What To Do When Reality "ReCodes"

What To Do When Reality "ReCodes" ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb


If you're on Facebook, how do you react when they roll out a new format? You wake up one day and half your timeline is populated by ads or suggested posts and you can't see your friends any more. WTF??

Now imagine that you're playing an online virtual reality game with people all over the world, and the game is being recoded *as you are playing it*. The consternation amongst the players is palatable.

My husband is a devout Tibetan Buddhist, who follows a strict practice that is a thousand years old. It's about as opposite from my interactions with Consciousness as you can get, and it's fascinating when he comments about changes that he's feeling with his meditations that so perfectly describe what I've been noticing in reality.

The other day after his meditations, he said that "it feels like a software upgrade". That it felt like a "recoding" was going on.

And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what is happening! And we're all perceiving it in different ways.

If you're experiencing the world as your avatar, your character in the game, you're going to feel helpless, angry, powerless to the whims of whatever is going on externally.

If you're experiencing the world as the user, you may still be pretty pissed off with the programmers, but might be figuring out ways to game the system to your advantage.

Now if you've been familiar with metaphysics for a while, you'll consider that you're a programmer of the game, and may be busily upgrading software you've created to meet with the new requirements.

When you realize that you are the designer as well as all the other aspects, programmer, player, avatar, there's no need to do anything. You're in agreement with everything that is happening, since you're also creating everything that is happening.

You can still play at other levels, but it's a lot more fun and you're aware of moving through different experiences as you do so.

I call the designer aspect Consciousness, and we are all Consciousness, creating this reality, experiencing it in our different bodies and personalities.

Even the most unconscious of us, is Consciousness.

For myself, I can tell what level I'm playing on, by how I feel. If I feel frustrated or irritated, I'm struggling at the character level of the game. If I feel like I know it all and am striving to be in control of my reality, I'm still operating from the mind level, and even if I'm able to manifest results, those results will invariably backfire in some way.

When I feel amused, curious, playful and loving, I'm operating as Consciousness. I effortlessly flow through my day in ways that would drive my inner Napoleon crazy. How the heck can you produce results if you're not taking decisive action with specific intentions?

Yet as I navigate as Consciousness, I find that reality reorganizes in ways more perfect that I could imagine.

Even if what seems to be happening in the world is sad or negative, I can see the bigger picture of what is unfolding.

I invite you to play as Consciousness this week and see what happens!

Running on Fumes

Running on Fumes ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

On Monday I work up sick, and spent the first day walking around in amazement. I never get sick so I don't know what to do. If I have a headache or a sprained ankle, I forget to take aspirin.

The second day I asked someone what you do when you get sick.  They said 'rest,' a novel idea since I'd usually power through it.

The third day I drank ginger tea, which helped, and was tremendously productive.  Yesterday I was 100% better, but today I'm drinking ginger tea again.

Ginger Tea

When I look at the big picture, I can see where I've been overextending myself. In many ways and on many levels, I've simply run out of gas.

I just looked at the title of my post and realized 'fumes' can mean more than just fuel. I've carrying around grievances.

Fuming leaks energy.

Illness is a message to focus on your body, to do something differently.

I'm engaged in several kinds of start-ups that aren't yet yielding results.  When you begin something you can't expect to receive from it right away. It's like being a parent of a newborn.

My start-ups are 12-18 months old; I have a bunch of toddlers still in diapers.

When I look at my calendar for the week, 90% of my schedule is in service or action, 10% is receiving.  Imbalanced, to say the least.

I also notice that, although creativity is required in all my work, I'm not using my creative energy in a way that's nurturing or satisfying to me.  I have two or three books I've been meaning to write for years.

I'm not kvetching. I'm sharing this, suspecting that a few of you out there will resonate.

Where are you draining energy (emotionally, physically, financially, or otherwise)?

Where do you feel your creek beds are dry? Are they dammed up or dried up? What can reverse the flow?

Are you spinning your wheels? Are you stuck in a rut? What can give you traction?

Some ways to give yourself "juice":

Mini-moments of enjoyment. Pause to enjoy the sunshine, a flower, the view.

Take a total break. A movie or a book (unless you use TV or your Kindle to waste time normally), or a walk or a hike.

Ask for help.  It might be a simple as a brainstorming session with a friend, or hiring someone else to mow the lawn. You may discover your spouse/family/coworkers might be happy to pitch in, if you ask nicely!!

Meditate, pray, journal, energy work. If you're in the habit of any one of these, you may want to mix it up and try something else. You may find you need to strengthen other spiritual 'muscles'!

Try any of these for the next 7 days, and let me know what happens!

Pure And Simple Happiness

Pure And Simple Happiness ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

Whole Foods opened it's very first store in Tacoma yesterday and I was unbelievably happy.  We've lived here for 18 months and I've been trekking to Seattle almost weekly for my organic fruits and veggies.

I could rave on about the store - it's enormous, it's bigger than the one in Rockville in the DC area where I'd shop when caring for my mom - but it isn't about the store, it's about the feeling.

It was pure and simple, childlike joy.

Happy Baby!

It surprised me, because, yeah, I like Whole Foods, and, yeah, I'm going to appreciate not schlepping up I-5 forty-five minutes each way to go shopping, but this just came in sideways.  Which is what it's like when you're receiving from Consciousness.

