Fear and Anxiety

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb

Just read a post on Facebook that CFL lights are bad for you; it produces "dirty electricity" that can affect diabetics and people with asthma.  They recommended LED lights instead.  And I thought, yeah, until they find something wrong with them, as well!

It's always something.  If you're not ingesting mercury while eating omega-fatty-acid rich salmon, you're getting skin cancer from vitamin D producing sunlight.  The world is a scary place and we're not going to make it out of here alive!

The truth is, your physical body isn't going to make it out of this lifetime alive, and it's your body that's most attached to survival.  The expanded aspect of You is immortal, and doesn't take such things so seriously.

What's really hilarious is that fear and anxiety cause physical problems that can shorten your lifespan!  Worry about that, why don't you?!

An acronym of fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.  We perceive the world through our mental image pictures that have emotions attached to them.  The body's core concern is survival and so it's first question before trying anything new is, 'is this going to kill me'?  When change happens, or even considering change happening, the body can run a storyline out that can falsely conclude that it will die if such and such happens.

You lose your job or relationship.  Immediately the body things that there will never be another job or relationship.  You will die penniless and unloved.  Body sees only limitation and the end of things.

You, the Essence of You, sees expansion.  You lose your job or relationship, You know there will be a better job or relationship right around the next corner.  You will be happier than you were before. 

Anxiety is paralyzing.  You can't think of solutions and can't take actions.  And for nearly every single thing that you're anxious about, it isn't going to kill you.  Even AIDS and cancer isn't necessarily going to kill you - there are people living with both for years. 

If your body is your vehicle, and You as Essence is the driver, when you're experiencing fear, you're viewing life from sitting on the bumper.  Bring your attention back to You, into your center (your "driver's seat"), and you can start to see clearly again.

One helpful way to regain perspective is to talk to your body as Your Expanded Self.  You can reassure it and comfort it.  You can be your own parent.   Taking charge of the dialogue in your head can open your eyes to infinite possibilities out there.  It's very empowering to do this!
This planet was created to be one of dichotomies.  It's meant to be the opposite of Us, the opposite of Expanded, Infinite, Joyous, Immortal, and Unlimited.  Bodies have a myriad of emotions, a limited life span, aches and pains.  If it all were a total immersion virtual game (which it is), the program would have deliberate limitations built into it.  Any time you bust loose from one area, another area will come up to work on.  "If it ain't one thing, it's something else"!

When you shift your perspective from your body/personality to Your Essence, then the game becomes fun.  Limitations don't bother you.  You immensely appreciate all of it, the beautiful and the ugly.  Your amused at the news and the weather reports.  Someone shares with you something terrible happening with them and you congratulate them (for being so capable as to have created that in their storyline).  You Love it all.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to start recognizing your fearful pictures for what they are - just pictures.  And notice how much they're reinforced by advertising and news and relatives and friends.  Change how you talk to yourself in your head and how you respond to your body.

Try this for the next seven days and see how quickly things change for the better!

Consciousness & The Matrix

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I've been having an interesting experience this week with both Consciousness and also the Matrix. 

I like to do Robert Scheinfeld's "The Process" which is a way of breaking through the limitations and illusions we believe are reality.  In it, you affirm that you are Consciousness, creating this down to the smallest detail.

I've been walking my dogs in the mornings and playing connecting with Consciousness.  It different than being Conscious - I've been operating with a high awareness of Consciousness for most of my adult life.  I've always seen myself as Consciousness manifesting through form, rather than a body/personality with a Higher Self.  The way I'm playing with Consciousness now takes all this to a higher, yet deeper and more intimate level.

Initially I've been just talking with Consciousness, enjoying the connection with Energy and the shift in my perspective when I do so.  It lifts me to an expanded and clearer space.  Today as I communicated, I remember how I'd always talk to the Universe while driving my car.  And the difference with that, and now, is that the Universe was something outside of myself.  And Consciousness *is* mySelf.

It's hard to put into words, it's really something to feel.  And you can start to get there simply by shifting your viewpoint.  If that seems too difficult to do, You can ask for help from Consciousness in doing this, since it's You creating all of this anyway.  Which brings me to the Matrix.

