Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Self Awareness

Are You Driving Your Life Or Are You Just Along For The Ride?

By

Are You Driving Your Life Or Are You Just Along For The Ride?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Who’s in charge of your life? Are you the one making the decisions and taking the actions that are forming the framework that impacts your life? Or are you just along for the ride, letting things show up and then making your choices and letting it take you wherever it does?

We are in charge here. Everything that happens to us is of our own making – either because of what we believe is possible or what we believe we deserve. How our life unfolds depends on what choices we make and what actions we take. How proactive are you in creating your own life?

Even as circumstances seemed to be moving me in the direction of long-term care, I still had many, many choices to make about my attitude toward going, the choices I made about what I created in my new environment, what I wanted to experience and how I internally approached this major change in my life. Those beliefs, and expectations and choices are driving my decisions and my expectations.

You may think that you are stuck in a situation. You’re not, it’s simply where you find yourself and from where you get to move forward. If you don’t like where you are, turn the wheel, change directions, go faster or slower or get off the bus.

Your mental attitude towards change is cornerstone to how change evolves. If you are excited and willing to learn and see it as an adventure, it will be fun and fruitful. If you see it as a dead end, that’s exactly what it will be. Change your perspective, change your life experience.

As we age, our choices seem less broad. Notice I did not say limited. When we get creative, we can find new ways of doing some version of everything. And anything.

I do the Shaking Qigong movements seated in my chair because I don’t stand up very well. I do it several times a day and it is effective. We get to modify how we do certain things. But we still do them.

Approach your circumstances from a different angle. As my dry macular degeneration continues, it was a game changer for me to have a 21-inch monitor so I can work in large type. Sometimes we simply need to change the mechanics of how we do something. 

Change the situation. You may have outgrown a friend or that friend may take a different path and you choose to go forward. You may find new friends that inspire and motivate you to explore a new path.

Be open to change. Go exploring. Make new choices. Drive your life in the direction you want to go. Do not just go along for the ride. Be creative, adapt, and get busy designing your new life.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I take charge of my life journey and make choices that take me in the direction I want to go 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Look carefully to see where you are. Simply allowing things to happen instead of making choices to go in a direction you want to go.
  • Go exploring.
  • Guide your own path. 
  • Make your own choices.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Value Your Own Wisdom

Over the years we accumulate a wisdom that helps us make informed decisions.  Wisdom is required to make our daily choices. It accumulates with time and experience.  Pay attention to the suggestions the universe offers and see what ideas and plans and actions it suggests. Every experience adds to the depths of our wisdom and adds insights and guidance for our journey. 

Learn to recognize the voice and let it help guide your choices.

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

Create Your Own Safe Haven

I have a suite mate here in Evergreen Long Term Care because we are both being covered by Medicare. Her television tastes run to old game shows and Turner classics and pawn shows. I watch a lot of news and now that my bluetooth headphones are hooked up to my computer, I’m on Pandora and will get on Spotify for music and podcasts.  I haven’t tried audiobooks yet as I’m a visual learner. I have some learning and adjusting to do. Be patient with yourself as you continue to change and adapt.  

===OUTER  WORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Step Back And Observe

The more complicated something is, the harder it is to get distance on the evolution and thrust. The more complex the project, the greater the need to step back and observe. Take a deep breath, quiet your busy mind. Perhaps even go into nature to center yourself and bring your awareness to the natural unfolding that expresses itself in so many forms. When we return to considering our circumstances, we do it slowly, observing the overall picture more than the details, to see that we’re headed in the right direction. Then we adjust, we make corrections, we drop some things and expand others until our next step forward is clear and we are getting results we are looking for. The bigger the project, the more often you should step back and observe. If you are to gain perspective, you see the overview and the progress. See if you are still going in the direction you choose or if an entirely new choice has appeared.

Get The Help You Need

It is with great relief that I am surrounded by Health Care Professionals who are helping to find out what’s going on with my body and creating personalized plans to help me get better. Do not put off asking for the help you need, whether it’s a medical understanding or the positive shift you need to make sure you take charge of your belief system and find the professionals that work with your needs. 

How To Nurture Your Creative Energy?

My suite mate here at Evergreen was a potter. She loved to create, but since that art form is no longer available to her, she needs to find a substitute. How do you downsize creativity and keep it relevant? 

I am using drawing pencils to sketch my shamanic journeys. That helps me remember them when I review the drawings.

I used to play the piano. I used to sing in coral groups. Today I have my native flutes, my Celtic drum and kalimba thumb piano. How do you nurture your creative energy and use your imagination? Keep that creativity going.

How You Fill Your Day

I have an opportunity to re-examine how I fill my days.  Over at Ridgeview I know I was watching too much news, playing too much Spider Solitaire and watching reruns of Murder She Wrote until I could mouth the dialogue. These first two weeks at Evergreen have been filled with new faces and awesome help. Lots of help. Despite having the flow of professionals come in to cheer me on as a new member of the community, who listen and care about my well-being, I am once again faced with long days that I can fill as I choose. It is a clean slate on which I could write anything. Twice I have fallen asleep in my chair. I have yet to take a nap. And daylight savings mixed me up even more. 

A new environment and new opportunities to be explored and some choices to be made. 

How do you choose to fill a new situation? What criteria do you use? What preferences do you discard? 

I will begin with my objectives. 

My body: I’m looking out at a garden with paved walks and handrails, a gazebo and apparently places to grow things in the summertime. So even going to the door every day to breathe in the fresh air would be an activity of sorts. Not a particularly ambitious one but a distance to cover and a goal to achieve. Choose a goal that you will achieve and repeat it. 

