The Libra New Moon Is Asking: What Does Balance Actually Mean to You? October 21, 2025

On October 21, 2025, we arrive at the Libra New Moon—a cosmic reset button that asks us perhaps the most difficult question for highly sensitive, people-pleasing souls:

What if balance doesn't mean making everyone else comfortable? What if it means honoring your own needs as much as you honor theirs?

After the fiery intensity of the Aries Full Moon earlier this month, this Libra New Moon arrives like a deep exhale. But don't mistake gentleness for passivity. This New Moon is inviting you to realign your life with justice, balance, and beauty—especially if you've been over-giving, people-pleasing, or swinging between extremes.

As a Creative Arts Therapist working with highly sensitive people in Brooklyn and throughout New York State, I see this pattern constantly: creative, empathic souls who've lost themselves in the endless work of keeping the peace, maintaining harmony, being "nice." This New Moon says: it's time to come home to yourself.

Understanding the Libra New Moon Energy

Libra is the sign of the scales, of partnership, of beauty and aesthetics. It's ruled by Venus, planet of love and values. But here's what most people miss about Libra: it's a cardinal sign, which means it's an initiator, an activator. Libra energy isn't passive—it's actively creating balance, justice, and right relationship.

This New Moon in Libra is particularly potent because it's asking you to plant seeds for a new way of being in relationship—with others, yes, but most importantly, with yourself.

What this means for your mental health:

The work of this moon isn't about "finding balance" as if it's something outside you that you need to discover. It's about creating balance from the inside out—which requires you to get brutally honest about where you've been abandoning yourself.

For highly sensitive people, this can be confronting work. We're so attuned to others' needs, so skilled at reading the room, so practiced at adjusting ourselves to maintain harmony, that we often don't even realize we've lost touch with what we actually want.

The Shadow of Libra: When "Nice" Becomes Self-Betrayal

Let's talk about the shadow side, because that's where the real healing happens.

Libra's shadow shows up as:

• People-pleasing: Saying yes when you mean no, agreeing when you actually disagree, smiling when you're screaming inside

• Codependency: Needing others' approval to feel okay about yourself, losing your sense of self in relationships

• Conflict avoidance: Keeping the peace at all costs, even when speaking up would serve everyone better

• Over-accommodation: Constantly adjusting yourself to fit what others need, want, or expect

• Indecision: Being so focused on what everyone else thinks that you can't figure out what you think

If you're reading this and feeling called out—good. That discomfort is information. It's showing you where this New Moon wants to work with you.

The Mental Health Cost of False Balance

Here's what I see in my practice: people come in burned out, anxious, depressed, creatively blocked. And when we dig deeper, we discover they're exhausted from maintaining a version of "harmony" that requires them to constantly betray themselves.

Real balance doesn't mean:

• Never having conflict

• Always being agreeable

• Making sure everyone is happy before you tend to your own needs

• Being "nice" at the expense of being honest

• Giving equally to everyone, even those who take more than they give

Real balance means:

• Honoring your needs as valid, even when others are disappointed

• Speaking your truth with kindness but without apology

• Recognizing that sometimes disharmony is necessary for authentic relating

• Understanding that you can't pour from an empty cup

• Creating relationships built on mutual respect, not one-sided accommodation

This New Moon is inviting you to recalibrate what balance actually looks like for you.

Art Therapy Ritual: Rebalancing Your Inner Scales

This practice is designed specifically for the Libra New Moon. We'll use art-making to explore where you're out of balance and create a visual intention for the kind of equilibrium you want to cultivate over the next lunar cycle.

You'll need:

• Paper (two sheets if possible)

• Drawing/painting materials in colors that feel harmonious to you

• Optional: images from magazines for collage, a scale or balancing object to meditate on

Part 1: Mapping Your Imbalances

Create a simple visual representation of scales or a balance beam. On one side, represent what you've been giving: your time, energy, emotional labor, creative work, attention, care.

On the other side, represent what you've been receiving: support, appreciation, reciprocity, rest, nourishment, joy.

Be honest. This isn't about judging yourself—it's about seeing clearly.

As you create, notice:

• What emotions arise?

• Where do you feel sensation in your body?

