Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Come Sing a Deeper Song

You Are the Composer of Your Own Song

By

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.

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Keep Your Meditation Creative

By

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.

Trust Your Intuition – Follow Your Inner Voice

By

Trust Your Intuition – Follow Your Inner Voice

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Our intuition is the first sign of our inner voice speaking up. It comes as a subtle feeling, an awareness and when we pay attention it opens up a new pathway.

Do you follow your hunches? Do you listen to your intuition? Check it out. See where it leads you. Test it to see how on target it is all the time. Learn to trust those subtle thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere.

I use my intuition to make choices. Sometimes it’s as simple as what I’m going to eat and other times it’s more complicated – like what I am going to write. And sometimes my inner voice talks so fast I can only sit here and dictate what it says into my computer. 

The more you listen to your inner voice, the louder and more clearly it speaks. When change is going to happen in my life I get a feeling, a hunch, an awareness. I don’t know what is going to happen, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, I just know that there is a change in progress.

So I keep listening and I keep considering and I keep exploring whatever shows up to see if that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. And then one day it’s totally clear. My next step is right there in front of me. My next project, my next pathway, my next offering, my next place of service. All right there as clear as day. My inner voice has spoken.

First, learn to listen and then learn to trust. Notice the hunches, notice the thoughts, and pay attention to the gradual unfolding process. If they unfold. When they unfold. How they unfold. Keep tuning in as things progress. Learn to trust your intuition. Follow your inner voice. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION
I explore my hunches, my nudges, my intuition as they appear in my life. I learn to trust them.
DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • Learn to pay attention to those random thoughts that are not actually random but are simply not noticed. Notice them, consider them, and see how they unfold. 
  • Listen, explore, and learn to trust.

===INNER WORK===
Do Not Second Guess the Future

It’s a natural tendency that when you get really old you start to think about how you might die. And you hope it doesn’t hurt. In fact, you very much hope it doesn’t hurt. But in a recent journey, I clearly got that it’s not time for me to consider that right now even though I am rather old. I am to get on the ball and do my work and make every day a meaningful and loving experience full of joy. I could keep really busy doing that. 

What are you anticipating with some dread and how is it sapping your energy and spoiling your present moment? Take life one day at a time. Savor it. Enjoy it. Do your best work in it. And expect the best!

I realize that I’m counting pretty heavily on this new self-healing Qigong class I’m taking to help me make changes in my body. But there are subtle changes for the good taking place even now. I just have to notice them and build on them and encourage the subtle changes.

For instance, it hurts very much to get up out of a chair. And I was beginning to sit there and rock back-and-forth in anticipation of the pain, which only makes it worse. And yes, it hurt to stand up. Then one day it didn’t. And I had to teach myself not to anticipate that it would. Do not anticipate, particularly in the negative. And if you can’t hold a vision of ease, at least hold a neutral space in which the action can unfold organically.

Remember that what you get is what you believe you deserve and what you believe can happen. So if I believe I can stand up easily and effortlessly that’s what I can create. That’s what I am creating. That’s what I have created. Stay positive and expect the best.

Come From Your Spiritual Center

It’s easier to get pulled off track – by a situation, by an interaction with a person, by something not working the way it is you want it to. Whatever shows up in your life, take a breath, pause to return to your spiritual center, and rebalance. That moment will change how you view what is unfolding and will also greatly focus and enhance the way you respond. Keep mindfully coming from your spiritual center.

===SELF-HEALING===
Don’t Give Up

I get discouraged sometimes when my body takes its own sweet time getting better because it hurts. And yet, there is progress.  Small steps in the alignment of my body. There is progress but it sure is slow.  I have to keep holding my vision of wholeness and give it time to evolve.  I get discouraged but I know I must keep focused on the successes. When you get discouraged, what do you do?

Create a Self-Healing Segment in Your Spiritual Practice – The Wide Reach of the Vagus Nerve
As I continue to take more and more responsibility for self-healing my body, I’ve begun to look at the meridians. I know very little about them and I want to learn. Somehow I’ve started with the vagus nerve and there are two ways that I’m really attracted to stimulating it. One is the Lower Dantian Breathing Technique with Grandmaster Chunyi Lin. I do this one many times a day.

The other practice I’m going to establish is to massage the vagus nerve manually. As part of my self-healing program, my intuitive healer friend Christina Gerber is going to teach me about the meridians. She says the vagus nerve runs the length of the body so Kegel exercises help the vagus nerve reset. Also, moving your tongue in your mouth side to side to reset it and massaging from your clavicle upwards along your neck to your temples front and back of the ear resets it.

The vagus nerve has a huge impact on mental and gut health. It’s known as the “wandering nerve” which encircles the digestive system, lungs, and heart and as a result, impacts nearly every part of the body. From immune to inflammatory response, to fight or flight, the vagus nerve plays a major role. As a result, stimulation of the vagus nerve is important for both physical and mental health. 

