Leaning In To Enormous Growth

Leaning In To Enormous Growth ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

It’s been an emotional week, in a way that I’ve not been familiar with in a long time. Last Saturday I went to the Bronx and got stuck talking with a crazy lady (nice, but crazy) for 90 minutes. Normally I would have handled this with humor and grace. That day, I felt like running screaming from the room. Then I went to the Whole Foods in Harlem (it seems to be my mission to visit every Whole Foods in New York City) and the population density just tipped me over. I’m not used to not enjoying myself to this extent.

Wow, I said to myself. I’m in a huge growth space.

Six months ago at a Meetup I was leading in Tacoma, we were playing with walking through doors to parallel universes, and I hit this kind of resistance as I stepped through one. I realized I was initiating something momentous. I recall leaning into it and wondering what shift was set in motion at the time.

Voilà.

Of course, this began in August but whatever is going on this week is moving it to a whole new level.

Sunday, my sister-in-law’s 70 year old brother came from Taiwan to help. He’s here until February.  All I knew about him was that he became a nurse’s aide when he retired from the army. So we’ve been very excited about his arrival, because he can take over a lot of the physical therapy.

What’s struck me at first is his very kind face. And he’s far more gentle with my brother than I am.

In fact, all of my sister-in-law’s friends and family that have come so far have been extraordinarily kind and gentle. You can tell they genuinely love my brother.

But this guy has been driving me crazy in ways I would normally be able to rise above. There’s a 13 hour time difference between here and Taipei. That’s a lotta days of jet lag. I feel I’ve been enormously rude and petty. But we’ve weathered it so far and yesterday I felt like I’ve broken through some of my stuff. I mean, he cooked my organic onion for his dinner and I didn’t feel ballistic. That’s progress.

There’s a lot of reorganization going on here. Even as I lose physical space, sharing the room with him, I’m gaining time. Now all I have to do is phone calls and paperwork. And I can leave the apartment during the day. Freedom.

My business is shifting, too. I have a two week pause with clients. I feel something else is emerging and I don’t know what it is. I just need to lean into it, and see what I step through to.

Astrologically, this is my natal Jupiter return and the last time this happened was when my work and my world shifted from Newtonian Physics to Quantum Physics. That’s all. I can’t imagine what this year will bring.

But it’s such a time of breaking down, loss of old creations, stepping into new and unfamiliar things every day.

This is happening in different ways to everyone. How are you experiencing it?

What are you losing? What are you gaining?

This week ended with the delivery of a hemi cane. It will help my brother, who's partially paralyzed on the right side of his body, get out of his wheelchair and walk again. This is a significant step towards independence for him.

And, it snowed.

Complexity and Simplicity Coexist Simultaneously

Complexity and Simplicity Coexist Simultaneously ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

Watching the results of the 2018 election, which brought a wave of fresh new faces into the political arena. There were many "firsts" elected to Congress and to other places throughout the US. First Native Americans elected. First Muslims. First Openly Gay people. Youngest. Oldest. Scientists. Engineers. In a county in Texas, 19 African American women ran for judgeships, and all of them won.

The results of the 2016 election spurred most of these people to seek political office. In 2016, and in the two years since, it seems like a solidifying of the old, white, male power paradigm. But in reality the opposite is happening.

Former Congressmen Leave Washington

I recall from my early metaphysical training that it takes 2 years for stuck energy to manifest (in terms of illness), but I also see a cycle of change that gets initiated and comes to fruition in 2 years as well. 

In astrology, Eclipses have an influence of 6 months to 2 years as well, so a shocking, "eclipsian" situation will have resolution or a deeper resonance two years later.

And yet, we're moving into a 5D reality where these energetic rules no longer apply. Change can happen instantaneously. So why didn't we reverse the results of the 2016 election faster, with such powerful collective intentions as the Women's March at play?

Because we're straddling both worlds. 3D still exists, just as we still enjoy watching black and white movies or old cartoons, even when color and CGI is available to us. 

As Consciousness we can morph situations, stretch time, collapse or fold reality. I notice that my body wants to do this from a manipulative place. As body-personality, I want to change, fix, or control what I see happening in the world, what I deem is "wrong", that I want to make "right".

