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Unleash the Power of a Creative Spiritual Practice  

September 11, 2019 By Cara Lumen

Unleash the Power of a Creative Spiritual Practice
An Inner-world Exploration

Your spiritual practice should be eclectic.  It should reflect you – what you believe in, what you need in your life right now.  However, there are four elements to address as you continue to create and evolve your personal spiritual practice: regular practice, receptive atmosphere, intention and vibrational actions.

Regular practice is the foundation of your spiritual work

The truth is, you can add a bit of spiritual practice anytime, anyplace, but to elevate your awareness and deepen your connection, you need to create and maintain this spiritual practice.  

Begin your day with inner work.  Whether it’s a sitting meditative practice or an active meditative practice like yoga or Qi Gong, or both, you have control over your mornings, you can get up and stay tuned into yourself and to your inner world. 

In the evening, you can add an element of spiritual practice when you move from workday to home. When I learned Transcendental Meditation fifty years ago, it was suggested we meditate 20 minutes upon arriving home in order to make that transition from work to family. 

You can create another spiritual practice at bedtime, in gratitude for the day and in preparation for inner work during the night of rest. 

Create a receptive atmosphere 

For your spiritual practice, choose a place that feels tranquil to you and use it regularly. The energy in that space will build, the vibration will heighten, and the mere space will become a source of serenity and nurturing for you. 

Sit on a chair or cross-legged and use a mudra (hand position) of your choosing to center you. Begin with hands lying palm up on your lap, one hand lying on top of the other, your thumbs touching.  Experiment with mudras to find what calls to you. 

Set an intention for your meditative session

Intention is the most powerful tool we have in all our inner work. It sets our course and is the wind beneath our wings. 

What’s the purpose of your period of inner work?  To heal?  Clarity around a choice or action? To receive guidance from the unseen world? To bless the day or offer gratitude at the day’s end?  Perhaps your intention is to raise your vibration or heighten the impact of your illumined service.   

Consciously set an intention for every meditative session.

Use the power of vibration to heal and balance

We’re all one vibration.  We communicate through vibration. Your spiritual practice can creatively contain many forms of vibration. 

Create vocal vibrational sounds

First, simply sit quietly and breathe. Notice your breathing. As you exhale, release any tension or worry. Empty your mind and sit in silent stillness. 

Then begin to hum.  Whatever note you hum, notice where it vibrates in your body.  Try different pitches and see where they resonate.  Direct the hum to your hands or feet.  Direct the hum to any part of your body that needs balancing. Just hum.  Let the melodies simply appear, and experiment with directing the vibration of the tone.

You can focus sound on your chakras for opening and balancing them.  You can send sound to the world, or a person or a situation.  Take a slow deep breath, set an intention and hum the vibration where you want it to go. 

Experiment with vibrational instruments

Find the vibrational instruments that resonate with you. We’re talking drums, flutes, bells, gongs, rattles, clapping your hands, tapping a rhythm on the arm of your chair, toning, chanting.  This is where you do the most experimenting.  

Create a ceremony that is uniquely yours 

A ceremony anchors your intention.  Create one that works for you. You might honor the seven directions – East, South, West, North, Above, Below and middle world.  I also honor the Stone Clan and Nature. I use a drum and I drum and sing. I see that drum as connecting me to all the worlds. 

I have two rain-sticks.  I use them to welcome in the blue light of power, the green light of healing and the white light of unconditional love. 

I use my small Tibetan gong to send energy to my past, my present and future. I use my Tibetan cymbals to send it to my home, the people of the earth and the planet.  I use my rattle to shake around my home and send positive energy to all the crystals and groupings and to my cats and plants.  

I give an intention to each vibrational creator I use.  Gong, claves, thumb piano, flutes, rattles, bells.  Listen to what you’re using and intuitively find its purpose. 

The Manifestation Box

I have a lidded raffia box with a wonderful dragon on the front that I use for a manifestation box.  On pieces of paper, I write what I want to bring forth. It can be specific physical healing, it can be ideas like wisdom and insight, healing the planet or simply an intention like “raised vibration.” Each day in my spiritual practice I open the box and read the intentions I’ve chosen.  With intention send positive energy to the choices you’ve made. 

Don’t forget the rocks!

Crystals hold a higher vibration and have guiding messages for you. Whether you hold a rock in your hand or place it on your altar, listen to the message it offers. 

