Admire Good Qualities Within

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

Last week I was emailing myself documents from my laptop to my desktop.  When I went to open them on my desktop, each time a note would pop-up and say, "Are you sure you want to open this?  Only open items that are from a trusted source."  And I'd say, "Heck, yes, I am the trusted source."

Then I realised:  I AM the Trusted Source.

As that was sinking in I looked up at the calendar on the wall over my hard drive.  It's a freebie from the local Pharmacy.  This month's illustration is a pseudo-Norman Rockwell picture of a young girl looking at herself with a hand mirror.  The title says, "Admire Good Qualities Within."

I AM the Trusted Source.  Admire Good Qualities Within.  And as I was typing this, I typo'd the last sentence to say, "Admire God Qualities Within."

This is surfacing at this time for a couple of reasons (probably many, but I'm aware of a couple right now).  I've been blogging on my Mystic Musings blog about raising my rates and the value of my services.  As I value myself, I can raise my rates (something I've been wanting to do for at least a year).  I deserve to be earning the going rate for my quality of work.

And the second part is where is the Source?  My original focus was that God was something outside, and even as I gradually accepted the connection within, I still have been meditating on receiving energy (Christforce, Cosmic Consciousness, Source Energy, whatever) as flowing in from an external power.

As I've shifted my awareness, there isn't a geographical location out there where it comes from.  It's not plugging into an obvious conduit.  It's from outside (?) time and space.  If there's any location, it's inside.  I AM the Trusted Source. 

This has shifted my interpretation and experience of chakras.  Chakras are energy centers that each contain valuable information for having a body and operating within this reality with one.  My original training had me flowing Earth and Cosmic energies through them for cleansing.  And Christforce energy for super-charging.  But suddenly I'm realizing that they can be energy generators on their own volition.

Many years ago when I was dealing with a very challenging living situation, I realized that I had a womb and I could generate life (and had generated it in the form of two sons).  Sitting in the knowledge that my body could make a body took me out of the life-and-death fear that I'd been experiencing at the time.

So my body is an energy-generating machine.  I can generate Love.  I can generate Power.  I can generate Surviving.  I can generate Source. 

All of us are reflections, everyone who's in your consciousness is another Aspect of Yourself.  Information comes across your awareness as a message to yourself.  Just as my Admire Good Qualities Within and I AM the Trusted Source were messages to me, if you're reading this now, it's a message to You!

So for the next week I invite you to do one of two things, or both if you feel so motivated.  One is to Admire your Good Qualities Within.  It may feel goofy at first, so you certainly don't have to do it out loud in the rest room at work!  But say it to yourself as you're driving in your car.  Tell yourself what your good qualities are.  Appreciate your talents and abilities.  The more you do this, the easier it gets.

Try this for the next week and see what happens!

And the next part, if you're up to it, is to sit quietly (feet flat on the floor, feel connected to the planet) and tune into the various energy areas of your body.  Your heart, and generate Love.  Your solar plexus, and generate Power.  Your lower abdomen, and generate Creator energy.  Your throat and generate Communication.  Your inner forehead and generate TruthSeeing.  Your Crown/top of your head and generate Knowingness.  You can play with this any way you want.  You may want to only pick one center (at a time or for the week), or you may want to run through all. 

Try this for a week and notice what changes in your life!!

And email me what happens!  Joan@joannewcomb.com  

Anger - a good thing

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

Lately, I've been feeling grouchy at times. It's surprising to me since I'm usually in a good mood. It's happening frequently enough that I've come to realize that it's part of my growth space, something I'll talk about later in this article.

When I do psychic readings, I sometimes notice varying shades of red in a client's aura. Red is life force energy. Sometimes it's dark red, which is frustration or blocked energy. Sometimes it's volcanic. Sometimes it's just a pure flow.

How comfortable we are with that vibration depends on our background and our natural tendencies. People who are Italian, or lawyers, or sales people, run this vibration with ease. Upper middle class WASPs and people who had an out of control parent tend to not feel safe with this energy, even if it's their own.

At it's essence it's an invigorating life force energy. It helps 'cut the crap', remove blocks and gives you the energy to go where you need to go or do what you need to do. In a dysfunctional state it's invasive and abusive.