I need to have a variety of objectives. Some physical, some mental, and of course my spiritual practice. 

Although I already spend a lot of time at the computer, I want to add a category called mental stimulation. It’s about learning. It will be a podcast. I have to figure out audiobooks. None of that is about moving my body.

This is an opportunity to change my pattern, to identify what no longer serves me. I’m going to begin by adding things to replace some of my less than stellar choices on how to use my time.  

Isn’t it interesting how we can maintain not particularly productive cycles. And sometimes we don’t even notice it.  

What makes you feel productive? What feeds your mind and what stimulates your soul path? Are you just filling your time or are you using your time wisely?

I might actually create a soft schedule to make certain that I alternate mental stimulation and physical stimulation. I have no trouble with the first one and am really pokey about the second level. And I like to be spontaneous.

How are you failing to meet your needs? It’s not that you need a schedule to follow but you could create a schedule of opportunity in which certain activities could be placed.

I have an 18-minute Qigong video from Robert Peng that I would like to learn. I’m starting a new class with Deng Ming-Dao that will give me work to do to expand my Qigong practice.  

Begin by choosing an area you want to establish. I wish I would do more Transcendental Meditation. Where do I put that? I want to expand my Qigong practice. Where do I want to put that in my day? Perhaps identify general times in your day to put one type of activity in order to build your daily practice for both your spiritual life and your physical well-being. First, see which part of your day you want to change and then begin to establish it in the vicinity of a general timeline.

7:30 – daily spiritual practice including Qigong 

8 Breakfast

8:30 -10 Open email, Write on newsletter

10-11 learn something. Listen to a podcast.

11 – News

12 Lunch

Keep it fluid. I’m still having a lot of interruptions so I have to be flexible with when I do things. Experiment and find a pattern you can maintain.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Change Your Clock

In the US we changed our clocks recently to get rid of daylight savings time and return to regular time. That made me pause to think in what ways I needed to change my own clock, my own sense of timing, and make adjustments for the winter season. The days are gradually growing shorter which means I may wake up in the dark and eat my supper in the dark. The changing seasons is a good time to reflect on how you’re doing, what you are doing, and when you are doing it. It’s a good time to make changes. To add or subtract to your spiritual practice and your physical practice. 

Do you have a goal? Since I am in a new environment my goal is to take advantage of all the physical help and establish a routine of healing. Physical therapy is helping a lot. But I’m also eating better. And the things that are hard for me to do are now being done for me. There will come a time when I will not have quite so many people coming to introduce themselves to me and tell me what their area of expertise is for my well-being.

I get to look at how I spend my time. The choices I make. The choices I don’t make. I am in the process of establishing a new rhythm that impacts when I get up (early) when I eat (on schedule), and how I spend my time (on the computer). I have a lot of new patterns to develop and establish. Because there are so many people to help me do everything, I have to create my own physical routine to keep me moving along. 

How are you adapting to the change in seasons? What new plans do you have? What do you want to explore? It’s time to change your clock and create the patterns you want to establish in your life. 

Do Your Thing

I’ve been here 10 days and I have not yet played my flute for my spiritual practice. Part of it is that with arthritis in my fingers, sometimes I don’t play very well. And the door to the hallway is always open and this is the conservative Midwest. So an old woman playing a native flute is an anomaly.

I will do it. Because it’s important to me but this is a conservative population and I have already gone very, very far afield simply because of my eclectic being-ness. I will continue being me, but I may break it to them gently.

Do you simply let the chips fall where they may? It’s important to fully express yourself in all areas of your life.

===THE CHARGING STATION ===

Working As Healers

I knew I was to have a new role before I moved but I am surprised at what it is. Evergreen is full of social workers who are deeply in service. I know my role is to help them expand their holistic inquiry if it calls to them. I am a resource and an encourager.

I had been here about a week when I realized that my new role is about supporting these incredibly kind spiritual people who are in deep service. I decided to make my space a charging station so whoever comes in receives positive, supportive, loving energy. And I will tell you there’s a huge flow of people in and out of this room.  And all of them are motivated by a huge desire to be in service.

On Zoom I have gathered together a group of dear friends. I call us The Rainbow Weavers. We meet monthly on Zoom. This month I have asked for their help in creating my Holistic Charging Station.  I still have quite a few crystals left but I have chosen a Himalayan Salt Lamp with a forest scene that sits on my dresser and it’s on all the time. There are chunks of orange salt rocks surrounding the light and at our next meeting we are going to take the rocks from the Himalayan Salt Lamp and imbue each of them with a quality that will serve those who are in deep service here. That way the lamp is always sitting on the dresser putting out loving, supportive energy to whomever comes by. Based on what we discover I will share some ideas on how you can create a charging station for yourself or your family in your home or your office.

Bo gave me a shower today. He put me in a wheelchair to take me to the shower room and help me take a shower. It turns out he is one of my cornerstone people. He asked me about my flutes and wanted to know more about my holistic work. He will share that with like-minded people and the connectedness will expand. Don’t you love it when the universe opens the door so wide you have no choice but to skip merrily through. I love it. I have had several of the people who work here tell me they are glad I’m here. I am too. 

===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===

Listen Beyond the Voice Within 

My Journey To The Cosmic Counselors: Talk to me about this new role that is opening up.

Once again I am in my Secret Garden but this time, I have crossed the reflecting pool and I’m sitting in the center of the circle surrounded by the three Cosmic Counselors that have shown themselves to me thus far. 

You are moving into a very deep place of service. When people focus on helping others, the entire dynamic changes. Create your Charging Station and listen to see how you can teach others to do that. You will touch many lives as you continue to expand in your own life and others will see it. And want to emanate it. There are many forms of service and teaching is one of them. Be a light. Be a teaching light. Show others the open path.