My space is a tad full of crystals so I bring a few to the forefront for a week at a time and work with them and listen to their messages and advice and gifts.  Hold crystals in your left hand to receive. You may get a sensation in your body for you to interpret or simply pay attention to the thoughts that show up.  Learn to hear and interpret the messages of the crystals. 

Create vibrational movement

Movement is vibrational. Whether it’s Qi Gong or Yoga or T’ai chi or simply moving in rhythm to a chant, add conscious movement to your spiritual practice. You can also go outside and dance in nature.

Create a sacred altar

In the sacred space you have chosen for your spiritual practice, perhaps you place a simple table or plant stand to hold objects that resonate with you.  My “altars” are all around me.  One grouping is on the shelf in front of the desk that I sit at a lot.  Another altar surface is on a table under the window beside me. I look out the window to play my flute and work with other objects. It also happens to have a great place for some of my drums underneath. There is another low chest near the chair from which I drum and play a lot of my vibrational instruments. And my desk surface itself is full of crystals and sound instruments because this is where I spend most of my time.  This is where I sit to take my shamanic journeys because I change and type them in. 

Journal

Whether you journal by hand or on the computer, when you write down what you remember from your meditation it makes room for the next layer to be made evident.  Journaling also allows you to look back at your progress, or when something major happens, you can identify what you were doing to help that along. 

You can journal at the end of the day in reflection and gratitude.  You can journal to set your intentions for the day.  Record your visions your insights, your inner messages. It brings them more deeply into your awareness. 

Checklist for creating a unique and powerful spiritual practice

  • Regular practice is the foundation of your spiritual work. Pick some times and stick with them.
  • Create a receptive atmosphere of uninterrupted quiet.
  • Create vocal vibrational sounds and direct them for healing.
  • Experiment with vibrational instruments. Create power songs as you play if they offer themselves. 
  • Create a ceremony to begin and end each spiritual session that is uniquely yours. 
  • Don’t forget the rocks!
  • Create vibration movement.
  • Create and evolve your unique sacred altar.
  • Journal for deeper awareness.

Spend your day mindfully

Enter your day with mindfulness. Walk through your day with mindfulness and end your day in mindfulness. Find opportunities to reflect within throughout your day.

Your life is your spiritual practice!!!

Live it mindfully.

Deeper Song Affirmation

I create a spiritual practice that serves the uniqueness of me. 

Deeper Song Process

  • Look at what you do in your spiritual practice now.  What are your favorite things to do?  Begin there. 
  • Explore some of the ideas above – toning, sound instruments, movements and see what suits you. 
  • Add that. 

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider:

You ARE Vibration and Why it Matters

How to Interpret the Messages from Within

Make Use of Emptiness

Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner work

Why You May Want to Have an Altar

The Power of a Ceremony of Releasing

The Pillar of Light Process 

The Intentional OM HUM

Energy Cannot Be Destroyed – Only Re-Purposed 

The Light Vibration of One

Broaden and Deepen
Your Personal Journey
 

I help spiritual adventurers explore the Unseen World so that we broaden and deepen our personal journey and learn to share our discoveries with others.   We are guides and way showers with our light held high.

To receive our weekly
Deeper Song Insights and Applications

join the Deeper Song Community.

Filed Under: Raise Vibrations, Spiritual Expansion, Unfolding Tagged With: raise your vibration, spiritual practice, transformational thinking

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

November 15, 2017 By Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

When I first realized that my thoughts create my reality, I began to actively monitor my thoughts, my beliefs, and my words.  Sometimes I was rendered totally speechless as I stopped myself from saying something negative and said nothing until I could find something positive to say instead. In the beginning, there were definitely unexpected pauses in my conversations.

Speaking in only positive phrases and ideas took practice to learn. I’m essentially a positive person, but I still had to change some of my thinking. It took a constant awareness of what I was thinking, how what I was about to say would resonate in the world around me, and an active monitoring of my thoughts.

Your words do create your reality so learning to speak only in positive terms is a very powerful step to take in order to change your life experience.  It begins with what you think.

Your Inner Garden defines your world

Imagine that you have an Inner Garden.  In it, you grow your life.  You harvest what you plant – both good and bad.

Your Inner Garden is a powerful metaphorical idea that’ll change your experience in the world.  Like any garden, it needs constant attention. On a regular basis, in a quiet setting, go within and notice what crops you’re growing, decide what new seeds to plant and look for weeds to pull out.

