5 of Pentacles

A day when you feel left out on your own.

Everyone else seems to be doing fine while you alone feel left behind, or money or health problems make you shrink inward. On days like this, if you look around, someone ready to lend a hand is closer than you think.

Today, ask someone to help with one thing you've been struggling with alone.

Staring at screens that invite comparison only deepens the feeling of being left out. Keep a little distance from them today.

A day when a hard situation begins to loosen little by little.

Help you were waiting for arrives, or a way through a baffling problem appears. It can be a day when you feel warmth among people for the first time in a while and realize you're not alone.

If you received help, say thank you, however briefly. It becomes the door to the next help.

Don't cut off help in a hurry just because things are a little better. Recovery takes time.

A time when you feel unloved, or hardship makes your love life shrink.

You feel lonely even with your partner beside you, or financial strain makes romance feel like a luxury. If you're single, the thought that you're the only one without someone makes you withdraw.

Tell your partner or a close friend honestly that you're feeling lonely.

If you conclude that you don't deserve love, you'll push away even the people who come toward you.

A romance in which, after a lonely stretch, your heart grows warm again.

Learning about each other's struggles actually brings you closer, or a heart that had long been closed opens to a new connection. Having endured a hard time together makes the relationship stronger.

Tell the person who stood by you during the hard times how grateful you are.

Don't hold on to someone who isn't right for you just to end the loneliness quickly.

A time when you feel apart from the group.

You feel left out of gatherings, or feel there's no one to call when you need help. Pride may be keeping you from reaching out first, widening the distance even further.

Reach out first to check in on one person you've lost touch with.

Voicing your sense of exclusion as resentment drives away even those who were about to approach you.

A time of stepping out of isolation and back into relationships.

You're welcomed into a new group or community, or reconnect with someone you'd lost touch with. Relationships recover as help is given and received.

Pass on the help you received to someone else, even in a small way. Your relationships will grow stronger.

Now that you've been welcomed back, don't bring up all your old hurt feelings at once.

A time when a couple goes through hardship together.

Financial burdens grow, such as reduced income, job loss, or medical bills, or you feel left out within the family. If a wedding is ahead, the cost of preparations may weigh on your mind.

Don't hide the current difficulties; lay them out in numbers together and make a plan.

Don't stubbornly refuse your family's help out of pride. Accepting help when it's time to is also wisdom.

A time when a couple gets past a hard stretch and recovers.

Help arrives or new income eases the strain, and the time you endured together becomes trust in each other. If you're preparing for a wedding, a decision to scale things down actually brings peace of mind.

Promise to keep up one habit you learned during the hard times.

If you unleash all the spending you held back as soon as things improve, the same crisis will come again.

A time of financial hardship.

Income drops or unexpected expenses arise, and living becomes tight. Not asking for help out of embarrassment can make things worse, and there are more programs and support available than you might think.

Find one public assistance program or counseling service you may qualify for and make an inquiry.

However urgent it feels, don't touch high-interest loans or offers from unclear sources.

A time of slowly recovering from financial hardship.

You receive support or find a new job and your situation improves, and a plan to pay off debt takes shape. There's still little to spare, but the bottom is behind you.

Set aside part of your recovered income as an emergency fund first.

Don't let the relief of things improving send you back to your old spending habits.

A stage of hardship and exclusion at work.

Sales drop, you get pushed off a project, or you feel unrecognized within the organization. The more you try to solve it alone, the deeper the isolation, so finding people and channels to ask for help comes first.

Confide your current situation to a senior colleague or coworker you trust and ask for advice.

If you hide the difficulties until they come out all at once, you miss the window when others could have helped.

A stage when work revives after a slump.

Support or collaboration gets you through the crisis, and a place and opportunities to work open up again. The patience and know-how built during the hard times speed up the recovery.

Share the results with the people and organizations that helped you, and thank them.

Expanding too aggressively early in the recovery will send you back to the same place.