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 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.
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