Keep adding self-healing techniques to your spiritual practice. You and your body deserve it.

Imbalance as a Lesson

If I work to heal various parts of my body, I am very aware that the imbalance that I experience is meant to be a lesson for me. A lesson of correction. A lesson of self-healing. Perhaps even the doorway to an entirely new path.

It’s not my favorite way to get a lesson. But there are messages in any imbalance and an opportunity for you to create change in your life. 

Along with my hip adjustment, my dry macular degeneration is also a lesson that is kicking in. Something for me to heal. Even though there is nothing Western medicine can do about it. I know the acupressure points around my eyes and massage them every day. I know I will learn more ways to help it in my Qigong self-healing class, and I look up exercises for the eyes online and go exploring. What prompts me to keep exploring is the belief that my health, my well-being, my self-responsibility and my choice of actions can create positive change. If I don’t, I sit here and just let stuff happen to me. And I’m a victim of this whole aging process. I’m not gonna do that. I keep adding self-healing practices to my self-care. I am taking a course on Qigong self-healing. And I am putting specific self-healing segments into my day so that I consciously stop and pay attention to these areas of my body and life that need to have adjustments made. And I get to work on it with my own energy and my own intention. Don’t just accept an imbalance in your life. Do some research, choose the steps that call to you and do them. Take responsibility for self-healing and expand your spiritual practice to include a regular self-healing time. Pay attention to the results and adjust your self-healing practice as those results unfold. How is your self-healing practice shaping up?

===OUTER  WORK===
How Do You Make Your Choices?

Some people make their choices based on an in-the-moment response and their instinct. Other people spend a lot of time weighing and considering what their options are and where they might lead. Where are you on the spectrum?

The choice of what to eat might be made out of instinct in the moment. Many of the things I write about come in the moment. I find a couple of words or a phrase that calls for explaining and I sit down and write about them. It happens pretty fast actually. I’m not one to spend a lot of time considering the options but perhaps I should be. How do you make your decisions? How do you find the balance between logic and emotion? Or do you?

It’s fine to make a choice between what kind of cookie you want to eat but you need to take a little longer when you’re making a choice between some major change in your life. We do need to consider options. At the same time, we don’t want to overthink them and make ourselves not do anything because we’ve got too many things going on in our minds. How do you find that balance between what your heart wants, what your instinct says to do, and what your mind says is a reasonable and logical step to take? It may depend on your personality and it may depend on the type of decision you’re making.

I write in the newsletter all the time. I find an idea and I write about it and put it in the newsletter draft. However, when I review it, I can just as easily take it out depending on what else I have written that week.

Noticing results is one indication of how your choices are working out. For instance, I had some fairly obvious body responses to some Qigong moves I started doing. So I continue their practice and increase the frequency I do them. That choice was made from the observation of a result.

Some of your choices will depend on how much you trust your inner voice. How much do you trust it to be on target for you? I knew in an instant that I was going to leave Kansas City and go to New York City. No questioning, no wondering how it’s going to happen, not even concerned about what that meant when I got there. It was just instinctual I knew I was going to do it. That sudden, instant knowing decision came two more major times in my life – when I moved from New York to California and when I moved from California to Kansas City.  In each of those huge decision-making moments there was no questioning, only a complete knowing it was what I was to do next. 

In looking over my life I’m pretty much an in-the-moment let’s-do-it person. That’s not necessarily a good thing. Sometimes examining the options might’ve been a better choice. But these were all wonderful moves.

How do you make your choices? Do you lean too much towards deep analysis or do you instinctively and intuitively jump on anything that calls to you? Both are extreme responses. Find balance in how you make your decisions. Whatever that looks like to you.

Adjust as the Situation Changes

I’m having a hard time playing my native flutes. Some of the tones are not clear. My fingers feel like they cover the holes on the flute correctly. But then I noticed the end joint on some of my fingers are being bent to one side by arthritis. So even though I feel like I am still bringing my fingers straight down to cover the hole, in actuality the ends of some of my fingers are not covering the hole completely to make the pure tone. That’s disturbing and I’m not sure what I do with those jauntily curved fingers but I am learning to adjust my fingering now that I know why the unclear notes are occurring. It is easier to play my wider double flute than the round single flute.

What physical changes have come up in your life? Make adjustments in order to continue forward. Stay flexible and creative and keep going…

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Add Music to Deepen Your Meditation

I play music as part of my daily meditation.  My native flutes for certain but I get a lot of pleasure from myKalimba Thumb Piano. It is soothing and easy to play.  It is also an inexpensive addition to your meditation practice.

The Kalimba is an African musical instrument consisting of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs. Here’s what it sounds like: Kiss the Rain

It is believed that the thumb piano was invented twice in Africa; one version originating on the west coast using wooden or bamboo tines around 3000 years ago, and the other version originating on the southeast coast using metal tines around 1300 years ago.

