Search Results for: Expand Your Spiritual Heart

Immerse Yourself in the of the Void

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

When we immerse ourselves into the oneness that is the Void (Rumi calls it the “Nowhere that you came from”) we experience ourselves as whole, perfect and complete. There is no striving. There is no separation. There is only oneness. We enter the void through our inner world. We sit or stand quietly and go within and keep going until our body disappears and we are void.  

In that void is everything. It is wholeness. It is serenity. It is the highest vibration that exists. We don’t connect with it, we are it. When we allow ourselves to move into the silence within, we have the experience of being everything. All that is. All that will be. We are part of a void that includes everything. Wholeness. Unconditional Love. Serenity. Wisdom. It’s all there. In the All-That-Is. In that silence within. 

How do you get there? How do you experience it? By moving within. Closing your mind to the external and moving into the void. The void of wholeness. The void of All-that-is. The Nowhere That We Came From. As we immerse ourselves in the experience of the void, our body responds with healing. Balancing. Restoring. And all we are doing is residing in an awareness of being one with the void. Allow the void to restore balance to your physical body, to expand your spiritual experience. Give yourself over to the void. Trust it. And let go. Let go of anything and everything that no longer serves you and is no longer relevant.

In the void of wholeness, the void of oneness, the void of All That Is, know that you are whole, perfect and complete. Experience that in your life. As you stay in that void, feel your entire being respond and realign and replenish and restore. Then, when you are ready, gradually come back to your experience as a human being and trust the expanded awareness flowing through your life, the void of wholeness. Trust it. And let it bring you into balance.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I make it a practice to move into the void every day and experience the wholeness and unconditional love and inclusiveness that is there.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• Perhaps you want to record a guided meditation for yourself that takes you into the void. That lets you return to the vibration of wholeness, the experience of wholeness. Or just do it in meditation.
• Notice what shifts and self-correct if appropriate. 

===INNER WORK===

How Do You Nurture Your Inner Self?

We mostly know how to take care of our bodies with good diet and exercise, but how do you consciously nurture your inner self? Do you have a meditation practice? If not, maybe you want to establish one. Do you walk in nature? Or at least sit and contemplate as you look out the window at nature every day? Perhaps watch the sunset or the sunrise?

Do you meditate? Do you listen to music? Do you write poetry or make up songs? Do you spend time with a dear friend? Do you hug your pet? Those are ways to nurture your inner self. Perhaps go exploring today to find a new way, a new experience you can create that will deepen your awareness of your inner self and its messages and guidance.

The Healing Power of Solitude

I live alone so solitude is a major part of my life but what I want to talk about here is actually choosing a specific time to be still within. To be alone with your thoughts. To be alone with your feelings. To be alone with your body. To be alone with nature. To let yourself immerse yourself in the ebb and flow of the ongoing cycles of life. To become part of the flow. And be nurtured by the love, be nurtured by the compassion, be nurtured by the peace that resonates in the silence. You can turn it into gratitude for the day or a blessing for the day but find a time in your spiritual practice to be aware of the sound of silence as you sit in solitude and listen to your Inner Self.

Send Love Ahead to Your Day

Vibration is not restricted by time and space so you can send the vibration of love ahead to your day and simply step into it as you move along the way. Isn’t that a nice idea? To send love ahead. Send love ahead to a meeting. Sounds love ahead to a conversation. Send love ahead to something you’re going to work on. And when you get there, love will be waiting for you. Lots of love. Give it a try. And watch the miracles happen.

Surrender Box

I get a lot of good ideas from Daily Om and this is one of them. It is the idea of a Surrender Box. 

There’s a great deal in our life that we need to leave up to the organic flow of the universe. So instead of trying to wrestle something to the ground or manhandle it into place, we let the Universe take care of it. We put it in a Surrender Box and let the universe handle it. Instead of worrying or feeling defeated, we just let go. Perhaps we say something like “please resolve this for the highest good for all” or “I release this to its natural unfolding.”  Then we turn it over to the all-compassing, compassionate universe.  

Have a real box. Write down on paper what you want to release and put it in the box knowing that it will all work out the way it’s supposed to. Let the universe and its all-encompassing all-knowing wisdom provide the next step whether it’s to let it go or to take action. The Surrender Box allows you to let go of any worry and concern and turn it over to the unfolding of the universe which is going to make it happen anyway. You just get to step out of the picture and stop worrying. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Feeling Empowered by Qigong for Self-Healing

I just finished Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong, with Master Chunyi Lin. on the Shift New and it has completely shifted my belief system and expectations about being able to self-heal. That Qi (energy) knows what to do. You just have to point it in the right direction and trust. You do that with your mind (Yi).

I’ve taken four or five other Qigong classes but I was doing that only as a meditative exercise choice. It wasn’t until I took this class that I realized that everything is changing including my body because I am actively directing Qi with my mind and trusting the Qi to know what to do. I just have to point it in the general direction. That’s huge.