Coming out of a dysfuctional childhood or marriage, we may have learned to repress our anger in order not to enrage the abuser. We may have learned to be invisible, or manically cheerful. We're so used to having our boundaries crossed by someone else's anger, we don't feel entitled to respond (abusers usually make you feel you deserved the abuse, and make themselves the victim if you do stand up for yourself).

As you recover from your childhood or marriage, it's a sign of growth when someone behaves badly towards you and you feel angry! Anger is a signal that your boundaries have been crossed. Anger is the inner you standing up for yourself.

Anger can also come up as part of your natural growth if you've been putting up with an intolerable situation for too long. It helps dissolve the blocks keeping you from moving forward.


I've been experiencing levels of frustration for the last couple of months. Energetically I can see the chunks of concrete floating in my aura! The image I get is of a star ship navigating it's way through space debris. Some of it is my own personal history and some of it is societal patterns. I know it's about dropping behaviors where I devalue myself and situations that undervalue me. (In Robert Scheinfeld's Phase 2 perspective, it's all me, inner and outer).


I've been reading a lot of people going through career transitions and the trend I see is towards right livelihood, doing work that is in integrity with their Essential Selves. If they're in a career or job that isn't right for them, they're feeling discontent. If their Essential Self created being laid off, they're having trouble finding work in their old field, because their Essential Self is wanting to steer them in the direction of what makes their heart sing!


A lot of people feel hesitant about taking the risk towards Right Livelihood because they think they can't make a living that way. In reality, their lives will be more abundant when they do. Prosperity always flows when you're in alignment with your Essential Self.


As you start to steer towards your Right Livelihood, where your Essential Self is calling you, you may feel some anger as you begin to pull out of old patterns. It's okay. You don't have to gnaw off the bindings or bark at those other characters in your story line you perceive. You can just imagine it as a 'force field' in front of your star ship (the edge of your aura) disintegrating whatever's been keeping you from boldly going where you're meant to go!


A simple navigational tool (one I believe I mentioned last week) -- to make decisions that are in your own best interest. If it's been so long since you've done that, it feels like this - you feel happy or elated when you go in that direction. You feel tense or dissatisfied (or 'the same') when you don't. Or that direction just looks and feels brightest, and the other way is duller or darker.


Try this for the next week, with each decision you make, go in the direction that feels brightest or makes you happy. And see how your entire Universe changes!

Power of Choice

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

I'm wanting to clear up some misconceptions around powerlessness and also around choice.

Anyone familiar with the 12 steps will know that the first step is to admit you are powerless, usually over a behavior or substance you're addicted to, but for some programs it's over people, places or things. It's a very helpful step, although tough for many when they first encounter it.

What admitting you are powerless does, is withdraw the focus from whatever it is you're trying to control. In AA, you're not admitting powerlessness over your compulsion to drink, but the alcohol itself. For others, it's helpful to admit powerlessness over the alcoholic (or gambler, or womanizer, or junkie).

Ideally, you're bringing your focus back to yourself.

In recent years I've been following the work of Robert Scheinfeld. His Busting Loose work says that you are an Infinite Being creating everything in your experience down to the smallest detail. At the same time he says you're powerless to change, fix or control everything because your Expanded Self is running everything behind the scenes. And then he says to only do 'what you feel motivated to do'. However when he says that, he's addressing the part of you that is the "Player" in the Human Game, not the Infinite Consciousness you innately are.

Which led to a lot of confusion on my part. My belief has been that I Am Spirit, and as such create my reality in the physical. When I shift my awareness to view things as Spirit, rather than as my Body-Personality, everything changes. It's not a matter of trying to manipulate the storyline or hologram, it's just using my skills and my tools in my spiritual toolkit, to enjoy the ride.

That's where Choice comes in.

From the 12 Step POV, you are powerless over others, but you're not powerless over your thoughts and actions. You make choices every minute not to pick up that drink or not to enable others. You can also make choices to redirect your thinking, so you're not obsessing. Hard to do at first, but gradually it gets better.