So this reality is a wonderful Holographic illusion, and it's a matrix of bazillions of possibilities, which you can see as parallel universes, parallel dimensions, parallel selves and more.  It's beyond our comprehension as linear humans, but it wonderful to contemplate and appreciate as Consciousness.  How infinitely creative we are as Consciousness.  And this gets complicated to explain in terms of singular and plural.  You *are* Consciousness.  We *are* Consciousness.  Everything you see in your reality, You created, even other people ('Other Aspects of Myself').  When you can connect to Consciousness, you can feel the spark of awareness and recognition in everything, not just people but plants and even inanimate objects.

When you have a glimmer of comprehension of The Matrix or The Hologram, you can suddenly see the infinite possibilities that are there.  You can no longer be stuck, because there are too many options, too many doors and windows into other parallel realities.  It's like being on a superhighway with many, many, lanes to change into.

In my storyline, this illusion is becoming more and more evident.  That is, it's becoming more and more evident that this is an illusion.  Things that seems solid and real are collapsing, falling apart, or just randomly changing.  It's very destabilizing.  And yet, from Consciousness, it's very fun and exciting, too.

I invite you this week to practice connecting with Consciousness and practice viewing your life *as* Consciouness.  It'll help make all the instability of the storyline much easier to navigate.

Try this for a week and see what happens!

Reinventing Yourself

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb

So many folks come to me who are looking for work.  Some have been unemployed for months, if not years.  Some were laid off, found another job, and got laid off again.  All are hugely frustrated from sending out resumes into the abyss.

More recently, I've had people come to me who are in secure jobs but wanting to quit.  Or people who don't have to work, but are being moved to make drastic changes in their lives.

What's so interesting is that it's the same energy affecting (and motivating) all of them.

We are being called to live in integrity.  We are being called to act in alignment with our Expanded Selves.  No longer can we work at jobs just for money.  We have to start doing what we're here to do.

It's not necessarily about finding and fulling your life purpose.  I believe our life purpose is to create.  How we create and what we create is unique for each one of us.

It has nothing to do with destiny, I don't believe anything is destined.  We're all on a road trip through life and we get to choose the route.

If you were laid off, it's a big message from the Universe (your Expanded Self) that you're to do something different.  If you keep applying for the same position, no wonder you're not experiencing any results.

The thing I know is, if you take a risk towards doing what you've been called to do, the Universe supports you.

It's all about acting with Consciousness.  Being Aware in each of your actions.  Operating from the Bigger Picture Perspective. 

You can tell when you're off-kilter.  You don't feel good.  There's conflict in your life.  You're experiencing restriction which can show up as lack of money, lack of love, lack of other needs.

Course correction can be dramatic or subtle.  You can make small changes and in a short while be on your path, feeling happy and content.  You can take extreme action and completely change everything in your life and feel exhilarated and alive.

It's all about reinventing yourself.  Who you currently are is your invention.  Everything you define yourself and your life is all subject to change.  You have the freedom to do things differently, and be a different person in the process.  Yet at your core you will be fully and completely Yourself.

In order to reinvent yourself, you have to let go of your old definitions.  You might hold on to your abusive childhood because it's made you who you are today.  Letting go of the 'survivor' label doesn't invalidate or negate your past, but allows you to step beyond it, to become a 'thriver'. 

You might discover that things you were really good at, that you got a lot of external praise for being, doesn't really satisfy you deep down.  Being an excellent marketer and able to convince people to buy products may not be what the Inner You really loves.

It can be scary to let go of what we thought was secure and real.  But the payoff is Expansion beyond our wildest dreams.

This week - reinvent yourself!

Wallowing in Density & Effort

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb

There's the Law of Attraction and the Power of Positive Thinking, which are valid spiritual tools that many people misinterpret.  One common mistake with Law of Attraction is to place one's focus totally on what one desires, so they're not energetically "home" to receive it!  You have to put your request out, and then let go of it, because holding on to it keeps it as a dream.  Only in truly letting go can you allow the manifestation to come to you.

