Choosing To Live or Choosing To Die

Choosing To Live or Choosing To Die ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

We experience life on a multitude of levels. It is infinitely complex. It is definitely not black and white. But the level where we feel the most conflict and pain, is the level that presents the most choices.

If we're operating totally unconsciously, we don't feel like we have any options. Life happens to us. There is always something bigger and more powerful, that has influence over us. Bad things happen, it's probably our fault or someone else's fault. Good things happen, it's a coincidence.

When we experience life with more Consciousness, we're aware we have choices. If we make a decision, take an action, we can see it's effect in our lives. We feel a little more empowered. If things appear to happen, we can respond differently. Even if something seems "bad", we feel we can do something about it.

At this level of choice, we can go towards light, we can go with energy in motion, we can experience breakthroughs. It's not always comfortable, but it can be exhilarating.

And, in a funny way, choosing not to take action is still an action. We can choose to stay still, to not move. It's familiar, but it may be more painful.

When you look at life from this level and in this way, you can look at it as choosing to live or choosing to die. You can notice whether or not someone is bringing more life energy into form, or is on the way out.

And at a higher level of Consciousness, we're aware of all of these levels, and there isn't a judgment about life and death, coming more into body or leaving it. Sometimes people leave the party early. Sometimes people hang out until the wee hours.

Growing older means knowing more people going down the path of dying.  As much as it would be nice to hang out longer with our friends and loved ones, everyone has their own storyline and timing. I may miss their bodies when they're gone, but I sometimes (often) have a better relationship with them when they're non-physical.

At a higher level of Consciousness, the choice isn't about living or dying. It's about being fully in form, living fully in the moment, loving and appreciating all that is, and everyone in it.

I guess you could say that's choosing Life.

Staying Present In Traumatic Times

Staying Present In Traumatic Times ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

The last couple weeks were somewhat traumatic. First, my 15 year old dog had a seizure and possible stroke, and the next week a family member who has COPD (possibly emphysema) and MCI (mild cognitive problems) went into the hospital with pneumonia. It took be back to a time I've written about a lot, 2011-2013, with our other dog who had cancer and then neurological problems, and my mother who had Alzheimer's and lung cancer.

This recent period felt like a "pop quiz" reminder of what I learned then. Or perhaps continuing education, as there's always new awareness to be gleaned.

2010-2013 was a long, arduous process of ultimately midwifing my mother (my dog, and later my father) back to Spirit. Each of them had their own exiting process, each had different circumstances and choices to be made.

It's a shock when it first happens, and it's easy to feel that things are out of control. When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's (right as we had finished paying off the dog's cancer surgery), it was a breakdown in my own reality as well.

However, for the most part, I remembered to keep a higher awareness, while external circumstances seemed to crumble. It would have been easy to have collapsed in a heap, but reframing reality helped. This was *not* a crisis but an event.

Joan and Dorothy, Washington DC, Sept. 2012

I reminded myself that I was powerless over events and other people's reactions to them, but not necessarily my own. I had choice over my actions (and response as best I could). I worked hard at being mindful, researching and asking for advice before making important decisions.

I also learned to not resist what is. I thought I could combat the Alzheimer's, get her into a memory program, give her the right nutrition, do my energetic healing, etc. But it was like trying to stop a river with outstretched fingers. When she was diagnosed with cancer, and the initial treatment didn't work, it shifted my focus to quality of life (rather than longevity).

It would have been a waste of energy to resist the little things, becoming my mother's parent, her eventually confusing me with her older sister who died in 1997.

It was important to stay focused on the important things (creating moments of joy for my mother). And to stay in present time, as I was back in my old home town that I left in 1981 and interacting with some people who hadn't talked to me in ten years.

I had to stay the grown up, the one responsible for life and death decisions, and do the next indicated thing that was best for all concerned.

This is all coming back to me as I observe my other dog age, and as this family member is navigating this part of their life path. It's different now, I'm only peripherally in this family member's life, and this current dog isn't doing so bad for 105 in people years.

We all have (at least) two parts to ourselves. The physical personality that reacts to situations and runs off of memories tinged with emotions. And the greater aspect of ourselves, Consciousness, that encompasses the bigger picture.

When you see things from that bigger picture viewpoint, and can let yourself as Consciousness be the one that makes decisions and takes action, it's so much easier to get through painful and traumatic times.

You're not in denial about what's happening, you can still be grieving the loss of what it was like before, but you're able to hold a bigger space, respond with greater inner authority.

We're in traumatic times even if our daily lives are going well. The world seems to be falling apart, when it's really Consciousness reorganizing reality.

Shift your perspective to Consciousness and you will inwardly know that all is very, very well.