I don’t know what’s going on in my body, I only know what is manifesting and that change and rebalancing continues to happen.  I have an idea of a possible cause of this realignment from a past life. So I sit here and direct Qi energy to the parts of my body that are being grouchy and the Qi energy is restoring balance to my body.

Here’s a link to the class. They have scholarships that are half price. This is his website. springforestqigong.com.  He sends out self-healing topics weekly. A self-healing class is taught there too. I really like what I’m learning in Spring Forest Qigong and what it’s helping me to do to heal myself. 
Grandmaster Chuny Lin, chunyilin.com

Positive Pause

Establish a time every day that you pause to realign. The form could be a nap. But the form could also be a few minutes of deep breathing while looking out the window at nature. Or meditation using a mantra. The point is to find at least one if not more times in your day that you really stop and recenter yourself into that Still Point into an awareness of you as pure vibration. Into a consciousness of releasing the frenetic energy and bringing in peace and calm. And love. And compassion. A pause. Possibly several times a day. It will rebalance you, it will recharge you. And it will keep you going in the right direction

Relief from Lower Back Pain

Qigong Pressure Point to Relieve Lower Back Pain with Master Chuny Lin.  Easy to do. Share it with those who need it.

===OUTER  WORK===

The Power of a Small Change

If I stand here and I turn to my left one step, and then start walking, I will end up in entirely new destinations. One step. One step can change my entire outcome, take me to an entirely different place. What is that one step? How do I recognize it?

Some of it is about experimenting. If I do this differently today how does it feel? What difference does it make in how I feel at the end of the day? Does it lead me to a different outcome? What small shift will you make today that may lead you in an entirely new direction? Go exploring and find new adventures.

Do The Work

In the second Qigong class with David Penn, he taught us some Qigong moves that I can’t even come close to doing. Not because they were hard. Simply because they required me to stand up straight – which I can’t do at this moment in time. But what they motivated me to do was to do my version of it. To try. For instance, he was teaching a standing squat. Well, I can hang on to things and stand up and move more or less, into kind of squat. So it inspired me to do what I can do. And build on that. I’m going to review the class because it is very rich in ideas. But the core shift is to just start doing the work. The best you can. On a consistent basis. And expect your body to respond and get stronger and better and more aligned. What do you need to begin to do even if it seems like you’re pretty far away from being able to achieve it? 

Cultivate Curiosity

Curiosity can take you on great adventures. It takes you into unknown corners and down unexpected panels. Curiosity cultivates new experiences and deeper wisdom. Learn to listen to your inner voice. Learn to notice the nudges in the universe that open new doors of opportunity and learning. Listen to the nudges of curiosity and go explore. Have a great adventure. Find a way to both stretch beyond your usual world and hold a space that is deeply, personally embodied. 

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE DIVERSE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEINGS===

The Far Reach of Embodiment

Can you think of someone who has a quality that is so richly embodied that it resonates from something she/he does? It makes you recognize the quality and it encourages a desire within you to embrace that quality in your own life. That’s the far reaches of embodiment.

I am drawing two of my friends into a circle of three because we are all healers. We have mildly different approaches but we are at the core drawn to and interested inour role as healers. One friend I have known for 20 years, the other for six. And now we are three friends walking a similar path.

Who is in your life that is setting an example of qualities and experiences you would like to increase in your life? The wonderful young woman who comes to clean my home calls herself my Gal Friday. And her willingness and creativity and joy in doing the numerous things that keep a home going is inspiring. She loves to clean. Do you have something you love to do that people will notice your joy in doing it?

When we are joyous and enthusiastic about what we are doing that joy radiates out and inspires and motivates others. We are the embodiment of our beliefs. How are you doing with that?

I am a good friend to people that I want to interact with but I’m not so good with people that I’m not particularly drawn to. So I’m not sure how I’m seen in this senior center, but that’s OK. I have connected with friends online who are walking a path similar to mine.

How are you perceived? And is there anything about that you would like to change? Do that.

Self-Responsibility

I don’t know what my living accommodations are as I get older. This is independent living. Which means I have to stay independent. But now I have help with cleaning and taking trash out and picking stuff up off the floor. What do you do when you age and become less self-sufficient and have no family? When you are on your own and are not capable of being on your own? What are your choices? What are your resources?

Yes, I get more and more creative about how to get dressed, how to care for myself, how to feed myself. I’m aware of the type of help that I need. I have Shelly who comes to clean every other week and do my laundry, and this week I hired her to come for 20 minutes on her way home on the opposite week to take out trash and change my sheets and pick up things off the floor that I can’t reach anymore. It was a relief to make that commitment to hire that extra time. Look around for an older person that you might do some small deed for. It will be greatly appreciated.