It can be a solo instrument or as an accompaniment to singers, musicians and dancers. I use it for meditation and my cat, Sebastian, is particularly fond of its sound. Here’s the one I have Kalimba Thumb Piano

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

I’m trying to stay balanced between me and the bravery and the horror stories of the Ukraine while keeping my spiritual focus on the higher vibration that embraces all of us. I’m not always successful.

I wish I had an attention thermometer. It would help me stay on track. It would make me notice when I was focusing too much on the physical plane and need to go spend more time on the spiritual plane. I just have to teach myself to recognize that in myself. I could listen to less news and spend more time reading books and looking at videos that help me raise my own vibration. What kind of balance are you maintaining in your life and how do you need to change it?

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===
Self-Healing

I started my Qigong class on self-healing this week. And it certainly is an interesting concept to know that you are responsible for what your body presents to you in wellness or sickness. And it is through energy, because we’re all energy, that we can change how it is manifesting. That’s really neat, and it’s also a very sobering responsibility. I don’t want to blame myself for what’s going on in my body because I know in fact it’s a healing of a past life experience because that’s where it started- in a healing session around a past life experience. I have to look closely at this very subtle change toward wholeness that has recently taken place. And trust that more signals and results will follow. Because I am the guy responsible for getting well, I have to stay open to the nudges and clarification that comes with what I am to do. I’m getting results.

When you undertake a self-healing process or self-correcting process, keep track of the steps you take and the results that occur when you do. I have two simple breathing exercises that have begun to make more shifts in my body. Look at what you do and look at what happens when you do it. Then adjust. 

I’m probably gonna take a second Qigong class about ceating longevity because as an old person Qigong seems to be a very powerful way to change and support my physical body. Keep exploring, keep practicing, keep changing.

I’m taking Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong and the class I will probably take is Live Long QiGong with Robert Peng. Here’s a free online event with him: Premiere: Saturday, April 16, 10:00AM (PDT) 
Encore: Tuesday, April 19, 12:00PM (PDT)

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===
Why Are We In Each Other’s Lives?

How did you find me? Why are you reading this? Why am I writing this? We are in each other’s lives for a reason. Do we know what it is? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Trust the fact that we are connected.

Why are certain people in your life? What gifts are you giving each other? What lessons are you offering each other? Sometimes the exchanges are uncomfortable. And sometimes they are full of joy. Know that with every interaction with any individual there is a gift exchange involved. You give something to them. They give something to you. Be aware of this lovely gift exchange.

Why are we walking this part of the path together   I’m glad we are.

===THE UNFOLDING DIVINE FEMININE===
A Dramatic End of an Era

The era of the old white male is coming to an end and they are fighting like a flounder on a hook. The very worst of male dominance is in evidence in our world today. A stark contrast was given with the hearings to install Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court of the US. The bullying techniques exhibited by some of the white male members of the senate were reminiscent of high school bullies. Those insecure people who had to pick on the people they see as stronger and potentially more powerful than they are. Do you know any of those?

And this lovely, gracious, extremely smart, extremely well-educated woman, who happens to be black, sat there with grace and integrity and patience with the bullying and childlike actions of the men who were theoretically there to infirm her. 

Could you do that? As a smart, educated, proven professional woman could you and would you sit there and let anyone try to bully you? She has to in order to gain the position she is so overqualified for. I would’ve lost the job because I would’ve had something to say about their behavior. But then I’m white and she’s black and she’s smarter than I am. She just stayed calm and centered and polite and the belligerent senators were taking the their last gasp at trying to feel relevant. 

Are you experienced enough and confident enough to know your own worth? So that no one and no circumstance can rattle you and make you move off of that focused centered position? I may have to practice that. 

Know your own worth, believe in your own value and trust that knowledge. 

I wonder what the world will be like when the Divine Feminine sets the tone. 

My Two Favorite Books

There are two foundational books that always strengthen my spiritual awareness when I read them. One is The Prophet by Khalil Gibran which I discovered in my 30s and actually provided me with the name of my current business.

On the last page. in the next to the last paragraph, it says, “And I shall return and you will sing to me a deeper song.” I caught my breath because I knew I wanted to sing my deeper song. And so I am. And so are you.

The Tao Te Ching is the other book that is foundational for me. I like the Stephen Mitchell translation the best. It is so much about how to live a spiritual life, a mindful life. I have read them both many times. Do you have a life-changing book that you return to throughout your life? If so what is it? Is it time to read it again?  

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Spiritual Practice
How too Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner work
Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Google
and the Deeper Song Website
==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===
Save The Animals

Spring is the time of year I take time to donate to organizations that help save animals: World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy,Sierra Club– whatever way you want to support the nurturing and growth of nature.  

===CARA’S CORNER===
When You Are Ready the Answer Will Appear

I’m into self-healing. My collection of skills is expanding. My holistic friends offer me insights and skills of their own to add to my own physical growth practice.

When you make a major shift the key is to keep an eye out for the results it produces. Or doesn’t produce. I am feeling shifts in my body and it still hurts. So I will continue to explore additional options to help it rebalance.

