Slogging Through Other People's Density

Slogging Through Other People's Density ©2019 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I've had several nights this week where I've been awake for ages, feeling other realities waft through me. I'm able to discern they're not mine, but I'm not fully able to pinpoint whose they are. But boy, some people are having a really difficult time!

Several people are crippled with anxiety. A couple folks are in the depths of despair. One gets me as they're mired in resentment, and I can go there myself all too easily in the wee hours.

It's almost always a loved one who's emotional energy I tune into, they span 6,000 miles and several time zones. But I often forget about the most obvious one - my husband right beside me in bed.

A devout Buddhist, he has a practice of praying for people, so during his wakeful hours he'll start thinking about different groups that are suffering. Which sounds oh so holy and lovely but for the empath next to him it's pretty gruelling.

I'll have no reference point or clue that he's focusing on starving Sudanese, or someone who is ailing. But I'll feel their emotional resonance.

It occurs to me that we're all influenced by other people's density, now more so than ever before. As we collectively go through the shift in Consciousness, our sensitivity is increasing. But our first reaction is to think it's our own reality.

Certainly, feeling other people's struggles colors our own experiences, but you don't need to stay stuck in their stuff. It doesn't help them to match their level of discomfort, and you can still have compassion while being detached.

Someone I know who is married to a psychic, created a technique for being able to sleep at night when his spouse is dealing with different vibrations. He uses an imaginary lead curtain (like the aprons they put on you at the dentist office when you're having x-rays).

You can also imagine yours frequency to be a 1/2 step above the vibration you're dealing with. It allows you to separate from the density without totally detaching.

If you're visual, you can imagine your energy field to be a different color than theirs. If they're a dark blue or grey, yours can be yellow or pink.

An ancient technique is to imagine a rose at the edge of your energy field, creating a defining line between your space and others'. I think of it like floats in a swimming pool that let you know where the deep end is.

Of course, at 2am I didn't think about any of these suggestions, or I would have gotten a better night's sleep!

Try these yourself and see how your reality changes!

How To Handle The Mosh Pit of Life

 ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

It's been an emotional roller coaster ride recently. With all the events around the world, no one has been spared, it seems. It's hard to maintain equilibrium in the midst of it all.

My original training as a healer and spiritual counselor taught me to be detached from my clients. The intention was to stay out of sympathy with them, because sympathy can actually be disempowering. If you feel sorry for someone, it invalidates their capability as Spirit. When you acknowledge them as Spirit, it recognizes them as whole and capable of creating their reality.

However the other end of the pendulum presented was empathy. The problem with empathy is that you're feeling their feelings. Which makes it really hard to be neutral.

I'm sure the original translation of the teachings meant to be compassion. That is, compassion in the Buddhist sense, which accepts and doesn't resist suffering, but also wishes all beings peace and happiness.

When I shift from my everyday perspective, where I can get caught up in injustice and sorrow, to an expanded perspective as Consciousness, I truly understand compassion.

As Consciousness I view the world as my creation, not a school but a playground of experiences. I can appreciate both the creativity of myself as Consciousness, and also the other aspects of Consciousness, in their life stories in form. I recognize that even the most unconscious-seeming person is still Consciousness. I can have compassion for the pain and discomfort that comes from being in form, in a body, without awareness.

There are some very painful stories out there. There's heartbreaking loss. And yet, as Consciousness, there is no loss. The dead are still with us, we just can't see them. The house is gone, things are lost that are irreplaceable in form, but there is life beyond.

Consciousness is neutral about these things. Consciousness is also neutral about time. It may take years to recover from the trauma, to rebuild lives. To Consciousness, this entire lifetime is in the blink of an eye.

Before "waking up", I was in tremendous pain for so many years. I was suicidally depressed some of the time. When I lifted out of that level of depression, I made choices that may have limited me to the outside world, but were intended not to tip me over, to keep me from going back into that pit of despair.

Our societal measurements of success are not the same as Consciousness.

You can't dive into physical reality without getting muddy. If you try to avoid it, you've missed the point of being here.

I look at what is happening in the world and I want to end poverty and starvation. I want everyone to feel nurtured and loved. I want everyone to be spiritually enlightened. I want everyone to have their heart's desire.

And when I shift my perspective as Consciousness, I see that what everyone is striving for, they already have. Freedom. We are free to experience the world in all of its aspects. We're free to explore the depths and the heights. We are free to create expansion *and* contraction, increase and limitation.