Support – Giving and Getting

We each have a support system. It may be a big one or a little one. But there is someone we can call upon. And there are others that can call upon us. Support is about both giving it and receiving it. 
I need support in caring for my home as I age. I hope I give support in my newsletter as I explore life and figure out ways to do it thoughtfully. It’s an exchange but it’s not an exchange with the same people. The wonderful person who comes to clean my home does not read my newsletter but she says I am her favorite hippie… So this flow of giving and receiving support is not necessarily an exact exchange. It is a pattern of moving energy in our lives. How is the balance of your giving and getting? Are you getting enough help? Are you giving enough? Do both. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Leadership

How does one lead in this volatile environment of strong and opposing viewpoints? It’s probably not going to be through reasoning. Somehow the communication of inclusion has to come through the heart. It is up to each of us to make room for the individuality of another and respect their choices and not impose ours on them. It’s a live and let live approach. I can show you by example what compassion looks and feels like. I can show you by example what respect for other cultures and beliefs looks like. But words won’t do it. We lead by doing. We lead by example. And those who are aware look at us and say, “Oh, I want to do it that way. I like what that feels like to be receiving that energy inclusion. I like how that affects my awareness.” 

What kind of example are you being in the world today and who are you sharing that example with? And what changes is it making? Lead by example. 

Filter the News – A Choice

I watch way too much news. It is depressing. And as I sit here in my 89-year-old body I don’t know how to help. Perhaps I can’t. It is not mine to do.

But I do have control over how I nurture my body and my soul – by what I think and focus on and consider is true. This is a period of massive self-destruction. There’s so much wrong about thinking that I don’t even know where to begin. What I do know to do is to focus on what is working. The people who are doing good things. The people who are having positive and creative ideas. Change may be as simple as shifting my focus. Not to ignore what’s going on, not to not prepare for it or look for solutions for it, but to hold a vision of a higher energy, a higher belief system. And inclusive, interconnected, loving way of being. What do you look for as you move through life?  How do you expect to change and contribute?  Where are you focused? What do you expect and what are you getting? Look for the positive that exists and support that. It will change the world. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Expanding Awareness
How to DeepenYour Cosmic Consciousness
Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the 
Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.  – Betty Friedan

Here is A Qigong experience of the Void with Master Gadu Doushin.

===CARA’S CORNER===

Next

I have a comforting belief system about dying. It comes from two books where a psychologist hypnotized and interviewed people about their life between lives. Michael Newton did pass life regression with people specifically asking about what their life was between lives. He wrote Journey of Soul and and Destiny of the Souls.

The time between lives is a time of checking in, regrouping, rethinking, replanning and re-choosing. Even re-choosing whether we want to come in for another lifetime. For me that is very comforting. 

At 89, living in a senior center where people literally move on a lot, I am acquiring a philosophy of death and “next” that works for me. We all have to do the same. My vaccinated son-in-law at 75 got Covid. I can’t tell him my philosophy or the joy of a potential “next” because he’s very conservative and not receptive.  Nor would it be any comfort to my daughter who is 12 years younger when there comes a time for him to move on. I’m such a stand alone person, even as I find I have to ask for more help on the physical plane than I used to. I’m not afraid of being dead. I’m not too excited about the process of becoming dead in case it is uncomfortable. So I want my mind to continue to identify and reformulate and share philosophical ideas that help me and others with the concept of death. 

What do you do that gives value to your life right now and are you doing enough of it? Embrace the gifts of each day, each moment, each awareness. And let the rest unfold.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
Next

My “next” comes from “now”.  How I see it. How I expect it to be. How I use it. 

My “next” comes from “now”.  How I see it. How I expect it to be. How I use it. What is the foundation I am standing on? What is the belief system that moves me forward? Will they serve me well?  Are they what I want?

My “next” comes from “now”.  How I see it. How I expect it to be. How I use it. What is the foundation I am standing on? What is the belief system that moves me forward? Will they serve me well?  Are they what I want? Shifts I now make will make a huge difference in my “next”. I choose thoughtfully.

Cara Lumen, May 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  
I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.
Our Global Deeper Song Community

Our Deeper Song Community extends throughout the planet. Welcome new Deeper Song Explorers. I’d love to hear of your experiences –  caralumen@gmail.com or let’s discuss on the Deeper Song Explorers!

You Are the Composer of Your Own Song

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

It’s an interesting state of affairs when your belief system says you are the one responsible for everything that happens to you and you’re not exactly excited about what is showing up. Do you feel helpless? Do you feel angry? What do you do when you feel that you are totally responsible for every part of your life and things are not going well? Hmmm.

You get busy. You get creative. You try new things. Self-responsibility is an opportunity. It can be challenging and it can be unnerving. But most of all it is creative.

Here’s the problem I want to solve, the situation I want to change. What am I going to do about it? What resources do I have? What do I need to learn? Self-healing is an interesting opportunity to change your belief system. What are the tools that you are going to use in order to create your wholeness? That’s true of every level –  mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. You design your path. You design your journey, you compose your own song. 

That doesn’t mean we can’t look around and see what others are doing. Would that work for me? I would do that differently. Let me try that for a while. A great part of self-healing is being aware of what needs shifting or changing or releasing. And then do that. What’s not working in your life? What choices do you have that might change the outcome? Go exploring. Try them out. Observe what happens. See how you feel. If you don’t get the results you want, try something else.

Yes, we are part of a huge all-encompassing high vibration. We have access to that all the time. We don’t always take advantage of that. So expand your expectation of what is possible. Expand your expectation of what you believe you deserves. Those are game changers as far as creating outcome.