I sit on the bench on the other side of the reflecting pool and The Director is there. “A teacher of light ,” I say. “Yes,” he says, “a teacher of light.” 

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

Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Helping Professions

The majority of people in this long-term care facility are social workers. They are very kind, caring people. One young man said he was in the field because his mother was a social worker and he had gone to work with her at times. 

As a social worker you can pick the population with whom you want to work. It could be a particular group or a particular type of problem. The jobs here range from nursing to dietitian to cook, to caregivers for us on many levels, to people doing housekeeping and maintaining the building, and the two girls who do laundry for the entire complex. Noble indeed. And probably more I don’t even know. The shifts are long but the people sure are kind.

Patricia is my life coach. She is my go-to person to answer questions and coordinate everything I do and the care I receive. The physical therapy room has practitioners of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.  My favorite is the recumbent bike –  it recently told me her name is Shirley. This week Sarah my PT person watched me get in and out of bed.  The bed is an agile contortionist, the head and foot of the bed go up and down separately with the push of a button and I use that feature as leverage for getting in and out of the bed.  It’s just taken me some time to figure it out but I have a good system now.

There is a standing menu and a daily menu and I can have a snack when I want. The emphasis is that this is our home. People here bring our food, make our beds, and help with anything physical we need. All supplies are provided. We can go to a dining room or eat in our rooms. My life coach who is responsible for overseeing my cara00 also labeled every piece of clothing I brought in because the laundry is done in a central location so without a name tag, they can’t return it to you.

These are very kind, caring people and of course have chosen a profession of caring for others. I am surrounded by deeply dedicated, supportive people in deep service. It is a good place to be. 

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

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

How Do You Know When You Need A Major Change?

Change comes in all sizes. Sometimes a small change makes a big difference. And sometimes a big change is difficult to do. How do you put change in perspective?

I kept getting nudges where I was living. The first was that I could no longer do the walk back-and-forth to do my own laundry. It was hard to get things off the floor. Then it was hard to move the trash out on the walker. Things just got harder and harder as I refused to take action because of them. 

It can be a gradual and subtle diminishing of power when you continue to make small compromises one on top of the other.  And if you know you have to downsize, that’s a whole challenge within itself.

Play attention to the nudges the universe gives you and begin to look at your options for change.  They may open new doors. Don’t be afraid of big change. Consider it an adventure as well as an opportunity. 

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

How to Open Space for Change

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

===CARA’S CORNER===

Our Future

I wrote this knowing that the balance of power in the Senate and House have not yet been decided after the US election. It turns out that many people did understand how much is still at stake in this country. Women in particular made themselves heard. It seems like the women and some inclusive men are on one side and a big portion of old men are on the other. That is the Divine Feminine continuing to unfold and gain strength and power in the world. 

How and when will we regain our awareness of our oneness? Is it a generational thing? Why cannot we each take action for the highest good of all? Why are we fighting to have the rules support only our own way of thinking? We must learn how to live in an inclusive and compassionate way. 

So much of this seems wrapped up in the concept of self, not the whole, the collective well-being.  There is no honoring of different viewpoints to see them as valuable and informative, and give them space to exist. Our future is in our hands and we must make our choices wisely and embrace the wholeness of who we are – One Energy.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Wholeness

I am a ripple in the river of life. I am the curve of the rainbow. I am the song of a bird. I am the laughter of a child. I am wholeness.

I am a ripple in the river of life. I am the curve of the rainbow. I am the song of a bird. I am the laughter of a child. I am wholeness. I must live with an ever-present awareness of my interconnectedness with all things and always choose for the greater good of all.

I am a ripple in the river of life. I am the curve of the rainbow. I am the song of a bird. I am the laughter of a child. I am wholeness. I must live with an ever-present awareness of my interconnectedness with all things and always choose for the greater good of all. We are all participants in the Web of Life and must think accordingly. We are One.

– Cara Lumen, November 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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How Do You View and Use Time?

By

How Do You View and Use Time?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Do you spend time? Do you value time? Do you waste time? Do you wish you had more time? How do you use one of the most precious gifts we have – time? I value my time in my spiritual practice. I value my time spent learning and contemplating and writing about what I discover. I don’t waste much time worrying. I do spend a bit too much time on the news. But the main question I have for myself and for you is are you spending the time you have wisely?

Now I understand that we can’t be in full blown action mode every moment but sitting and watching reruns on television and playing Spider Solitaire is absolutely and totally a waste of my time. So why do I do that? Why do we make choices that are less than stellar when it comes to the gift of time?

Now I can’t be on point every minute of the day. No one came be. We have to find balance in our life. But I have a feeling that each of us could find better ways to nurture ourselves than we have in place right now.

Perhaps keep a time journal for a week to see how you are spending your time – including worrying about something that may or may not happen. Maybe put a priority rating on some of the activities to get an idea of their value to you and their impact on your journey. Then give a grade to how well you spend your time and make some adjustments.

I’m just going to start with two or three rankings. One will be the most nurturing and satisfying and enjoyable things that I do. Two might be the things that I do to sustain myself like eat and walk the halls. But I can guess that three is going to be really full of things that I need to rethink and re-examine and re-choose.