With the Power of Positive Thinking, people can be so focused on the positive that they're in denial that they have any negative feelings at all. Putting a cheery smile on one's face and ignoring uncomfortable feelings doesn't make them go away, and doesn't help you create what you want.   Abraham-Hicks has an 'emotional scale' people can use to feel one's way up from despair to joy.

With Robert Scheinfeld's Busting Loose work, he has what he calls The Process.  Whenever you feel any discomfort, you let yourself really feel it.  When it builds to a crescendo, you interrupt (or break through) it by stating that you're The Power & Presence of God, or Consciousness creating everything down to the smallest detail.  You 'reclaim power' from the illusion, and then appreciate what a wonderful illusion it was!

The trick is to do the Process without any agenda or wish to change, fix or improve the hologram.

People get stuck in a couple of places with this.  They get stuck in fully feeling the feelings, but not breaking through them.  And they forget to appreciate the illusion.  They think they have to feel better before they appreciate, but just saying the words even if you don't think you mean them, helps.  Even just reminding yourself that you're Consciousness creating this down to the smallest detail helps enormously.

When you're wallowing in Density & Effort, you've forgotten that you're the Infinite Being who created all of this.  When you remember Who You Are, you'll find the situation funny or exciting.  Infinite Beings love challenges (as well as creative story plots)!

Do you perpetuate your own wallowing?

In the summer of 2004, when I was following Abraham-Hicks, I realized that I was always making up conversations in my head with people, telling them how terrible my life was.  There was nobody there!  I was making it all up!  I was telling a sob-story over and over in between my ears.  I was perpetuating my own misery!

From then on, whenever I noticed myself starting to daydream that way, I'd figuratively grab myself by the ears and change the subject.  And within a couple of weeks I found myself lifting out of a depression I hadn't acknowledged but been in for years.

This isn't the same as the Positive Thinking mistake of denying emotions, it's not making up stressful thoughts that create negative feelings.

Which part of you is wallowing in Density & Effort anyway?  Certainly not your Expanded Self/Spirit/Consicousness.  It's the the Player, the personality or as Eckhart Tolle calls it, the Pain Body.  The part that isn't You.  The part that believes Density & Effort is real, and that it's helpless to do anything about it.  When you identify with that part, you're letting it drive.  Is it really mature enough to have a license?

Wallowing is different than grieving, and different than peeling layers of the onion or dismantling layers of the cloud cover.  There's no growth or forward movement when wallowing.

How do you stop wallowing?  Grab yourself by the ears and tell a different story!  Act like your Expanded Self.  Remind yourself you're Consciousness, even if it feels like going through the motions.  Dive *through* the feelings to the other side.

Try this for a week and see what happens!

Being in Integrity

(c) 2010 Joan M. Newcomb

Being in integrity is a high value of mine.  To me it means walking your talk, being in agreement with your Expanded Self, being in alignment with Source, being your Essence self.

I respect teachers who are in integrity.  It doesn't always look pretty but they're walking their talk.  They're practicing what they teach.  Which can be a tough thing to do.  Your ego can get pretty inflated when the money starts rolling in and you have adoring fans that follow you from event to event.  It can be easy to play to the crowd rather than be true to your Inner Being.

We're not taught to be in integrity growing up.  In school and at home, we have to please the teacher or parent, get the right answers on a test, not question 'why' and certainly not attune with our inner promptings.

By the time you're an adult (and often before), you are so out of touch with who You are, that you don't know *what* you want (although you know what everyone else wants of you)!

When you start to turn within and respond from your inner Truth, often the shit hits the fan.  People get really pissed off you're not toeing the line.  *You* get really pissed off, when You wake up to how long you've been out of integrity with Your Self.  It's all part of the breaking-through process.

When you're lined up with your Essence Self, you feel really clear and expansive.  You know the right direction to go in.  It becomes easy to make decisions that would have paralyzed you before.  It also becomes easy to wait until you feel motivated to take action, to think for 24 hours before saying or doing something.  There's a sense of peace and acceptance and even joy, even if the circumstances of your life haven't appeared to change.