Part of allowing change is to realize the changes to be made. I’m getting extra help on the physical plane as my son-in-law drives over to take out the trash which was becoming quite a challenge for me. My dry macular degeneration is kicking in and I have to get creative working around that too.  I’m not sure how that’s going to work and look like. What kind of adjustments are you making in your life to accommodate the changes that are showing up? Do you want those changes? How do you want them to unfold? Do you have a great deal of choice in the outcome? Get to work.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
My Work

I am the only one who can fix this. I’m the only one who can make change. I’m the only one.

I am the only one who can fix this. I’m the only one who can make change. I’m the only one. I explore, I experiment, I make choices, and I do the work.

I am the only one who can fix this. I’m the only one who can make change. I’m theonly one. I explore, I experiment, I make choices, and I do the work. I keep exploring and experimenting and change keeps happening.

Cara Lumen, March 2022

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

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!

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The Power of Our Aura

By

The Power of Our Aura

Living Our Deeper Song

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

I have been fascinated by the idea of our biofields. They are our energy fields. I first began to hear the word used in relation to working with tuning forks. I thought it was something new until I was on a healing summit and realize that the biofield is the aura I’ve known about for over 50 years. I can feel the edges of a person’s aura. I can interpret the energy of a room, or a person.  I can interpret the energy of a crystal. As can you when you listen. 

Everything is energy. Which means it has an aura, a biofield that we can feel and experience. Have you ever walked into a room and suddenly felt it was a great place to be?  That’s the aura of the room. Or have you been in a situation in which the tension was so great that there was not only negativity but a thickness about the aura? You couldn’t wait to leave the negative energy. Learn to listen to those intuitive nudges. 

Sensing an aura is about teaching yourself to feel subtle differences. Stand 30 feet away from a person and slowly begin to move closer to them. Be aware and tune into any energy change. Sometimes further away but around 6 to 8 feet you will actually feel this field of energy. It is the aura of the person. You just have to practice experiencing it

Why, you ask. Why should I learn to sense the aura of another person? Because it is a profound form of communication. It is energy speaking to energy. Our thoughts have energy but when you start reading the energy of a room or the aura of a person, there is a deeper feeling of understanding and connection.  Use your intuition to interpret the aura, the vibration of another person, animal, plant, rock, or place. Learn to feel, experience, and interpret the biofields around you. 

Remember the last time you came across somebody whose presence immediately made you feel happier and more joyous because of the energy they put forth? That was their aura. Do you ever wonder what kind of aura you put out? I’m not sure that you have many people in your life that you can ask what your aura feels like but if you do, by all means ask.  If not, take a guess. What is the energy you’re putting forth at any given time? 

When I walk down the hall to get my mail, I could purposely send forth positive energy into every apartment door I pass.  When I walk outside to take the trash, I can make certain to pause and feel the energy and aura of nature. When I send out my newsletter, I will more consciously add energy to it even though positive energy goes into every word I write and every step I take in producing it.

When I was writing my small books, I put a book blessing in each book to share my energy with those who read them.  Even today I add a vibrational blessing to this newsletter when I send it out. 

The energy we put into our work stays within what we put out. It is our essence. It is our aura. What kind of message are you sending because of who you are and what you were thinking?

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am now aware that my aura extends far beyond my body and I work daily to make certain it is a positive expression of my center. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Begin to experience and explore energy fields – the energy of a person, the energy of a situation, the energy of a tree, a rock, or your pets. Learn to feel the edge of an aura.
  • Work with your consciousness to raise the vibration of your aura, the energy that emanates from your being. 
  • Set the intention to have it always be a positive experience for those who come in contact with it. 

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Meditation Practice

The benefits of meditation are so great that perhaps you want to pause and see how you might expand or improve your meditation practice. If you don’t know how to meditate, find a quiet place to sit comfortably and focus on your breathing. In and out. In and out. Keep focused on your breath and continue to teach your mind to be quiet and still. It is in this inner stillness that your inner voice can speak with you and give you guidance and insights and messages.

You can use a mantra if you want – Om, pronounced aum, is often used. You can use a mudra which is a hand position to deepen your mediative experience. For instance, palms up, one hand resting in the other. Work your way up on the length of time you can meditate. 20 minutes might be a goal.

When I learned transcendental meditation in the 80s, it was suggested that we meditate when we come home from work so it made a clear space between work and home. Some people will meditate when they first get up. You’ll find your place. Experiment. Meditate daily so you get in the habit. I have placed a meditation chair in my living room to look out the window at nature. My meditation begins and ends with a connection with Gaia.  

Experiment with when you meditate and where you want to do it. Perhaps bring meaningful objects into that space – crystals, a candle, a plant, a bell. Create a space that allows you to consciously move easily into the stillness within and be present. 