Go exploring. I’ve studied Yoga and Tai Chi and I am into Qigong right now. I’m working with tuning forks and native flutes and drums. I’m into shamanism and Reiki and bio fields. All of these are a part of my personal adventure. How diverse is your path of exploration? What new adventures await you? You are the weaver of your own life. You can pull into it any threads that calls to you. Pay attention. Go exploring. And compose your own song.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I broaden the range of my exploration as I continue to compose my own song of life.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• Try one new self-healing technique and see where it takes you. It can be meditation or toning or tuning forks or Qigong or whatever comes to you. Try something new and notice what happens.
• Continue to explore as your life evolves. 

===INNER WORK===
The Gift

My friend Martha Lacy offered to make an altar piece for me out of clay. She is an accomplished potter. I immediately got an image of an infinity shape representing the cycles of life in the past and in the future and how they intertwined. The images I wanted on each side appeared immediately – a butterfly for the organic changes in the waning cycles and a spider weaving her life from within in the waxing cycles.

In the first on Zoom session Martha shaped the altar piece with me making choices and decisions all along the way. The image of what I wanted was very strong. In the second session we began to put the design on. Again my internal images were very strong. I watched as Martha interpreted what I was seeing. The songs I would sing in ceremony with it began to emerge. It was truly a combining of our imaginations and an extraordinary experience. She also made me a rattle she designed and again I had string images for the decoration of that. We put specific intentions into the clay beads that are inside.

They have now been glazed and fired and I have a unique, one-of-a-kind ceremonial piece for my spiritual practice.

I have never entwined my imagination with someone in this manner before. She was interpreting my vision and I saw my vision take shape through her skill. I’m not sure where you get that kind of experience in life. I’m sure there are other places. Do you have a collaborative relationship with someone in which you nurture each other’s purpose and imagination? This was a first for me and it was very, very special. 

===SELF-HEALING===
Two Powerful Self-Healing Practices

I have added two powerful self-healing practices to my daily life and they are making a difference. I shared them in this newsletter before but they are turning out to be a remarkably effective combination so I thought I would repeat them in some detail. They come from two separate people and I learned them on that Qigong Healing Summit of the Shift Network.

The first one comes from Teja Bell TejaBell.com Rōshi (老師) Teja Fudo Myoo Bell – 84th Zen Ancestry Heir – Roku Dan Aikido. His talk was Integrating Embodied Mindfulness: Qigong and Meditation With Teja Bell. The movement I found so pwerful was a preparation for meditation.

He said that Qigong practice is an integration of your attention with the underlying principles though mindfulness. We are to cultivate a field of presence, a field of being. In our Qigong practice we move the chi and encourage its uninterrupted flow. 

He showed us several movements but the one that resonated with me most dramatically is one I now use many times a day. It feels literally like pumping chi. Begin with your hand in front of your heart to center and balance you. Lower your hands beside your body and with palms facing, gradually bring the qi energy up your body to your head.

At the top, turn your palms to face downward, close your fingers over your thumbs and begin to move your arms down as if bringing that energy back down into your entire body. 

It was the fingers over the thumb in the downward movement that energetically caught my attention so dramatically. I was surprised at how powerfully I felt the energy move. So I began doing that on a regular basis to begin my meditation and before I go to sleep.

The other addition I added to my meditation practice came from Master Chunyi Lin, Creator and Founder of Spring Forest Qigong (springforestqigong.com and chunyilin.com)

The movement is to breathe into the lower Tan Tien which is behind the navel and breathe out all the imbalance and negativity and stuff you don’t want as smoke. I often experience a very large and deep yawn when I do this.

The hand movement seems to simulate the breathing and the breath movement clears the chi. They came from two different people. They are very powerful combination.

I use the hand movement as the foundational movement and inevitably as I bring my hands up, I find myself yawning and taking a deep breath to exhale. I make it a point to bring in everything I don’t want into my lower Tan Tien and release it on the exhale which very often becomes a very large yawn. At that point my hands have reached above my head, my fingers close over my thumbs and as I lower my arms it is a very centering and focused motion that makes me feel like I am filling myself with positive Qi. 

I am making remarkable progress using a combination of two Qigong moves. 

===OUTER  WORK===

In my self-healing Qigong class, Master Chunyi Lin springforestqigong.com,  chunyilin.com taught us that there are six causes of illness: emotions, diet, injuries, change in weather or seasons, wrong medication, and living environment and that all qi blockages can be removed. Then you clear the space and give energy back.

Those are pretty easy to identify. Whatever’s going on in my body is from an injury in a past life. I don’t have any idea why the dry macular degeneration is showing up and Western medicine cannot cure it. They can only describe what happens. So I’m on my own with that one. I’m going to look for it’s cause and release it. 

An easy first look for the cause of illness is your environment. I love my apartment space. But because of my specialized interests I don’t have any friends here. My friends are online. So I’m missing periodic in-person conversations. And I know I fluctuate between boredom and depression. I could work on that.  It’s pretty easy to become more aware of the seasons in your response to health as well as the food you eat. After years of not eating dairy, I seem to be drawn to cheese and yogurt. I get to watch that.