Doors Slamming Open

Doors Slamming Open ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

This has been a powerful week.  We've had the last of 7th Pluto/Uranus Squares, which began in 2012,  I've heard that the astrology is similar to 1928-1932 and the late 1960's, but even more powerful.  And today was both a New Moon Solar Eclipse *and* the Equinox.

An eclipse has 3x the power of a regular moon, and brings sudden changes, setting in motion a new phase of growth that can last for 6 months to 2 years.

The Equinox is a turning point into a new season.  Depending on your hemisphere it's either Spring, going from dormancy (really, Nature's architectural planning phase) into action, or it's Autumn which is nature's New Year.

This is the most potent time to set intentions and get clear on your vision for the coming year(s).

Recent years have been, individually and collectively,  a long, hard, roller coaster ride.  Many of us thought it would get easier (or completely end) back on Dec. 21st, 2012.  The buildup to that time was challenging.  People lost things they loved or strongly identified with: careers, relationships, and lifestyles.

Most of us now are in totally different circumstances than we were a few years ago.  We could not have imagined back then that we'd be where we are now.

A lot of us are mourning the losses.

The world has radically changed as well.  Regimes have fallen, religions are transforming.  Yet even as progress is being made, old power games from the past are resurfacing.  Echos of the 1950's, 1930's and even Medieval times are making headlines.

Please know that this is all a result of increased Light into the world.  When you flip the 'on' switch in a room, it shows where you haven't dusted.  When a higher vibration comes into form, it reveals the denser limitations.  It fractures restrictive solidity.

We are collectively more Conscious, that is, as Consciousness we are able to embody more.  Our bodies can handle our higher frequency.  There is greater clarity, even as it seems there is more chaos.


At any moment we are at choice about how we want to experience this new way of being.  We can step back, or to one side, and feel the grief, loss, anger, discomfort.  We can step forward or to the other side and feel joy, expansion, wonder and Love.

We've only lost our illusions.  I say this having lost both parents, my dog, and my home in one year.  And it was, by no means, the most painful time of my life.

I can't go back and regain those things I lost.  But I can go forward and create a new life.

Think of this time as doors of possibilities slamming open.

Shift to thinking of yourself as Consciousness with a body/personality.  As Consciousness you are at choice.  As Consciousness, you are Source. This is the energy that you can effortlessly create your reality. Step forward, or to the side that feels lightest.

Try this for the next 7 days and see what happens!

Inner and Outer Work

Inner and Outer Work ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

As Unified Consciousness we are all one.  When working on a high energy level, there is no you in U.

However, in the physical, there are boundaries.  It's not helpful to merge energies (unless you're in love or making love).

Empathic healers often become ill, because they take on the energies of their clients and loved ones.

You can heal people from outside of your body space.  You can love others and be neutral about their choices and reactions.  It's hard to have neutrality when you bring energy into your body.  It's hard to have neutrality when your energy engulfs everyone, too.

It's hard to make decisions or changes when you're feeling everyone else's reality.  It gets confusing.  Do I feel sick, or does the guy in the next cubicle at work have a hangover?  Do I really want to buy chocolate milk at the grocery store, or is my kid in my space?

Meditation is often called 'inner work'.  When you are quietly accessing your own energy and information, that's inner work.  When you're journaling about your vision for your life, what your passions are, what you'd like to be doing, you'll find this inside yourself (your energy field).

When you're doing healing work, when you're visualizing or reading energy, it's helpful to do this on a 'view screen', kind of a psychic flat screen, in front of you (usually your forehead).

Seeing things on your view screen, you get the 'big picture'.  Seeing things inside your head... can be too close for clear focusing.  It's the difference between being an air traffic controller, viewing all airport runways with incoming and departing planes, or being down on the tarmac.

If you've been having difficulty making a decision, about work, about life, notice if you need to place it outside on your view screen.  Or bring it inside, to your heart.

Heart space isn't for neutrality, but it can be for compassion.

You can also bring it into your solar plexus,  to get a 'gut feeling'.

Play with this, putting things out on your view screen, bringing things into places, this week.  Notice the difference.  See what happens!

Dirty Thoughts

This is still a powerful time for setting your intentions, creating your visions, and making choices to bring them into reality.  What kind of choices are you making?  From what space are you making them?

Manifesting through reality paradigms.  A fancy, schmancy way of saying, you can't paint with old oils (or watercolors).  Or an old paint brush!

You can set any number of intentions, make vision boards up the wazoo, recite affirmations until the cows come home, but if you remain in the same energy patterns, then you'll always create the same outcomes.

You can even 'do a geographic', move to another city, change your looks, change jobs, change friends, but if your core pictures don't reset, you'll stay the same.