A New Centering Practice

In the recent Shift Network Qigong Summit, I learned a hand movement that is a fabulous way to begin meditation. If you are seated, with your hands facing each other at hip level, bring them up as in drawing up a column of energy from Gaia – deep healing and wholing energy. When you get your hands up beside your head, turn your palms down and take hold of your thumbs, raise your elbows so your arms are parallel to the floor and begin to slowly bring the energy down again. It’s this last move that blew me away. For me there was huge power in lowering my arms with my thumbs folded into my fingers. 

Bring the energy up with the palms open and facing each other on either side of your body, at the top close your fingers over your thumbs, turn your palms down and bring the energy down. There are many powerful qigong moves like that but this one is one of my favorites. Enjoy. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Allow for Natural Reset

To reset is to return to a state of balance. We can learn to do that consciously as we move through our day. Take a conscious pause to reset your physical body. Take a deep breath. Empty your mind. Take another slow inhale and exhale. Relax your shoulders. Look out the window. Empty your mind and be present. You can do this sort of reset wherever you are. It’s as simple as a focused conscious breath, a conscious relaxing of your shoulders and body and a stilling of your mind. Do it often.

Find a place in your day that is a good reminder to pause and reset your focus and your intention. I could use the moment I sit at my computer before I start to log in. I could take a few deep breaths, relax my shoulders and consciously empty my mind with an exhale. I can do that when I walk into my home from the hallway – pause to reset my energy – take another deep breath and consider the energy I am bringing into my home. I definitely want to reset my focus and my consciousness before I go to bed to release all the thoughts and considerations and even the events that I experienced and find a way to move consciously to turn the mundane into rest and restoration and sleep. What kind of reset buttons are you going to use to consciously focus a moment and reset your direction?

Be Patient With the Self-Healing Process

It’s tricky not to get discouraged when the self-healing process seems to be a lot slower than you had in mind. How do you stay strongly optimistic rather than fall into discouragement? It may help to keep track of your progress with an actual date written down somewhere. You may need to journal the smallest of shifts. Noticing change for the positive is one of the easiest steps you can take to keep aware of the progress you are making.  Record your wins – today I did one more step than yesterday. But also stay open to how and what you need to change to continue your self-healing process. What new steps do you need to take? I have added some new Qigong moves to my spiritual practice.  I need to encourage myself to walk more. You are the only game in town. You are the only one that can encourage yourself, or cheer yourself up. We constantly set new goals and set about to achieve them. It’s tough being the only person in charge of this particular process pf self-healing. But that’s how it works. It’s our body. Our responsibility for our life. Our unfolding. Our choices. We create our reality. How are you doing with yours? 

===OUTER  WORK===

What is Your Relationship with Nature?

I love the shape-shifting clouds in the Midwest.  They nurture my imagination.  There were not many clouds in California and who knows what was in the sky above the tall buildings in New York, but here I can raise my gaze and enjoy.  

As a child, I remember that when it rained, I loved to play on the wraparound porch of my grandparent’s house.  I was sheltered from the rain and yet an integral part of it.  It was me, my imagination, and nature. 

When was the last time you stopped to listen to the sound of rain on the window and watch the drops meander their way down the closed window?  Or watch the snow build up on a branch, or pick up an acorn that has fallen to the ground?

I remember sitting at the edge of a sandbox in New York City watching my granddaughter play and I looked down and saw this incredibly beautiful seedling coming out of the sand.  I looked up to see where it had come from and there was a huge oak tree.  I admired the seedling for its tenacity and wished it luck…  

When was the last time you took a meaningful pause in nature and when will you do it again?

One Step At A Time 

After watching Sharon Stone in the Shift Network Qigong Summit offer a standing qigong practice designed to strengthen my body, I decided I would add that to my life. It’s as simple as taking time to pause to stand straight, shift your weight to stand on one leg and rotate your ankle or open your hips.  The whole series was about standing on one leg at a time to let all the muscles do their job and get stronger.

Strengthening my body is as simple as consciously standing straight for a focused period of time, engaging my core, straightening my spine. Sharon has one move in which she hugs a tree while standing on one leg. Her arms are in front of her hugging an imaginary tree. I love that image to stand there and hug a tree. And you are strengthening your shoulders and your arms by holding them in that outstretched position.

Can strengthening my body be as easy as regularly standing consciously in an aligned posture to allow my energy to flow more freely? I can do that. Add more moments of  conscious standing in which  you hold a weight-bearing posting on one leg as you straighten and  strengthen and allow the Qi energy to flow to your body and see what changes. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Conditioned Space

We can condition our space to make it more welcoming, more receptive, more supportive in how we want to live in it. I have a meditation corner. It has a chair that is turned to look outside at nature. My native flutes are within reach and I play them every day. I use my Kalimba Thumb Piano and Spolum Drum – the musical instrument of happiness   (There are much cheaper ones but this explains it well.) There is a flexible structure to my morning meditation and ceremony. My space in that corner of my living room has the intention of being a sacred meditation space. It has a purpose. It is furnished for that activity. And it supports my meditative practice.