What everyone is desiring, they already are. At their Essence, they are Consciousness.

When I sense all of us as Consciousness, as much as I'd like to say it's like a symphony, it's really more like being in the mosh pit of a heavy metal concert. In the rain.

When I sense everyone as Consciousness, I can see how everyone is actually enjoying themselves here, even folks who thought they had tickets to Vivaldi and found themselves in the crowd listening to Metallica.

Amusement, Fear, and Consciousness

Amusement, Fear, and Consciousness ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I've been telling groups that as Consciousness we're amused by Donald Trump and I'm afraid I'm going to get stoned by an angry mob afterwards.

I totally get it. Because at one level, there's nothing funny about the destruction happening to our country, our healthcare, our national parks, our national security, women's rights, people of color, lbgtq, I could go on and on.

It's infuriating, and it's terrifying.

At that same level, it's become so bizarro world in the news, the only response is hysterical laughter.

The amusement I'm talking about isn't that kind of laughter. But nor is it 'let them eat cake' kind of laughter, either. It's not flippant, it's not denial.

Consciousness amusement is expansive, like the sky, like the ocean. It's embracing and encompassing. It's neutrality and compassion at the same time.

I'll confess that I couldn't have written these words a few months ago. I was too enraged. I did not like the parallel universe I found myself in on November 9th. And it shook my confidence about the work that I do.

You know the reactions, fight, freeze, or flight? I had the first two while wishing for the third one. Fighting is my way of not getting paralyzed by fear.

Fear is a body emotion, bodies take everything seriously, bodies aren't going to make it out of this lifetime alive. Bodies feel the impact of the news.

We're not neglecting or abandoning our bodies by allowing amusement, by relaxing in. It's allowing Consciousness to be more present in physical form. Bodies find this comforting. (Because, hey, a body without Consciousness is dead).

So back to amusement. I know we're collectively coming through this, that we're surfacing to a new level, because these words are being written.

As Consciousness you exist both in this physical world, and outside of it. The greater part of you exists outside of time and space. The viewpoint is more than the bigger picture of your individual life and this point on your timeline. The greater part of you sees all lifetimes and all possibilities.

If you could take your life as it is now and hold it in this bigger context, what would that be like for you?

If you knew that nothing was ever lost, including loved ones, what would that be like for you?

If the story of your life had infinite possible plot twists available to you, what would that be like?

Consciousness' experience of this world is appreciation, joy, wonder. Amusement, because it experiences no loss. Amusement, because it takes nothing seriously (not to be confused with disrespect or disregard).

Over the months, a lot of spiritual people have said the only antidote to what's happening is love, to send Donald Trump love. I couldn't do that from the space I was in before.

Now, I can see how.

As Consciousness, you love this world as it is your creation, your playground, your fishtank, your children, your physical home, your plants, your pets. There is loving neutrality with the world and with how storylines unfold.

And, I firmly believe, no, I know because I see it happening, that as greater Consciousness comes into form, as we're so strongly experiencing now, that things can change quickly (sometimes in an instant).

The current story can be reversed or rewritten at any moment.

(I'm writing this on a Tuesday, to be published on Friday, so I'm very curious to see what unfolds by then).

Just as people radiating love into the world have impact (as much impact as phoning Congress and marching), so does allowing yourself to be amused. It's an avenue for greater Consciousness.

There's room for all responses, as they work on different vibratory levels.

Notice if, in the midst of the onslaught of news, you have glimmers of amusement. That's the greater You breaking through.

Relax into those glimmers and watch them expand into your life.

Play with this and see what happens!

How To Be Neutral When Life Gets Crazy ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

How To Be Neutral When Life Gets Crazy ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

The other day I was talking with a woman who is a natural psychic. She sees things in depth, but is swayed by the pain and suffering that she uncovers.

It made me remember my days as a clairvoyant student and the bulk of our training was on reading from a neutral space. In order to give a clear and balanced interpretation for a client, we need to see them without our own preconceived notions coloring our 'lenses'.

Cosmic Soap Bubbles (God Takes A Bath)
WoodlyWonderWorks

This ability to see things from a higher perspective is invaluable, especially during these insane times.

It's not heartless to be neutral, it's actually highly spiritual.