What’s going on in your life that is emerging as imbalance and can you identify the cause of the illness as either emotions, diet, injuries, change in weather or seasons, wrong medication, and living environment? 

Master Lins deep breathing sequence to empty the Lower Tan Tien is a good place to begin. All qi blockages can be removed. Get to work.

What If You Keep Getting the Wrong Results?

Our thoughts create our reality so what shows up is a result of your thoughts and intentions. How are you doing? Do you expect the best? Don’t settle for second best. Do you expect a situation to change, to heal? It won’t if you don’t. What do you think is possible? What needs to change? How willing are you to change? What are you doing to help the change occur? Monitor your thoughts. Notice what shows up and change your thoughts accordingly. 

Test The Market and Your Focus for the Future

Several of my friends are getting ready to retire. That means they have another wonderful 30 years to do nifty stuff in. It’s a good time to test the market. Not only to see what people want from you but what you are excited to give.

One friend is both a healer and an artisan. When you start to build a business, you need to look at time versus income. That needs to be tested. Can you be paid enough to do the work the way you want to in the time you need?  Or do you have to modify it and offer it in chunks that are more affordable? You simply go exploring. You try things out and see how you like doing them and you see how people respond to what you offer. You can go exploring long before you retire. Begin to figure out this second career path. This flexible freedom that also inspires and motivates and stimulates your life experience. You can begin exploring any time. What do you want to create next? 

Do You Organize for Priority?

I’ve got a pretty good system on creating this newsletter. I have a template. I often write something every day, dictating in what I think just to capture the ideas. I often have so much material that I find I’m working ahead on the following week. So the first step in creating anything is to do something. Take some steps, get some ideas and explore them a bit. 

Two days before I want to publish it I begin to read what I wrote and see if it makes sense and see if I like it and edit it for clarity and focus. Sometimes I leave a whole segment out. So the second step is to look what you created and see what you want to work on. The third step is more detailed because it involves things like checking the spelling and the overarching message. And of course, final steps are having it proofed and then putting it in out to the Deeper Song Community and on Facebook and on my website.  Those are all separate steps leading to the outcome I want. 

Can you bring your attention to one step at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed? Do you know what steps you need to take in order to get the product or idea completed? Break it down into steps. See where you are and perhaps make new choices before you take another step. One step at a time will get you there. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Past Life Work and Time Lines

I believe in past lives and I also believe in parallel timelines so that everything is happening all at once. I have no proof. It’s just an idea that resonates with me. Particularly since this physical adjustment in my hips seems to be coming from a past life and has manifested through several dimensions. At least I hope that’s what’s happening. So rather than feel hopeless or helpless, I feel expectant.

I don’t know how these parallel timelines work. I’m pretty sure my choice today goes both forward and backward. As it has always done. But that can feel like a big burden if you consider you have many lifetimes. But when I work with it right now, my energy is now, my choice is in the now and my expectations are formed in the now.

I have looked ahead 10 years and there I am doing jumping jacks which I can’t do right now so something good is happening today. I’m also planning a new garden in that future life. It’s still an experimental garden but there are new crops there to explore. 

As for past lives, I have gone back beyond this injury on my right leg in a past life to see that I was part of a circle of very strong women friends and the injury was an accident, not a battle. And I had a very strong circle of very strong women around me then as I do today.

So what action do I take today to continue self- healing and to bring harmony among my many lives? I don’t know. I’m making stuff up here. But I keep going back to the core belief that I get what I believe I deserve and what I believe is possible. So it all lies here within me. What do I deserve? What is possible? Do I expect to be able to walk without a walker again? Kind of. Do I expect for my eyes to reverse so I see clearly? I have to work on that. Western medicine seems to have no cure and that’s an interesting blockage for my belief system since I am bringing things forward from a past life. Do you think I could just handle the eyes as part of simply affirming “I see clearly within or without.”  I’ll try that. And “I now release anything that no longer serves me from this lifetime and all my past lives.” And maybe I’ll start lobing light balls into the future.

How are you working with your time lines?

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===
Jupiter/Neptune Conjunction April 12

If I had known about this earlier, I would’ve written you in time to help you celebrate it. This conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune only happens every 154 years! I got some lovely information from Astrology Hub forwarded from a friend about creating a lovely altar as an invitation to your guest. But I kept my ceremony very simple. I focused on two things – self-healing and the next part of my path. I decided to take a dismemberment journey where I put myself back together in the energy of these two powerful planets. It was an interesting journey and I went to the misty circle in the middle of the redwoods and I got help from a whole lot of squirrels. I’m still working on figuring it out. I did not dismember but my team is now bigger!

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===
Where Do You Find Your Answers?