As Consciousness, change reorganizes effortlessly. It flows into another state. It disappears and reappears differently. As body-personality, I need to put a lot of effort, blood, sweat, and tears, into making something happen.

From my perspective as Consciousness, complexity and simplicity coexist simultaneously. 

In the 3D world, people are inspired to seek office, and there are rules and schedules to be followed to make that happen. Our elections happen every 2-4 years. There are specific positions to run for, that give different amounts of influence. It takes time and space to see the results.

In 5D things happen randomly, without cause or effect or rational explanation. Pretty much everything that our current character in the oval office does or says could be construed as 5D. Things that can't be said or done, get said or done. 

This is happening, with different storylines, to everyone, around the globe. I just read that Brexit (which got initiated approximately 2 years ago, similar timing to the last US presidential election) could be voted on again and possibly reversed. 

Consciousness has created a physical reality which is infinitely complex, beyond what we can imagine. Operating as Consciousness in physical form feels very simple, however.  As Consciousness, we enjoy everything that is playing out. 

So get out the popcorn and watch what unfolds.

Exciting times. 

Peeling Away The Layers and Releasing Relationships

Peeling Away The Layers and Releasing Relationships ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

The past four or five years, I've been focused on creating stability in my life. This has not been easy since my natural tendency is to bring light and light brings change. I grew up moving to different countries every 2-5 years, pulling up roots is second nature to me. Letting them sink deep is not.

I found myself creating groups, joining groups, and forging alliances in a very different way than ever before. I used to always feel on the periphery. I'd contribute, but was always mindful that at some point I'd be leaving. Relationships were lightly held.

There are some relationships I've created over the past few years that are draining. I've stayed committed to them, even when they take more than they give. At some point, they even stopped driving me crazy. But i didn't have a reason to end them, even when I wanted to. (Funny to realize that just wanting to was not a strong enough reason).

Now, with my brother's stroke, my caring for him is taking all my energy. It's peeling away those relationships. I'm having to let go of anything inauthentic, anything that takes more than gives.

It's amazing how it's happening as well. Some are naturally stepping away, some I do have to haltingly put on hiatus, but even as I face this extremely limiting reality (I cannot go anywhere during the week, I have 12 hour days of caregiving and cannot leave the apartment unless there's someone else to watch him, which most times there is not) it is also extremely freeing. All the responsibilities and obligations from before are released.

I'm not dropping any of these instantly, in certain cases I'm reluctantly letting some go. Even if I've been dissatisfied for a long time, there still was an invested interest. And yet it's releasing all ties.

From one perspective, this seems outside imposed. These circumstances demand it. Like the Universe is making me do this. From another perspective, I've created this. As Consciousness, I've created this peeling away of layers, this release of whatever does not serve me. When I shift my perspective, I'm in total agreement with all that is going on. Because it's my creation.

As Consciousness, there's no need to change, fix, or manipulate anything happening on the outside. Although I have healing techniques that could change my brother's state, I only use them when circumstances show up. Someone else instructed me to do "Qi Gong massage" on him, which I'm faithfully doing daily, and I feel it naturally shifting to my energy work.

Playing on this level, it's simply about responding to what is. Navigating differently, making different choices.

There's no judgement, no blame, no fault, no force. It's a massive reorganization. Like moving furniture that hasn't been moved for a while, there's dust and debris, even lost items revealed.

We're all going through enormous, evolutionary times. Every single one of us is Consciousness creating our unique storyline. Shift your perspective to Consciousness and you will know that all is very, very well.

Creation and Destruction - is one necessary for the other?

Creation and Destruction - is one necessary for the other? ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

This planet is one of opposites, polarities, and dichotomies. It is a place to witness and participate in the miracle of creation. It is also a place to experience and respond to loss and destruction.

From the perspective of Consciousness, creating and destroying is the game on this planet. Earth is a playground for Consciousness.

Now, to Consciousness, creating and destroying are virtually the same thing. It is equally creative to destroy. And to our body-personality, it seems like you can't create without destroying.

That doesn't mean you have to lose something in order to gain something. But the act of creating means transforming whatever it was into whatever it is becoming. It's shifting your state from not having that thing to having that thing. It means releasing or letting go of concepts and beliefs in order to expand to new awarenesses and realizations.