Being in integrity means:
-quitting the job you hate even if it brings in good money.
-saying 'no' to preserve your boundaries - even if your family or your group will be miffed.
-being true to Your Self rather than maintaining the status quo
-practicing what you teach
-doing the inner work rather than relying on externals (whether it's caffeine/alcohol, or other people)
-using discernment when following others' teachings (are *they* in integrity)?

But first you have to notice whether you're in integrity or not.  Are you?

How do you tell when you're in integrity?  It's not always clear from the outside.  Everything in your life doesn't suddenly become hunky dory.  You may still be dealing with money issues or relationship issues.  But you have an awareness of what you're going through.  You recognize you're peeling away the layers, you're working with your inner navigational system.

It takes courage to be in integrity when the outside world seems against it.  On the other hand, when you're in integrity, there's no other way to be.  You cannot not be True to your Inner Being, once you know how it feels.

Lining up with yourself doesn't have to be a radical process (although many people create it that way).  Take it one moment at a time, one decision at a time, one issue at a time.  A series of small course corrections can completely transform your reality.

Your assignment this week, should you choose to accept it, is to notice when you're in integrity.  When you're out, make the (tiny or big) shift to get back in.  And see what happens when you do!

Quantum Leaps

"And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anaïs Nin

(c)2010 Joan M. Newcomb

I define Quantum Leaps as stepping beyond your limits into a new, expanded reality.  They're often accompanied by a physical leap of some sort. 

When I decided to go to Findhorn the first time, it was a huge stretch for me.  I had two young children at home and hadn't been anywhere by myself in years.  A family crisis seemingly had passed so I committed my 'emergency fund' to afford an introductory week there.  In the months that unfolded from the time I made the commitment to the time I actually flew there, my income went up dramatically.  So much so, that I was able to afford a second week, and still came home with the original 'emergency fund' intact!

Findhorn transformed me.  It healed the experience with my previous spiritual community and opened me to a whole new way of being in the world.  It also helped me take the next leap, which was to leave my irreparably damaged marriage.

That leap resulted in years of poverty and hardship, but also tremendous spiritual growth.  It's interesting to note that, when things were the most difficult, was also when miracles occurred.  Support came from out of left field, in totally unexpected ways.

There's a scene in one of the Indiana Jones' movies where Indy is running through a passage way inside a mountain and abruptly comes out to a fog-filled abyss.  He hesitates a moment and then steps out into it.  The fog clears to reveal a crystal bridge.  

Quantum leaps are initiated by your Inner Being (Expanded Self/Spirit/Essence).  When you heed them and step forward, support appears.  

You are being called to break through your perceived limitations and step into a bigger experience. The instinct to stay 'safe' but contracted is a distorted one.  Being contracted is not safe, it is a slow death.

You may or may not be called to quantum leap at this time.  You may be urged to take a baby step!  Look at yourself and your life at present.  Are things going well?  Are things moving or flowing?  Do you have enough money flowing in, are you in a loving relationship (or in loving relationship with yourself)?  Are you expressing your creativity?  Then perhaps all you need is 'maintenance' steps to keep the current energy moving.

Or is there one, or more, major areas of you life that seems stuck and not moving?  Whatever the reason, it indicates you're ripe for a Quantum Leap.  Look at what would break you outside the box or propel you forward.  What risk is required for you to regain your True Self?

Maybe it's something you've been wanting to do for a while.  Maybe it's an action you haven't let yourself even consider (until now).  Does it require a baby step, a minor course correction or a Quantum Leap?

This week, let yourself actually plan to make the required change (if not actually do it).  And see what miracles happen when you do!

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!

Love

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb

Love is such a multidimensional topic, it's hard to do it justice in a short ezine article, but here goes. I've had four or five times in my life when I've felt Love, with a capital "L". It's something bigger than being passionately 'in love' and more expansive than the love you feel for your children, although that's pretty darn close.

My experience Love with a capital "L" has occurred when I became aligned with Source, but the way that happened was slightly different each time. When I was a teenager it was a result of a strong focus of attention over six months or more and was really only a momentary feeling, a glimmer in the heart that was enormous even if brief.