• What stories come up about why the imbalance exists?

Common stories I hear:

• "If I don't give this much, I won't be loved"

• "Other people's needs are more important than mine"

• "I'm selfish if I prioritize myself"

• "Conflict means I'm a bad person"

Write down whatever stories emerge. These are the beliefs that have been keeping you stuck in false balance.

Part 2: The Cost of Imbalance

On the same page or a new one, create an image that represents what this imbalance has cost you.

Maybe it's:

• Your creative energy, drained

• Your body, exhausted and tense

• Your authentic self, hidden or suppressed

• Your joy, sacrificed to keep others comfortable

• Your voice, silenced to maintain peace

This part might be painful. That's okay. Let yourself feel it. Your pain is information—it's showing you that something needs to change.

Part 3: Envisioning True Balance

Now, on a fresh sheet of paper, create a new image of balance—not the forced, exhausting kind you've been maintaining, but the authentic, sustainable kind you're ready to create.

What does balance look like when:

• Your needs matter as much as others'?

• You speak your truth with compassion but without apology?

• You give from overflow, not depletion?

• You receive as generously as you give?

• Your relationships are built on mutual respect and reciprocity?

Use colors, shapes, symbols, words—whatever wants to emerge. This is your vision, your intention, your commitment to yourself.

Part 4: New Moon Intentions

Look at your image of true balance. From this place, write down 3 specific intentions for this lunar cycle:

Example intentions:

• "I will say no to one commitment that drains me"

• "I will ask for help instead of assuming I have to do everything alone"

• "I will speak up about my needs in my relationship with [person]"

• "I will schedule one hour each week that's just for me, non-negotiable"

• "I will notice when I'm people-pleasing and pause before automatically saying yes"

Make them specific, achievable, and true to your definition of balance—not what you think balance should look like.

Part 5: Integration

Place your hand on your heart. Feel it beating. You are here, in this moment, choosing differently. Say out loud or silently:

"I honor my needs as sacred. I choose balance that nourishes rather than depletes me. I commit to relationships built on truth, not performance. I am worthy of the same care I give to others."

Keep your "true balance" image somewhere you'll see it daily as a reminder of your commitment.

Libra New Moon and Relationship Patterns

This New Moon falls in the sign of partnership, which means it's an especially potent time to look at your relationship patterns—romantic, platonic, familial, professional.

Questions to explore (in therapy, journaling, or simply in quiet reflection):

• Where do I lose myself in relationships?

• What do I believe I need to be/do/provide to be loved?

• How do I feel about conflict, and where did I learn to feel that way?

• When was the last time I spoke up about a need, and what happened?

• Which relationships feel reciprocal, and which feel draining?

• What would it look like to stay myself while being in relationship?

If these questions bring up difficult emotions or realizations, that's valuable therapeutic material. This is exactly what therapy is for—having a safe space to explore these patterns with someone who can help you understand where they came from and how to shift them.

Therapy Modalities That Support This New Moon Work

If you're feeling called to deeper work around balance, boundaries, and authentic relating, here are the modalities I use that can help:

Gestalt Therapy
Works with the polarities within you—the part that wants to please and the part that wants to assert, the part that fears conflict and the part that needs to speak truth. Gestalt helps these parts dialogue and integrate.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) / Somatic Parts Work
Helps you meet the parts of you that learned people-pleasing was necessary for safety. We can work with your "People-Pleaser" part, your "Peacekeeper" part, and help them relax their extreme roles so your authentic Self can emerge.

Art Therapy
Gives you a way to explore and express what's hard to put into words. Creating visual representations of balance, imbalance, and your authentic needs can be more powerful than talking alone.

Narrative Therapy
Helps you examine the stories you've internalized about what it means to be good, nice, worthy of love. We can co-create new narratives that serve you better.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Supports you in clarifying your values (not what you think they should be, but what they actually are) and taking committed action aligned with those values, even when it's uncomfortable.

For Highly Sensitive People: Honoring Your Need for Harmony While Setting Boundaries

As an HSP, you might be thinking: "But I genuinely need harmony. Conflict feels terrible in my body. How can I set boundaries without creating the discord that overwhelms my nervous system?"