Something like this happened a couple weeks ago as well.  We went out to dinner for my birthday, and this same childlike joy came up.  I mean, yeah, it was my birthday and yeah, it was a nice restaurant, but there was also a myriad of things that could have pissed me off (and has, in the past).

Instead these was this gleeful feeling, everything unfolding 'just for me'!

What's going on?

I think that I've cleared away enough rubble and clutter that my inner child feels safe to come out to play.

I've been strengthening my inner connection as Consciousness, and it's allowing this to come in.

I'm hesitant to say what's contributing to this, as I don't think there's one formula for finding happiness.  I've had several times where I've experienced what I'd call a Spiritual Awakening.  It's a feeling of being in love with the Universe, in love with my life, and in love with my Self (and not necessarily in that order).

I do know that it's come after a period of focused concentration, i.e. several weeks or months of meditation and energy work.  I also know that it's gone away when I've lost my focus or gotten distracted (like getting into a new relationship).

What I can say is that it takes disengaging from outside drama.  It takes detaching from other people's 'stuff'.  It's choosing to keep your hands on the wheel of your own vehicle, and your eyes on the road of your own path.

The thing about happiness is that it doesn't come from a winning lottery ticket, or from having all your ducks in a row. You may not have learned all your lessons perfectly, or attained enlightenment. You can, however start experiencing happiness, right here, right now.

I do have some simple tools and techniques that I use, and that I've taught clients to use with great success. If you're interested, I'm going to be launching a new online training, click here to find out more!

What about you? What makes you happy?  Or, what would make you happy? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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?

Dissolving Depression

Dissolving Depression ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

For many people, February is a tough month.  In the northern hemisphere, Winter is dragging on, and the lack of warmth and sunshine has been taking it's toll.  The holidays are over, although Valentine's Day is coming up, which brings up relationship issues.  And many of us are mourning losses.  People seem to pass during the holidays, the "veil" is thinner, we feel and miss our deceased loved ones more.

Depression is a soggy, wet, blanket, blocking our body/personality's awareness and receptivity to Us as Consciousness.  When you are under it, you feel powerless.  People, places, things have more control over your reality than you do.

I struggled with depression from the time I was twelve until I was thirty-five. When I left my first marriage, I was suicidally depressed. As a single parent, I made decisions which resulted in 'staying small' and living in poverty, so I wouldn't tip over the edge.

During those years I tried a number of solutions.  I saw therapists,  I was given antidepressants, I went to support groups, and as an adult I medicated myself with St. John's Wort and Kava Kava.

What created the ultimate turnaround was noticing my thoughts.  I realized that I spent most of my day imaging myself talking to people about how terrible life was.  I started noticing when I was doing it (whenever I was driving, when I'd fall asleep at night) and I would figuratively grab my ears and redirect my thoughts.   I'd reframe it to all the good things that were happening, or set intentions for good things to happen!

It was challenging to do at first, but within two weeks I lifted out of that depression, that I hadn't known I was in, that had been going on for years.

Now, if you are deeply, darkly depressed, don't try to do this on your own.  Reach out, get help.  Depression affects (and is affected by) brain chemistry.  Although positive thinking rewires your brain, creates new neuropathways, you may need medical help to get to the point of treating yourself.

All of this is ground level stuff, body/personality issues.  It's the body/personality that feels depressed.  Consciousness is light.  Consciousness is always joyous.  YOU are Consciousness, therefore your Essential Self is always happy.

Your body/personality is how You experience life here on playground Earth.  When you're too bogged down in the mud, you feel disconnected to the Essence of who you really are.

Body/personalities are happier when You are in the driver's seat.  Meditation helps you clear, anchor and center, but if you're depressed or in emotional pain, it's impossible to sit still and focus.  I found walking and reciting affirmations helpful when I struggling.

Shift your perspective from being the body/personality, where things are happening to you, to being Consciousness, the Creator of your reality.

Notice I said 'creator' not 'controller'.  Controlling your reality implies an outside focus, trying to manipulate, change, or even keep your external reality the same.

We create our reality from within.  Our thoughts create our reality (you can think of them as projections, but I also find them energetic building blocks), but the impulses emanates from within.

Besides consciously changing your thoughts, here's a simple exercise for dissolving depression:
Part 1 is to imagine a Gold Sun above your head, bring it's sunlight into your body and surround yourself in a bubble of gold.  Part 2 is to imagine that same gold energy emanating from within you to outside you. Surround yourself with gold that generates from within.

You can visualize it as the color gold, or feel it as warm sunshine, or imagine it as solar energy to generate your system.

You can play with this in different ways.  You can imagine a gold grid dissolving depression patterns.   You can imagine this gold energy blessing your path.

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

Pattern Disruptors - Stop Painful Interactions NOW!

Pattern Disruptors - Stop Painful Interactions NOW! ©2015 Joan M. Newcomb

We made it through the holidays, but this year has been a doozy so far.  We've stepped up to a new evolution of Consciousness and all sorts of things are coming out of the woodwork.  When you're vibrating at a higher level, things that are dense get dislodged.

It may feel like your foundation is being rocked, or the mortar holding your life together has come loose.  Things that were your anchor points have gone, your own identity may seem to be dissipating.

Circumstances may seem to be creating these changes.  Your relationship, job or home situations may be falling apart (or coming together).  But in reality it's You, your Inner Being, that is shining a brighter light, and everything else is reacting, a ripple effect emanating from You.