The qualities of Consciousness are neutrality, amusement, childlike wonder, immense wisdom, depth, and impartiality. It is Love in it's highest form, which is unbiased and unconditional.

Now we're all becoming more highly sensitive, which means our abilities are increasing: to feel other's feelings, see clearly beyond façades, intuitively "know" what's about to happen, pick up on other's thoughts, and the list goes on.

When we're experiencing life from a 'boots on the ground' viewpoint, we're going to feel the world's pain, we're going to judge what we see as good or bad, we're going to feel responsible for events beyond our control, and be confused about what is us and what is the collective.

Terrible things are happening in the world all the time. There's a bigger spotlight on them now, we can immediately see tragedies around the world, where ever people have smart phones that can load images on the internet.

It's overwhelming.

How can you be neutral when life is so crazy?

Here's a few things you can do:

1. Imagine yourself a Half Step Above whatever you're experiencing. If you're in a crowd, allow yourself to be a "half step above" the prevalent emotion. If you're watching something on TV or on your device, be a 'half step above' internally. It shifts your perspective up a notch, giving you some distance from what you're observing.

2. Another way to do this is Be A Different Color or Tone. If you're in a group of people and their energy is darker, imagine your personal bubble to be a lighter or brighter color.  If you detect things by sound, if you're perceiving static or disharmony, let yourself be a different musical tone.

3. Blow bubbles, you can do this for real, or just in your head. Watching TV or reading the news, imagine a stream of bubbles popping. It helps clear your preconceived notions about what is going on. This is also a great way to go to sleep at night, clearing your brain so you're fresh in the morning.

4. A Consciousness Technique is to view things from farther away, like sitting in the Skybox at a football game, or hovering over the game in a Goodyear Blimp. When you see people as players on the field (and even yourself down there as a player in this game of life), you can get a 'bigger picture' of what is going on.

This world is full of dichotomies and contradictions. Physical reality is real in that it's meant to be physically experienced, through our bodies. But it's a creation of our Consciousness. As Consciousness, we love our creation. As Consciousness, we're both in time and space (as we're experiencing it in form) and outside of it. Outside of time and space, it's all happening at once in the blink of an eye. It's all happening simultaneously, that means all lifetimes *and* all possibilities.

We can't comprehend that from within our bodies and personalities, that live along a linear timeline.

When you can get neutral, and shift your perspective to that as Consciousness, you can have compassion for those that are suffering, and also for those that cause suffering. You can appreciate and love all of this wonderful world.

Try these for the next several days and watch your life reorganize in amazing ways!

How To Expand Your Universe

How To Expand Your Universe ©2016 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I have relatives on the East Coast that have been having a rough time. Their conservative party is disintegrating and it feels, to them, that their essential values are being threatened.

They're really upset that their way of life may be affected by people coming from other countries and forcing those cultures on them.

As I write this, it sounds ironic to me. It's what our white immigrant ancestors did to the Natives.  It's also what our Christian missionary ancestors did around the world.

One side of my family came over on the Mayflower, in 1640, escaping religious persecution and seeking the freedom offered by the New World. Another side came from Ireland at a time when the U.S. hated the tide of Irish immigrants. The Irish were considered lowlife.

So my progenitor told everyone they were Scottish, including their offspring. We were so proud of being Scottish, and didn't discover we actually came from Sligo until the 1970s.

Oops.

Hubble 3D - NASA

Now, I was a conservative myself until my mid 30's. On election day, I was stuck home as two kids had chicken pox, and the conservative president that was up for reelection had just vetoed the Family Leave Bill. And it occurred to me that maybe politics did affect me.

So I shifted my perspective.

Spiritually, I went through years of metaphysical training that was a marvelous discipline.  I came out an energetic athlete (but only in one form of practice). I taught that training for several decades. A fundamental focus was awareness of space. A distortion of the teachings was that merging energetic space was bad.

Then I took a course with David Spangler, visionary, author and spiritual teacher, and Lorian priest.  He mentioned that each person you come into contact with expands your Universe.

'Expands your Universe'? I thought they 'invaded your space'.

Then I started to realize that, you can't truly fall in love if you cannot merge energy.

You can be aware of energy, and have your own field be clear, when you don't resist and you don't judge. When you deem something as 'bad' or 'invasive' you actually shut yourself down and lock 'negativity' into your own space.