And in Phase 2 (the Busting Loose work) you are at Choice as well. Doing what you feel motivated to do is you exercising that choice. The thing to notice is what your motivation is! If you are making choices that are designed to manipulate the hologram, then you're operating as your "player self" and it ultimately won't work. It will backfire on you in some way or the same situation will reoccur, perhaps with different characters and scenery! If you make choices because it would be fun to go that way or do that thing, you're more likely operating as your Expanded Self. It's also helpful to notice if you're *not* making choices, which is operating from resistance, and could still be considered 'Phase 1'.

Robert says that it's no use setting intentions either. I can understand where he's coming from. In his personal storyline he was very anal and wanting to control everything about his reality. It's been revolutionary for him to relax and go with the flow, trusting his Expanded Self is steering the boat.

In a similar way, the 12 Steps has you turn your will and your life over to your Higher Power. It's letting go and letting your HP direct things. Again, it's helpful for folks who've been trying to control their addictions, or trying to control their addicts!

At the bottoming-out point, admitting powerlessness and letting go and letting Higher Power or Expanded Self take charge is the only way to go.

But then it's also very helpful to know that you're at choice in your life. And that there are no mistakes.

The way I see it, there's an energy flow called Life, and your individual body is your kayak. You can sit back and let yourself go with the flow. And you can use your paddle and your kayaking skills to enjoy the ride more. You learn when you're trying to control the river, because it doesn't work to try to paddle upstream. But you also don't have to avoid the white water rapids, either. It can be exhilarating to use the power of choice to navigate them.

When you're new to the journey, you're setting intentions is a way of communicating to your HP or ES what direction you'd like to go in. When You know You are your ES, then it's simply a choice to go in a particular direction for the fun of it.

So, notice if there's anything in your life that you're feeling stuck about (or powerless over). Notice if it's within your personal space or outside it. Yes, you've created the entire hologram, but repainting the scenery doesn't change your internal storyline. If it's outside of your space, drop it. Focus inside.

Doesn't matter if their actions are making your crazy. Make choices from inside you, from your inner Wisdom. Point your kayak in the direction that feels better or feels fun.

For the next week, do that whenever you feel motivated to. And notice how your life changes!

The De-energizing of "Reality"

(c)2009 Joan M. Newcomb

Reality is de-energizing. This is been happening all along, but it feels more intense to folks right now. Everything that people felt was solid and real is dissolving.

Recently it's been in the form of monetary illusions, such as the stock market and real estate. Poof! Whatever they 'owned' is suddenly 50% less.

However, this has been happening throughout Human hiStory. I was born in Berlin a few years before they built the Berlin Wall. When that happened, it felt solid, real and final. Who could have imagined, less that 30 years later, circumstances had changed so drastically that it was torn down?

It's a great analogy for what's happening now. Our imaginary walls are disintegrating. Same with the Soviet Union. Who could have imagined all these different countries regaining and gaining their identities?

30 years ago, who could have imagined computers sitting on our desks? Fifteen years ago, who could have imagined the internet on our phones?

Those are different concrete examples, but they are external reflections of what is going on within each one of us. Our limitations are being challenged. Expansion is happening whether we consciously agree with it or not. It is coming forth out of us.

At our essence, we're totally in agreement with this transformation. We're excited about it even. It's just a part of us, a portion of our identity, that's uncomfortable and resistant to change.

The more heavily you identify with your limitations, the more painful and uncomfortable this growth period is going to feel.

So take a look at your life right now. What feels stuck? What feels impossible? What feels really uncomfortable? Where are you being challenged?

That's the illusion that's about to come tumbling down.

Whatever it is, whoever seems involved, it's not about the other person. It's not about the circumstance. It's not work, home or family, except that they're the setting for your beliefs and concepts. It's the thoughts about them, it's the ideas you have that is in process of changing.

The bigger the feelings about this, the greater the illusion is really is. If you're really attached to it, it usually has to get ridiculously bad in order for it to transform. Breathe deeply in and out, and talk yourself through it.

Realize that whatever it is out in front of you isn't what's really there. It's the story of what you *think* is there. Once you realize that, most of the tension, anxiety or whatever you're feeling about it will start to disappear.