What space do you need to condition in your home? Is it your sleeping space? Your food preparation space? Or a meditation corner? Set an intention for the space, set it up so it supports the activity, and condition it to make you welcome.

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

Hold High Watch for Our World

The negative eruptions on our planet are so blatant, it is hard to understand the lessons we are learning and what steps we are to take. I do know that everything is vibration and with our conscious focus we can continue to keep our vibration raised. That doesn’t mean we don’t take action. It doesn’t mean we don’t take steps and help. It simply means that we keep putting out into the planet the higher vibrations so that others can see it and raise their own.

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===

The Power of Energy

Everything is energy and we can make changes in our lives and in our world by working with energy. Part of the work is visualization, but most of it is simply raising your own vibration. Before each meditation, I bring energy up from Gaia and energy down from the cosmos to become a pillar of light. (Become a Pillar of Light podcast) I move into my Transcendental Meditation as part of my spiritual practice. I play my native flutes and drums and kalimba and gongs as part of my daily meditation practice. It is easy to connect with nature through the window I face. Take those pauses. Take conscious pauses while walking down the street. Hug a tree and connect with its deep roots and soaring branches. 

When I lived in New York City, I was a block away from Central Park which was great but otherwise, I had to walk five or six blocks to Lincoln Center in order to see the full moon. So I spent a lot of time imagining Mother Earth beneath the concrete. Now I can look out the window at the tree and the earth and the clouds and watch the sun set. That works for me. How are you enriching your meditation practice this week? 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

What Really Matters in Your Life?

I’ve been thinking about the Ukrainians forced to leave everything behind. What really matters in your life? What would you bring with you if you could only bring what you could carry?

I would bring my cat, Sebastian. And then I saw a news clip of a man whose rather large dog was so frightened that he lay down in the road and wouldn’t move. Ultimately the man took him back to his apartment where he felt safe and left him behind. That would be super hard. 

A 17-year-old boy was scared because all the men had to stay behind and fight. A kid, a young person. A male person. Had to learn to fight to protect his country. The women move on alone bringing their children with them. Peaceful people learned how to use guns and are prepared to do so.  One day you were having breakfast and suddenly your life totally changed and you are protecting your life and your homeland. 

Then imagine being in a new country with perhaps a different language, no place to live, no way to earn a living. How do you even begin? It doesn’t matter that you were an executive in a company because the company is gone, the job is gone, the friends are gone, the income is gone, your home is gone, your life is gone. What would you have left to begin again that you would be grateful for?

Your gifts. The things you’ve learned in your life, the skills, the ideas, the beliefs, the wisdom. You are grateful for the Foundation of Self you begin to build on again. Step-by-step. Perhaps in a way you’ve never considered before. Yes, some doors have closed. But others will invariably open. Be receptive and ready to act. We don’t have to be forced from our homes in order to be aware and grateful for the gifts of our talents and our mind and our strength of character. 

Help the Ukrainians any way you can. Some people are providing shelter, some are providing food, others are helping people relocate.  I just know that as an 89-year-old woman who uses a walker, my cat Sebastian and I would simply stay here and do the best we can with what is handed to us.

What are you grateful for? And how are you helping those who are in need? 

Google Ukrainian relief and see how you can help.

Despair In The Young

A friend of mine is a narrative coach in France, and she seems to have attracted a lot of teenage clients which rather surprised her. But she reported there is a lot of suicide among teenagers because they cannot see a path forward.

What keeps us going? What keeps us looking for new paths, new ways through, new solutions? And what makes us give up?

If you cannot see your path forward, that’s a tough one. I’m sort of hoping that as the changes in my body keep happening for the better that my path will become clearer.  But I’m an optimist. So I keep believing.  We get what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. What if we don’t see a possibility for ourselves? How do we change that? I don’t have an answer here, I only have a question. How would you turn to help someone who cannot see a path forward?

How do we come to believe in ourselves and our gifts and our potential and our future? 

For me, part of it was the expectation of my parents. They expected me to go to college. Unfortunately, I was in an era that mostly expected women to get married. I did that and didn’t work out so I’ve got to go exploring in wonderful new ways by myself.

There are a lot of new jobs evolving in technology but if you are interested in arts and literature, where do you turn? I have no idea how much fiction is being written today but I know there are a ton of self-help books that people are reading. So how do you evolve your life when you cannot see a future? I don’t have an answer. But I do invite you to turn to the teenage people in your life and see how you can help them move forward. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Our Ongoing Journey into the New Consciousness

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

This Technique Makes a Difference

I have recently experienced a major healing in my body. And I have only added two processes to my self healing curriculum. One of them is this Lower Dantian Breathing Technique with Grandmaster Chunyi Lin.

