Saturday, March 27, 2010

Going Home And Staying Present

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I am visiting family back East this week (& next).  It's always interesting, even leading up to the trip.  The last few weeks I felt as if I were standing off stage, amidst the hanging velvet drapes & also the hanging scenery.

To me this represented dense & heavy old patterns.  Not just memories, but also concepts and ideas from the past.  Things I know I've outgrown, but are coming up from deeper layers in order to be cleared.

Have you ever noticed going home and the house ad all the furniture seem smaller? It's not just because you're an adult, but also because you've expanded energetically.

The challenge is going home but staying in the present moment, retaining the changes that have occurred since living there.  How do you keep your current energy level amongst old energy?

It takes staying conscious and also staying amused!  What ever you can do to stay conscious - perhaps it's silently reminding yourself that you are Spirit in a body,  or you are Consciousness expressing itself through personality and form.  To me it feels like a shift from the lower part of my awareness to a higher place.

When you're in that higher place, you automatically become amused.  You get amused at yourself as you start to revert to your old ways.  You're amused at all the memories that come up when you see relatives or places from your childhood.  You can be amused that part of you wants your mom to make your favorite foods while at the same time wants to run screaming from the house.

Taking breaks is also helpful, even if it's an extended trip to the bathroom or a walk around the block.  When you're by yourself, it's easier to remember that you're X number of years old, you're a highly paid executive, or you've been divorced for nearly ten years.  Anything to bring you into present time helps.

This time I decided to do something I've ever done before: rent a car.  The reason it had never occurred to me during prior visits is that when I left home, I didn't drive.  I've been having to remind myself that it's 30 years later and I have *plenty* of experience behind the wheel!  I can handle freeways and even parallel park!

Going home but staying present is very validating.  It gives you the opportunity to validate the enormous amount of growth you've experienced.  You can more easily recognize and acknowledge the things you overcame to be who you are today. 

If you don't have any plans to return home any time soon, you can still use these same suggestions to be present, conscious and amused in your regular day-to-day life!

Try this for a week and see what happens!

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