In 1996 it was something that began happening a month or so before I went to Findhorn for the first time, then overwhelmed with while I was there, and remember feeling the energy withdraw shortly after I boarded the train to London on my way home. I suspect the focalisers had something to do with invoking the group energy that I'd stepped into there.

Again in 2000 I'd started feeling it when beginning study with David Spangler and even though I didn't continue on with his Lorian organization, a door opened and I remained in this space of being in love with God, in love with my life and in love with myself (in that order) for a good nine months. I still had all the same problems in life but was able to come back to center in the midst of them, and had this continuous feeling of well being during that time.

Then I had a mini-break of Love in the beginning of 2006, feeling in love with myself, in love with my life, and in love with God (in that order this time). I felt adorable and special - the most special person sitting in my car, the most special person standing in these shoes, and everyone else was adorable and special as well. In retrospect I see that this is how a parent feels about a beloved child, and how Source feels about it's body-personality creations (us).

I wish I had a formula or even a trick for recreating that feeling again, and for being able to stay in it. This November, after going to a Mark Dunn workshop in Portland, OR, I had a week of feeling like I was having a heart attack. I'd wake in the middle of the night and my chest would be aching. This seems to me that my heart was breaking open (after years of being shut down). Then at the Matrix Seminar in Seattle in December I found myself sinking into my heart and able to remain in interaction with everyone there the whole time. Matrix is a wonderful and warm energy, pretty close to the Love I've experienced, but not exactly. And since the Matrix Seminar I've woken at night with the Matrix/Love and felt it flowing through me to the world. Pretty darn good considering my original Mystery School training was to stay *out* of my heart chakra (in order to be neutral).

The thing is, the Love energy *is* neutral. It's non-judgmental, it's not about being good or perfect and it's not reserved for those who are. I didn't enter into the Love I've described earlier by being good or perfect or disciplined in a specific way. Although I see now there was an unconscious stepping into those states
either by choosing to go to Findhorn, choosing to away from the energy of alcoholism, choosing to give myself fully to Matrix/Busting Loose.

In looking at the bigger picture of this last week (being snowed in here in the Pacific Northwest) I know it's partly been about being in partnership with Source, or in relationship with my Expanded Self. My husband has been stranded in another city due to the snow and my kids have been stuck at their Dad's seven miles away until this morning, so I've spent the last seven days mostly alone. However I didn't spend the whole time in contemplation or reflection; I usually walked the two miles into town each day. But it certainly seems like my Expanded Self removed everyone from my hologram during what should be a family-gathering time of year!

There isn't really a conclusion to this article as the situation is still on-going. I'm still on the verge of whatever the new step is going to be or whatever is beyond the new door that is opening.

So I turn this around to you, who has created reading this ezine whether you subscribe or it was forwarded or you stumbled upon it in my blog. What is the heart-opening opportunity that is coming up for you to step into? What is the choice you can make that gives you over to a more expanded experience? What is it that you can say yes to (or no to, for that matter)? The invitation may be subtle, the suggestion may be in a soft voice, it may be an unconscious tugging to go in a certain direction, or it may be giving in to an urge that defies convention and sensibility.

Go for it, and your life with be transformed beyond belief.

One Big Thirdstep

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb
I've been working with Eileen Murray, www.thelivingconnection.com who does Akashic Records readings. As I was consulting with her about the changes in my life she kept repeating the message (and I paraphrase) to surrender into the Transcendence. And it reminded me of two slogans:

Turn It Over
and
Let Go and Let God

I've always said that nothing ever happens to you that you ultimately can't handle, but sometimes something occurs that feels overwhelming. That's when it's comforting to know that you can rely on an intelligence greater than yourself (although I'm coming to believe it really is my Expanded Self).

She led me through a meditation that helped me open up and feel this Transpersonal Love flow into me; I felt it coming in behind me, into my upper back and head. Wrapped in it, I felt all the strong emotions fade away and knew that everything was going to be all right.

I spent the remainder of the day with a sense of inner clarity. Although the future is uncertain, resting into this energy reassures me that all is very, very well.