Sometimes the destruction is big and in-your-face. It could be every aspect of your life gets razed, through death, illness, or divorce. What emerges is a new identity, a new emotional depth, greater compassion, more openness and love.

As Consciousness I can hold a bigger space while navigating through the body-personality. I get to parent the body through it's growth experience.

But destruction doesn't have to be devastating or painful. It can simply be your world reorganizing into something better.

Nature is amazingly neutral about destruction. Forest fires happen. Floods occur. Flora and fauna get wiped out, but then new plants begin to grow and new wildlife enter the area.

Going through times of enormous change can be painful and challenging for our body-personality. But we can make it easier by remembering that we are greater Consciousness, ultimately creating it all. As greater Consciousness we can hold a bigger space for our body-personality. We can be compassionate towards it's reaction to change.

Operating as Consciousness doesn't mean not feeling. Consciousness can be neutral even as the body-personality is grieving. As Consciousness I can hold a bigger space while navigating through the body-personality. I get to parent the body through it's growth experience.

As we shift to greater Consciousness in form, we move from 3D to 5D where everything is different. Energy coming into form doesn’t require displacement of something else. Things can effortlessly dissipate and things can equally effortlessly appear without any correlation.

It doesn’t require any action on your part. It only requires noticing.

What's The Opposite of Compare and Despair?

What's The Opposite of Compare and Despair? ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

It seems the greatest source of misery is to compare yourself with others. People's outsides are always going to look better, and you can't really know their insides.

You're really comparing your insides to their outsides. You can't really know your own outside because you're looking at it from within.

Stradivarius' Axelrod Quartet (photo: Mark Pelligrini)

When we compare ourselves to others, we're naturally going to despair. But if you had the exact same life as people you envy, you wouldn't enjoy it, because it wouldn't be *your* creation.  (Clue: if you're not enjoying your own life, is it because you've made it according to someone else's recipe)?

The best way to stop comparing and despairing is to do the opposite. But what is that?

The opposite of compare is contrast.

The opposite of despair is hope, or joy.

When you revel in your own uniqueness, you experience true joy.

We weren't mean to be cookie cutter impressions of each other. We're all meant to be distinct individuals. As a collective, our uniqueness serves to make the world more full and vibrant.

Violas may seem redundant amidst violins and cellos, but an orchestra without violas would be missing specific tones and notes. Violas provide their own special line of harmony.

Contrast is a good thing.

From the perspective of Consciousness, the physical world's contrast is exciting! Contrast doesn't exist in the realm of Consciousness. It's why it exists in this adventure in density and effort land. The contrast in your life reflects your creativity as Consciousness.

Relish your differences. Enjoy others for theirs as well.

Contrast can show up as hardships of difficulties - still reflecting your (or their) creativity as Consciousness.

When you shift your perspective to that of Consciousness, your hardships and difficulties reorganize into fun challenges.  Roll up your sleeves and dive into them!

Beauty Amidst Ugliness

Beauty Amidst Ugliness ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I’m currently in Queens, NY. It’s a completely different urban experience than Seattle. The population of the borough of Queens is 2,350,000. The population of Seattle is a little under 705,000.

Besides the density, it’s an area that’s been lived in for a long, long time. There’s dirt, sweltering heat, smells, and... peaks of beauty.

There are little reminders everywhere that beauty exists even in the midst of ugliness. And, as any artist will tell you, there’s beauty in ugliness, too.

We’re seeing different examples of ugliness in the world today, from human behaviors that are unkind or downright evil, to natural disasters intensifying as the climate changes.

It’s easy to get caught up in this reality, feeling swept away by forces that seem more powerful, or out of control.

Yet all of this is a creation of Consciousness, by Consciousness. At your essence, you *are* Consciousness and what you’re experiencing in your reality is created by You.

That doesn’t mean Climate Change is your fault, or that you’re responsible for the shitshow on the news. Or that people are dying because you had negative thoughts.

It means that you’re the composer, conductor, soloist, and lead chair of this orchestra. The music is pretty dramatic and clashing right now. It’s more Wagnerian than Bach. Or maybe in your reality it’s heavy metal.