What this means is, you can no longer interact with others in the same way.  They may seem to be carrying on things learned from family, but you cannot respond from old expectations.  And yet, when you speak up, stand in your truth, all hell breaks loose.

A while back I wrote about the Bug Zapper technique for keeping your space clear around others.  It's especially useful in situations like weddings, family reunions, any time you are around groups of people where you (or they) may be triggered.  The Bug Zapper eliminates projections coming towards you, but also disintegrates projections coming from you as well.

This is a variation of that technique, but you start with creating a single laser beam, representing one thread of a pattern.  Have it out in front of you, or - if you're feeling the effects of the pattern in a particular place, inside of you at that spot.   And allow it to vibrate.

When I did this recently, I noticed one family member who was carrying on the legacy.  The laser beam initially seemed like a lightning bolt, not meant to zap them, but to zap the pattern.  The threads of connection disappeared and we both looked lighter.

You don't have to know what the pattern is - in fact, it may be more useful not to know, as it opens more possiblities when it's not defined.  You can also use multiple threads; they look like a grid.  You can pass the grid through your energy space, or use it in front of you or to one of the sides.

When I did this, I noticed the energy shifting with someone I care about, and fortunately in a way that eased the matching pain we're experiencing.

This is something you can play with in meditation or when going to sleep at night.  It's helpful to be intuitive and playful about it, not to think too hard.  Be open minded and notice what is different.

As you do this is that your interactions with people get easier.  Situations you may have thought were impossible to change naturally unfolds.  You're not out there doing anything, manipulating circumstances, you're just focusing on vibrating threads.

And, these threads and grids can shrink down to the size of microchips, you can allow them to work within your space without giving a whole lot of attention to them.  Your energy increases, your sense of wellbeing expands.

You are Consciousness and playing with energy this was is how you navigate your life *as* Consciousness!

For more tips, tools & techniques (as well as coaching and classes) on how to navigate with Consciousness, go here!

Try this for the next week and see what happens!

It Works When You Work It

It Works When You Work It ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

It pretty much doesn't matter what it is, from a diet to meditation, it won't work unless you're working it.

You can be an intellectual expert on a topic, but understanding something is entirely different than putting something into action.

It doesn't mean that accomplishing a desired goal is easy.  It's not necessarily 'just do it', but sometimes it's 'do it anyway'.  It can be hard.  It can be uncomfortable.  It can be awkward.

You probably won't feel like it, even if it's good for you (or especially if it's good for you).

You won't get good at it unless you start.

It's the same with law of attraction, healing work, and energy techniques.  Consistency, focus, and practice makes them real.

Simple is usually the most effective.  Do the first indicated thing.  Take the first step, and keep going.

Often we get defeated before we even start.  We look at the end point and get frozen with perfectionism.

Your house won't get decluttered that way.  Set a timer for 15 minutes and start somewhere, anywhere.  Play music.  Listen to a recording.

It takes 90 days to initiate a good habit, or divert a bad one.  It takes time to shift energy, too.  Every day you get a chance to more towards what you want to create.

Baby steps or "micro" habits are effective, too.  Floss one tooth a day.  Do one pushup.  Meditate for 60 seconds.  Drink black tea instead of coffee with milk.

Energy techniques are a great way to manifest change, without having to know how to actually achieve your desired outcome.  Every morning, imaging popping a dozen bubbles that represent whatever is keeping you from doing or having what you want.

Every day step through doors of parallel universes, to a more desired reality.

Keep it small, keep it consistent, one moment at a time, one day at a time.  Work it, and you will see it works!

Inner and Outer Work

Inner and Outer Work ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look On The Bright Side

Thoughts become things, but first they make ruts in our brains.  Repeated thoughts create neural pathways, so it's possible for your mind to get stuck in the rut of negative thinking.  To shift one's perspective initially takes effort - it's like exercising a muscle - but after a while it becomes a habit.

 

How our brain makes memories

We view the world through our 'mental image pictures', so things can look rosy or glum, depending on our 'slides'.  

That's not to say to be merry as a Mormon if you're in a toxic relationship.  Viewing things with clarity, without judgement, viewing things as they are, you can make better decisions on what to do.

Our brains are constantly recording everything, not just visually but aurally as well.  Think of how we're bombarded with noise and random conversations in the world around us.  We've learned to block this out, but images and conversations can play back to us on an unconscious level.  If you don't want to be programmed by commercials, turn the sound down on the TV and look away during the times they're on!

As sentient beings, we're always looking to grow and expand.   We are naturally going towards the light (although sometimes it seems the way out of darkness is to dive through it)!  Even if things seem like they are getting worse, they are in the process of getting better.

Breakdown always means there's breakthrough in store.

We don't need to keep all the random impressions we've taken in during the day.  A simple way of clearing your inner cache of pictures is to imagine creating and deleting roses (or rose colored bubbles).  Imagine a rose.  Make it disappear.  Imagine another rose, make it disappear.  Now imagine a string of roses, like blowing bubbles, and make each one 'pop', or disappear. 

Don't worry that you'll delete something that's important, you've stored the truth it contains elsewhere in your energy system.  

But 'blowing roses' is a great way to fall asleep at night.  It helps you wake refreshed, and clarifies your dreams as well. 

The clearer your thoughts, the cleaner your manifestations.

Try this for a week and see what happens!