Remember, since your thoughts create your reality, the most effective and powerful way you can change your life is to change your thinking.

What seeds are you planting?

Our thoughts are industrious little things.  Always popping up where they’re not expected.  Some of them are fun and exciting. Others are scary and harmful. And our limiting beliefs are the sneakiest seeds of all.

The good news is that we have control over our thoughts.  And our thoughts are the seeds we plant in our Inner Garden.

Which do you plant, positive thoughts or negative thoughts?

Here’s an important concept to consider.  Your life is determined by what you think you deserve and what you think is possible. So the limiting beliefs, the doubts the fears that you allow to take root, need to be removed.   And that means that tending your Inner Garden is one of the most life-changing spiritual steps you can take.

What are the crops you have planted?

Pause for a moment and close your eyes.  Move inside to your invisible self and look around at the Inner Garden you’ve planted.  What crops are there?  How are they doing?  What do they need?

You may have different crops for different facets of your life – work, family, spiritual practice. Some crops may be larger than others.  Look carefully at your Inner Garden.  How balanced is it?

Our Luminous Legacy publication is a brand new seed. And this is actually the first seedling in the crop.  In the process of deciding on this new field I wanted to harvest, I spent some time looking at inner “seed catalogs” that are based on my experience and talents.  I was looking for the right format and the right “purpose” seed to plant.

I made many inner journeys to my helping spirits, asking for guidance. Gradually I chose my designer seeds (a name, a format, the cornerstone topics), the size of the crop, and how often I wanted to harvest it (once a month).

As I designed this new crop, I knew its purpose is to expand our Spiritual Hearts, help us focus wholing energy on our world and find new ways to expand our spiritual practice. I planted the starter crop of Our Luminous Legacy. 

See how this is done?  You get to decide what you plant in your Inner Garden. And you can rearrange it anytime you change your thinking.

To make both time and space for this new crop, I cut back on some of the other crops I’d been growing in my garden. And although this is a small seed, I’ll work to give it the best growing conditions I can. Choosing what to cultivate in my Inner Garden was deliberate – it was thoughtful, it was powerful.

Prune your Inner Garden

It’s easy for your Inner Garden to become overgrown.  Sometimes it’s because you’re enthusiastic about one crop and plant too much.  Another time, overgrowth comes from neglect, and another crop gradually takes over from the neglected one. Keep a careful eye on the size of your inner crops and the space they’re taking up.

For instance, with the planting of the seed of Our Luminous Legacy, I had to cut back on some of my other crops to make room and time for this new one – fewer posts, fewer books. But that’s the point of cultivating your Inner Garden.  You go within and consciously decide what you want to grow and what you have time to cultivate.

Look out for the sneaky weeds

In the course of our daily lives, unwanted seeds sneak in.  They hide in our beliefs and our thoughts and before we know it they’ve taken root.  It’s important that when we go within to tend our Inner Garden, we look at the weeds that need pulling out. This especially includes negative thoughts and limiting beliefs.

On one journey to my Inner Garden, I was surprised and not pleased to find that there was a belief that my work held little value in the world.  Well, I yanked that one right out and looked hard for the cause of it.

I produce a lot of content, and I love doing it.  Others seem to respond to it.  How did that sneaky weed of self-doubt get in there?   You have to keep an eye out for the seeds of unwanted crops, particularly limiting beliefs.

With the planting of this new seed of Our Luminous Legacy, I feel I’m fulfilling a purpose that’ll be of value to all of us.

Prune your plants

When a crop gets too old, it gets woody, and it’s hard for new growth to flourish.  What do you need to prune in your Inner Garden?

If I stop trying to self-publish a few ebooks, I’ll eliminate the anxiety that always seems to be provoked by the technical completion.  For the moment, I prune back that crop.

On a personal crop level, I have a Reluctant-To-Exercise crop that needs to be replaced and re-planted with a Love-To-Exercise crop!

Prepare the soil of your Inner Garden

The quality of the soil is always important for a gardener. You want the soil to be rich and welcoming to the seeds you plant and the crops you grow. How do you do that? How do you prepare the soil of your Inner Garden?

You develop a strong spiritual practice, whatever that looks like to you. I’m referring here to the inner realms, the place of your soul, your Invisible Self that is the Nowhere That You Came From. We each have our own version of a spiritual practice.  Our unique exploration and embracing of the spiritual is what nurtures and nourishes our inner garden.

