By Frances
In the past I have discussed being empathic and drowning in another's feelings but what about feeling places and things? Have you ever walked into a place and wanted to run? Or conversely, walked into a place and never wanted to leave? Everyone has felt this in some form or another. We are born sensitive beings. It seems that as we age we lose sight of our innate abilities. Many people can't seem to get out of their own way most of the time, to process what they feel or they can't be bothered and merely overlook what they feel. They are so busy obsessing over this or that, they completely miss what is happening in the present moment. If they would quiet their minds just a touch and live a more conscious life they would realize how much more texture and spark their lives would have and what energy trace they are leaving.
Everyone senses things differently. Each of us experiences it and interprets it our own way just as people see color differently, they also taste, touch, feel and hear differently, so please bear in mind, these are purely my experiences. When I moved into my first dorm room in college, I felt the sadness in the room. I thought it was because it was a depressing looking cinderblock room but now I wonder if I didn't feel the energy of the room and the people that passed through it before me? I was never comfortable in that room. Maybe the people building the room were unhappy and weaved their feelings into the walls or maybe I foresaw my anxiety and homesickness? I think the place was originally built to be a corrections facility or some type of halfway house and maybe the walls were full of the impending woe. Not sure but I can still recall my feeling in that room.
When I was buying my first home in NYC, I looked at a ton of places. I ended up buying this one bedroom on the West Side. It was small and that was almost a deal breaker but what struck me and eventually I couldn't shake was the sunny, warm feeling I had when I was in the apartment. It was such a beautiful place. I found out after I moved in, that a woman who loved life and lived to laugh, resided there for decades and actually passed away in the apartment. I couldn't shake the joy I felt there so I overlooked the fact that it was small and bought it. I ended up meeting my husband a month after I moved into my happy little place! Talk about feng shui. :-) We lived there blissfully for five years and brought our baby girl home there. She was truly a miracle on many levels. We were sad to leave it, but we had outgrown it. I wonder.....did I feel the woman who lived there before me, in happiness or did I foresee that this place would be the beginning of a new chapter in my life – partnership, marriage and motherhood with my twin flame? We sold it to a young doctor, 5 years later. I like to think we left the place with even more loving energy than we found it, and that she is flourishing.
Sometimes a place's energy changes while you are there. I was reading at a lovely place in NYC for a few years. When I first walked into it, I felt it's strong positive energy. In the beginning, I loved reading there but some time in 2009 the energy began to change. The dispiritedness was palpable. It began as a tiny seed of sorrow but as time went on it grew into a bleak pall that was inescapable. No amount of saging and smudging could clear the negativity that beset the place. I felt it from the beginning but since I was so close to the situation I didn't trust myself so I chose to do readings on it. Every time I read on whether I should stay or go I got the most dramatic major arcana cards. The message was clear, this place was changing me, I had evolved and was evolving and it wasn't time for me to leave. When the shop closed abruptly last June, it was a welcome relief! The energy there drained the life force out of me but it had served me well. I had met some brilliant souls that were very important to me and have remained a big part of my life. A new place recently opened around the corner and I am now reading there. It is bright and full of love and light and promises to further my journey.
These feelings and energies are not limited to a place with four walls. As some of you know one of my passions is high speed driving on tracks. I have always had this uncanny ability to find the most dangerous portion of a track, the turn or kink or whatever that has amassed the most incidents. (At the race track you never say accident, just like no one ever dies at a track they are called at the hospital or in the medevack never at the track). Anyway, I call it seeing ghosts but I don't actually see anything, I get this creepy feeling when I come to whatever section it may be and I am put on high alert. I can feel where the cars before me may have slipped up and crashed. Sometimes I feel the pain or the immense fear. This makes me be ubervigilant in this area or when I am instructing, I am extra careful to be sure my student masters this part first. You might say that finding the most dangerous part of a track would be simple but it isn't always obvious. Take Watkins Glen, for example, this is a challenging track that has many spots that should be respected but for me the most frightening part of the track is always the approach into the boot! It freaks me out every time. My hair on the back of my neck stands on end and my stomach does flip flops! Turns out many people have had to be medevacked from incidents there and were called at the hospital.
Certain whole highways agitate me, certain parts of parkways or interstates chill me to the bone. There is one section of the upper roadway of the 59th Street Bridge that paralyzes me every time I go by it. I can actually feel the death and sadness, the fear, the crash and sudden pain!
I've learned to respect these feelings and act accordingly. If I find myself in a happy place I soak up the energy and alternatively if I am in a place that upsets me I escape as quickly as I can. I try to live as consciously as I can, which is definitely not as easy as it sounds. I still wonder are these feelings premonitions or residual energies that I am tapping into, I don't know, but I pay attention. I try to also be aware of the mark my soul leaves on a place or thing. When I am creating something whether it be through knitting, beading, drawing, mothering cooking, reading or even writing, I try to imbue it with positive energy that is full of light, love and laughter. I think of who I am creating for and I infuse it with my hopes and wishes for that person. Your intent, your frame of mind, your soul goes into everything you do or make and I believe, everywhere you go. I want my soul's legacy to be a positive uplifting one.