Fearlessness

Fearlessness ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

What would you do, if you weren't afraid to do it? Who would you be if you weren't afraid of what others would think?

Fear is a tricky thing, it masquerades as anger, vagueness, sleepiness, or even perfectionism. What it does, however, is keep us frozen, stuck, or spinning our wheels.

I never acknowledged feeling fearful until I was about 40, and if you look at my younger life, some of the things I did were incredibly brave. But it wasn't until later in life, as a parent with children dependent on me for their own survival, that I acknowledged feeling fear.

It's amazing what we do out of fear, we run from relationships or we rush into them. We leave jobs, or we stay in them too long. Or we rage, which gives the energy not to be paralyzed, a "deer in headlights", but often ends up destroying that which we were fearful of losing.

And here's the thing - fear doesn't exist at the level of Consciousness.  It's totally a creation of the physical realm. It's your body and the attached personality that experiences fear.  Your body-personality reacts to anything that moves it beyond it's comfort zone as a threat. Even if it's good for you. Your body can't conceive of anything it hasn't experienced. So even if it's what it thinks it wants, it may not be able to handle it.

When you're aligned as Consciousness, your little will to your greater Will, then you're in total agreement with everything that is going on. In the present moment, there's total balance and
acceptance.

When you're in the present moment, fear dissipates. The body isn't being forced ahead of itself, nor is it stuck in a past that it cannot change. In the present moment you can make choices and take action, initiate changes.

You aren't your body or your personality. You are Consciousness, you are Presence. When you're fully embodied, your body can relax. You as Consciousness can take care of things, and knows exactly what to do.

And often you find, when you're in Presence, that you already have what you thought you needed, that you never lost that which you thought you'd die without.

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!

Is Resistance Futile?

Is Resistance Futile? ©2016 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

I woke this morning with the lyrics to "Do You Hear The People Sing" from Les Mis going through my head, and felt it was a commentary on the prevelant feeling throughout the world at this time.

"Do you hear the people sing? It is the song of angry men. It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again..."

People are angry. People are protesting. People are grieving. People are rebelling.

People are being called to action. They are speaking out. They are taking stands.

Aikido July 2002 Chateau de Clairvans, Gerard Blaze et Dominique

Then I remembered the scene in Les Mis, during the French Revolution, working class people manning the barricades. And they all got shot.

Is resistance futile? Do the big guys always win? Do our votes really count? Are our voices heard?

The energy of resistance usually attracts what you don't want. What you resist, persists. So from that perspective, resistance is futile. It perpetuates you in the reality that what you're resisting has power over you, is dominating you.

However, the energy of anger propels you out of the paralysis of fear. So if you are fighting something, that energy gives you the strength to take action and make changes.

The strongest stance, energetically, is non-resistance. That doesn't mean that you accept the unacceptable. But it means you can't be bullied or intimidated or triggered by whatever the other side does. You stand in your own power and negativity passes through without sticking.

Some forms of martial arts use non resistance to their advantage. When an opponent attacks, they respond in such a way that uses their energy against them. They step aside and the attacker falls over by their own force.

How can we possibly be non resistant to all the insanity going on right now? Wouldn't that be staying in our 'bubble' of privilege, or being in denial?

Non resistance doesn't mean not doing anything. It means to respond rather than react. It means standing back from all the noise and make conscious choices before taking action.

You can have strong feelings about things and still respond with non-resistance.

Bullies thrive on victims. Narcissists thrive on attention, even negative attention. Dominators aim to disempower people by getting them riled up and off balance.

We are all more powerful than we know. What is happening on the planet is that greater Consciousness is coming into form. That means your body is able to hold YOU, as Greater Consciousness, more than ever before.

Shift your perspective to your inner Essence and you will regain your balance.

Small Steps and Big Leaps

Small Steps and Big Leaps ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

What's one thing that you want to accomplish in life? What's keeping you from doing it?

So many times what we want is just out of reach. We can see it in our mind's eye, our fingers can almost touch it.

One Small Step by Photophilde

Sometimes we're in so much chaos and drama, just barely keeping our head above water, that we can't even know what we want, much less see it. We just want the pain to end.