Plant different varies of your main crops

I have two main crops – spiritual exploration and communicating what I find.  I already combine those in the work I do.  And there are different varieties in each crop.

In my communication crop, writing has been my foundation, but I have also planted and harvested podcasts and videos and ebooks.

Even my spiritual crop has different varieties.  It has been fundamentally metaphysical for most of my life, and has included varieties like New Thought and Taoism and more recently, shamanism, which is becoming the more prevalent crop in my Inner Garden.

You will plant a variety of crops in your Inner Garden, and they will change throughout your life.  What crops are you presently growing and how would you like to change that?  You can alternate crops, you can change varieties, you can change the size of the crops that you grow.

This is all leading up to what you want to harvest in your life.

Combine your inner crops

Sometimes crops are planted together because each one assists the other.  One of my crops is to deepen my study of shamanism.  Cultivation of this crop means study and practice and a shamanic partner with whom I speak weekly.  We journey for each other and are supportive partners in the cultivation of this particular harvest. So in my overall crop of spiritual expansion, I have a plot specifically for the cultivation of my absorption of shamanism.

My shamanic partner is a healer. She is artfully beginning to combine two crops: she’s a medical scientist and is also embracing the spiritual healing of shamanism. Her new crop will be a combination of the mysticism of shamanism and the physical world healing she’s trained in.

I’m using my crop of shamanism as a guide to my higher purpose.  I’m relying on my shamanic journeys to guide me to what to share with you.

You might combine two talent crops.  You might combine two ideology crops.  Look in your Inner Garden for what crops can be planted together.  Come up with your own unique hybrid that makes both crops stronger.

Encourage cross-pollination in your Inner Garden

Allow the ideas in your Inner Garden to intermingle.  See those ideas as butterflies and bees that move among your crops and whisper ideas from one crop to another.  Allow the wind of your inner vision to cross-pollinate the crops in your garden. See what new hybrids emerge.

In my journeys I keep getting the words “Healing Voice” and I’m not certain what that means.  It could be my writing voice.  It could mean my actual voice in my podcasts and videos.  I have to let that concept move among the crops in my garden and see what develops.

Make your Inner Garden a retreat

Ninety-five percent of our world is unseen, and our Inner Garden is a perfect place to begin our exploration of the invisible realms. Make your Inner Garden comfortable and welcoming.

When I planted a seed for a tree in my Inner Garden, it grew to be a lovely shade tree the minute I planted it.  Now the Element of Water is beginning to speak to me in my shamanic journeys, so I have created a reflecting pool in my garden.  I will add a nature walk with old growth trees. Make your inner garden a place you love to go, to contemplate, to rest and to restore.

How you see yourself affects what you plant

Thanks to my shamanic journeying, I’ve made a huge shift in how I see myself.  I knew I was an explorer.  I was content to leave guideposts and maps along the path we all journey.  And I knew I was not the one to go back and lead a group on the journey.  But in one shamanic journey, I was told I was a messenger for the Inner Realms.  And that totally shifted how I see what I am to do.

A messenger explores, interprets and comes back with guidelines, maps, perhaps a plan and certainly a meaningful message.  That’s a greater responsibility than simply posting a few signs along the path we share.  A messenger needs to make certain the message is both heard and understood.

How do you see your work in the world?  Can you take on a new role that’ll make your work more meaningful to you and to those who follow it?

Begin to cultivate you Inner Garden

Set aside regular times to cultivate your Inner Garden.  Look for the limiting beliefs that may have snuck in and weed them out.  Prune plants to make them grow stronger. Tend your soil. Water your crops with attention. Examine the crops you’re cultivating and decide how much of each one you want to grow.  Select new crops you want to grow and plant those seeds.  Cultivate your soil. Harvest the crops that have matured.

Let your Inner Garden be the source of your positive work in the world.

***

A LUMINOUS LEGACY PRACTICE

How to Harness the Power of the New Moon

Each month, in Our Luminous Legacy, I explore the inner worlds and ask for messages to guide us. And each month I’ll provide us with active steps we can take to deepen our understanding of what was shared. It may be a specific action.  It may be a ceremony you can perform and repeat.  The purpose is to expand the reach, both inner and outer, of how we express Our Luminous Legacy.