It has had a positive affect and has created a major physical shift that has been in progress for over a year. I do this simple technique five or six time a day and in 10 days or so it has helped create a major healing shift.  Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong is the online class I begin next week taught by Master Chunyi Lin, Creator and Founder of Spring Forest Qigong. It is a powerful approach to self-healing. We will be guided through experiential journeys in which we will refine our body’s reservoir of energy — aligning our breath, movement, and awareness — and direct it to facilitate increased energy and the capacity to heal ourselves and others. If you are looking for self-healing, his websites are springforestqigong.com and chunyilin.com At the very least add this breathing technique to your daily practice

===CARA’S CORNER===

Self-Responsibility

We create our life by what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. That puts pretty much everything in our own laps. How is your life unfolding?

If I’m lonely, it’s up to me to reach out to someone. If I’m sad, it’s up to me to honor that sadness and yet release it. We are totally responsible for our own well-being in our own life experience. How are you doing with your life?

As I decide to take total self-responsibility for the well-being of my body, I have some work to do. Not so much in the belief that it is my responsibility because I accept that. But I’m now looking for ways to work with energy in order to create those changes. For me, it’s through intention and qigong moves. 

It’s a tad scary to be 89 and feel like you’re the only game in town as far as healing your body. I got lots of ideas in the Qigong Summit. One is as simple as doing standing exercises to strengthen your ability to stand up. I have to do the work. It is my responsibility and if I want results, I have to take the actions that are needed to get those results. Self-responsibility and self-healing – how are you doing with that?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Mine to Do

It is all mine to do – the strengthening, the healing, the expanding – my responsibility. All mine.

It is all mine to do – the strengthening, the healing, the expanding – my responsibility. All mine. I want this. I can do this. I deserve this.

It is all mine to do – the strengthening, the healing, the expanding – my responsibility. All mine. I want this. I can do this. I deserve this. I take one step at a time – with perseverance.  One step – then another. I walk the path to wholeness.

Cara Lumen, March, 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!

Buying and Striving are Not the Point of Living

By

Buying and Striving are Not the Point of Living

Living Our Deeper Song

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

“Buying and striving are not the point of living” was one of the many thought-provoking ideas in Changing of the Gods. It was jarring because I realized that acquiring things was part of how I had been brought up to think and it was time for me to reexamine my life focus. You got educated, you had a career, you had a family. It was all about the doing – not the being. I get to check my thinking and reconsider my purpose. 

I have not been trying to earn my living since I moved from California to a Kansas City suburb in 2009 and had knee surgery on both knees. My content development coaching practice organically dissolved in the process.  My daughter helped me find a lovely subsidized apartment and I tucked myself in. It is actually very freeing to not have to earn a living. In fact, since I live in subsidized housing, I will be penalized for doing so. 

So everything I do I get to do because I want to, not because I need to sell something to someone. It is very freeing since I was never a very good salesperson. 

But the majority of people are concerned with consuming things and earning the money to do so. They need a roof over their head – but how luxurious and expensive does that roof need to be and how much time and effort and money will go into maintaining it? That decision adds to the degree of striving we have to do to support that choice. 

I don’t have answers here. I just really like the idea of making certain I am not living just for the purpose of acquiring things. 

I also am not striving to achieve a goal, I am focused on unfolding and expanding my place of service. 

How does this idea call to you and what will you change because of it?

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I work to stay in meaningful service rather than to acquire things.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Monitor your spending, look at why you buy versus what you truly need.
  • What are you striving to achieve with your earning power? Is it still relevant?
  • What adjustment will you make in order to make buying and striving not the point of living?

===INNER WORK===

Incubation

To incubate something means to keep it in a safe space with the environment controlled so that it is perfect for the growth and development of a living organism. We need to provide a safe environment for our ideas to develop, a way to continue to nurture and nourish them so that they have time to develop. I often get inklings of change coming without any more clarity than that. All I can do is be patient and stay open and aware and let it mature. Even when the idea begins to emerge, I don’t rush it. I observe the subtle changes and pay attention to how it feels and looks. I consider the possibilities and how it might develop.

Evolving takes time, you can’t rush maturing. I don’t poke it or prod it or move it around. I pretty much let each idea develop in its own time. We are constantly incubating our own path of change. We must give our ideas and evolution the best environment we can to keep them safe and give them time to mature. Do you do that? Do you give yourself time to have an idea evolve for your next step? Are you patient with yourself? Do you let things unfold?

You can’t force something into being. You keep it safe and provide it with the nourishment and nurturing that it needs and simply give it time to emerge. Give your ideas time to incubate. 

Keep a Creativity Journal

I keep a journal about my personal life, but I’d never thought about keeping a creativity journal until recently. That means it’s a place you write down anything you want to explore or consider doing. It could be an idea for a poem, it could be an idea for a picture, it could be an idea for a woodworking project. I wouldn’t want to turn it into a list of “to do” things but it would be fun to have one place to keep all the ideas that come in. Perhaps I would prioritize them, do some exploring, and actually do some of them. Just a thought. Will you start a creativity journal today? 