As Consciousness you delight in all of your creations. Even as it seems frustrating to your body personality aspect. And when you shift your perspective to living life as Consciousness, the surrounding world comes into sharp focus. Colors seem brighter, it feels expansive and effortless.

And on a dingy, graffiti’d street in Flushing, a pink rose will appear to remind you that there is beauty in the midst of ugliness. All of this is indeed a creation of Consciousness.

We’re going through a huge evolutionary shift at this time. Increasing Consciousness is coming into form. We’re able to embody more light than ever before. And as we bring this in, it illuminates the darkness, it reveals where we haven’t dusted, it shows up in our surrounding reality as well.

All the ugliness in the news is a reflection of the darkness that is in the process of dissipating. Shadows go away when light floods in. What we’re seeing collectively is the light of Truth revealing the darkness of lies and distortions. People who’ve lived with those distortions as their reality are experiencing a lot of fear and discomfort.

And within each of us, that which our Light is not in alignment with, is disappearing as well. It can feel like a shock or a loss if you’re strongly attached to those things.

When your relax and allow yourself to operated as Consciousness, everything easily reorganizes in your favor.

Try this, and you’ll discover what manifests is beyond what your mind can possibly imagine.

What Are Emotions? A 5D Perspective

What Are Emotions? A 5D Perspective ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

One of my clients was sharing about her Consciousness shift and it brought into perspective my multileveled awareness of emotions.

At a basic level, emotions are simply a body’s language to communicate to You, Consciousness. It fundamentally expresses itself the same way, and for the same reasons, as it did when it was an infant. Your body cries when it’s tired, hungry, uncomfortable, in pain, frightened, etc. That doesn’t mean you’re crying all the time as an adult, but it’s crying out in some way for your attention.

When we’re paying attention to our body, feeding it right, letting it sleep when it wants to, tending to it’s needs, it’s basically happy. But if we’re off in the future with great potential creations, our body feels abandoned, thinks we’re leaving permanently, it is sure we’re dying. When our attention is on the past, it is a fascinating exploration to Consciousness but the body feels mired in it’s immovability of regret, resentment, mourning, and loss.

That’s at the basic level. The next level is when you take into consideration everyone else’s emotions. As Consciousness we’re all naturally empathic, telepathic, kinesthetic, and/or clairvoyant. So we’ll tune into what others are feeling and think it’s ours. Or even if we can discern it’s someone else’s, it can be hard to detach from it. Other people’s emotions seem to magnify our own.

Old school solutions to these problems were to detach from our own feelings, discipline ourselves not to feel them or ignore them. Many religious practices included denying the body food or comfort as a way to become more spiritual. Which kind of misses the point of being here. What you find out when you die is that you were spirit all along, and your reason for incarnating was to experience being in a physical body.

Being present to the body by being in the present moment, is a more effective way to ‘be more spiritual’. When you’re in present time, that is, your attention is withdrawn from the past or the future, you’re able to fully occupy the body, and then it’s really happy. The heaviness of the past is gone, the uncertainty of the future has disappeared, it knows it’s alive and being taken care of.

We think we don’t like being in present time because it’s too limiting. Our mind, which is our GPS, is programmed to always be going somewhere (and checking past maps for how to get there). But as Consciousness, the present moment is infinitely expansive. True transformation is initiated in the Now.

What I’m finding with my own Consciousness shift, is that my old ways of being in the Now have me tuned into others, and a lot of the time I’m swimming through quite a lot of emotional frequencies. My old ways of detaching seem uncompassionate and incongruent with the increasing interconnectedness that is a result of our collective Evolution that is occurring.

When I play with my Consciousness techniques, everything reorganizes into a completely different experience. It’s like going from old style animation to CGI. I feel like I effortlessly refocus into being more fully embodied and yet extremely clear and alert (without having to spend hours 'cleaning energy', 'getting unstuck', 'removing blocks', etc.).

And it's not about getting to 5D and staying there. As Consciousness we move between levels without judgment.

What about others in our hologram? What about all the emotions being flung about out there?