New Moon, New Beginning

Because I see the New Moon as a new beginning, a time to evaluate, release and re-choose, Our Luminous Legacy will be delivered once a month a few days before the New Moon so you can review your month, make new choices and new resolutions for the following four weeks.

Your New Moon Ceremony has three parts

  1. Review and release
  2. Refocus and reframe
  3. Explore and choose

The first step in creating a New Moon Ceremony is to review and then release

Review your month

Because we are mostly water, it makes sense that our body suits respond to the pull of the moon.  I found that, for me, the time of the New Moon is like being shot out of a cannon.  At the New Moon, I go from almost being at a standstill to being swamped with ideas and energy.

But mostly I like the idea of creating a new conscious beginning for myself every month.  I look back to see what I accomplished and make a new commitment to some new ideas for the following four weeks.

It also helps to keep a list of your accomplishments, so you become aware of the wins you’ve had in the previous four weeks.

Start a folder on your computer and begin a “Luminous Legacy Acknowledgement List” in which you record both your accomplishments and acknowledge your movement forward. As you accomplish a step, acknowledge your success. How did you change?  Who did you change?  What hearts did you touch?

Release what no longer serves you

Around the time of the New Moon, go into your Inner Garden and spend some time looking for limiting beliefs such as  “I can’t”, “I didn’t.”  Pull those weeds out and put in some positive affirmations. State them in the present tense as if they have already happened.  “I do”, “I am”.

Releasing can mean everything from cleaning your physical space to releasing a project that now seems unnecessary, or identifying and releasing an unconscious habit that’s holding you back.

The second step in creating a New Moon Ceremony is to refocus and reframe

Refocus

Look over your Inner Garden to see what crops you want to focus on during the coming month.  What’s growing well? What needs pruning?  Is there a new crop you want to plant? Look closely at what you’ve grown this past month. Are you growing what you want to plant and is that crop serving you?

Reframe

Notice what’s changed – in you, in your circumstances.  How have you changed your expectations and your beliefs? How do you now see yourself? What has changed about you or your work?  What have you learned that has opened up new doors, new opportunities?  Look at your overall purpose and see if you have a new view of it.

This is the time to let go, weed out, and replant for the next four weeks and do whatever work is necessary for the continued growth of your Inner Garden. What’s your overall calling?  What work do you need to do in your Inner Garden during the next four weeks in order to support that?

The third step in creating a New Moon Ceremony is to explore and choose

Explore

Spend some focused times in exploration.  What has opened up?  What’s calling you? What needs more work?  What needs to be combined?  Try out different scenarios to see how you’d like to proceed in the next four weeks.

Choose

Choice is not so much about making new lists as about opening up to new possibilities.  Choice is about sitting in contemplation in your Inner Garden and feeling what calls to you, what you’re willing to do, what you want to do – or what you don’t want to do.  Then plant a few seeds and let them unfold.

Track your month

Because we’re tracking subtle movement in most cases, it’s helpful to note any accomplishments.  Notice your stuck places, too, particularly in relation to understanding how you personally respond to the cycle of the moon.  Notice how your energy changes with each phase of the moon.

Look for the new ideas and insights that surround you.  Let your life unfold and at the same time become aware of the changes that are happening so you can make use of the moon’s energy more effectively.

In your Acknowledgment journal each month:

  1. Review what you have done and release what no longer serves you.
  1. Refocus your purpose and direction based on what has changed in the past four weeks and reframe it into new steps that take your work in the adjusted direction
  1. Explore and choose how you move forward.  Perhaps outline a few steps, rearrange your schedule to relieve some pressure and develop a series of actions that you can and will achieve.

Track for your own self-awareness so you can see the ebb and flow of how you’re living your life.

Repeat at the next New Moon.

***

CIRCLE OF THE SPIRITUAL HEART

Our Collective Work in the World

As we expand our spiritual practice to be whatever it needs to be and learn to explore the inner worlds, we change our own vibration.  In turn, we join with others who are doing the same.  The collective energy of our raised vibrations resonates throughout the world and attracts others to the idea of raising their own light vibration. We increase the strength of the collective vibration and the overall coverage.

I hope you join us.  Each month when Our Luminous Legacy arrives:

– pause and make some plans of your own

– review what you have accomplished in the last four weeks

– spend some contemplative time exploring and outlining some possible choices for the following four weeks

– create your own way of celebrating and welcoming the New Moon.