I have a feeling if I try and put grades on what I do for a week or so I will gain some insight that will help me make some changes that would be more supportive in my life. I would spend more time learning the Qigong practices that I am studying. I want to listen to podcasts. I want to listen to a book for fun too. Create a balance of work. All play makes for a dull person and killing time is a shame.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I take time to examine how I choose to spend my time and make adjustments that nurture and enhance me more fully.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • For a week put a rating grade on the activities that you choose to do and the time spent doing them.
  • Look at how you are spending your time and make some choices that bring you a more balanced and supportive existence.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Make Time to Evolve

I sat and looked out the window and let my mind wander. I thought about the future I wanted to create. I watched the clouds move across the sky. I watched a squirrel run up a tree. And I sat in silence and stillness and listened to nature and my inner voice. We need to create time to simply be.  We need to create time to listen to our inner wisdom. We need to take time to explore our options – perhaps try them on for size in our imagination.

Stillness and emptiness make room for expansion and a deepening awareness of what is possible and what we can choose to do. Take time to be still. Take time to allow your thoughts to unfold. Give yourself time and space to evolve.

Change for the Future, Stay in the Present

There is a delicate balance we need to keep as we prepare for change. On one hand we have to explore options for the future and on the other we need to stay present with what’s going on in our world at this moment at this place and time. So I might vision how I want to rearrange my space when I move, and take steps to downsize now. But I am here in the space I have been in for some time. I must continue to build on that as opposed to spend too much time wondering about the future. Have a plan sure, but then let it go and let the next step unfold in its proper time.

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Self-Healing

What Are You Expecting?

I barely caught myself from making a major mistake. I have been focusing on what happens if the direction my aging processes seems to be taking continues. But I am also working with Qigong to create self-healing. I need to shift my focus toward a more positive outcome. Are you looking in the right direction? What are you focusing on? What do you expect will unfold? We get what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. Look closely at your beliefs. You can change your life by changing your focus and your expectations.

Manifest by Affirming

Our words and thoughts create our reality; therefore, we can manifest a great deal of what we want in our life by simply affirming that it is so. “I am whole perfect and complete” is a good place to start. What else do you need? “I see clearly within and without” is an affirmation I use as my eyes continue to change. “All is well in my world.” Can’t get much better than that. So what are you telling yourself? What kind of affirmations are you giving yourself that are actually working against your success, against your well-being? Notice your thoughts. Notice your vocabulary. Notice your intentions. We get what we believe we deserve and what we believe is possible. That’s such a core place to start to question how and why you are manifesting what is showing up in your life. For you are the manifester. You are the creator through your intentions, your beliefs, and your expectations. Manifest what you want in your life by affirming that it is so. And watch what changes.

Curb Your Excess and Cravings

I am so bummed. The article listed everything I’m doing as being the cause of the edema I’m experiencing. I’m literally eating my way into this pain and difficulty. We create are life experience by our choices. Are you manifesting what you want?  Or what you do not need? That’s something to think about.

In order to heal myself, the two things that I crave the most have to go. Look at what you’re craving either on the food level or the emotional level or the physical level and look at its repercussions on your overarching life experience. And make some changes.

===OUTER  WORK===

Exploration of New Potential and Possibilities

What Is Important Now?

As part of my on-going down-sizing I had my daughter take away the few remaining books that I have kept and had her read inscriptions in the front of the ones that were inscribed by some of my teachers. I had her read a few of the poems that I have written along the line and I let them go. They are typed into my computer. And they are part of my deep past.  As my dry macular degeneration increases, I can no longer read them and I have the experience and the memories and it is time to let go.

I continue to lessen the number of possessions I keep around me. I continue to select the ones that are most supportive in the present and release the rest. I know what I accomplished in my life. I know some of the lives that I have touched. I know when I did things really well and people were affected by what I offered.  I love my curiosity. I love my love of learning. I love being an explorer. It has been a good life.

As this “next” unfolds, part of the message I’m receiving is that it is important for me to be a trailblazer for aging and downsizing and needing more help. And I need to face it with creativity and willingness and wisdom. You don’t have to worry about what will show up for you because whatever it is, you will be prepared to handle it. Know that. Trust that your life continues to educate you and guide you towards the next steps of your journey and you are always prepared to take that next step. It might be a wobbly step but you will move forward. Trust the process. Trust yourself. Enjoy the journey.

Find One Solution – Then Leave Rom for Another

When you are faced with a major change find one solution to the situation, then let it go and create a whole lot of room for something entirely different and magical to show up. I have figured out how to fit into the smaller space of assisted living but now I’m going to let go of that whole next possible scenario and immerse myself in the gifts of now, the opportunities that show up and take me in an entirely different direction. I have one solution and that may or may not be the way it unfolds. It’s OK to figure out a plan but don’t get attached to it. Leave room for something magical to unfold instead. Design a possible path then go exploring for a different journey and different outcome.

Push the Pause Button

It is with great relief that I push the pause button on the rapid focus on this potential move. I have the mechanics figured out. Now I get to work on me. My fears. My apprehension. My willingness. My expectations. Even as I choose to prepare for the future, I want to deepen my experience of the present. I have a handle on the mechanics of downsizing and it is time to turn inward and work on my spiritual self.

Don’t get too caught up in an impending physical change. Give it some thought. Get creative with your ideas of how to solve it or respond to it. And then let go until it’s time to push it into place. Go back to your inner life. Go back to your vision. Go back to your role in the world. Stand strong.  Keep going.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

Talk to the Rocks

I’m giving my daughter Cathy a lot of my crystals and I’m talking to each of them as I let them go. The ones I’m keeping are exceedingly powerful and they are for me at this point in time. As our energy changes we are to change the support items we keep around us. Whether it’s a crystal or meditative practice or a form of contemplation, be prepared to change. Be prepared to explore. Be prepared to let go even if you’re very fond of it and have been doing it for a really long time.