This morning I woke extremely early and was instantly aware of a lot of uncomfortable feelings. I felt a lot of grief and physical discomfort. My first thought was that it was me, it's been a tough week, physically and emotionally. So I stewed in it for awhile, until I became aware that I was feeling others emotions. So I looked at my clock, to figure out time zones, since I have loved ones 3,000 miles away on either side of the globe from me. A little while later it occurred to me that it was actually the people in this apartment I'm in, which should have been obvious but at 3:25am I assumed they were asleep.

So then I used a Consciousness Technique for centering in the hologram, and discovered that all the feelings stopped being in my body and seemed to be in a ball in the center of the room. (This doesn't really mean anything because as Consciousness there is no time or space, so locations like up, down, in, and out, don't hold true anymore). And when I created a focal point on that ball, it initially seemed to be less intense. Which gave me the opportunity to start writing this post.

Halfway through, the other inhabitants needed my assistance, and I was able to respond with clarity, amusement, and even affection. When I came back to writing, I noticed the shift of focus yet again.

Now, it's all a creation of Consciousness, and whatever you're experiencing is your creation as Consciousness. Even if others are extras in your movie, they're also expressions of Consciousness moving through your soundstage, so to speak.

I'm not spending time resisting other's emotions, or trying to get them out of my space. Consciousness is the highest level of non-resistance, of being so open that negative or denser energies pass right through.

I'm also not trying to change, fix or improve others or the situation, unless out of curiosity something spontaneously occurs to me to play with.

It's a completely different way of navigating reality, beyond our mind's GPS which wants to take us deeper into the density because that's all that it knows. And in so doing, to feel more authentic and expansive joy, passion, love, than you ever thought possible.

Learning To Pivot

Learning To Pivot ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

This summer we reached a lovely place of stability, after years of striving for it. We created being able to stay where we are for another 14 months. My husband's work shifted him to a local office, so his commute has gone down from 45-60 minutes to 15. I started on marketing plans for the Fall for my business.

And yet I had this inner sense that I needed to stay flexible. That something was coming up and I needed to be able to pivot in response.

Then, in August, my little brother in New York had a stroke, and I felt called to go out to help. I felt the new reality descend upon me in the week from receiving the news to making the decision to fly there.

I was there for his transition from the hospital acute rehab to a Care center rehab, and then came back to Seattle because I had a booth at an expo, and a doctor's appointment. I'm returning on Monday to help with his transition from the Care center to his home. His wife works full time in Manhattan, leaving at 5:30am, so I'll be doing the day shift.  He's still learning to walk with a paralyzed right leg and arm so there will be a lot of on the spot PT and OT helping him get around their apartment, building the strength and coordination needed to be independent.

A key thing I needed to learn was how to transfer him from wheelchair to bed (or regular chair, or anywhere else). I learned how to block his right leg (which could flop open and cause us both to fall), and protect his right arm (which would also fall and inadvertently dislocate his shoulder).  And he does the heavy lifting himself. I just grab the back of his pants and he pushes himself up.

But, here's the thing - he's got to learn to pivot. He's got to stand and shift his good leg so he can sit down on the bed (or wherever).

While I've been home, I've been running scenarios in my head of their apartment, and the kinds of places I'll need to do this kind of lifting and holding while he turns. Creating a sense within my body of how to stand and move so he can stand and move. And as I write this, I realize that it's physically symbolic of the energy space I intend to hold as well.

The intent is for him to get stronger, more coordinated, and more independent. I've an additional intent for him to regain more use in his limbs as time goes by as well. I may wiggle my nose and blink my eyes occasionally to assist with this process.

The bigger picture of my time with him will be holding space for his enormous "life pivoting". It's a "new normal", discovering new ways of doing things.  Along with having to create new neural pathways, as Consciousness, an Infinite being he's completely redirecting his life in almost every way.

It'll require being open minded, flexible, curious, experimental, and willing to try new things. And these are the qualities we all need as we shift to our new evolutionary level of Consciousness.

Our Crazing Is Beautiful

Our Crazing Is Beautiful ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I came across a word the other day:

Crazing: cracks that occur in ceramics, usually with overlying glaze. A similar effect is found in glassware, called crackle glass.

photo credit Lara604

And I thought it a great metaphor for what happens to us as we interact with the external world. 

We come out as whole and pure. We are bright, shining lights of Consciousness in a chubby body that can’t yet roll over, much less walk or talk.