(The day after the November New Moon is my 85th birthday, so it seemed fitting to begin this new monthly series now.)

Namaste – the Light within me honors the Light within you.

Cara

Filed Under: Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Heart Tagged With: New Moon Ceremony, Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Heart

Unleash the Power of The 20-Minute Lesson

February 11, 2016 By Cara Lumen

timer

Technical stuff brings me to a screeching halt. I see it as a big, bad barrier, a definite stopping place and nothing happens except that I have this vision of TECHNICAL in my mind. I recently found a solution that’s actually very easy.

The 20-minute lesson

I have two programs I want to learn – Scrivener and ScreenFlow. As I really, really wanted to learn both of them, I knew I had to find a way to break through my resistance.

I decided to spend just 20 minutes looking at a tutorial. I particularly resonate to video tutorials. Within about 10 minutes, I had the basics down. I listened to more advanced tutorials because I was going to import a book and I wanted to make certain I wasn’t missing any important steps.

Sit with what you learn

Don’t do anything with what you just learned. Don’t try to apply it. Simply absorb it organically. Maybe jot down some steps you’d like to take – like I learned I needed to download or locate specific programs to view how my books looked in the different platforms. No action. Just a few notes.

The next day spend another 20 minutes

You may want to review the tutorial you took and practice it. “Own” three or four steps and if your 20 minutes are up, feel free to let it go until next time. Acknowledge to yourself what you now know that you didn’t know 20 minutes earlier. If you get intrigued, go for another 20 minutes.

You are organically chunking down your learning process

Whey you take small steps, you master them, add to your foundational knowledge and gain confidence. I may not know more than how to import a file, but I do know that and I didn’t know it yesterday. See how this goes? One small step at a time.

Be consistent

There’s no hurry. No time limit. But there’s a need for consistency. Choose 20 minutes every day to master a new step, or deepen your skill by focusing on advanced steps on a familiar one.

Practice until you own it

I have ideas for several books that incorporate some of the ideas I’ve already written articles on. I set up files and brought the appropriate posts into Scrivener. Then I rearranged them into a book outline. That taught me which template to choose, how to import files and how to set up a template for the front and end matter. It also put me one step closer to creating a new book. And it showed me many other ways I can apply those two simple steps. A few steps mastered laid a strong foundation for the next steps.

Notice how you improve

“Oh yes, I remember that,” will be a common thought once you make the habit of learning a little bit every day. You build on what you know and each day you know a bit more. Notice how rapidly you learn and how much you know even after a short period of time.

Feel free to go over the 20 minutes

Twenty is an arbitrary number. You certainly can work longer. But don’t overdo it. Stop and step away. Give your mind time to absorb what it learned. Give yourself time to make some of the steps become second nature. Consistent practice is the key, whatever level you’re on.

Ditch the deadline

Years ago, I realized that in most cases I’m the one who made up the deadlines. That means I’m also the one that could undo them. Ditching a deadline relieves all sorts of stress, and once that’s gone, you’ll be surprised how rapidly things come together.

Take other 20-minute steps

I can think of other 20-minute applications – walk 20 minutes, eat mindfully for 20 minutes, do yoga stretches for 20 minutes. In 20 minutes you can write several e-mails and a couple of thank-you notes. In 20 minutes you can organize your desk. I can even write the first draft of an article in 20 minutes.

What other small steps can you take in 20-minute chunks?

I have a digital kitchen timer sitting on my desk. I use it to place boundaries on several things – how long I sit, setting it to give me time to get a cup of tea before watching “The View,” even resting my eyes by looking out the window. A timer is useful to remind you to take breaks from total concentration.

You can immerse yourself and still chunk it down

When I’m writing, I don’t want to be interrupted. But even if I use the timer to remind me to stand up, stretch, relax some muscles and look out the window before resetting the timer, I can do that without breaking my concentration.

You define the chunks – what you’re timing and how long the chunks are to last. Just watch out for the “five-minutes-more” syndrome when it comes to putting off taking a break. Honor the end of a time period long enough to de-stress, lessen you concentration and continue on refreshed.

Get a feel for what you want do next

It’s OK to switch tasks. When you come to the end of a 20-minute session, check in with yourself to see what you really want to do – continue on, or change direction.

I edit posts in batches. They come back from proofing in batches. I put them in Rainmaker in batches.