It Works When You Work It

There's a slogan in 12 step groups, 'It Works When You Work It'.  It means that if you do the recommended steps, you'll see results.

It's the same with energy work, and there's a few caveats.

You can't give something lip service, you have to actually take action.  You can't just visualize or make a collage, you have to physically do something to bring it your vision into form.

That doesn't mean hard work, or effort, however.  When you go into effort, you spiritually spin your wheels.  So sometimes it means stopping busywork.   It means taking authentic steps towards creating your reality.

An authentic step may look like meditation, or yoga.  Or reading a book.  Or taking a nap.

"It Works When You Work It" also means giving yourself time to practice what you're learning, time to go through the steps.  As Infinite Beings we love to jump to the end result, since as Spirit we're already there.

Whatever you are doing, requires a foundation.  Sometimes building that foundation looks like adopting a healthier lifestyle.

If you want to create wealth, you may need to start with balancing your checkbook.  It doesn't matter how great you look on the outside; you may need to start buying yourself new socks and underwear!

If you want to create a loving relationship, you may need to start with self care.  Loving yourself attracts someone who will love You, too!

Anything (on this planet) takes practice in order to become real.  Abraham-Hicks says it takes 17 seconds, but what they mean it, focusing on something for 17 seconds starts the attraction.  Focusing every day for 17 seconds begins to bring it from thought into physical.

However, the focusing has to be fun, it has to be positive, in has to be both grounded into reality and without effort.  If your focusing with clenched fists and furrowed brow, or if what you're fantasizing about doesn't really have You in it, you're just spinning your wheels.

Beware of Gremlin voices.  Those negating thoughts, 'oh this is a waste of time', 'I've tried it already and it hasn't worked', 'who am I to want this?', 'if I have what I want, no one will love me', etc. etc.   We all have Automatic Negative Thoughts.  Don't feed the ANTS.

Miracles happen when you let yourself consistently practice the techniques I've suggest in my weekly articles.  If you're reading this via my newsletter or somewhere else, find them on my blog at www.jmnewcomb.blogspot.com!

And Now For Something Completely Different

And Now For Something Completely Different ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

Think of something you want in your life.  Is it a new (or renewed) relationship, a successful career, more money, less weight, better health?

How would You have to be different?

Go For It!

Look back on your life, have you ever had that thing that you want?  What did it feel like?  What changed when you didn't have it anymore?  Maybe you've never had it, it's always been just out of reach.

You keep saying, 'oh I just wish I had' more money, but reject suggestions on how to create it.  It's too hard, it would take too much effort, you'd "sell out to The Man".

"I wish I had a relationship" and yet everything about your life keeps people out rather than lets someone in.  Really sharing intimacy is scary.  Being alone is like living in a house with no mirrors.

You never lost that 'baby weight', or all women gain weight at menopause, or powerful men (or women) carry more weight.  Being thin feels vulnerable.  Being thin means unwanted attention.

Health patterns, body gets sick, body has pain, body feels discomfort.  It's always been that way, my dad had the same problem, it's genetic.  No matter how hard I try, I can't... (fill in the blank).

If you had what you wanted, what would you lose?  Maybe your partner wouldn't take care of you anymore?  Maybe you wouldn't attract someone in your life to take care of you?

Maybe people wouldn't like you anymore if you were (whatever it is)?  You'd lose your friends.

Rich people are unconscious.  Wealthy people just care about their money.  You can't be spiritual and prosperous.

I can want that thing, but I can't have it because...

Argue for your limitation, and they're yours (Richard Bach).  Just because something has always been that way, doesn't mean it can't be different.

In order to have what you want in your life, you have to change your core identification.  Start thinking of yourself as a thin person.  An abundant and generous person.  Someone in partnership.

What does success feel like?

A couple decades ago, Shirley Maclaine was on the Oprah Winfrey show.  Oprah made a comment about weight and Shirley looked at her and said, if you want to lose weight, you'll have to want everything to be different (or words to that effect).  After that, Oprah turned into a stick.  It was her first bout with weight loss, and it wasn't healthy.

Then Oprah moved into a phase of running marathons, her weight stabilized.  She was at a place of gaining power and strength, both in body and in her life.

Then Oprah radically put on weight again.  She shared about having thyroid problems.  She probably entered menopause.  What was also happening, she was developing a network station (beyond just her TV show).  Her weight ballooned as she expanded into this new aspect of power in her life.

Now she's had her network for a while, it looks like her weight is going back down.

Oprah's a wonderful example of changing her reality, and bringing up core issues we all struggle with.

Whatever is most elusive in your life, you are propelling away from you in your beliefs.  You may be comfortable in your discomfort.  Misery is familiar, joy is not.

At the end of an energy session, I tell people to 'notice what is different'.  If you go, well that didn't change anything, you've reset yourself back to the state you were in when you walked in the door.

Healthy people made different choices (about food, about lifestyle, about...).  People in relationship share their lives, make space for someone in their world.

If you've never had whatever it is you want, you may not know what it feels like.  Be willing to step into the unfamiliar.  Open yourself to being different.

You may be in a family system, or a constellation of friends, that support the way you are, but not something functional or healthy.  Be willing for the old to fall away.  Maybe you can be a shining example for others to follow!

What would it take for you to have what you want?  Are you willing to go to any length to be healthy?

Maybe people in your life actually want you to be happy, or to have what it is you desire.  Notice if you deflect other's suggestions.