When you are neutral, non-resistant, compassionate *and* detached, stuff you don't like passes through, doesn't stick or doesn't get attracted.

'Invading your space' creates barriers and resistance. The idea that immigrants are 'forcing' their cultures on you is a distortion.

Other cultures enrich our own. The English language is made up of many different languages. Our way of life is influenced by many different cultures. New people in our world expands our experience.

However you can't put new wine into old wineskins.

New energy, new experiences, new people to know and love, can't come into your awareness if you are closed down or defensive. If you are holding on to old thinking and perceptions.

The solution you've been looking for? The relationship you've been longing for? The dream job you've been wishing for? Could be right in front of you if your eyes are open. Could be right across the street if you broadened your horizons. Could be in your Universe if you expanded it by welcoming in change.

This week, I invite you to drop your shields, relax your boundaries, and become energetically open. Let energies pass through you like wind through a screen door.

Imagine your atoms separating and releasing whatever you've resisted. You might have been closed down and creating what you don't want, and keeping out what you truly desire.

Try this for the next seven days, and see how your reality transforms!

It Falls Apart Before It Gets Better

It Falls Apart Before It Gets Better ©2016 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

Doesn't it seem like everything falls apart before it gets better? And when you're in the midst of it all, it feels like it will never, ever, get better.

People will come to see me with a laundry list of things they want transformed in their life. We work together. They may or may not notice any changes during the session. They go home. And everything falls apart.

And then it gets better.

Well, that sucks. Why does that happen? Why can't we wave a magic wand, go 'bibbity-bobbity-boo' and step into being instant millionaires?

(Let me tell you, win Mega or Power, and your life falls apart there, too).

Step back and look at your life as if it were a structure. It's a house that you've built. Your 'laundry list' reads: 'New roof, new plumbing, refinish floors, sunroom, master bathroom...'

What would your house look like if you initiated all that changes at once? There'd be no roof, holes in walls, floors stripped.  Even if it's going to be good on the other side, it's suckky to live in a house during a remodel.

Sometimes we know we called this growth period in. Often we feel like it's thrust upon us. And it doesn't always look like it's happening inside our 'house'.  A loved one gets ill. We get laid off.

The structure of our life is more than our bodies. It's the bigger foundation.

When growth occurs, it's because we're bringing a greater aspect of ourSelves in. Consciousness is a bright light, a high vibration, it is the Essence of who we truly are, more than this individual body and lifetime.

In my original training I learned we could only bring about 10% of us as Consciousness into our bodies. I believe that has changed and we are bringing much more in now.

This light reveals cracks in our structure, areas that can't contain our brightness. We are expanding to encompass more of who We are.

And, it shows up with shifts and changes in all areas of our lives. A loved one gets ill. We get to hold a bigger space for them in their experience. We grow, become more compassionate, gain greater emotional depth.

We lose our job, which seems to rock our underpinnings. And then we learn that our career isn't our identity, money shows up from different places, we have the opportunity to expand to new fields and new coworkers or environments.

Don't resist the light coming in. Don't resist the things that are disintegrating. In fact, your Light can strengthen weakened structures when you don't resist it.

Lean into the benevolent light. It is You, as Consciousness. Your life is growing into something new and better.

...you are growing into You.

Time And Space

Time And Space ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

I almost typed 2016.  And I left out "anchoring into".

For the last couple months, I've been planning a trip to Europe.  I told my mother, years ago, that I'd take her ashes to every place she'd lived.  As a Geographer, the idea struck her fancy.

It's been a multilayered project.  My husband and I are going to the countries we lived in, and also visiting my son who lives in Spain.  Thank God for Google Chrome automatically translating web pages!

I've had to find all the addresses of our old houses, figure out how to use public transport to get to them, and find accommodations that will fit my 6'6" spouse. Not too many places in Europe have king sized beds.

This process started intellectually, but at some point shifted.

View of Denmark from the International Space Station

As Consciousness, we go to wherever we think about.  You may notice how hard it is to pack to go on vacation, because as Consciousness, you are already there!

It's been disorienting working on this trip, because I'll be in Madrid, Berlin, London and Sweden all in one afternoon.  And later on, cooking dinner, I'll notice aspects of myself in other places.

I'm curious to see whether I'm previewing the trip, if I'll experience deja vus from this time now.  My sleep patterns been disrupted more than usual, because part of me is 9 hours ahead.