But I may not be in the mood to do the final formatting and SEO work for a whole bunch of posts. So I can set my timer for 20 minutes and complete however many posts that allows me to do. And if I don’t feel like doing any more on that project, I have a fresh new 20 minutes to fill with something else.

You can work in longer chunks

Keep an eye on the tension you hold in your body. Learn to set regular times to consciously release your focus and the unconscious tension in your body. Choose whatever length of time works for you but don’t make it too long between mental breaks.

The biggest win I’ve had using 20-minute chunks is to overcome my resistance to learning something technical. Twenty minutes is not a magical number – it could be 10 – or 30. The point is to spend some designated time learning what you need to know that will take you to the next level.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Is it Selfish To Take Care Of Yourself First?
Are You Afraid to Try?
How to Plan in Unfolding Cycles
The No Plan Plan
Unfolding an the Wu Wei of Not-Forcing
Unfolding an the Wu Wei of Not-Obstructing
Unfolding and the Wu Wei of Not-Interfering
What Do You Do in a Losing Situation?
Unfolding and the Big Bouder
20 – Why Are You in Service?
21 – How to Share a Piece of Your Soul

Filed Under: Positive Change, Self Awareness, Self Mastery Tagged With: Planning, positve change, Self Mastery

Unleash The Power of Your Passion and Calling

January 5, 2016 By Cara Lumen

ocen waves

If you let it, your passion and calling can carry you to depths you’ve never dreamed.

As I watched the Kennedy Center Honors, I shed tears as I listened to the stories of people who did what they did because they simply had to. They were called. It was their passion.

George Lucas had a vision that was not yet possible to create in film – so he created the technology for the legendary Star Wars.

Yo Yo Ma played his cello with such power and passion and love that we cried at the beauty he brought forth as he shared his soul through his music.

Aretha Franklin sang a Carole King song that was powerful and rich and touched our hearts. She too, offered her heart, her talent and her passion.

What I heard were the stories of people who HAD to follow their passion. Who HAD to express their gifts. It was their calling and they followed it.

Give yourself over to your calling.

I have just crossed a personal bridge, or turned an important corner, or taken a giant step. I don’t know what it means or where it will take me, but I do know that I trust the call.

And even more importantly, I trust my ability to answer it.

My personal turning point had three elements

First, a small suggestion in an email from a friend steered me in a direction that I had been considering and partially preparing for, but suddenly, with that nudge, it was time to make it happen. The idea was there, many of the words were captured, but the format was what set the whole idea free. A nudge, the right moment, and right action – by me.

The second turning point came when a post I put up garnered powerful responses. It made me realize that the subtle spiritual and philosophical explorations I am being called to make are, in fact, needed and wanted. I trusted the call, the sign, the signal and committed to a path I had only been considering.

Finally, the emotion that was shared throughout the program made me look at my own life. Not from the standpoint of what I had accomplished in my 83 years but what I was perfectly poised to do NOW. I have the wisdom, I have the gifts, I have the philosophical insight, and most of all I have the calling to explore what I am compelled to understand – and apply – and live.

Art is when you add your voice to the composition. You put your passion in it, your soul, your gifts. And you share what you create with others.

I HAVE to figure out certain concepts and learn to add them to my life. I MUST write in order to figure out what they mean and how to use them.

And I am not complete until I share what I find with others.

That feels like passion. I know it is my calling.

Are you listening deeply?

Are you feeling with your heart?

Do you make room in your life to explore what calls to you?

It would be very good if you cleared space to follow your passion and calling. It needs you.

You need it.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

05-Do You Have the Courage to Stand Alone
07- How to Find and Express Your Distinctive Voice
24-How Not Fitting In Helps Your Be Extraordinary
20 – Why Are You in Service?
The No Plan Plan 
Your Work as You
18- How Your Light Illuminates Paths of Darkness
21 – How to Share a Piece of Your Soul
How Are You Harvesting Your Crop?
04–How to Redefine Yourself and the 30 Year Plan
How to Walk Beside Someone in Service

Come Sing a Deeper Song

Filed Under: Alligned Choices, Self Awareness Tagged With: Calling, Planning, self-awareness, Unfolding

The Destructive Power of Negative Thought – on Others

November 28, 2018 By Cara Lumen

The Destructive Power of Negative Thought – on Others
An Inner World Exploration

Like many metaphysicians, Shamans believe that thoughts are things. Sometimes part of their work is to transform the negative thoughts that are causing illness in their body.