You claim you want to be thinner, people only see you eating salads, but not the ice cream in the middle of the night.

You bemoan being poor but never follow through on those help wanted ads on Craigs List.  A little voice in your head sabotages your efforts.  Who needs enemies when your own thoughts are doing such a good job at holding you back?

You can be thin after menopause, you can be healthy and people still like you, you can have money and free time as well.

Changing your reality is as simple as shifting states.  Step to one side or another, and you've stepped into a parallel reality where that is possible.  Notice what is different.

Notice when the 'Automatic Negative Thoughts' come up, and ignore them.  Don't feed the ANTs with your attention.

Healthy food tastes better.  Good men (or women) aren't so hard to find.  There's a perfect job out there with a wonderful work environment.

Shift your focus and you'll see all the new possibilities.

Make one change in your routine, take a walk after dinner instead of watching tv.  Have fruit for dessert.

Imagine the world wanting your success.  Your attaining what you desire encourages others to have it as well.

Whatever transformation you want, Your expanded self already is there.  Step into that new reality.

If it's earning or working, be different with your time.  Catch yourself on your 'time wasters' and spend 15 minutes tackling something on your 'to do' list.

If it's money, be different with your spending.  Start tracking your numbers, save receipts, look at where you are leaking money.  Clarity can be a big relief.

If it's food, write down everything you eat.  Make different choices.  Stop drinking anything with calories.  Choose water or tea with lemon.

If it's relationship, notice whether (or where) you hang out with other people.  If all you date are alcoholics, stop hanging out in bars!  Meet people for coffee rather than drinks!

Is there room in your life for someone, or is half of your bed piled high with books?

Yes, you've heard this all before, but nothing changes if you change nothing.  Stop spinning your wheels.

"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off!" (Gloria Steinem)

Perhaps you have to get angry to get out of your rut!

Sometimes we claim we want something, and it's actually something else we really desire.  What would make you happy?

The Universe wants to give you what you're asking for.  Can you have it?

Sea Changes

Sea Changes ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

I've been pondering evolutionary vs. instantaneous change.  Evolutionary change happens over time, you sometimes don't even notice it until you look back and realize you have become completely different. One thing happens after another, you respond or react, and you grow.

Instantaneous change is when your life changes in an instant.  You look into the eyes of your newborn child.  You win the lotto.  There's a tragic accident or natural disaster.

Growth is always happening, even if things appear stuck.  Stuckness grows, it just increases in density. Things may appear frozen, but many things are germinating beneath the surface (or in the unseen).

We like things to be easy and effortless, we want our changes to be pain-free.  Do you wait for the bandage to fall off, or do you rip it off?

Moving forward or staying still, are both actions.  Letting things happen or making things happen are both choices.

Accidents, disasters, sudden changes, are opportunities for growth and depth.  They can bring out the best in you, if you remain conscious.

You may not be able to control the event, but you can set your intention.  You may not know what's unfolding, nor how you'll get through it.  But you have access within you to the Cosmic Internet of all knowledge.

You are flowing in a current of the sea of life.  Sometimes you can pull up the oars and go with it, sometimes you need to paddle not to drift off course.  Sometimes a storm tosses you and takes you somewhere unexpected, to your next leg of your journey.

It's a waste of energy to complain about what's happening.  Resistance creates more of what you're resisting.  Complaining depletes creative resources.

You can't stop the ocean, you don't really want to.  Embrace the adventure.  When you look at the big picture, it's all supporting you to get where you want to grow.

Coming Into Center

Coming Into Center ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

I've had a few 'Spiritual Awakenings' in my life, and am teetering on another one.  I'll share with you what happened before, and what's happening now.

Each experience before came after a period of focus, and often after overcoming (or being in the process of overcoming) some great hardship.

The Spiritual Awakening was unexpected, and how it felt was unexpected, too.

The length of time I was in the awakening varied, but usually (it seems) getting into a relationship knocked me out of it.

How I got into each Awakening period was different, but each time I was doing some sort of inner focusing, inner meditation or energy work.  But the techniques differed.

So, what's happening now.  I'm refocusing energetically after a period of hardship.  What I'm doing is subliming simple on one level, although complex on others.

I'm simply walking my dog.

However, I'm walking my dog slowly and mindfully.  My dog, being a 10 year old, overweight corgi, is just fine with going slow.  She likes to sniff and pee on everything.

While she's inspecting every frond on every fern, I'm standing, centering, focusing inward.  My eyes are open, so I'm aware of my surroundings, but it's all an inward feeling.

First revelation came earlier this week, when I brought my full awareness into the Now.  The Now is pain-free.

This is so different than the decades of grounding and running energy, focusing into my body.  During traumatic times I couldn't sit still.  It was too painful.

Even though I "knew" the past was heavy and grief-ridden, and the future was fear-filled (from my body's perspective; body only knows the past, the future isn't real to it).  Even though I "knew" what Present Time was.

Bringing attention fully into Now, drops the memories, the stories, and the seeking.  There is no pain when you're fully aligned in the Present.

Okay.  So the second revelation happened the other day, I was playing with chakras and quantum energy.  My original training, running energy, auras, chakras, etc. became like Newtonian Physics after I learned about Matrix energy.  Matrix energy was Quantum Physics.