There is only one place to look for the answers you seek – deep within you in the silence. Insight comes from your inner voice. It comes from your intuition. It comes from simply knowing. Be aware that it may not be time for you to have an answer. If I go looking for a solution to the world crisis of today, I may not get a whole lot because it’s unfolding, there are many choices that will take it in a different direction, and my role has not been clarified other than I simply send energy for clarity and knowledge when the time is right. Be patient with unfolding. But bepersistent. Be aware. Be flexible. And go exploring. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Expanding Awareness
Stand Steady in Your Own Truth
Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the 
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===
The Cycles of Life

My friend did the clay work while I watched on Zoom and designed the piece we were making together. It was a powerful experience. The vision of what I wanted was very clear at every stage. We were making an altar bowl and a rattle. The altar bowl concept began with the sign of infinity. The cycles of both past and future that are ongoing and ever connected. So how do I use that concept of connecting cycles in my spiritual practice, my daily life, my expectations?

The first thing is that everything is vibration, the same high vibration so whether I am in a cycle of the past or a cycle of the future or in the moment where cycles begin and end, it’s all the same energy. My choices don’t affect the energy, they affect how I perceive the energy and where I see myself in the energy. Think about that. Where do you see yourself in life? I’m at the end of my physical plane life but I see it as a high point, not a low point. I see that as being at the top of a tall mountain that I’ve climbed with more to go to reach the top. How do you see where you are in your life? Are you going downhill or uphill, racing to higher heights or lower depths? That’s important to know because it’s a viewpoint you can shift and it will make a huge difference.

So here I am building on a lifetime of wonderful adventures with a great deal of wisdom and knowledge and interests and introspection to build upon. And I feel useful as I find ways to share that information. That knowledge. That wisdom. That awareness.

At 89 I’m not exactly planning years in advance but I am holding steady on my path. I’m taking conscious steps to continue to explore and deepen my awareness and my wisdom and my expectation.

You need to be creative as you age. There are always choices to be made and expectations to be changed, not lowered, just changed. It’s part of the cycles of infinity – increasing and decreasing cycles of energy and our place in them.

Be present. Be aware. Explore and experiment. Find what works right now in the here and now of your current life. Be creative. Make changes. Expect positive results. 

Different aspects of your life will be in different parts of the cycle. The waxing, the waning. Just notice and be positive and creative and expect the best. Life is a series of interconnected circles of expansion and contraction. Go with the flow. 

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
This Day is Mine.

This day is mine.

This day is mine to spend as I choose. 
I will fill it with peace and serenity and love. 
I will use it to encourage self-healing. 
I will use it to raise my vibration and deepen in my inner wisdom. 

This day is mine.
I use it wisely.

Cara Lumen. April 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  
I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.

Our Global Deeper Song Community

Our Deeper Song Community extends throughout the planet. Welcome new Deeper Song Explorers. I’d love to hear of your experiences –  caralumen@gmail.com or let’s discuss on the Deeper Song Explorers!

Keep Your Meditation Creative

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

Sometimes we get so excited about new ways to meditate or concepts to contemplate or consider that we end up with this huge, bulky obligation that we then cease to do because it’s gotten too big. This is not about streamlining your meditation but it may very well be about changing it up periodically. You might choose to focus on one meditative practice more than another for a while in order to develop your skill and your experience of it.  I’ve had some breathing techniques I have frequently added and I have to watch it doesn’t make my meditation period too long. Perhaps I find a different place in my day that I practice breathing. 

I play my flute sometimes longer than others. I haven’t played my drums much recently. They are fun to do. I could have a whole separate drumming meditation. Like drumming down the sun. 

There are affirmations I used to say at my window altar that I have put off for a while. They are very nurturing strong affirmations. I would like them back in my life. 

So what do you do when you have so many ideas for your spiritual practice that you don’t do any of them? You get creative. You adjust. You modify. You may have a week of one focused type of practice to deepen it and also find the key components to include daily. 

You may have a few days in which you write affirmations on dissolvable paper and put them in water and watch that disappear. You may read a Tarot card for the week rather than one for each day. Do you see where I’m going with this? Have you by any chance overburdened your meditation practice with too much detail? 

The point of meditation is to quiet your mind and bring your attention inward and stay there for a while, allowing that stillness to heal and balance your body and your emotions and your mind. Even a pause for a period of consciously releasing exhales helps to bring you back to center. 

I have some songs I wrote that I play with my drum while looking out the window at nature. That could just be one form of meditation. I am learning more Qigong for self-healing and I might want to make a whole meditation using those practices. I have a singing bowl I haven’t used in a while. See how this goes? And let’s not even discuss the number of crystals that I have not held for quite a while. Those are deepening experiences unto themselves. It’s not a matter of routine, it is a matter of tuning into the moment, the day, the current need, to create a meditation segment that does what you need to have done in that moment. Do you need healing? Do you need centering? Do you need encouragement? What is the purpose of your meditation, the result you want, and what are the best forms of meditation to use?