We never get started because the end point seems so far away. It's taking so much of our energy just to be where we are. And where we are sucks, in that it sucks our energy for doing anything else.

We're immobilized by indecision. We're stuck in vagueness. We're entrenched in mundaneness.

Maybe we're seeing how far down we can go, how bad it can get, before we have to take action.
Maybe we're waiting for some catalyst, something to happen to us, to rescue us or make us change.

Is it complacency? Is it laziness? Is it fear? Is it perfectionism?

From a bigger perspective, I see it as a disconnect between our body/personalities and Consciousness.  As Consciousness, we're everywhere at once. We think of something, we're already there. We've already created it. But our bodies aren't there yet.

We're so impatient, we don't even start. We're overwhelmed and paralyzed.

Consciousness is continually evolving in form. Change will happen. But unless you take action, it may be in the opposite direction of what you desire.

You want to lose weight but you keep eating, your body will change (and grow).

All it really takes is one small step. Just starting. Doing something different.  Babies weren't born running. Sometime you have to crawl to your first step.

That first step breaks you out of your routine. That first step shifts you onto a different trajectory.

What is your first step?

Your first step may not be a physical action, it could be making a decision. It could be noticing. Noticing what you eat. Noticing what you spend money on. Noticing how you use (or misuse) your time.

Your next step is also a first step as well, as you're moving forward in uncharted territory. It could be a simple action. You can always course correct. It could be switching from sugarly lattes to plain coffee, saving hundreds of calories each week (effortless weight loss as well as saing dollars). It could be choosing to use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator (effortless exercise).

It could be choosing to put your lotto money in a piggy bank instead (effortless saving).

Once the basics are taken care of, the fog clears and we're able to have a clearer vision of what we want. Our energy shifts from daydreaming and fantasy to research and planning.

It all starts with a baby step. Your first step takes you towards your quantum leap that transforms your life.

Try this for the next seven days and you'll be seven steps farther along by next week!

Winter Musings (c) 2008 Joan M. Newcomb

(c) 20108 Joan M. Newcomb

Just walked to town during a snow storm (wimpy by New England standards, very exciting by Seattle standards)! I'm writing this from the libary for a small break before walking home.

It was quite an adventure. I bundled myself up, taped plastic bags around the bottom of my jeans, put on earmuffs, a hat, and pulled the hood up on my stadium coat. My husband's snow gloves were a smart addition - kept my hands warm because of the extra room in the fingers!

I had a jolly time walking. My hat ended up being low on my forehead so I couldn't see very well. It was like being inside a snowglobe. Just me, my thoughts, and my Expanded Self.

I wanted to have a conversation about the issues I've been working on - fear, foundation, the need to be being taken care of (a driving force since I was 22), to name a few. The thing is, my Expanded Self responded immediately with one sentence to each issue, so it wasn't much of a talk.

Fear is a body issue, bodies are concerned about survival as life and death is very real to them. I got an immediate picture of the whole game, with bodies being a part, and the programming that holds everything together. But this is an illusion, bodies are an illusion, survival is an illusion. How can Tibetan lamas levitate or control their body tempatures in artic conditions, how can Indian gurus stop their hearts and start them again, how can there be spontaneous healing, people defying the statistics for AIDS and cancer, if this were a solid and set reality?

Foundation is within. When I asked about this I felt solid in my lower abdomen. I realized I was focused and asking this from my heart, but the response was lower. First chakra. Except chakras are an illusion, too. But this is my focusing point, this illusion of a body, so it's my foundation within the physical.

The need to be taken care of. I immediately got that all my needs *are* taken care of. Everything that unfolds is perfect, my Expanded Self is creating this all down to the smallest detail. Everything *is* being taken care of. But, but, but...

Not a satisfying response to a body that wants to feel secure and loved. (You ARE loved, I immediately hear). I want to win the lotto, so I'm financially taken care of forever (or at least for the 26 annual payouts). I don't want any more surprises or heartaches in my life. So that means my kids have to be happy and taken care of for the rest of *their* lives, too. Or at least until they're 73 and 76, since an on-line insurance quiz said I'd live to be 104. Everything has to be hearts and flowers for everyone.

Sounds like I want to live in a Disney movie, without the villians.