Usually, you're looking at it through lenses of being small and powerless. When you look at it from your Infiniteness, from You as Essence, then whatever you're looking at becomes merely a pattern, or if it's a person, they become small and powerless (and full of hot air)!

An easy way to get started (instead of going towards the big, juicy, crises) is to question everything, and know that *nothing* is real. It's all just perceptions, and you've viewing all of it through your preconceived notions. It's like looking at things through old film slides, old transparancies. Remove the false image, and things become very bright, clear, and simple.

Do this as you drive through town. Do this with the random thoughts you think. Do this while you're in conversation with others. As you do this, you're shining the light of Truth on these things, and de-energizing the unReality of them.

Try this over the next week and see what happens!

Misery Hates Happiness

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

I was inspired for this article by a woman's story, who was married to an alcoholic. After years of being on a roller coaster ride with him, she realized that it was okay for her to be happy, even if he was not. Did her happiness take away from his misery? Certainly not. Would her being miserable help him in his disease? Hardly.

As an empath, I often feel other's emotions, but I won't often know where they're coming from. Sometimes it's someone close to me, sometimes it's someone who lives 3,000 miles away or someone I've not spoken to in years. That's different than feeling that, just because everyone around me is unhappy, I have to be unhappy, too.

That's like jumping down a well to save someone drowning, rather than throwing them a rope! Two people stuck in a well is not a solution to such a problem!

One theory is that we learn to match other people's unhappiness when we're children. Children are naturally bright and joyful. That can be very uncomfortable to someone who's depressed or miserable. It's like shining a bright light into a darkened room - it hurts the eyes of people who've been sitting there not opening their own window-shades.

They learn to tone themselves down or get toned down by others. Another analogy I've used it two crabs in a bucket. If you put one crab in a bucket, it will scuttle out. If you put two, they'll stay trapped, pulling each-other down.

It's our natural state to be happy. When we're most aligned with our Inner Being/Expanded Self, we're ecstatic and in love with life.

You can't help others by matching their level of pain and suffering. You can, however, send a ripple effect out into the world by radiating your own light.

In certain circumstances, you have to detach from others' behaviors and actions, even though you love them. If they're alcoholic or otherwise ill or addicted, the only way to step back from their insanity and focus on your own life. They have to have the consequences of their own actions, and it often has to get worse before they get better. If you're in there making them seem okay or legitimate, or validating their distorted version of reality as Truth, it prolongs their getting well, and makes *you* insane in the process!

Sometimes the miserable character in your storyline is your child. How do you detach from them? Wouldn't it be cruel to be happy when your child is having a horrible time? The first thing to realize is that your child, whatever age, is actually an Infinite Being (as are You). They auditioned for the part, actually wrote the script and chose all the details of the plot. The more capable a Being is, the more challenging a story they will write. Because, from the Infinite Actor's point of view, it's a much more enjoyable to have a really juicy, Oscar-winning, role!

If you sympathize with them, you're invalidating their capability. If they're able to manifest the problem, they're resourceful enough to manifest the solution. Standing in your own happiness, you can be strong for them and hold the space for them to resolve their problems.

When you step into the realm of awareness that you are Consciousness, creating all of this down to the smallest detail, then your outer circumstances transform. At first it will seem like *everyone* is miserable, and mad at you for being joyful. But as you stand in your joyfulness, the external climate changes. Miserable people may write themselves out of your storyline in very creative ways. Or you'll wake up one morning and they'll all have changed personalities.

It's like the second season of "Bewitched" when they cast a different actor to play Darren. Nobody said a thing, and everyone just continued with the sitcom as if nothing had happened.

When your vibration raises, you world will reflect it.

One way to get started with this is to notice "whose problem is it"? If it's someone else's problem, let them worry about it!

If it's *your* problem, you can be happy even when *your* circumstances are miserable! Realize that your Inner Being/Expanded Self is really chortling with glee as you plan the outfit you'll be wearing to the Cosmic Oscars! When you shift your perspective, even the most challenging problems become manageable.

There are many examples of how to do this. Byron Katie's The Work can drill holes in your clouded thinking to let the sunlight of your Inner Wisdom shine through. Kris Carr is an inspiration of living with incurable cancer! Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs and is a motivational speaker! The list goes on and on.