I’m not doing nearly enough of my Transcendental Meditation. It doesn’t fit if I add in all these other things that I do. So I have to get creative.  New times. More sessions. Different days. Can you see where I’m going with this? Keep your meditation practice flexible and creative.  Create, experiment, explore, be flexible and notice what shifts. Keep your meditation practice fluid and responsive to your life.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION
I examine my meditation practice and find ways to make it more flexible.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• What are your favorite forms of meditation? Begin with one of those and perhaps do only that one in your meditation practice. Then move on to explore another one for a week or so until you deepen the practice and find what the results are.
• Explore different times of day to do your meditation. I have one after I’m showered and am ready for my day but using meditation as a shift from a workday to an evening of personal time is a good place too. Create a flexible meditation practice.
• Experiment with length. You’re not going to have a lengthy meditation every day so pick a length that works for you. 20 minutes was the recommended time for Transcendental Meditation. I don’t do that much.
• Notice what forms of practice speak the most to you. I find my Qigong practices are very soothing. I would like to lengthen my TM practice. I would like to play my drums more frequently. Do the work and make your own meditation practice creative, individualized and perfect for you. 

===INNER WORK===
How to Help People You Don’t Like

I have a problem here. I know that I am supposed to send love and light to everyone but there are some people and situations and actions that are taking place in this world that I can’t bring myself to send light to.  Their deeds are too horrendous. And they are the situations that need it most. What do you do, what do I do when we see people expressing anger and hatred and evil and we’re supposed to send them light. How do we do that?

I have to back off from thinking in terms of individuals and individual actions and send wholing energy to the whole. Send peace to their hearts. In my cynicism I’m not sure it could get in. I can send energy to a situation, holding for the highest good for all of us. I only know to help a situation by sending light and holding my own vibration as high as I can manage. And hope they see it and recognize it in themselves. 

I am not to drop down into human emotions of anger or hatred. That hurts only me. It does not touch those I am focused on. Work on your own vibration. Work on elevating it. Work on keeping it the highest frequency you can manage. And keep on walking the high road. Make sure that your thoughts and your actions and your choices are all on the highest possible level you can manage. Stay on the high road. Shine your light. Show a different way. And know that others will see it. 

===SELF-HEALING===
Learn from the Past

Everything we’ve ever done has contained a lesson for us. Sometimes we get the lesson, sometimes we don’t. But if we pause to reflect and look at the overview of the path we have traversed, we will begin to see a pattern. A pattern of choices. A pattern of responses to those choices. I have a strong pattern of having written all my life starting in high school. I have a strong pattern of being interested in spirituality since my comparative religion class in college. Those are trails that have blazed their way through my life. Look to see what patterns you’ve been drawn to, what choices you have continued to make. And see if you like what you’re doing and where has taken you. Then see how you might change it to have a different outcome. Learn from the past. Use it to create your future. 

===OUTER  WORK===
Partner With the Univers

Letting the universe handle the perfect unfolding of our goals strengthens our confidence and reinforces our belief that anything is possible. We release our need to control and intentionally invite the universe to co-create the perfect outcome.

What are you forcing into being? What are you trying to rearrange that makes you go in the wrong direction? Are you listening? Are you observing the outcomes? Are you continually making positive choices?  

Slow down. See what you are creating in your life. Decide what you would like to create in your life. And partner with the universe to make it happen.

Have You Fulfilled Your Dream?

Did you have a dream as a young person? Gifts you wanted to expand? A path you thought you would follow? And did you do that?

Looking back, it wasn’t so much following a path as honoring my passions and interests in the moment. I did a very good job of that and there has been a pattern of flexible, spontaneous, in-the-moment choices. I seem to have a very strong need to share my discoveries and observations and lessons.  I do that in these newsletters.  But at the core of my path, I think it has been about being an explorer. An explorer of meditation, an explorer of yoga and Qigong and Tai Chi. An explorer of metaphysics. Always learning new concepts, always trying on something new to see how I like it or how I can adapt it to my life. There’s been a strong pattern of exploration. Underneath it may be the simple joy of learning. But as I have grown older, the calling has become a demand that I constantly explore something or learn something or share something or absorb something or apply something to my life. I am an explorer. Which also means I don’t stay with one thing for a particularly long time. I learn what I need and then build on that, rather than become extremely efficient at one particular step. Jack of all trades, master of none. Except in the broader sense of focusing on my spiritual practice.

Two friends in my life are entering into retirement and have the opportunity to structure an entire new 30 year path. It will be interesting to see what they keep and what they let go. 30 years is a long time. Do you know what you’ll move into when it’s time to retire, to stop working your regular job?  

Is there something you want to learn? Something you want to do? Someplace you want to go? What dreams do you still want to fulfill in this lifetime? Do that next.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

We are like musical notes in a cosmic orchestra. Each of us has our own tone and timber to contribute to the overall symphony. So on one hand we want to make sure we’re playing our tune right, and on the other hand, we want to make certain we are enhancing the entire symphonic piece. We wanna play our part right. We want to play our part well. And we want to support the collective effort as we do so.

So part of that work is how we think. The positive thoughts we hold, the positive expectations we have, the positive steps we take. All of those add to the uplifting of the all-encompassing energy. 

Another part of our path is our beliefs in what is possible. That light is fairly dim in the world right now. How do we counterbalance the negativity that is prevalent on so many levels today?