Even writing about this has triggered a deep, deep thread in me. It's probably a core resonance for everyone, stemming from infancy when we *needed* to be taken care of, or die. And I realize this loops back to everything I've been writing about - this is an illusion, the body is an illusion, this is part of the survival program that holds this illusion together.

I got the picture of one of those robotic babies that they given teenagers in Health Class (okay at schools with big budgets; other kids just get 5# bags of flour). The babies are programmed to cry, to need to be changed, be fed, and will stop working if these needs aren't responded to. We're all walking around in giant robotic babies. And mine takes over typing this blogpost occasionally.

What I do about this is to see myself as both the one with the need and the one able to take care of it. There's a wise, all knowing part of me, my inner Obi-Wan, and when I imagine it stepping forward, the needy part of me is comforted.

The library is closing early (no surprise), so I think Obi-Wan and C3PO are going to walk home now.

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!

Fear and Anger

(c) 2009 Joan M. Newcomb

We're an Infinite Being that's created this Human Game for the fun of it. As Infinite, we're Infinitely Joyful, our Essence is ecstatic, all the time. So one of the fun aspects of the Human Game is all the different emotions we can feel!

A couple of these emotions are fear and anger. Physical bodies have the fear emotion as an alarm signal that they're in danger of being injured or dying. Anger is a reaction to fear and is an inspiration to either get the heck out of the situation or to defend or protect itself.

That's it.

When we're playing the Human Game at an unawake level, everything seems to reinforce the fact that we're powerless and in danger of dying. That we are our bodies, and when they go, we cease to exist. So the emotion of fear is a great reinforcement!

Look how fear has expanded in our world, in the news and in politics, to reinforce this aspect of the Human Game. We can be sitting in our homes snug and cozy with a cup of tea, and then turn on the news. Suddenly we're told that we could catch a flesh-eating bacteria if we haven't washed our hands, or the swine flu could be overrunning our community. An outbreak of an illness is a harbinger of a pandemic. There could be a few flakes of snow in the air and the news has turned it into a full scale blizzard.

I live on an island of 11,000 people accessible only by ferry, and we've police with drug sniffing dogs going up and down the ferry lines, and the coast guard circling our boats. Just in case "the terrorists" want a target 3,000 miles from New York City...

It's a great way to keep you off-kilter. Even if you were focused on reclaiming power from the illusion and waking yourself up to a more joyful way of living, you've totally forgotten about it now!

News and politics kindle anger, too. We're all supposed to have strong feelings against certain countries in the Middle East, or people who drive Hummers, or vote for the other guy.

Anger flares up when we feel our boundaries are crossed, and man, do we create boundaries wayyy out there so pritnear anyone could cross one at any time.

There's family patterns that reaffirm the fear and anger dance as well. Dad has a hard day of the office, is fearful of getting fired or not having enough money, comes home and yells at Mom, Mom snaps at the Kid and the Kid kicks the family dog. We carry such patterns into our work lives and other interactions. People make overly aggressive comments in meetings and emails. The recipients take it, fearful of losing their job in this economy (oh, the Economy, what a great fear game), then go home and yell at the wife, etc. etc. Fear and anger, fear and anger...

When we wake up to the fact we're an Infinite Being and that we actually created all of this down to the smallest detail, our first reaction may be anger.

Anger can be an effective way of getting unstuck, of clearing out limitations that have been blocking us from moving forward in our lives. But if you're reacting against a distortion, often your anger is distorted as well.

When we start to realize We created all the characters in our story line, that they're actually reflections of us (us in disguise), it becomes harder to react with anything but amusement or appreciation. Like a writer/producer/director admiring his newest film or play, you chortle with glee over every twist and turn in the story line. You absolutely love every character as well, no matter how flawed.

Fear and Anger become indicators that we've lost our focus, that we've temporarily forgotten our Infiniteness. As We grow in Awareness, You can actually get to the point where you're both amused *and* angry or fearful at the same time!

So I invite you to take a step back from the news and politics and view them from the bigger picture of the Human Game. And take a step back in your daily life to see how family patterns may be running both at home and at work. Appreciate the marvellous Game that this is, and see how you feel at the end of 7 days...

Email me and let me know!