Shamanism changed my life when I learned to journey. Learning to play the native flute was an important exploratory step into meditation. Look through your collection of spiritual tools and try them out to see how they fit you today – if they are what you need for this part of your journey. I don’t have a timeframe established for this self-examination but it could be seasonal, it could be yearly but pause periodically to make certain that you are taking spiritual steps that are meaningful for this phase of your life, not just a form of habit. Then open to embrace change. Go exploring. Stay present in the moment.

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

Expand Our Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

What is Your Role?

Know what your role is in any given situation. I am a support person in the unfolding of our world today. It is not my job to be an activist. On the other hand, my role is also to light the path towards aging to make it a more reassuring experience for those who follow. Know the confines of your roles and fulfill them.

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

Raise Your Sights and Our Expectations 

Don’t Get Ahead of Your Timeline

I was so busy trying to make certain I could fit into the much smaller spaces I will be offered at some point in the near future that I got ahead of myself. I carefully purchased a smaller computer desk. My son-in-law diligently put it together. And then I realized I may not need it for six or seven months so why should I give up my bigger desk at this point in time? I got ahead of my timeline. I will keep both desks for now.

Now it’s great that I’m getting rid of things. It feels good to simplify. And my daughter is taking them and figuring out how to absorb them into her life.

Leave room for the scenario to unfold. Be aware of the possible adjustments you’ll need to make. Find some solutions to them. And then decide what steps and timeline you need to follow. Stay in the present and make the most of that.

I have a friend who’s going to move to another country halfway across the world. What she gets to take is a lot less than what I get to take moving across the street. Once again, we begin to choose carefully and thoughtfully what we want to keep around us and what we take with us and what we make room for in our lives.

Maybe you want to replace things in your new situation. For instance, my daughter and son-in-law are going to buy me a chair that helps me stand up and reclines with the push of the button. I only have room for one chair in the new space. I am thoughtfully selecting those things that I keep on the table beside me where I spend the most time. Very powerful crystals are asking to be kept at hand to help me with my self-healing and the ongoing changes in my life. I’ve made room for them. I have selected very powerful crystals that I am to work with right now for self-healing and self-awareness and expanding my potential.

The other aspect of downsizing is that you begin to choose your next steps, your next focus, what you are going to invite into your life next. You do that by listening carefully to the nudges and insight that show up.

The idea of not yet moving onto the smaller desk was a big eye-opener. Why was I squeezing myself in a smaller space when the smaller space has not been offered yet so there’s a timing aspect to preparing for change. Don’t get too far out over your skis. Don’t get ahead of the unfolding circumstances. Stay open to options and choose with awareness in the moment that is unfolding and what direction is being pointed to.

Do Your Vote Research

I was not as prepared for the primary election in Kansas as I should have been. Yes, I definitely knew how to vote in the counter-intuitive way you had to know in order to defeat the pro-abortion bill which we did mightily and hopefully inspired more women in the country, but I had not done my research on some of the candidates. So I’m changing that.

Do you take time to inform yourself about the choices that are offered to you in an election? Do you understand the issues and how the proposals are worded so that you vote the right way? Voting in the United States is being threatened. We must take time to inform ourselves about the philosophy and objectives of each and every candidate because there is some very bad stuff going on out there. Democracy is an incredible gift and it’s not everywhere in the world. How do you involve yourself in the governing of your country or your state or your city? Be an informed voter and vote for the highest good for all.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

The Aging Journey

As I move through this particular phase of aging, I do want to share again two books that told me what I really want to know and believe. They are written by psychologist Michael Newton who did past life regression work with a specific focus on what it is like between lives. I really, really like what he writes. The books are Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives and Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives.

I live in a senior center and I’ve had friends who died. I’m going to assisted-living and I think the turnover will be even greater. So how do I make the best out of this next phase in my life? I plan to stay productive and put out this newsletter as long as my eyesight will let me. And then I plan to get help to do it. I plan to keep learning. I love to learn. I will continue to develop and expand my ability to do Qigong because that is my self-healing method of choice. And I will stay open to what the universe wants me to create and do and learn from this next step in my life.

My life seems to run in 14 to 17 year cycles. I’ve lived here in Olathe for 13 years. And in this one building for 12. 13 more years in Evergreen would make me really, really, really old like 103. So that’s probably not what I really want. I’m sort of crickety right now and the physical aspect of my being is not as much fun as it used to be. So as with all of us I have a “next” coming up that I don’t know what it’s going to look like but leaving the planet is OK by me. So I put one foot at a time along the path, I try to make choices that enrich and deepen and expand my life experience. And I trust. I trust the past. And I trust my own personal journey. All is well in my world.

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

Listen For Your Future

Listen to my 

Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on

Apple / Spotify / Google

and the 

Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

The Green Funeral

This will be my choice.

Green Funeral Trends: The Mushroom Burial Suit 

This article highlights the eco-friendly option of the mushroom burial suit. It defines this burial method, as well as its benefits.

===CARA’S CORNER===

Do The Research – Make the Changes

I have basically been healthy all my life but as I approach 90, things are going south a bit. So when I got edema I had to go online and research it to see what it was and what caused it. Well, it turns out that the majority of my dietary choices were not good for me. All my favorites. The things I was eating the most of were wrong for me. So I took the right action, even though they were my favorites.

Again the Internet came to the rescue. Dandelion tea was recommended. I bought two brands so I can figure out which one I like and I think dandelion tea for detoxification may become part of my regular routine once I get my body healed.

Do the research and then make the changes the research suggests. Look at your cravings. Look at your excesses. It may very well be you are drawn to things that are not good for you in the long run. Be willing to make the change. If things aren’t working right either in your body or in your life, you need to reconsider your choices and your actions and your thoughts and make some changes, both major and minor. Experiment. Make a change, give it some time and notice the result. Then build on what you’ve learned. We are the caretakers of our bodies in our lives. Keep an eye on what’s happening and do the research to find the changes you need to make. Then make them. We are the stewards of our bodies.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

I Am The Caretaker

I am the caretaker of my body and my life. Where I go, what I do, and how it turns out, is all up to me and my choices.