We are guardians of our own light. That’s our job. We are to hold our space with the highest level of awareness and expectation we can possibly manage. We must make our choices out of that centered, focused universal space.

What are you saying? What are you thinking? What are you doing? Make certain your choices are for the highest good of all. And keep holding a vision of oneness.

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE DIVERSE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEINGs===
Let Your Light Shine

Does your inner light need polishing? Is it bright enough to change lives? Show others the way? To guide your own steps? We’re not on this path alone as humans, we are light beings working with the highest vibration that exists which is within all of us, to express ourselves in this life in a meaningful and impactful manner. That means we have to move deeply within ourselves to find out the gifts we are to share, the goals we are to achieve, the way we are to serve.

Is there some gift tucked away that you haven’t thought about for a long time that you would like to share? I’m thinking of something like a love of singing. Are you to sing in the choir, or a quartet or a choral group? I’ve done all of those things along the path of my life. How am I now expressing my love of singing? Get creative when it is time to reposition your gifts.

You never know when or how you will touch the lives of another person. One of the staff here who sweeps the halls on Thursdays told me that every time he hears me play my native flutes he stops and leans up against the wall and simply listens. I didn’t know that. I was just playing my flutes because I need and want to play my flutes.

I write in this newsletter because I need to figure things out and anchor them in my own life. And it is exciting to share what I discover. With you. I don’t always get feedback from you, but sometimes I do and that’s supportive and welcome and encouraging. I have to share in my excitement of what I discover. So you’re going to get this newsletter whether you write me back or not.

What gifts are you neglecting at this point in your life? If you used to be a runner and are kind of old, try walking. My fingers wouldn’t work on the piano anymore and my eyes are not able to read the music but I sure can tune into the classical music channel and hum along and remember melodies I know and listen more deeply. What kind of substitutes for a love or a gift or a talent are you making in your life now? And what gifts have you been neglecting? Do something about that. 

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===
The Eagle’s Eye

One of my earliest spirit guides is an eagle. His name is Sampson and in my journeys I get on his back and he takes me to see the overview. The beginning, middle, and end. The possibilities.  I can’t see them from my human life. So I get on his back and we go exploring to look for a new potentials, new possibilities, new insights. 

How do you keep an eye on the overview? How do you see it? How do you explore it? Are you constantly looking for new possibilities? Or are you sort of mired down in the detail of whatever you were doing? Keep your eye on the broader possibilities and potentials. Be like the eagle – soar high, look for and plan from the overview. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===
New Opportunities to Live Longer

Every day in science something new is discovered. Things that make us live longer. And better. And more productive. And new ways to extend our lives. It’s not easy to keep up with the dramatic changes.

I haven’t read this, but Brian Clark suggested this. “In the new book The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, the authors envision a scenario based on today’s current research and advances that has human aging reversed within the next 10 years — just as the eldest Gen Xers cross 65.”

“Which brings to mind some questions:

• What’s your purpose that keeps you going?
• What would you like to change going forward?
• What do you want to do with the rest of your life?”

It may give us an opportunity and a need to rethink our potential and possibilities.

I find out about a lot of new discoveries by subscribing to Good News Network. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Expanding Awareness
The Vibration behind Your Beliefs

Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Google
and the Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===
Do Something You Have Not Done For A While.

I have begun to play my skin drum again recently. And yet I am applying some of the techniques I learned when I learn to play my synthetic Remo drums. I’d like to say I made the skin drum. However, it was a workshop 30 years ago in which what I really did was weave the skin onto the frame. I had nothing to do with obtaining the deer skin or cutting it in a circle or poking holes around the edges of the rawhide. Nor did I make the round frame that it went in but with help, I wove the skin onto the frame to make my drum. And then I didn’t know what to do with it.

I bought a hide beater from the woman who held the workshop. When I started studying shamanism ten years ago, I began to play it more. I have created my own songs to the different directions. I just let them show up and evolve until they are what I want to sing. But I’ve been playing this drum with my hands in the manner I was more recently taught by Christine Stevens in her Shift Network classes. Funny how things come in cycles and you get to revisitg amd reexplore and refame an  experience. Interesting how we combine various phases of our life into the present moment.

What do you need to bring forth into your life today? I have so many crystals I have not held and talked to for a very long time. I have several shelves that have special items on them that could host many ceremonies if I chose to do so. What have you put aside that you want to revive? And when will you do it?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
My Drum Calls

My drum said, “Pick me up, play me, let me sing again.”

My drum said, “Pick me up, play me, let me sing again.” I lifted her into my hands, turned to look out at nature, and let her speak again.

My drum said, “Pick me up, play me, let me sing again.” I lifted her into my hands, turned to look out at nature, and let her speak again. I play better now. We talked for quite a while. It was good to get to know my friend again. We have both gotten better with age.

Cara Lumen, April 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  
I help adventurers who are ready to explore the new possibilities in the emerging energy of the Divine Feminine to align their dreams and choices with what is emerging as possible today so that they go beyond their own expectations.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community

Past Issues of this newsletter are being curated on my site on a page called Insights.