"Quantum Energy" is so outside the box, so outside the hologram, there's no center of the earth, there's no chakras.  It's an unnerving place to be, when one's been so in-bodied focused for such a long time. But it's the place where miracles occur.

Over the years I've integrated and adapted my techniques, chakras have become useful again as reference points.

So as I was walking the dog, I was playing with 'one-pointing', something I noticed I came up with a while back (doesn't mean that others aren't talking about it as well, we're all in the same Field).

As I 'one-pointed' each chakra, when I came to my throat, there was this sudden Awareness - very much like the Spiritual Awakening experiences I've had in the past.  I didn't fully tip over into it, but it's there and accessible.

One pointing my throat chakra, connected me inwardly *and* outwardly to All That Is.  That's about all I'll say about that at this moment.

Because, the next thing that's been happening, is this sense of pulling inward.  I've been consciously attempting to 'come back to center' in a way that worked in the past.

What's happening now, however, is coming back to center doesn't stop.  It's a continuous pulling inward that feels endless.  Each chakra point (and this isn't chakras as I knew them, or how I was originally trained - those were vortex tunnels that ran from front to back, energy flowed through, etc.) is like a doorway into the Infinite. There's an inner point in each one of them that is never ending.

So I'm playing with that.

The important thing here is that I'm not consciously TRYING to manipulate what's going on.  I'm not trying to control the outcome.  I'm just responding to the moment to what Is.

How is this useful to You?  Well, You will come to your own Awakening from your own series of experiences.  How to have your own... try this -

Drop your outward focus.  Pull your attention away from the drama and story in your life.  Bring your attention back from the past, all that's happened, and back from the future, all you wish that would happen.

I focus from the center of my head, that's back behind my eyes, between my ears (and up a little bit, actually).

I notice the center focus points down through my body, from the top of my head, center of my head, throat, heart, stomach/solar plexus, below my belly button, and in the base of my pelvis.  Sometimes the soles of my feet.

Imagine pulling your energy back from wherever it is in time (past or future), space (anywhere on Earth and beyond), and multidimensional reality (that can be dreamtime, or other universes, even).

Notice what that feels like or looks like - you may notice a change in your visual perception, too.

From there, it's up to You.

I'm in process with this, so more will be revealed, I'll share with you more as things happen!

Happy Awakening!

Interconnectedness

Interconnectedness ©2014 Joan Newcomb

An aging teacher tired of his student's complaints. One day, he sent him to get some salt. When the student returned, the teacher told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.

“How does it taste?” the teacher asked.

“Bitter,” said the student.

The teacher then asked the student to take a handful of salt and toss it in the lake. Then the old teacher said, “Now drink from the lake.”

The teacher asked, “How does it taste?”

“Fresh,” said the student.

“Do you taste the salt?” asked the teacher.

“No,” said the student. The teacher explained gently:

“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain remains exactly the same. But the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container. When you are in pain, all you need do is enlarge your awareness. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

I'd take this a step further and say that the pain of life IS exactly the same, we are tasting the same salt that that others are tasting.  If we contain it within our bodies, it will feel overwhelming.  If we release it back to the Cosmic Sea, we gain compassion and awareness.

We're Consciousness experiencing individuality.  Our bodies are transmitters and receivers.  We have our reactions to events, but we also draw from the pool of lower emotions. When we operate from Consciousness, we can choose what we transmit. 

The Buddhist bodhichitta mediation practice has one breathing in the world's misery and breathing out loving-kindness.

In other words, you can use your body as a transformer of lower vibrations into higher vibrations.

This only works if you're already grounded and cleared, otherwise you're just swimming in pond scum.

You can tell when you're experiencing your own body's emotions, from when you're experiencing the collective discomfort.  Your own feelings have clarity, when you're feeling other's feelings, it's overwhelming.  Toss their salt back into the sea.

It's easy to get caught up in collective events, people coming together to protest, people reacting to a natural (or man-made) disaster.   We're naturally compassionate, we respond to other's sadness.  But we can't help others if we're drowning ourselves.

There's another practice where you quietly turn within and emanate Love.  You don't have to transmute other's feelings for this one.  In fact, in filling your energy field with this higher vibration, you de-energize any lower frequencies of your own that you're holding on to.  

This helps bring light into the world, and gives others the opportunity to match a higher vibration.  It helps Consciousness evolve.

We don't need to eliminate all uncomfortable feeling responses, that just numbs us and misses the point of being in a body.  When you expand your awareness, feelings wash through you.  Discomfort still exists, and you're holding a bigger space.

We're all capable, Infinite Beings.  We are at choice.  Be the Ocean.

Plexiglas Walls

Plexiglas Walls ©2014 Joan M Newcomb

Have you ever found yourself blocked from moving forward?  There's no obvious reason for it.  It's like bumping up against a Plexiglas wall.

Perhaps it's something you've tried to attain again and again, and you just can't get past the invisible barrier.  There's no external barrier that you can see.

Even though you may make up stories about the first, second, or third time your face hits this wall, inwardly you wonder what is wrong with you.

Our reality is made up of pictures, impressions we've received (and created) from the moment we pop out of the womb.  Actually, the moment we pop *into* the womb - we absorb these impressions in utero as well.

We're veritable picture galleries of impressions.  And as long as we're within our families or culture, we're amongst others who have the same pictures.  They're agreed-upon images, so they seem real.