This is such an important question. Here's what I've learned:

True harmony isn't the absence of conflict—it's the presence of authentic relating.

When you suppress your needs to avoid conflict, you create a false peace. And your sensitive nervous system knows the difference. That's why you might feel anxious even in seemingly "harmonious" situations—because underneath, there's tension, inauthenticity, or imbalance.

Real nervous system regulation comes from:

• Being able to be yourself without performance

• Relationships where you can speak truth and still be loved

• Boundaries that protect your energy rather than drain it

• Conflict that's followed by repair and deeper understanding

• Balance that's sustainable rather than exhausting

Yes, setting boundaries might create temporary discomfort. But the long-term cost of not setting them—the chronic anxiety, the resentment, the depletion—is so much greater.

This New Moon is supporting you in learning that you can honor your sensitivity and honor your needs. These aren't in opposition.

The Creative Block Connection

Many of my creative clients discover that their creative blocks are directly connected to people-pleasing and false balance.

When you're constantly worried about what others will think, whether your work will be accepted, if you're being "too much" or "not enough"—you can't access your authentic creative flow.

This New Moon asks:

• What would you create if you weren't afraid of disappointing anyone?

• How would your art change if you stopped performing and started expressing?

• What's trying to emerge that you've been suppressing to keep the peace?

Creating art that's actually true to you (not the version of you that you think others want) requires the same muscle as setting boundaries and choosing authentic balance: the willingness to risk disapproval in service of truth.

Warning Signs You Need This New Moon's Medicine

You might especially benefit from this Libra New Moon work if you:

• Feel exhausted from maintaining relationships

• Struggle to know what you actually want because you're so focused on others

• Have difficulty making decisions without checking with everyone else first

• Feel resentful but "shouldn't" because you "chose" to give so much

• Experience anxiety in relationships, always monitoring and adjusting

• Notice your creative work feels inauthentic or blocked

• Feel like you're performing a version of yourself rather than being yourself

• Experience depression that might be connected to self-abandonment

The Next Two Weeks: Planting Seeds of Authentic Balance

New Moons are for beginnings, for planting seeds, for setting intentions. The cosmos wants you to come home to equilibrium—not the forced kind, but the kind that actually nourishes you.

Over the next two weeks (until the next Full Moon), take small, concrete actions toward the balance you envisioned:

• Practice saying no to one thing that drains you

• Speak up about one need you've been suppressing

• Notice when you're people-pleasing and pause before automatically accommodating

• Ask for support instead of martyring yourself

• Schedule time for yourself and treat it as non-negotiable

• Create art that's true to you, regardless of whether others will "like" it

These don't have to be dramatic. Small, consistent choices add up to big shifts.

Support for Your Journey Toward Authentic Balance

If you're realizing that your mental health struggles—anxiety, depression, creative blocks, relationship exhaustion—are connected to patterns of people-pleasing and self-abandonment, you're not alone. And you don't have to figure it out by yourself.

I work with highly sensitive, creative people in Brooklyn and throughout New York State (virtual) who are ready to explore these patterns with compassion and create new ways of being in relationship—with others and with themselves.

Through art therapy, somatic work, parts work, and depth-oriented talk therapy, we can help you:

• Understand where your people-pleasing patterns came from

• Heal the wounds that taught you self-abandonment was necessary

• Develop boundaries that protect rather than deplete

• Speak your truth with compassion but without apology

• Create relationships built on authenticity rather than performance

• Find balance that actually works for your sensitive nervous system

Ready to explore what authentic balance looks like for you? Schedule your free consultation to begin the work of coming home to yourself in Brooklyn or anywhere in New York State.

The Libra New Moon occurs on October 21, 2025 at 12:26 PM GMT. Its energy is strongest for 3 days before and after, making this entire week optimal for setting intentions around balance, relationships, and authentic self-expression.

Irene Maropakis, LCAT, specializes in working with highly sensitive, creative people who struggle with anxiety, people-pleasing, and relationship patterns that no longer serve them. She practices holistic, trauma-informed therapy that honors the intersection of mental health, creativity, and spiritual awareness in Brooklyn, NY and virtually throughout New York State.