It doesn't matter what seeds you plant, if they're going in cement and watered with vinegar, you're not going to grow anything.

What creates fertile soil?  What creates growth?

Do something different, anything different.  You can start with microsteps.  Drive a different route to work.  Wear a different color than you're used to wearing.

After you pour your morning coffee, set the timer to 5 minutes, put the phone or tablet down, close your eyes and breathe.  Listen to sounds.  Feel sensations in your body.

I know a couple who, after they moved to a different city to retire, spent a week using their non-dominant hands to do things, whether it was to pick up the coffee cup in the morning, hold the phone to their ear, open doors, etc.  It was a way of resetting their experience in a new environment.

Microsteps are great ways to create new habits.  Set the timer to 15 minutes and clear the clutter in your office.  Stop when the timer goes off, and move to a different room (unless you're on a roll, then stay where you are).

I know two different authors who prolifically write books by microstepping.  One works 30 minutes at a time regardless of her busy schedule.  One has multiple books going at once and writes on whichever one moves her at the moment.

You have to bypass your brain.  It was your stinking thinking that got you into a rut in the first place.  Dirty thoughts create a murky reality.

Haven't given an assignment for a while: For the next 7 days, make different choices every day.  And see what happens!

Second & Third Chances

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb

Just finished listening to Michael Caine's interview on the Today Show. The topic arose about second chances, because at some point Michael Caine thought he was washed up as an actor, whereas he was really transitioning from romantic leads to (the more interesting, I think) character roles. And now he's written his second memoir, so he's a side career as an author. And he has three grandchildren, which he says his life is "really all about".

We value longevity and stability in this world, even though as a culture we are moving through rapid changes that require being able to shift at a moment's notice. It's not uncommon for someone's resume to show them transitioning jobs every two years. Marriages lasting more than 5 are considered 'long term'. If you keep an appliance or an automobile that long, it most likely will have a recall out on it for some defect! A computer? Forget about it - all your original software is no longer compatible with the rest of technology.

Even within relationships, in order to maintain one so that it proves to be long lasting, requires you to continually grow and change. Whatever brought you together as a couple initially can become a limitation as you each mature. If you keep treating your offspring as children when they're adults, they may stop talking to you!

Life requires flexibility and creativity in order to live it joyfully.

It's important to give *yourself* second, third and fourth chances, too. Any ending of any sort is an opportunity to reinvent yourself and try something new. You loved that job, you loved that house, you loved that person, wonderful. To quote Maude, from Harold & Maude, 'now go and love some more'.

Now, there's a next step to this. In which you realize that You are not just the personality with a story line, but You are the Essence of who you are, you are Infinitely capable and creative. And you're making all this up.

It's not exactly that 'this is all an illusion', implying that it's not real. But You are bigger than you. As the little you, personality with a body, you can have access to all the information in the Cosmic Internet, but it feels like it's outside of yourself. It feels like the power is somewhere else. Shifting to the You that is Infinite, that is beyond this lifetime, you can see that you created it all, your individual storyline, and everyone else in your story line. You *are* the Cosmic internet.

You 'made all this up' in that you created this physical reality. Of course it feels real - it's reality! You also created everyone who shows up in your reality. They're not fake, just because you created them. You created them to be different personalities, because You wanted the feeling of being more than U (unity-universe).

When you're walking along the street, it feels like it's you in your body, and it takes time and space to get anywhere. When you're in a car, you get there faster. When you're in a plane, you can look down and see the city, and the country side, people look like ants (if you can see them at all). When you're in a space ship, you can look at the planet... and planets, and solar system.

In the 'up above' perspective you feel disconnected from 'lower down', and it can be easy to say 'it's an illusion'. However, look at your body. It's make up of cells, molecules, atoms. Each of them are 'real'.

There's a way of being 'up there' and 'down here' at the same time. Having both perspectives is very freeing. There are no mistakes, because You're creating it exactly the way it is. When you shift into Quantum Physics and Parallel Universes, you're creating all choices at once simultaneously. So there have never been any mistakes, you chose both colleges that accepted you and a parallel self went to the other one and created a whole other storyline (parallel universe) from there. You married that guy and you didn't marry that guy. You backpacked through Europe *and* you stayed home and accepted that entry level job. Right now there's a Parallel self that lives in Paris and speaks fluent French!

This week, play with seeing yourself and your life *as* Your Infinite/Essence. Be bigger than any problems you've created. Don't just be connected to the Cosmic Internet, *be* the Cosmic Internet! What risks to you feel empowered to take (because they're no longer risks)? What patterns disintegrate in your holographic story line? The script becomes improvisational!

Try this for a week and see what happens!