I am the caretaker of my body and my life. Where I go, what I do, and how it turns out, is all up to me and my choices. I stay alert, I do the research, and I make the changes.

I am the caretaker of my body and my life. Where I go, what I do, and how it turns out, is all up to me and my choices. I stay alert, I do the research, and I make the changes. I am the guardian of my life and I stand strong and alert.

– Cara Lunen, August 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!

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

Expect The Best 

By

Living Our Deeper Song

Ashe
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

“Expect the best. Do not settle for second best.” That is a quote from the book Opening Doors Within by Eileen Cady, co-founder of the Findhorn Community in Scotland. Do not settle. 

I realized I had not set my sights and expectations high enough as I move to self-heal my body from some of its aging process. I am expecting only small goals for myself. Small changes. Why not set larger goals? Raise my expectations of what is possible. I’m not talking about unreasonable here, but I am talking about a higher expectation of what is possible than I have been holding. How would that change my mood? I would feel joyous. I would feel excited. I would be more determined to take the steps necessary to make it happen. All because I expected more of the situation and of myself. 

Where in your life are you letting yourself off the hook? Where are you expecting too little of yourself? What do you believe is not possible that actually is possible if you would simply believe it is? 

Notice where your beliefs and expectations are keeping you from advancing, what you think is not possible at all, or whether you think it’s not possible for you. Change is always possible in some form. Take one step and examine the results to see if your expectation is high enough and go for the goal. Trying makes a difference. The trying will take you further. 

Acknowledge the changes and shifts, the wins and the non-wins, and adjust accordingly. Offer gratitude to the universe for the support it always gives you as you move forward in your life.

What are you settling for? Expect the best. Do not settle for second best.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I always expect the best.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Raise your gaze. Use your imagination to see what is possible and explore different routes to obtain your goal. But most of all raise your sights. Do not settle for second best.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Too Much Stuff

I am now on the waiting list for assisted-living and have no idea when there will be an opening but I do have an idea of how small the space will be. So I have to get rid of a whole lot of stuff. If you were packing a suitcase for an on-going life journey, what would you take with you?

What I’m doing is creating what I’m calling “My Journey” shelves. It happens to be a four-shelf bamboo bookcase. On the top shelf I have placed a small pewter figure of a woman holding a crystal high which is me and this life-long journey. The setting is woods and rocks in nature. On that same shelf is my first spirit guide which was a giraffe because she has a far-reaching and elevated viewpoint until someone pointed out giraffes have no voice. My second major helping spirit came when I was in a guided meditation and was told a flying object was coming toward me and I saw a very large dragon. Then the person guiding the meditation said, “It settles on a branch.” The dragon and I looked at each other with amazement and she settled on the ground. Her name is Gwen and I have a dragon statue to represent her. That goes on the top shelf of my journey shelves.

The second shelf contains representatives of my journey as a communicator and teacher and explorer. The third shelf seems to be holding items that represent some of the guides that have helped me along the way. 

I don’t yet know what will go on the bottom shelf but it’s an interesting adventure to pick out the core elements of your life as objects and place them in a display.

It’s the sheer number of crystals I have that have me working to identify what needs to move forward with me. This week I gave a lot of big crystals to my daughter Cathy who has a yard. And my goddess piece of driftwood will go live with her.

If you are called upon to move into a smaller space, what will you take with you and what will you release? I have to let go of most of my drums and at least one of my flutes. I have a lot of stained glass in my three windows and I will only have one window where I am going. So again, I get to choose what is important and release my stuff in the world. What are you hanging onto? If you had to move to a smaller space and take one small bag with your life in it, what would you put in it? 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Self-Healing

Notice the Wins

The shifts and changes may be quite small but we need to notice all the wins that come our way. I managed to stand for about three minutes of Qigong practice during the last online class. I practice several times a day as I work to learn the sequence of moves. Of course the goal is to stand for much longer and I need to focus on the wins – how my body is changing and becoming willing to do so. Notice the small wins and build on them.

===OUTER WORK===

Exploration of New Potential and Possibilities

Break The Rules

It was a huge realization and release for me when Daisy Lee in our Wuji Hundun Qigong class said to simply practice which ever move calls to us in the moment. Rather than trying to master all 18 moves or even do all 18 in one session, we can take time to explore one move more deeply and find out the message and gifts it has for us. 

I gave myself permission to choose what I need in the moment. I gave myself permission to explore what is being offered one step at a time so that I understand its meaning for me and the changes it creates and integrate it into my life.

Are you trying to learn too much in one sitting? Is your life too full of projects or thoughts or ideas that you’re not savoring anything? Take time and leave space to develop ideas and patterns and practices that help you own the new concepts and integrate them into your life.

This is a huge thing to consider, particularly when you are trying to learn something new and bring it into your life. Take time to savor it. Take time to explore its possibilities. Take time to see if it’s right for you. Learn at you own speed.

I want to learn all 18 of these movements but I don’t have to learn them in the seven weeks of class. The videos and transcripts are there for life. 

How do you learn? What size bites do you need to take out of life in order to save what you experience? Question the rules, adjust them to your needs, and take time to absorb and own what you have chosen to learn or do or become.

What Is Holding You in Place?

Retirement is a big decision-maker for all of us. When do you retire? How much income do you need to retire? Where do you want to live? It’s a huge shift in our life as we prepare for an unknown length of time and actually unknown physical circumstances.