When we step outside our matching pictures, we experience discomfort.  Moving to another country, going away to college, getting married, all expose us to different collective pictures.  We can either expand our Universe by moving beyond our limited gallery, or we can get solidified and stuck.

It's why people get upset with others who are different.  We don't want our world to include those who don't have our same pictures.  Make those people go away!

Life is growth.  When we stop growing, we die.  Body/personalities think it's the other way around - we feel threatened when we have to expand.  We think there's nothing beyond our limitations.  But it's a whole new world out there, baby!

Back to Plexiglas's Walls.  They are pictures we haven't recognized as pictures, yet.  They are family or cultural programming, initially given to protect, perhaps, but now control your reality.

How do you get past something that's invisible?  How do you break through something that feels so solid?

Charging headlong into it doesn't work.  Sitting down and moping doesn't either.  Years of psychotherapy can completely elude them. People can't rescue you from your own pictures.

You have to bypass the conscious mind, since that's the curator of your gallery.  Energy work can be helpful as long as you don't get entangled in effort.

Something to playfully try - imagine blowing bubbles.  Each bubble represents a picture in your wall.  You don't have to know what it is, just imagine the bubbles streaming out or floating up and popping.  Do that on a daily basis, or whenever it occurs to you, and you will see change.

You can sit quietly with your eyes closed and visualize yourself walking up to the Plexiglas wall, reaching out and touching it, and have it become gelatinous or made up of bubbles, and gently move through to the other side.

Be gentle with yourself while doing this work, you are transforming your Universe!

Try this for a week and see what happens!

Why Fight With Patterns?

Why Fight With Patterns? ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

One of the things I noticed when my parents were dying is their patterns unravelling. We each are a tapestry of patterns, a lifetime of accumulated energies.

When we pass, they drop, like clothing without a body. When you're with someone who is passing, your own patterns light up. You either fight tooth and nail for their validity, or you can allow yours to drop as well. The latter is not so easily done, as there are others within your life weaving who are invested in the reality of these patterns.

Since my last parent died, there's been quite a residue of "stuff".  I've chosen to shine light on it, to speak up and to question it, which has caused a discordant ripple in the combined family fabric.

Heck, anything that doesn't agree with the current vibration is going to appear inharmonious. Really, it's a pattern that's come to the surface because it is dissolving.

Why fight with it? Why not step back and let it dissipate? Because to remain silent is, in a way, to agree with it. Because part of the pattern is secrecy and complacency.

Keeping one's mouth shut is part of the pattern. Staying quiet means allowing it to stay within you. And I'm not carrying this forward.

Yet the opportunity is to rise above it, to look down on it from the clouds, so that everyone involved look like ants. From an airplane, do you really feel that engaged with traffic jams below?

If I really let go of the pattern(s) within me, would everyone else behave differently?  There wouldn't be anything to reflect.

If I really let go of the patterns myself, everyone could behave as crazily as they already are behaving, but it wouldn't make me insane as well.

What's crazy is to expect others to behave differently.  We can only change ourselves.

How do you change yourself, when these patterns are so ingrained that they are invisible to you.  They are an accepted part of your family reality.

It's easiest to work on a symbolic level.  You can see it as an image, hear it as a sound, feel it as a vibration.  Imagine yourself, and see the design separate from your energy space.  Or, hear your own note or melody, and mute the disharmonious notes.  Let your vibration be high, light and bright, and what feels 'off' drains out of you into the earth.

Work on a quantum consciousness level, step to one side, into a Universe where that pattern doesn't exist, you never had it, you never will.  Turn and shift in your new space, this will often change the entire cast of characters as well.

Play with this for the next 7 days and see what happens!

Past & Future Ghosts

Past & Future Ghosts ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

[I will be talking about this on my radio show on Feb 26, 2014, click here to listen]

Someone asked me:
"Ghosts from the past appear to people so could it be possible for people to see ghosts from future?  We seem to dwell on communicating with our dead.  Do you think our unborn from future could be communicated with?"

My answer is: Yes

I wouldn't call them ghosts, maybe entities, but on the spirit level there is no time or space, so they're already in existence. 

You can communicate with your yet-to-be conceived grandchild.  You'll know exactly what to knit for their Xmas stockings.

Outside of our physical reality, everything is happening simultaneously.  It's too much for our body/personality to comprehend, we so locked into this world where things progress along a timeline.

Within this linear existence, time feels like layers of vibration.  The past is denser, slower moving, the future is faster and feels diffuse.  It feels like it is in the process of coming into form.

People from the past still exist, the 'Ghost' aspect may simply be a denser aspect of their personality still accessible from that previous layer of time.  People from the future exist as well, it's just harder to access something beyond our current vibration.

As I've said in previous articles, all of our past lives and all of our future lives are happening at once.  The pope is simultaneously having a lifetime as a prostitute in Jerusalem several thousand years ago and a dictator of a regime in the next millennium.

If that doesn't seem complex enough, there are parallel Universes, your past and future timelines split at every moment of decision, for every part of you that turned left, there's a part of you that turned right, and carried forward a new storyline.  You have infinite pasts to choose from, infinite futures to choose.

That includes babies born, babies not born, people who died, people who didn't die, etc.

If you step back to look, it's like colored threads of connections, intricate fibre optic lines running out and through everyone in existence, everyone who ever existed, anyone who will exist.  You can almost hear the humming of human lives.  If you step back from that, the colors weave into a multilayered tapestry, the humming becomes a chorus of bees.