We are also treasure chests of information and possibilities. Each one of us is Consciousness expressing in form, and as Consciousness we already know and have everything we need to make real all that we wish to create in this life.

Yet prior to birth we are glazed with the expectations and assumptions from the body that contained us and the bodies that surrounded us. The glaze thickened after we emerged from the projections of culture and society.

Crazing occurs when you attempt to expand beyond all these limits.

You feel like something is wrong with you because the inner you doesn’t match the outer imposed identity. It starts to crack as you as Consciousness grow to fulfill your potential.

You feel crazy when you realize your Truth is different than the stories told you by family and school. 

The world looks crazy to you when you stand in integrity with your Truth. You see so many others operating out of alignment with their essential selves as Consciousness.

However, when you look at ceramics, you can see beauty in crazing. Just as uniquely beautiful as the wrinkled face of an older person.

In ceramics, crazing can precede fracture, which can destroy the piece (or transmute it into another art form). Yet crackle glass is highly prized and collectable.

This world is one of polarities and filled with dichotomies. It is a creation of Consciousness to experience the opposite of what Consciousness is, which is unity, joyousness, wisdom, timeless and formless. 

It is meant to be an experience of density and effort. And at the same time we can move through the world easily and without resistance, if we maintain our awareness as Consciousness. 

When we see our life as Consciousness, we can be amused by the insanity around us. We can fully appreciate being in form and being beyond form at the same time.

As Consciousness we love our body-personality, and we love our life. We play in our storyline with curiosity and wonder.

Shift your perspective to Consciousness, and you'll see the beauty in your crazing as well.

Pattern interrupts, pattern disrupters.

Pattern interrupts, pattern disrupters. ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

There’s a neuro linguistic programming term, “pattern interrupt”, which is meant to disrupt your habitual thinking, causing you to be more receptive to new ideas. 

In your life any number of things could occur as “pattern interrupts”. Going on vacation changes your routine. Moving in with someone, getting married, are major pattern interrupts as you and your partner adjust to life together. A new job, a move to a different neighborhood disrupts your pattern as well.

Photo credit: Scotchbrother1

Some people are born pattern interrupters. They come into the world to help move things forward, although it may not seem that way at first. They help disintegrate dysfunctional family patterns, which may not be appreciated by members who created or perpetuate them. They shine a spotlight on that which needs to be changed.

I’m experiencing being a pattern interruptor in my current situation. My little brother had a stroke and I went back East to help. When I arrived, he’d been in acute rehab for 11 days (after an 11 day stay in the hospital. His wife works, so I stepped into the daytime “shift”, talking to hospital staff and helping with his care.

Now, I’ve ridden a rodeo like this before, when my mother broke her pelvis. She had Alzheimer’s so required a different kind of advocacy, than my brother who is mentally capable but barely speak at this time.

But they weren’t used to having someone request a list of his medication, question things, and generally hang out all day with him (except for quick breaks to take client calls). To speak up when something was amiss (watching an aide handle his paralyzed side’s shoulder in a way the OT had warned could injure it). To step in when no one was available to help him with immediate needs. To allow him to sleep after an intense day of rehab exercises.

He was moved to subacute rehab a couple days ago, a new level of normal. More chaotic but more friendly, still surprising them with my presence and my persistence. Discovered a laxative which was supposed to be given “on demand” was being given “daily” instead. 

It seems like people give up space to medical professionals and institutions, not asking questions and not questioning actions. The doctors in the hospital were (and the nursing staff here at rehab are) very responsive and willing to explain things. 

Disrupting patterns does not have to be negative. It really depends on resistance to change. 

In my consciousness work, I’ve mostly made it a point not to change, fix, or manipulate the hologram. Whatever’s going on, I go with the flow, respond rather than react. I use my techniques to step myself into a different universe, which leads to different outcomes. 

In this situation it works beautifully. My brother got transferred to a private room in 24 hours instead of waiting a week. 

When I’ve tried to manipulate it just makes things worse. I think I may be permanently kicked out of his PT room. (Unless I show up in a another universe today where everything’s different).

You can be your own pattern disruptor by deliberately changing habits, or by welcoming anything that shifts your routine. When you welcome rather than resisting, it transforms it to a positive growth experience.

