Disasters and Consciousness

Disasters and Consciousness ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

We just had a massive earthquake in Nepal, followed by a large one in New Guinea, a fair sized one off of India, and volcanos erupting in Chile and the Phillipines and (underwater) off the coast of Oregon.  There's a whole lotta shaking going on.

With any growth cycle, there are periods of tension and release.  The planet is always moving around, tectonic plates shifting, creating more land masses, destroying along fault lines.

Society goes through similar cycles, belief systems constricting, people rebelling, conflicting ways of thinking coming to the surface, and eruptions of protests and wars, until we settle into a new normal.

We're strongly affected by natural and "manmade" disasters.  It brings out the best (and sometimes the worst) in us.  Heroes are made and hearts are broken.  Miracles and tragedies, side by side.

Faith is tested, faith is lost, and faith is found.  If there's any evidence that there's a power greater than our personalities, take a look at super tsunamis and 7+ magnitude earthquakes.

We may contribute to planetary disturbances and global warming, but the Earth could shrug it's shoulders at any moment and be rid of us.

Some of us shake our fists, at God ("how can God do this to us?") or at the Government ("it isn't doing enough to help or prevent this").

I've written in the past how we collectively create being in these situations.  I've noticed when everyone seems to be stuck or struggling, something major occurs.  And at other times, when everyone seems to be dealing with their own, inner earthquakes, external disasters pass us by.

But now it doesn't seem useful or helpful to look at things that way. It's too easy to blame or fault, misunderstanding responsibility with the ability to respond.

What happens when you perceive this as Consciousness? When you close your eyes, turn within, step back or drop down,  what do you notice?  Consciousness feels immense.  Consciousness feels impassive.  It feels like the ocean, which gives life and just as easily swallows you up.  It's not personal.

As Consciousness, there is no good or bad.  Earthquakes aren't bad.  Loss of life isn't bad.  There will always be eruptions.  People will always died, and at different ages and under different circumstances than they or others will have preferred.

Step a little more back, drop a little deeper, and there's more awareness flowing.  There is love and caring and appreciation.  And yet birth and destruction and equally creative.  There's acceptance of all that is.  There's a knowingness that all is very well.

Whatever we are each struggling with, is put into perspective.  This, too, shall pass.

Death and Taxes

Death and Taxes ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."  Benjamin Franklin

This may be a little premature (for both topics), but I was having a conversation with Janet, my radio show co-host about recording a show in April. She thought it could be about money, as it is tax time in the U.S. 'People are feeling taxed' she said. 'What is taxing you, how are you feeling taxed?'

And I immediately thought, 'in paying taxes I am expressing appreciation for all that the taxes are going to support!'  I like roads, and school, and healthcare, and retirement. And I may not like supporting warfare, I don't mind supporting the troups. Military spending includes supporting military families.

Two Tax Collectors, Marinus van Reymerswaele

We think of taxes as something bigger than ourselves (the Government) taking something away from us. Or we count on tax returns to give something to us. We're little, they're big.

And from the perspective of Consciousness, it's all a creation.  As the greater aspect of ourSelf, we create the reality of taxes.

If we feel like it's something happening to us, we're reacting as our body/personality.  We feel powerless, less capable, something bigger than us has control.

Stepping up to the awareness as Consciousness, we feel amused, we are in total agreement with whatever is occurring, we see the interconnectedness of it all.

As Consciousness we feel ownership, and authority.  Nothing is more powerful (and nothing is less).  There's no good nor bad as Consciousness, there's no ethics, so it's all good.  There is ultimate acceptance of what is.

"The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse everytime Congress meets."  Will Rogers

As Consciousness we've created this wonderful world of opposites and oppositions.  It's not accurate to say this is all an illusion, because it invalidates the very real, feeling experience we're having.  It's too easy to try to detach by being in denial and trying not to feel.  But then we miss the point of being here.

Taxes aren't certain, you can live without taxes.  Death may be an inevitability for the body but it's timing isn't certain.  Perhaps the biggest illusion is death.

We react to death, we feel the absence of the deceased's physical presence, but it's our grief that keeps us from sensing the aspect of them that's still alive.

If we miss someone, we may actually be experiencing what Bryon Katie calls a visitation.  They come to mind because they're there.  It triggers our body, because it feels the absence.  Bodies don't like death because they're not going to make it out of this lifetime alive.  But we will.

Consciousness doesn't die.  And that is certain.

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!