I tracking my son, who's anticipating our arrival, and I'll also tune into AirBnB owners responding to my inquiries.  Those things are happening now, in real time.

But I'll also get glimpses, feeling whifts, of other things not in this present moment.  I'm sensing the flygbusse trip from Skavsta to Stockholm.  I'm feeling bright daylight outside of Hammersmith tube stop.  I see my son crossing the street in Zehlendorf.

Both my parents waft through my space.  I only have my mothers ashes, but my father lived for travel, and is actively overseeing this journey as well.

And, very unlike me, I've shared with my siblings what I'm doing.  It's sparked their memories of growing up in places before I was born (or places after I left home), and also triggered their grief at our parents' passing.

Throughout this process, the veils of time and space have become thinner and thinner.  I've started to sense myself at different ages in the future.

I think what's happening to me isn't unique.  I think we're all experiencing heightened sensitivity.  We've collectively moved to a new level of evolution.

How is it showing up in your storyline?  What is different about your experience in life?  What do you notice as you go about your day?

I didn't title this post "Anchoring Into Time And Space" because if I did ground with my old technique, I would lose this multidimensional feeling.  I would be like going back to black and white from color, or dialup from wifi.

The body needs to be grounded, and as Consciousness I can anchor into my body, but something new is needed.  Or maybe my techniques just need an upgrade.

Notice if you need to try something different.  Maybe you need to change your form of meditation or exercise.  Maybe you need to make up your own way of doing things?

We've evolved to a greater level of awareness, which translates to a greater responsibility for being in form.  That may look like taking more ownership of, or authority over, your life.  Or it may be having more permission to be creative, think outside the box, do things differently.

Acknowledge what you're noticing, and validate yourself.  You've come a long way.  These are exciting times, with great possibilities.  What door are you going to step through today?

Feeling Other's Emotions

Feeling Other's Emotions ©2014

Empathy - the ability to feel other people's feelings.  Many of us have the ability to feel other's feelings, we just don't know it!  Or if we do, it feels like a burden.

Empaths are very sensitive to their environment.  They feel the energy of restaurants and offices, parties and gatherings.  It can be challenging to drive down the freeway, when you sense all the accidents that have happened there!

If you feel an emotion out of the blue, not connected to what is going on around you or in your life, it's probably someone else's.  You can pick up loved one's feelings, even if they're 3,000 miles away.

Feelings that don't make any sense, that feel really intense, are usually someone else's communications.  They are emitting how bad they are feeling.

Sometimes they come in on familiar channels.  You may allow them in because they're a friend or loved one,  Or they may remind you of a family members.

Sometimes it's just proximity.  The guy in the apartment above yours has been laid off and is really depressed.  Even though you are happily employed, you start having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.

People who aren't empaths will say, that must really be your emotion, you're just in denial, but I disagree.  If you live in an apartment building with too thin walls, you're neighbor's rap music at 12am is not your bedtime listening choice!

You have no control about other people's remittances but you can, believe it or not, control your ability to receive.  You can 'dial down' your emotional 'hearing'.  You can zip up the front of your chakras to help protect your space.  Imagine your lower chakras being like volume dials, and turn them down.

This may be hard for some people to do.  Their empathic ability protected them growing up.  Perhaps they had a parent that was unpredictable.  They never knew what mood they'd be in when they came home.  But they could feel them coming, and knew when to stay out of the way.

People communicate with feelings, a mother may have a hard time turning down her empathy with her children, even when they're adults.  It's important to know if your infant is in distress, but less so to feel the anxiety of your twenty-something preparing for their graduate exams!

We mistake empathy for compassion.  You can feel compassion towards someone who's suffered a shock, a loss, but it doesn't help you help them if you're expressing the same intensity of grief.

If you're rescuing a drowning man, you need to keep your own head out of the water.

Society places great expectations that we match the energy of groups.  If you're actually able to be a half-step above the emotional energy field, you can be accused of being cold or unsympathetic.  You might, however, be the only clear-headed one in the crowd, able to lead the way out of darkness.

As an empath myself, my biggest revelation has been that I get to set my own energy level.  I can decide to be a different vibration.  I can imagine my aura to be a different color, I can see myself vibrating a half step above.  I can allow a sense of amusement for whatever black comedy I'm engaged in. 

Give yourself an empathic break today.  You will find it totally transforming your life!