I’m going back to Seattle for 2 weeks so today I’m thinking of teaching my brother to use some of my Consciousness Techniques meditate. It’ll give him something to do while he’s stuck waiting around in rehab. And he can use it to shift his reality, too.

We’ll see what happens!

Threads of Reality

Threads of Reality  ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

If you look at your life from an expanded perspective, you’ll see that it’s an interweaving of storylines. I don’t feel that any of these are set in stone, they’re more liquid threads of possibilities that we can engage in. I’m currently engaging with several of these and it’s fascinating to look back to see how they’ve floated into my reality at different points.

A year or so ago, I was musing about my brother and his wife who live in Queens, and what would happen to them if one of them died. Her only child lives in Taiwan. In this kind of daydream I was in I realized they clearly would need help. And I knew that I’d go out to help them, although it meant confronting fears and unknowns (I cannot drive freeways, I know nothing about Queens).

It was one of those random kind of thoughts, I don’t know what triggered it. My family isn’t super close. I have two other brothers, one lives in Pennsylvania - I visited them once in 1999. They have three adult children and numerous grandchildren.

My other brother lives near me, we only see each other for funerals and weddings, it seems. He’s married, and he has four adult children and a couple of grandchildren. 

My assumption is whatever comes up, for those two guys, the adult children will be able to step into handle things.

But I worried about my little brother, or at least I did at that moment. And our main connection is playing Words With Friends. He was the one who drove down from New York every long weekend between April 2011 when my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when my caregiving journey began in earnest (although in a way, it had begun years before) and January 2013 when she passed. They’d given me much needed breaks.  So I felt they were the only ones who’d really pitched in and helped. 

And then I forgot about it.

At the beginning of August my little brother abruptly stopped playing Words With Friends. His last move was about August 5th, and our last little side chat on WWF was late July when he complained about the heat in NY and an earache. So I felt something was up. But sometimes they go on trips, and maybe this was one of those times. I posted a note on his Facebook timeline, “Hej, Bro - haven’t seen you on line in a couple days. Has the heat done you in? Hope your ear is feeling better! <3”

A week passed and I sent an email. And a day later heard back from my sister in law, “Matt has had a stroke on the back of his head. They are moving him to rehab next week”.

That was August 16th. And looking at my note on his timeline, it was written on August 11th, which was about the day he went into the hospital.

A series of emails followed to determine if they needed help and even if I’d be welcome to help or if I’d just be in the way. Then the weekend before Labor Day it got affirmed, so I booked a ticket for Sept. 2nd and have been here since.

There are other threads, with friends, clients, other relatives that are weaving into the reality that is unfolding here.

Like my two year cycle with my mother (which was really a 7 year cycle and really a lifetime), this current situation is coming into reality with no clear script of the future. 

I’m here, “boots on the ground”, offering assistance and, as I can see, healing in a myriad of ways I could not possibly have imagined.

Now, he’s not dying, so I’m not midwifing him out of body, as I did with my mother. You could say I am midwifing someone into a new phase of their life. 

I have no idea what each day will bring, even if there are prewritten scripts, I’ll just show up and improvise.

Regardless of what threads in your life are weaving together, you’re in charge of how you respond or react to them. You can interrupt longstanding patterns by responding differently. And ultimately you’re at choice on whether to engage in any of them. 

The Power of Forgiveness

The Power of Forgiveness ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

Someone told me recently that forgiveness is an act, not a feeling. You can declare forgiveness and deal with the emotions later. I've now heard it from two other sources since, which really makes it seem like a comment from the Universe.

You know, forgiveness isn't saying what they did was right, forgiveness isn't about them at all, it's about releasing you from continuing to be injured by them.

Jim Self of Mastering Alchemy says, “You can’t take your baggage with you” into the new Consciousness that’s emerging. Nothing keeps you weighed down like resentments. Nothing keeps you tethered to the past like reliving stories of past injuries done to you.

Forgiveness is releasing negative energy to be recycled into positive energy. When we let go through forgiveness, it can be incredibly uplifting.

I was reflecting on a couple people who infuriate me with their apparent ignorance of their transgressions against me. And yet when I look back on the circumstances, many years ago now, I can see that it was probably a case of miscommunication, of my not being clear enough, or persistent enough, in explaining my situation at the time.