Today I'm noticing the old feelings surfacing, but I realize that they're not mine. It's sad to see people who don't have this connection, especially at this time. They feel lost and fearful. They take the prevalent reality as real. Their only option is to suffer or rage or be depressed. It's too bad, because regardless of the economy, global warming, the war or whatever else is in the headlines, serenity is possible. Peace is just a turnaround thought away.

Whenever faced with a crisis (which really isn't a crisis but just another life event) I've found help in the first three Twelve Steps. Which are, basically, "I can't, God (or whatever you define as God) can, I think I'll let God". It helps to slow down and focus on the next indicated thing. Since I can't control the outer circumstances, or other people, I'll just work on myself. I'll respond to whatever requires responding, but I also know I often wait 24 hours before I do.

Anyway, the big lesson for me is to strengthen my partnership with Spirit/Source/whatever you'd like to call It. When I'm in agreement with It, then all things fall into place. Which leads me to the Serenity Prayer -
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (everything outside of myself). The courage to change the things I can (me). And the wisdom to know the difference.

I'm not big on prayer, although I do have favorites (The Serenity Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis are among them), I usually just have conversations with the Universe, whom I like to call 'Hey U'. But prayer does have the powerful energy of invocation, so can be helpful at times when a normal connection with the Infinite
isn't possible. We each have a inner cellular connection, but sometimes there's emotional interference. It's helpful to know the Other Party can hear us, even if we can't hear Them.

At those times, you just have to go forward, one moment at a time. That's what Faith is, trusting in the unseen, trusting in the unknown, and knowing that, ultimately, all is very, very well.

Letting Your Expanded Self Steer

©2008 Joan M Newcomb
I've been experimenting with letting my Expanded Self take the helm, which is a little different interpretation than 'Letting Go and Letting God', or turning it over to a Higher Power.

I *am* my Expanded Self. Long ago I learned that only about 20% of myself manifests through my physical form. That means the remaining 80% of me is non-physical. Now I see it as a progression of vibration from the highest (Spirit/Source) to the densest (Persona/Body). At Findhorn I heard it described as God Self, meaning that the essence of You is God.

Sometimes this means just going about my day in a highly aware state, with all my choices and actions intuitively driven. Some days things aren't so clear, which is when it's good to relax and let my Expanded Self make it happen.

A couple of examples - the other day I driving onto the ferry. Most of the cars on the dock were in one lane; it didn't open up to two lanes until several yards before the loading ramp. As I drove up there, the left lane was completely empty. I knew from prior experience that at that point it's okay to move over to the empty lane, but for some reason I couldn't make up my mind to do it. So I sat with the feeling of indecision as I boarded the boat. At that moment, the ferry worker directing my side of the traffic pointed at me and gestured me to move into the left lane.

My Expanded Self had decided for me. Afterwards, when I was driving off the boat on the other side, I realized it was better for me to be in this lane; I had to turn left when I got off the dock anyway!

A similar thing happened in a meeting a couple of weeks ago. There was a lot of people present and I'm conscious that there's not enough time for everyone to share, so I usually don't talk. But I had that same feeling of indecision, so I sat with it until there came a break in the conversation and I found myself speaking. My Expanded Self had chosen!

It's really a matter of trust. Trusting my Expanded Self is on my side (it is me, after all) and has my best interest at heart. Therefore, everything that is unfolding is beneficial to me.

It's amazing what happens when you have this awareness. People and things pop into your personal hologram in the most entertaining way or for the most amusing reasons. People *exit* your hologram and circumstances change in surprising ways as well. It feels like having the most talented screenwriter/ director creating your life. Which you do, since it's You. Life stops being a soap opera and starts being a romantic comedy (or action-adventure, whichever you prefer).

Reality becomes something to enjoy, to savor, and to take deep pleasure in. But it's not something that batters you about or tosses you like a leaf upon the ocean.

Realize that it's not about putting your life on cruise control, but rather letting the greater aspect of You take the wheel. Change happens faster, more effortlessly, and with greater possibilities than you (the 20% part of you) can imagine.

So I invite You to try it, and see what happens!