My daughter is waiting to become a certain age for her retirement money to kick in. She lives in a split level house that will not be good for aging.

Another friend just moved to part-time work and is in the process of creating and developing and training for the healing center she wants to create for her “next.”

Retirement is a good chunk of your life and it’s a huge chunk of unknown. My daughter knows that she wants to work with Reiki and animals but she’s too busy with a big job to consider the details. My friend knows her direction and is actively exploring the possibilities. She is taking classes and experimenting with her offerings and she is building a new home and is very aware of her own unfolding process.

I’m sort of dealing with what shows up physically for me – both the restrictions and the possibilities. I think the best way to prepare for retirement is to understand your heart and your yearnings. And nurture them both. Expand on a hobby. Learn a new skill to do for fun or for income. Retirement is a new phase of your life in which to explore and earn and create a new experience of life, to reposition yourself in the world. It’s like a clean slate that you can write on whatever you’ve learned from all that living you’ve been doing. What do you want to draw on your retirement vision board? And what ideas do you have for making it happen? Be creative and expect the best! 

Downsizing

I have no idea when an opening will occur in the assisted living place I have chosen to go to but I do know that I am letting things go like a mad woman. And selecting those very specific important things that I want to continue to keep. I am creating an incredibly powerful altar. The new space is very small so each thing I choose to take has to be meaningful. If you had to take a journey and take only one suitcase, what would you put in it when you knew you were not coming back. It’s interesting to think about that and see what’s truly important in your life. What will you bring with you on the next phase of your journey? 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

What is Meaningful?

I am in the process of creating the most powerful altar I’ve ever had in my life. Part of it is because I have powerful things to put on it at this point in my life. And the other part is that I know my journey now, where I want to go next. Each day I play my kalimba to honor the day. I drum and sing to the directions and I make up songs to the elements of my life that I am working on now. And then I do my Qigong. I actually do this twice a day. How do you want to change your spiritual practice as far as content and time? Go exploring. 

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

Raise Your Sights and Your Expectations 

Let Go

I voted. Yeah. My homemaker Shelley helped me fill in the ballot because I can’t see well enough to do that. It needed a stamp. I don’t have any stamps. But Shelley had Christmas stamps and offered to mail it for me. When she mailed it, she voted too. 

The world is changing so rapidly that our way of doing things, whatever it is, is quickly becoming outdated. So when we vote to keep things the way they are, we are not paying attention to the rapid scientific and technical and social changes that offer thoughtful and useful new solutions and opportunities. The world is changing. People are changing. Their needs are changing. The best way we can be in service in this world is to stay flexible in our thinking and make room for the scientific changes and environmental changes and social changes that are evolving. We must be aware of the new needs in the world and what is now outdated or destructive. We must stay aware of change and the evolution of both our needs and our thinking. Change is happening very rapidly. It is tricky to keep up. But we must build on the new science, the new discoveries, the new needs, the continuous unfolding of our new world.

The ways that you are stuck in are the beliefs of your parents that certainly are probably out of date. Keep watching the world and change what you believe is possible. New doors and opportunities open every moment. Don’t hang onto the past, help create the future – a positive, all-encompassing, aware future. How does your thinking need to change? What new choices do you need to make? Do that.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

Our Ripple in Future Timelines  

I’ve been thinking a lot about my birthday earlier this year than usual because I will be 90 in November and that seems really old. That’s also reaching a point when you have no idea how long you will be on the planet or what shape your body will be in as you continue your journey. I think “next” is a great adventure so that’s not a problem. We all hope we leave the planet peacefully. 

What do you choose to do with whatever time you have left? Do you have a major goal? What are you doing to achieve it? What is important to you to do now that will impact the future, whether you are here or not? Do I want to battle the restrictions that are showing up today for women? Climate change seems like a big challenge to me from where I am in my life. What can you do now that will impact what follows? Given the approximate amount of time you have left and where you are in your life, what causes will you choose to support and change for the well-being of yourself and the world? Give it some thought. 

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

Expanding Awareness

Journey to a Chamber of the Seven Sacred Rays

Listen to my 

Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on

Apple / Spotify / Google

and the 

Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

A Major Move

I need to move into assisted living. It will be a huge change with less room but more help. My daughter Cathy has checked out the place that would be my choice which happens to be across the street from where I am now. We are doing the paperwork and I will get on the list. There are five people ahead of me. It is unfolding.

All of the major moves in my life have been made in the space of an hour or so. I knew in a second then I was going to move to New York from Kansas City. It took me 20 minutes to arrange to have some financial help from my mother to move from New York to California. And it took me an hour to find the place I was going to move to here in the Kansas City area.

My daughter will take my cat because he can’t come, perhaps he signed up for this big change too. I have begun to let go of things and find smaller versions to fit into the space but I will be very, very grateful to have the physical help around me. I only spoke to my daughter a few days ago to suggest we look into it and she called me four days later and said she had an appointment across the street from where I am. It is hard to find low-income affordable care and this is the best one in the area. So I am on the list. Change is coming. Another path will be taken. Here I go adventuring.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

I Am Willing

I am willing to embrace change. I am willing to go exploring. I am willing to create new opportunities. But to do so I have to give up some things. 

I am willing to embrace change. I am willing to go exploring. I am willing to create new opportunities. But to do so I have to give up some things. I begin to let go. I thank and release many of the possessions that have served me well and begin to design my new life.

I am willing to embrace change. I am willing to go exploring. I am willing to create new opportunities. But to do so I have to give up some things. I begin to let go. I thank and release many of the possessions that have served me well and begin to design my new life. I thoughtfully select what will support me into my unfolding new adventure!

Cara Lumen, July 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!

