Write the Movie You Want to be in (Full Moon in Aquarius)

This Full Moon in Aquarius, paired with Jupiter conjunct the Sun in Leo, is an invitation to think about your life as a movie you're both starring in and writing. We talk about the cast of characters in your story (and how each one reflects you back to yourself), why every script goes through edits, and how to move from autopilot living to deliberate, values-driven choices. Plus: a practice for nonprofit and mission-driven listeners on envisioning the best possible outcome — not the safe one — and believing in it as you make day-to-day decisions.

Key Takeaways

• You're the lead in your own story — and every supporting character is a mirror, not just a foil.
• Your reticular activating system finds proof for whatever you already believe. If you expect villains, you'll find them.
• The real question isn't "who's the villain in my story?" It's whether you want villains in your life at all — and who you become while fighting one.
• Scripts are edited, not filmed raw. You're allowed to revise as you go.
• For nonprofit and mission-driven work: envision the best possible outcome, not the realistic one, and let that version guide today's decisions — the grant, the hard conversation, the budget call.
• Dreaming only feels painful when you tie your worth to whether it's happened yet. It doesn't have to be tied to that.

Mentioned in This Episode

• A Happy Pocket Full of Money by David Cameron Gikandi

Reflection Questions for Listeners

1. Is your movie a tragedy, a comedy, or something else right now?
2. Who's in your cast, and what might they be reflecting back to you?
3. Do you want there to be villains in your life? Do you like who you are when you're fighting one?
4. What's the best possible outcome for your work this week — and what's one decision today that could move you toward it?

Have a question or want to share your experience?  Leave a comment on Apple Podcasts, or where ever you listen.

Ready to explore what working with a coach could make possible for you? Schedule a conversation at inspired@zadraroseibanez.com or find Zadra on Instagram and LinkedIn @ZadraRose.

Transcript

Are you writing a tragedy or comedy?

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Are you writing a tragedy or a comedy? A rom com, a Hallmark movie, an indie film? If you're the protagonist of your own life, what hurdles do you overcome and how does your movie turn out? Today we're talking about this full moon in Aquarius and what it has to do with the script you're writing for your life, including a few concrete steps if you work in the nonprofit world.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Welcome to Keep Going with Zedra, the podcast for honoring your truest self. I'm Zaydra Rosie Vanya, certified life coach and public speaker. And I'll be bringing you concepts to help life feel easier, gentler, and kindler, and also help you stand powerfully in your fullest self-expression so that you can have a deep impact for your constituents and your clients and tongue energy enjoying when you're bringing interviews with amazing individuals, guides, thought leaders, practitioners of magic and goodness, to more structured conversations with tools and technology for massive effectiveness. You'll gain new insights that'll help you love who you become along the way. Thank you for joining me. Shall we begin?

Aquarius Full Moon meets Jupiter/Sun in Leo

SPEAKER_01 1:16

This one's for Jason Martitas. The full moon in Aquarius brings the energy of vision, community, humanity, and future dreams. It asks us to zoom out past our individual story and think about what we want for the collective. At the same time, Jupiter is passing through the heart of the sun in Leo. Jupiter expands whatever it touches, and the sun in Leo is about identity, self-expression, and, fittingly, the main character energy of your own life. So looking at these symbols together gives a simple, powerful combination. Aquarius brings expansive dreaming paired with Jupiter bringing expansion, luck, and optimism, and the sun in Leo's invitation to see yourself as the lead role. So today's practice is about treating your life like a movie you're both starring in and writing.

You are the star of your own show

SPEAKER_01 2:10

You're the star of your own show. Are you writing a tragedy or a comedy? A rom-com, a hallmark movie, an indie film? If you're the protagonist, what hurdles do you overcome? How does your movie turn out? Do you get the romantic partner, the job, the fame, the success? Or is it different from what you'd hoped? Was it easy or did you need help? Who's your cast of side characters? Who's the quirky best friend? The bold, outspoken powerhouse, the brash, difficult customer? Who's the villain?

Every script gets edited (autopilot vs. deliberate)

SPEAKER_01 2:51

You likely know that film and television scripts go through several edits before they're ever filmed. Many are edited again during filming, and then even more edits happen after the filming is done, leaving scenes on the cutting room floor before the final polish. The music, the special effects, the foley, that all gets added after. So ask yourself: are you giving yourself time and focus to write your desired movie? Are you making space to edit? Or are you acting out the first draft, the unedited, primal brain-directed, habitual script, instead of the version you'd actually choose? What I mean by this is, is your story one that runs on autopilot? Is it old habits and fears and reactive patterns? Or are you creating the version you've written on purpose, the one where you've paused, reflected, and chosen in advance? Are you acting out the script that has you winning? Or the one that has you shrinking your greatness?