So your navigational suggestion for this week is to steer yourself in the direction of happiness and joy. One step at a time, one moment at a time, one day at a time, choose to go towards light rather than shadow. Choose the better feeling thought.

Just as I was completing this article, this video from Byron Katie came in. This isn't exactly to the point, but it's a start:
Finding Kindness & Questioning Stress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeH85savvN4

Try this for a week and see what happens!

Support

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

My wakeful period in the middle of the night is a most creative time. All sorts of thoughts and ideas come to me and it's an opportunity to clear energy. What I like to do, also, is a mini-Divine Opening, imagining Niagara Falls flowing into me, filling my space with Source Energy and cleansing blocks to manifestation. Recently there's been interference, and I haven't been feeling as connected as I'm used to. Last night I had a revelation which is leading to this Ezine article.

What *is* Support? Where does it come from? Who provides it? What do you have to do to get it? From the moment we required nourishment, we've been given concepts and perceptions about these things. These are very core issues!

We relied on our parents, mother particularly, to take care of us at the start. Heavy duty early subconscious memories about needing to be fed and changed and comforted. As we got older, those experience became our concepts for viewing the world. What we perceived and were told about the world also added to our storehouse.

Is your worldview supportive? Is it a benevolent Universe? Does God have your best interest at heart? Or were you told one thing and experienced another? It was a God of Love but those who told you weren't exactly loving. If you weren't "good" you'd go to Hell.

Yikes, what a way to disempower and instill fear!

As I do my 'Niagara Falls' exercise, I think about Source Energy, all that abundance and love, flowing in. Often I start the exercise and notice I'm energetically "dehydrated". With the work I do, all my energy flows outwards and I'm not used to receiving. It doesn't occur to me to reach out for support because, historically, I have been on my own in dealing with things. There's lots of story as to why this is, but it's just story.

The shift as I did this early this morning, was to realize that Source Energy wasn't flowing from this dimension. It's from outside the hologram.

We are all an Infinite Being who created this to experience the fun of Density & Effort. The story and the details were all scripted by You. Before you realize this, the story tends to reinforce fear and powerlessness. After you wake up to who You really are, you go into clearing mode. Story arises as you expand beyond your limiting beliefs, but you know it's just story. It evaporates eventually and you surge forward into your expansion.

So this morning what happened was the sensation shifted from 'in through the top of my head' (which is part of my running energy-meditation routine I've been doing since 1981) to a flow coming in from behind me. 'Flow' is too dense a word, and 'behind me' is too limiting in it's direction. It's really non-local. And non-dimensional. The idea of dimensions still requires space, and this is beyond space.

If you imagine you're a character in a pixar film, and the programmer steps in and makes changes - how would you perceive it? Where would you feel it came from?

What I realized is - *that* is True Support. It's not coming from anything in this storyline, the economy, money, job, relationships, anything we've viewed as sources of support. It's beyond concepts of God or the Universe. It's outside of those limitations.

When you can 'be' with that awareness, everything shifts in your Hologram. Support comes from out of thin air, from places you don't expect. Because it's coming from the True Source in the first place.

In reading this you've allowed a transition to happen within you as well. Allow this awareness to gently permeate your understanding. Notice what shows up for you as this week unfolds. Notice what's different.

And email me what happens! joan@joannewcomb.com

What other people think of me is none of my business

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

There was (and still is, available on Amazon) a great book in the 1980's by Terri Cole-Whittaker, called "What You Think of Me Is None Of My Business".

The title went through my head as I considered writing this Ezine article based on my experience of the last week (month, year, lifetime).

I've been in a growth space since returning from visiting my mother, compounded with having a cold for 10 days and having to work through it (solely medicated by Airborne; a miracle product). In the last week or so I've noticed I've been having an 'attack of killer gremlins".

Gremlins are one's automatic negative thoughts, never based on fact, that beset you with doubts and deter you from moving forward. They're your inner critic, or your subconscious yenta.

I've learned to not feed them (either by believing them or resisting them) so I rarely experience them any more. So it's been interesting to have them resurface at this time. And to notice the tact they're taking.