At the risk of being Biblical, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

The Mister Rogers quote showed up on my Facebook timeline this morning as I was contemplating this blog post. “The only thing evil can’t stand is forgiveness,” Fred Rogers said. How profound. It renders evil completely powerless over you, and your mind.

I think of evil as the cesspool created by our collective negative thoughts. It’s actually a morphic field, to me sticky black energy, that seems to have a life of it’s own. I notice people struggling with addictions vulnerable to this energy. Recovery helps them step into the light.

So when you declare forgiveness, it releases you from that dark, painful place that we dwell in when we’re entangled with resentments. When we keep reliving the negative things people said or did to us, we give them tremendous power. Do you really want that? Do you want horrible people to hold power of you? Do you want broken, fallible, dysfunctional, people to keep you from your own happiness?

I think of Consciousness (the Universe, Divine, True Creative Essence, whatever term you choose) as  a great reservoir of love, light, and wisdom. Anything of value, anything that we think we may have lost, actually still exists energetically in Consciousness.

When you forgive, you create space to receive that energy back from Consciousness. You reclaim your power from them, and that black cesspool of unconsciousness.

At some point, in our Consciousness shift, our spiritual evolution, we’ll be in a state of perpetual forgiveness. Our energetic bodies will be at such a high frequency of light that negative energy won’t be able to exist. I notice when I do my Meetups, I end up being at such a space of non-resistance, negative energy passes right through.

If this seems impossibly difficult at the moment, rest assured that you don’t have to instantaneously forgive everyone on your resentment list. You can take baby steps. You can become willing. And, you may need to start with yourself!

Mystic Minute: When Life Gives You Do-Overs

Everyone is Evolving, Some Just Don't Know It

Everyone is evolving, some just don't know it. ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

One of my clients said the other day, "it's happening to everyone, isn't it?". She meant the shift that she is now fully aware that she's experiencing. And my answer is, yes, everyone is evolving, some just don't know it.

Everyone is going through this shift in Consciousness. We're all perceiving it differently. For some folks, it's exhilarating. For some it's painful and terrifying.

It looks completely different for everyone. If you have a spiritual practice of any sort, you'll know *something* is going on. It's a huge, honking, growth experience. But for others who are used to being in every day reality, it seems like their world falling apart.

Whatever you hold as solid and real is disintegrating. For me it was my energy work, because the unseen was solid and real to me. Everything I'd trained in, everything I'd taught, everything I believed, got turned on it's ear. My old techniques were like Newtonian Physics, measurable and certain. My new reality was like Quantum Physics, unpredictable and random.

It's affected people's personal identity. My husband lost his career in the crash of 2008, but reawakened his spiritual practice. And even that is shifting now in ways he can't explain.

A loved one, with three Master's Degrees and in the midst of writing his Ph.D dissertation, just had a stroke. It's effectively knocking him "off line" for the good part of a year. He's identified with academia his entire life. And now he's experiencing something completely different.

Here's how I see it, from a bigger viewpoint. Consciousness is the greater awareness, the essence of who we each are. It is a higher vibration, a brighter light, coming more into form. It means that we're each experiencing our essential greater consciousness more in our body than ever before. We're all becoming more "enlightened".

When you shine a spotlight inside yourself, it reveals whatever is stuck, dark or dense. Whatever we identify as reality will have that density. Whatever we are attached to or believe that we are, will be a heavier vibration. Whatever lies we hold as truth, will be dark within.

And all of that is disintegrating, as our light shines brighter and brighter.

As that old stuff goes away, we'll feel expanded. We may notice our external reality being different as well, lighter, and less grounded (because gravity is changing as well).

It's ultimately a good thing, we're all becoming more authentically our True Selves. But we've been crouched down in distorted perceptions for a long time, so it's a big adjustment to stand up free and fully ourselves.

It's an exciting time, from the perspective of Consciousness. And we can have compassion for the other aspects of Consciousness who are having an extremely uncomfortable time.

Breathe and release, as we all contract and expand. And know that all is very, very well.

Mystic Minutes: You Have A Body (And Don’t Forget It)!

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