Your cast of supporting characters

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Going back to your cast of characters, if we consider everyone we meet in life to be a mirror for us somehow, or a lesson for us somehow, how do they reflect you back to yourself? And for anyone doing mission-driven or nonprofit work where the cast of characters can feel especially crowded, donors, board members, difficult colleagues, the person who never seems to help, think of it this way: if you think of someone, let's call her Aunt Harriet, as a mean, self-absorbed person, you're actually playing a role too. So either you're her victim, which means you feel powerless, or you're being that same mean, self-absorbed energy somewhere else in your own life, maybe as you relate to her, or maybe as you relate to someone who's not her. At that time, your reticular activating system, we've talked about that before, it's the part of your brain that filters your lived experience to find proof for whatever you already believe, will go to work. If you believe the world is full of villains, you'll find them. So the real question isn't who's the villain in my story? It's do I want there to be villains in my real life? Do I want to be someone who has villains? And do I like who I am when I'm fighting one? The next time you feel your energy shifting in response to a partner or a colleague, donor, or funder in a way that you don't love, remind yourself of your script. The good news, you're allowed to edit as you go, and you get to choose which version you commit to every single day. Now let's be clear, I'm not saying don't do anything until you've mapped it all out. And I'm not suggesting it'll turn out exactly as planned. The serendipitous, unplanned moments are where the magic lives, after all.

The option to be deliberate

SPEAKER_01 5:46

What I'm offering is you have the option to be deliberate, intentional, and values driven. You get to decide in advance whether you'll treat challenges as blocks and proof that you can't have the life you want, or as tools that shape you into the version of yourself you most admire.

My Dreams, as an example

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Using my dreams as an example, when I visualize my future, I envision a coaching practice helping people unlock their most powerful, joyful selves. I help people create, innovate, accomplish, connect, and feel more fulfilled by being fully themselves. And I do that by being fully myself too. I don't always get it right. Sometimes I come across judgy or snarky, disconnected or aloof. Sometimes, in trying to be relatable, I create distance or confusion instead. And when that happens, I have the opportunity to decide whether to clean it up or allow the other person to manage their own emotions. And that's part of the edit too. When writing our script from this place, everything is possible. My vision is a spiritual practice that includes connecting with nature, magic, and mysticism daily, relationships that are healthy and fulfilling, a strong and healthy body and mind, a warm, cozy, inviting home in North County, San Diego, thriving plants and animals, three and a half million dollar business that serves thousands of people every year, international travel, fun, play, curiosity, adventure. Achieving these desires isn't the point. The reason for having this vision is to stretch and grow myself into the person who has created and holds these experiences. Now, I'm not sharing my vision so that you'll care about my dream. You have no reason to care about my dream, but what I'm sharing it for is to get your wills turning about what you want for your dream, for your vision, to let you know you can dream really big. And you might have thought what I said was actually tiny, because you might have much bigger dreams. And that's fine too. Tying it back to today's astrology, Aquarius asks you to envision the collective future. Jupiter conjunct to the sun in Leo asks you to believe in yourself as the lead of that story. I share the zodiac with you because it's fun and it gives you new ways to think about something. Yet you may choose to refer to your Bible, your daily stroll through the trees, your journal, or even silence to freely write your script.

The Best Possible Outcome

SPEAKER_01 8:28

My invitation for you is to practice for your organization or your work this week, envisioning the best possible outcome. Not the realistic one, not the safe one, not the one where you get what you desire because you sacrificed something and had to compromise. No, the one where you get what you desire and you celebrate. And practice believing in that version as you make your day-to-day decisions, not someday. Today, as you write the grant, as you have the hard conversation, you make the budget call. I want our dreams for a healthy, thriving planet to be visible now. And there's a way of thinking about this, some of it from quantum physics. Example is David Cameron Jacandi lays out in a happy pocket full of money that every possibility already exists in this moment. I can see the lush, green, healthy version of the planet right now. I see places where that exists. I can also see the depleted, decimated, and desiccated one. I can't force a barren place to be not barren, but I can create a field of green where there wasn't one before. Focus, create, allow yourself to imagine it as you would like it to be, rather than as you don't want it to be.

Is Dreaming too painful?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

And some of you will say that dreaming is too painful. It's painful if you don't believe you can have the dream. Or if you believe the dream not yet achieved says something about your worth. It doesn't. The manifestation of a dream is a symbol of who you've been, who you're becoming, who you are right now. And that can shift moment to moment. The point wasn't the dream itself. The point is your relationship to yourself that that dream makes possible and how you relate to what's around you. The point is to be the lead character of your own movie. So in the future we'll talk about the next steps, how to actually bring a vision into reality and what to do when we reach obstacles, how to start being your favorite self now. But for today, I just want to invite you to give yourself the time and space to dream. And when you're writing the script, make it a movie you'd actually want to watch.