They've been taking me off on tangents about what other people must be saying about me. Which is really interesting, since it usually never occurs to me to wonder about that.

I have a friend/acquaintance who has cancer and there's been a guilty narration about how terrible I am to not be camping out at her doorstep caring for her. She called the other day and it turned out there's an army of people bringing her meals, fixing her house, handling her paperwork. Guilty (the 8th dwarf of Snow White's) was completely off base.

The other gremlin voices just want to run around and set people straight on rumors and gossip from years ago, which I never had an accurate read on in the first place. Even at the time knew it waste of energy running around trying to correct people's thinking.

What I realized a long time ago was that most people are too caught up in their own lives to even notice or have an opinion about yours. And if they *do* have an opinion, it reflects on them, not you.

Whenever you make a significant change, it will cause ripple effects. It's natural for prevalent patterns to try to stay intact or maintain the status quo. It will either be reflected through your inner thoughts or what you perceive people saying to you. However you don't have to take it seriously!

If you were rowing a boat and made a decision to turn in a different direction, would you feel like you'd done something wrong because the of pull of the water as you changed course?

It's all just energy, we just assign it importance because of the story line we've woven and the characters we've drawn to interact with us.

When you start listening to your Inner Being, and making intuitively based choices and actions, you'll be breaking out of all the old patterns. That will create ripples both externally in your current groups and internally (amongst your inner gremlins).

Keep moving forward. As you shift into your new level, either all your friends will change their tune, or all your friends will change!

If you're feeling overwhelmed, it's an indication that big changes are afoot. Keep moving forward. You'll break through the cloud cover into a bright blue sky of a new reality.

What other people think of you is none of your business. And what your inner gremlins think of you, well that's none of *their* business!

Manifesting Your Future

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

When I do psychic readings, I have a simple technique for foretelling the future. I imagine a timeline going out from the present moment, and look at what shows up on it.

I tell people that I read energy trends, like a meteorologist forecasting the weather. A formation in the Pacific Ocean could mean snow in the Cascade Mountains on the Washington Coast in a week or so. But it could end up being rain, or something diverts it and it goes towards Portland instead.

People have the Free Will to make changes in the direction they're going, which changes the outcome as well. Sometimes a simple consciousness shift can speed up the process. Or a deliberate action can steer one the other way.

The future isn't one preordained path, but a myriad of possibilities. It's fun to read someone's romantic future and actually see, during the course of a reading, a potential partner coming into form!

It's like watching computer animators work on a Pixar film, except you can see or sense the energy of the person without getting a full image of them.

There's several explanations for this. One is that there are millions of potential partners out there, many with very similar traits and storylines. So as your future is being created, the right one is being "auditioned" by Universal Casting.

Another is this world is a hologram, an illusion. So a character for your storyline really is being created for you, down to the minutest detail.

The future is more difficult to see than the past, because it's a higher vibration, and our current vibratory level can only sense it (rather like an older computer reading newer software).

How do you manifest your future? The way you *don't* is by placing your focus out into it! Staying grounded in the present moment is the most effective way to set into motion your future manifestations. Using a lot of effort, continually visualizing your perfect manifestation, doesn't work either. Effort blocks spiritual creativity, and constant focus on your desires keeps them as dreams. You have to let go for things to become reality.

Notice your thoughts and inner dialogue as well, because that's the narration you're giving your Cosmic Screenwriters. You may put a photo of Potential Dreamboat on your altar, but if you're complaining about all your past creepy boyfriends at 4am, all their characteristics are being written into your future script.

Changing your inner dialogue shifts your feelings as well. Focusing on positive possibilities creates hopefulness. It emotionally prepares you for having better experiences. You can completely transform your current circumstances without having to break up whoever you're currently seeing, quit your job, or move to a different apartment. Things can effortlessly start falling into place when you bring your energy back from all the things you've been struggling with and tune into the Infinite Being you Truly are!

This is not just Law of Attraction or the Power of Positive Thinking, but it's elements of both ideas.

It's not just a one time try at it, but a continual practice that subtly and profoundly changes your life.