===SELF-HEALING===

Meaningful Pause

Periodically throughout your day, take a conscious pause and take a mindful breath. Breathe in stillness. Breathe in centering energy. Quiet your inner self and simply be present. You may want to turn and look out the window at nature. We have great shape-shifting clouds here in the Midwest. They are definitely worth some contemplation time. Take time to think of the people you love. Be grateful for the moment, the experience of being alive, for your role in the world. 

Pausing to change your focus, your rhythm, and your intention gives you a moment to notice how you’re doing and if you’re going in the direction you intend. Pauses are good. Consciously build them into your day. 

===OUTER WORK===

What Can You Learn From a Friend From Another Culture?

Most of us have explored a little bit of other cultures simply by eating their food – French, Chinese, Mexican, Indian Italian, Korean, but what else do we know about those cultures and the richness they could bring to our own experience?

Thinking about that I realize that I have been interested in Buddhism for a very long time so that’s a spiritual culture I know a bit about. I have studied Qigong and Shamanism that originated in other cultures. Living in New York City gave me the greatest opportunity to explore wonderful restaurants.

However, I live in the Midwest now and there are few people from other backgrounds living near me. I don’t have very many diverse friends and that’s too bad. For me. I miss out on a lot. As I’m listening and expanding my way of looking at the world, I could look at different cultures to add depth and richness to my life. Art is different in different cultures, music is different. I’m missing a lot of fascinating experiences by not exploring other cultures. 

What culture would you explore to learn more about its way of living, its food, its thinking, its culture? Pick one and go exploring.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Create a Sacred Container for Your Intentions

It has been a long time since I created a Sacred Intention Container. I seem to want to create a new one. The idea is to create a special container for your intentions, then contemplate them and send energy to them on a regular basis. I write my intentions on paper and place them in a container that has a lid. I place it in my meditation corner so I can work with it. You could put your intentions in an envelope or a cloth bag or a bowl. Write your intentions in the present tense as if they have already happened. Place the intentions you have written in the container you have chosen and send energy to them as a regular part of your spiritual practice.

Since I have dry macular degeneration, I have the affirmation “I see clearly within and without” Others are: “I deepen my connection with nature.”

“I welcome wholeness and balance into my physical body and my life experience.” ‘I deepen my spiritual experience and connection with the unseen world.” “I deepen my love for and connection with the circle of friends I have drawn around me in my life.” “I find new ways to serve in the word and share what I discover with others.” “I easily and effortlessly step onto the path I am to travel now.”

You can periodically pull the individual intentions out and work with them or you can simply send positive wholing, balancing energy to the whole collection of intentions that you have. I suggest doing both.

What kind of an intention holder will you create and what intentions will you put in it?

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Stay Curious

80% of potential jobs are not created yet. With fields like AI and robotics, solar and block change just getting underway, those industries and opportunities have barely begun to define themselves as existing, let alone define their potential and job descriptions. That means that we as workers in the world, whatever generation we are, need to stay fluid and flexible and curious and willing to change. It’s a little tricky to prepare for what does not yet exist but when the opportunity unfolds there will be ways to serve it and we can learn then. Say curious. And keep learning. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===

Expanding Awareness

Simply Being – The Art of Wu Wei

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

Self-Healing

A powerful approach to self-healing can be found through Master Chunyi Lin, Creator and Founder of Spring Forest Qigong springforestqigong.com I am enrolled in his new class at the Shift Network. Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong. We will be guided through experiential journeys in which we will refine our body’s reservoir of energy — aligning our breath, movement, and awareness — and direct it to facilitate increased energy and the capacity to heal ourselves and others.  His websites are springforestqigong.com and chunyilin.com

===CARA’S CORNER===

Keep Learning

I love to learn but I haven’t taken a class in quite a while. I wasn’t planning to until I looked at the class called, Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong. It’s about self-healing, using your breath and attention to work within the energy fields of your body to balance and restore. I’m very much into self-healing because what’s going on in my body is nothing that a Western medicine doctor can fix. It is an organic structural readjustment that’s causing much muscular discomfort. So I know that this correction is up to me. And I am willing to take responsibility and do the work. This particular qigong class seems to be the work I need to do next. Isn’t it interesting how the answer comes along when you need it? I’ve been doing self-healing all my life and I know it’s entirely up to me but I have never done intentional self-healing on the internal plane in this manner. When you have a problem, stay open to ideas and nudges and insights that show up and consider them. See how they resonate. See how deeply they call to you. I was totally surprised at my strong response to the idea of learning this and I am excited to take this class. It feels like it is the help I need to manifest my own self-healing. Keep listening, keep looking and take action when it feels right.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Answer

It was unexpected when it came.

It was unexpected when it came – the answer to the problem, the next step, the possibilities.

It was unexpected when it came – the answer to the problem, the next step, the possibilities. Stay aware. Keep listening to the voices within. And the next step will appear.

Cara Lumen, March 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!