And if you step back from that, it becomes one.  Again.  It started with an impulse, a thought, a creation of Consciousness.  It doesn't exactly end (just as it didn't exactly begin), but as you step back, the individuality blends back into Oneness.

An interesting and fun thing to do is to communicate with *your* future self.  For instance, if you're going through a difficult time, you can talk to the you that is 5 or 10 years in the future, who's already lived through what you're dealing with now.

I used to do that, when I was having tough times in my 40's, and now I will have these weird, reverse deja-vu's, when I will suddenly feel my past self.  I get to assure the past me that things are much better now.

Have fun with this, this week.  Tune into future Selves to help you make decisions, give you solutions, to whatever you're dealing with now.  Try this for 7 days and see what happens!

The Ultimate Love Interactive Game

The Ultimate Love Interactive Game ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

I've started learning Spanish using an on-line programme by the BBC.  It's interactive, providing a variety of ways to learn, including a TV show-like 'mystery' that shifts it's dialogue depending on whether you're male or female.

It's a whole lot more fun than listening to audios spewing out volcabulary, or reading dreary language books.

It started me thinking how this world is a full-immersion interactive game.  In video games, you have a multitude of possible outcomes, depending on the choices that you make.  When you engage in on-line games with other players, your possibilities are infinitely increased, as their games intersect yours.

Now, it may seem that each player has a different goal.  One may be pursuing power.  Another may be pursuing affluence.  Yet another wants social recognition. Someone else wants to find their soul mate. They feel they won't be truly happy until they control those aspects of their environment.

When you break it down, what are they really seeking?  World domination? Wealth? Stardom?

When you peel away the layers, what do you uncover?  Relief of pain?  Freedom (from what)?  Happiness?  Love?

When you finally attain what you're seeking, what will it feel like?  (You may need to close your eyes and take a deep breath).

We are all seeking Source, whether it's the source of power, money, love or anything else.  But what is Source?

Are we players seeking the Game Designer?  Are we seeking the energy that powers the Game?

The answer won't be found within the structure of the Game.  This game is designed to be limited. It's a planet of dichotomies.  Bodies give out after a certain number of years.  There are walls and bridges.

You can't find paradise in a paradox.

True to Planet Earth's innate law (it's not gravity, hint - it's written by Murphy), when you stop trying to find it (or get it), it shows up in your experience.

Either what you seek comes to you, or reveals itself to be there all along.

Whatever you want, You already are.

So - have fun with it.  It's only a Game, after all.

Giraffes and Ostriches

Giraffes and Ostriches ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

Most people know the stereotype of ostriches, they hide their heads in the sand, hoping that things won't change (or that they won't have to do anything themselves to change).

However, there are also giraffes.  They hide their heads in the clouds, dreaming big dreams, but not looking down at reality.

Both are oblivious to what is going on around them.

Ostriches, it's a little more obvious that their strategy won't work.  Eventually you have to come up for air, and find out you're as stuck as you've always been.

Giraffes, however, have an appealing story.  They throw around ideas like 'Law of Attraction'.  "I'm visualizing a better future."

Regardless of where your head is, eventually you're still going to have to do whatever it is you've been resisting.

Sometimes it's not so bad.  Sometimes you don't resist it at all. 

Problem is, if you have clouds or sand in your eyes, you can't see other possibilities or solutions. Only when you see what is, can you do something about it.

Sometimes we don't realize that our head is in the clouds or we've buried ourselves in the sand.  How do you come out of it?

Simple - imagine your feet on the ground, connected to the earth.  You can even imagine the souls of your feet opening up and drawing the energy in.  This helps bring you down to earth, and feel comfortable in your body.

If your vision is obscured by clouds, imagine gold sunlight burning through.

Sometimes it's not your delusion, but your family or work environment.  Imagine gold energy coming down through your home or office.  Shine light and the truth will be revealed.

Usually, no matter how bad you imagined it to be, reality is a relief.

Try these techniques for the next seven days and see what happens!

The Pow in Power

The Pow in Power ©2014 Joan M. Newcomb

Years ago, when I was in my 20's, I got into a conversation with an old man (who must have been in his 40's).  I was taking a women's meditation class, and I said to him, 'women have twice as much energy as men'!

He responded with a story about how he'd been able to push someone across the room with the force of energy from his hands.

And there you have it.

What I'd learned in my class was that female bodies generate twice as much energy as men.  They're biologically programmed to create entire other bodies.

He'd heard it as twice a powerful, and told a story of how he was able to exert external power.

Two different perspectives on how to use energy.

Women can create bodies from within their bodies, for another being.  There's a natural merging that occurs for a few years, while the being figures out how to operate the new body.  But at some point that being gets to move forward without help.

Energy held within your own space (regardless of the gender of your body) is more energetically powerful than energy focused outside your space, into someone else's space.

It's easy to think that someone with external influence is more powerful.  Someone who is very loud, will seem to have control over the environment.  People who 'throw energy' can appear powerful when you're on the receiving end of their whack.

Inner power is often not recognized by those involved with external power games.  It appears as a soft power.

Inner power is strength and stability.  It is having your own authority and seniority around those playing games.

It is holding your own power while giving space to others going through difficult times, in "weakened" positions.

Sometimes the most powerful action is not using your power at all.

Things to think about as we move forward into this New Year and time.