Key points to remember:
You are an Infinite Being enjoying this physical reality.
You create your current reality through your thoughts and feelings.
Anything that isn't pure joy is pure fiction.
Steer in the direction of light and joy, and you'll be happy.

As I always suggest, try this out for just a week, and see what happens!

Crazy People

(c)2009 Joan M. Newcomb

There's a poem by Rudyard Kipling that goes something like this:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
...Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
read the full poem here

The past few weeks I've had an assortment of crazy people pop up in my life. Sometimes this is an indication that I'm making a quantum leap forward. Sometimes it's just a configuration of planets (this is an astrologically exciting week).

For the most part I'm able to maintain my sanity around them, even the ones that normally drive me crazy!!

I find it important to *not* react to anything they do or say. And wait, sometimes a day or two, before responding (if a response is necessary at all).

If you practice this enough, it becomes easier and easier to step back from their drama and lead a happy life regardless of their version of reality!

The other day, however, I was surprised by one and temporarily had the feeling of insanity myself. If you control your own actions, eventually your thoughts and feelings follow.

These different individuals are sometimes like a cross between "Pigpen" from Charlie Brown's Peanuts comics and the Tasmanian Devil from the old Loony Toons cartoons. Pigpen was nicer, but they both have an aura of disruptive energy around them. And playing with them you can get dirty, or hurt.

Being empathic, I find it's important to *not* always go with your gut feeling. In waiting it out, the feeling will pass. I call it 'not reacting dramatically even if things seem dramatic'.

As you move forward in your life, or as your energy expands or you vibrationally lighten up, Tasmanian Devil/Pigpens will come out of the woodwork. If you engage, it can be like stepping backwards. If you don't respond, they fade back where they came from (out of your hologram and into molecules and electrons and parallel universes).

As Spirit/an Infinite Being, you have a choice of where and with whom you wish to play with in Density and Effortland. Maybe it's fun for you to mud wrestle with PigPen or tarantella with Taz. But it can get old. Wouldn't it be fun to see what's beyond the mud (and the muckrakers?)

So for the next week I invite you to try keeping your head, and your sanity. Don't react to anything dramatically (even feelings inside you) whether they're truly dramatic or not. You may find your entire life movie changings!

Higher Intending

(c)2009 Joan M. Newcomb

I've been reading Marc Allen's book "Visionary Business" in preparation for my interview with him next week (9/15). I had some insights about intentions from the book, and then Robert Scheinfeld's recent blog entry echoed them.

I had stepped back from actively using my various manifestation techniques in order to be in 'responsive mode' in the present moment. I was leaving it up to my Expanded Self to bring things into my hologram, and for the most part it's been working quite well.

When manifestation techniques don't work, it's because you're doing them as your body/personality, or as the Player in the Human Game rather than the Expanded Self who created everything.

When things do work, when everything falls into place, is when you are operating *as* your Expanded Self.

Having a vision of what you want, when you have it from your Expanded Self (or Inner Being, or Larger Self, or Essence of who You are)is like having an idea of where you want to go on your road trip through life.

If you just drive down the road without an intention, you'll end up on a gravel road in the wilderness, or on the wrong side of town! Both are an equally exciting adventure.

But if you set an intention or hold a vision as your Expanded Self, you'll find yourself driving down the Coast Highway visiting every lighthouse and whale watching viewpoint.

Some people want to leave it open; they're afraid that their own visioning is too limited. They want their Expanded Self (or Higher Power or God) to run the show. It's placing the power outside of themselves and denying their own inner divinity.

The point of Free Will is for us to exercise it once in a while! To put our hands on the steering wheel. To make choices and make mistakes for the fun of it! There's nothing to learn, because we're already Infinite. There's only experiences to have.

So don't be afraid to imagine what feels the best in any situation. Hold the intention that will contribute to your expansion.

How you know that it's You and not you is whether you're feeling any effort or doubt or fear. All of those energies are body-personality level experiences. Be the Infinite Being that you are and notice how different that feels, coming from that space!

So I invite you to play with this. Play with holding a bigger space, or intending an outcome with no strings attached. Do the next indicated thing that supports your vision (and keep doing it) and see what happens!