be left alone. When your friends pay attention to you, you get irritated, and when they don’t, you feel neglected. Nothing anyone does feels good enough, feels right. The answer might be to stop thinking about yourself so much, at least for now. Find something to keep you busy, and by the end of the day, you might find that the mood has passed.

No matter how tirelessly you work toward your goals, or how much effort you put into your relationships, or how carefully you work to keep your mind busy, sometimes loneliness catches up to you anyway. You might remind yourself that you’re loved, that there are people you care about deeply, and that your life is filled with meaning, but even that might not be enough to cheer you up. So, for now, the answer might be to lean into the feeling and trust that it won’t last forever.

It could be easy for you to come across as unnecessarily negative today, even when you’re being entirely measured and reasonable. But no matter how gently you phrase your criticism, or how sincerely you want to help, others are likely to take it as an attack — and you’ll end up pushed into a position where you have to overexplain yourself or apologize for something benign. If you can, wait a day or two before broaching any sensitive topics.

You try to be patient when others are needy or insecure, but it can be hard. You’ve got better things to do than soothe other people’s egos, and there’s a part of you that just wants to tell everybody to get over themselves. Sometimes, this sort of tough talk might be exactly what people need, but not today. If you let your irritation get the better of you now, you could say something you end up regretting, so do your best to stay kind — or to walk away if it’s more than you can handle.

Most of the time, self-reflection is a good thing; the more you dig into your feelings, and the better you understand yourself, the more compassionate — and also more productive — you’re able to be. Today, though, useful introspection can quickly turn into unhelpful spiraling. So try getting out of your own head and focusing on other people instead. The more energy you put toward caring for your loved ones or community, the less of it you’ll have to nitpick your own life, and the happier you’ll be.

You’re probably the sort of person who can be trusted with a secret: If someone shares a sensitive piece of information with you, they can trust that you won’t spread it around. Because of this, people probably open up to you a lot — not just close friends, but acquaintances and even strangers. Sometimes, though, it gets to be too much; you don’t necessarily want to know so much. Be present for your friends today, but remember you’re allowed your boundaries, too.

 It might be harder than usual to feel connected with the people in your life today. While you understand each other on a surface level, you’re afraid that your perspectives or values are so different that you’ll never truly understand each other. This isn’t true, though — you might feel strange and isolated, but there are people in the world who get it, who feel just like you. Genuine connection is difficult even at the best of times, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, so don’t give up.

Most of the time, you trust your inner compass to guide you. While you might not care about climbing the professional ladder or following a conventional path, you have a strong sense of purpose all the same. Now, though, it’s easy to start doubting yourself. Does any of this really matter? Have you been wasting your time? But while it can be useful to ask questions, don’t take the answers that come up today too seriously — right now, things probably seem worse than they really are.

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