Where do negative thoughts come from?

If negative thoughts make you sick, where do they come from?  The first place to look is within yourself, the negative affirmations you’re giving yourself.

But what blew my mind, what sent me rushing to write this article, is that my negative thoughts can cause illness in someone else.  

Wow.  Bummer.  I need to monitor that. 

How you see others affects them

I’ve just gone through a rather judgmental period of watching my sister move and finding her ineffectiveness annoying. She is very harmful to herself with phrases like “I’m scared, I can’t do that, I can’t learn that, I don’t know how to do that.”  All of these are extremely damaging.  

But what struck me the most is that my thoughts of seeing her as ineffective were helping hold her in that place of ineffectiveness as well.  

Now, I don’t run around thinking negative thoughts as a rule but… Well, I’ve had to work hard at looking for my own feelings of inclusiveness (we’re all one light) and eliminating my own negativity (we’re all one light).

If you look at someone with pity, you hold them in a place where they feel themselves as deserving pity.  When you look at someone as being wrong, you increase the separation you both feel. When you see someone as sick, your thoughts help hold them in the place of sickness. How you see others is very, very powerful. 

We need to examine our own thoughts in order to encourage positive change. 

I have to transform my thoughts

How do I do that? How do I change my thinking? I’ve begun to look for and see love and light and illumination everywhere.  In the troubled places. In the scared places, in the desperate places, in the angry places.  I need to choose to see light everywhere.  Radiant light, the light of wholeness, the light of oneness, the light that is all we each are. 

It may take some practice.

I can transform negativity with my mind

I have to make some decisions. I get to monitor what I allow myself to focus on. 

For instance, one newscaster seems to put more drama and angst in his reporting.  I now listen to the one who calmly relates the happenings of the day.  I love PBS news because they clearly report both sides so fairly.  However, I also love to watch the late night shows.  Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers are my favorites.  Their jokes are relevant and intelligent and right on – for me.  I have to look at what that focus does with my version of spreading light into the world.  It’s not that it’s dark humor, it’s that they focus on what is not working in the world.

What we focus on, we get more of…

If I just sit here radiating light, I will not know what’s going on and what to focus light on.  On one hand, that’s just fine, because light to the planet is light to the planet, it goes everywhere and heals what is open to be healed.  

Are they open to be healed?

What if someone doesn’t want to be healed?  What if someone is just fine with being angry and judgmental?  

Well, that’s their choice.  

What I can do is shine my light so that anyone who’s looking can see it and bring it into their life.  No judgment. No anger.  Just healing, wholing, radiant light.  

Change your thinking, change your life

If you begin at this very moment to monitor and destroy all your negative thoughts, your life will change.  Clear out the sabotaging beliefs you send yourself. Look closely at what thoughts you send out into the world.  

There’s a television news host in my area who invites “rants.”  It’s really the worst idea I’ve ever seen because it helps people focus on being judgmental and critical. It’s very negative energy to put out into our world. (Maybe I should write a rant about the… No, see, my negative input would simply add negative input.  Light.  I have to radiate light and let it go where it’s needed.)

See the goodness

If you can find some inherent goodness in a situation or a person, focus on that.  It’ll change you, and it’ll change their reaction that comes to you.  Instead of spending time in your day talking about what does not work, spend more time focusing on a discussion of what does work.  

Change your focus, change your life.  

Feel the energy of negative thought

I can literally feel anger.  When I’m around people expressing anger, I have to leave their company because it physically hurts my body.  

I wonder what negativity I unconsciously allow into my life that’s harmful and non-supportive.  I’ve got to look out for that. 

Think of your thoughts as light

If you begin to think of all your thoughts as beams of light, then you’ll also notice that some are brighter and more luminous than others.  That’s what you want to send.  Not dull, negative thoughts.  They do not help our world raise its consciousness.  They do not help us heal ourselves.  

Notice your thoughts.  Monitor them.  Change them.  

Positive thoughts will change you.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Expand Your Spiritual Heart

Are You Sacred Space

Light and Darkness Cannot Exist Together

Do You See and Hear and Walk in a Sacred Manner

Our Defense of Non-Existent Boundaries 

Unleash the power of your Sacred Garden 

Filed Under: Our Luminous Legacy, Self Transformation, Shamanism, Transformational Community Tagged With: self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking, Unfolding

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