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

Where Your Mind Goes Qi Goes

By

Where Your Mind Goes Qi Goes

Living Our Deeper Song

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

I was struggling to do the moves in Robert Peng’s qigong class when he said, “Where your mind goes the Qi goes.” I was already tingling all over with the moves even though I was only halfway able to do some of the standing exercises. What a powerful gift to know that my mind directs the Qi energy. So even as I work to self-heal using Qigong moves, my intention is doing a lot of the work too. 

So I get to start looking at my life choices from a different viewpoint. Where is my mind focusing my energy in this chaotic world? Big question. Not a good answer for me. I’m too focused on what is not working. What you focus on you get. So I really get to examine what I am focused on. What I expect for myself. What I expect for the world, for where your mind goes the Qi goes. I get to monitor my thoughts and my intentions. I get to picture Qi energy going in and fixing things in my body. And in my life. Intention and focus and action. Where are you directing your attention? Where are you directing the Qi energy that exists everywhere? What are you expecting? We get what we expect we deserve and what we believe is possible. That’s a sneaky one. And can get us stuck in odd places that we are not aware of. The Qi energy will go wherever your mind goes. Send it to the places that are not working and watch change happen.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I use my mind to direct Qi energy for self-healing.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • Perhaps do some study of Qigong and acupressure points to become more aware of the interconnection of every part of our body and how easy it is to access a meridian and focus Qi energy towards wholeness. Two sources are Robert Penn and Grandmaster Chuny Lin

===INNER WORK===

The Waxing and Waning of Cycles

Life is one continuing mixture of changing cycles. Some are waxing. Some are waning. Some are on the physical plane. Some are on the emotional plane. Some are on the spiritual plane. You don’t have to know where you are in the cycle. The waning cycle is meant to be a time to regroup and restore and rethink and re-choose. The waxing cycles is when you get to work. You make stuff happen. You take action and explore. Different aspects of your life are in different phases of the waxing and waning cycle. And yet there is a general overview flow to your life. Know when it is time to change cycles and rethink and re-examine and heal and mend before starting out again. Know when it is time to step forward and take a new path, find a new adventure, seek answers for your path. Begin to notice the guidance of the cycles of your life – both inner and outer. 

The Power of Introspection

It is important to take time to understand why you feel the way you do and why you do what you do. The more you understand the reasoning or impulses behind any action, the more control you have over it. Look over the choices you make each week. Take time to understand why you see things the way you do, why you think the way you do, why you respond the way you do, why you react the way you do. That will help you make more informed choices. Spend time in introspection not to be critical but to understand and perhaps make new choices.

===SELF-HEALING===

It’s Never Too Late to Self-Correct

Part of this is a pep talk for me. It is never too late to self-correct. I eat a lot of chocolate chips and said to my friend Shelley that I was perhaps eating too many and she said, “There comes a time when it doesn’t make any difference.” But that’s not true. How you care for your body always makes a difference.

I have come across three men in their 70s who are not doing anything to keep their bodies moving. We’re talking 20 more years here of not moving. And it gets worse if you don’t self-correct now. This is a warning. Keep your body strong! And yes, it gets a tad harder as you get older. You have to find a version of movement that works for you.

Now I will tell you that I am doing Qigong moves even while barely being able to stand in my walker and it is making a difference. I wish I had begun to do it before I couldn’t stand up very well. There are gentle forms of movement that will keep you going. Qigong, Tai Chi, and if you have a tool like yoga in place, don’t neglect it. Keep doing it as you age. I can’t emphasize this enough. It is no fun to not be able to walk very well or get up out of a chair very well or get in and out of bed easily. And those everyday things are what will begin to get difficult if you do not continue to cultivate the strength in your own body.

It is never too late to self-correct. Do something! And do it today.

===OUTER  WORK===

Look on the Bright Side

What you see you get. So when you consciously choose to look for the positive that’s what you find. When you choose to look for the doom and gloom that’s what you find. So we have a very strong choice every moment. We can look at the gifts that were brought by any circumstance and we can look at the challenges as opportunities to learn. How do you view the circumstances of your life and can you change them into seeing the bright side?

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Personal Fulfillment

What have you done recently that makes you feel really good or nourished by what you experienced? What are you learning? That’s personal fulfillment and we get to pay attention to the choices we make and how it unfolds because we have choice in how we sprinkle it throughout our day. 

I cheer myself on when I do a Qigong move better or longer than I have before. I write on this newsletter every day and each time there is a sense of joy and fulfillment at being able to discover something to share with you. What makes you feel fulfilled in the course of your day and how can you put more into your life experience? 

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

Shamanic Journeying for Community Healing Now
A Free Online Seminar with Sandra Ingerman, MA

I think Sandra Ingerman has a better handle on how to work through the chaos in the world than just about anybody. I’m for sure going to listen to this introductory offering. And I may even take the class even though I’ve studied with her quite a few times before. I just need a new approach to the planet right now. FYI. 

Sign up for the intro here: Shamanic Journeying for Community Healing Now

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

Examine It From Several Viewpoints

Things look different from the inside than they do from the outside. Circumstances seem different when you’re in the middle of them than they do when you are an observer. Change your viewpoint and gain new understanding of a circumstance. Perhaps you gain a new view of the circumstances that came to pass by stepping into the other person’s shoes to see it from their point of you. It will open up new facets and intuition, new opportunities and informed directions. Notice what your viewpoint is and then shift it. Are you an insider looking out or an outsider looking in? The more viewpoints you get on a particular aspect of your life, the greater diversity you can encourage in your response. Keep looking from different viewpoints. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Leave Space for the Future to Unfold

Are you a planner? Do you like to know what’s going to happen next? What if you backed off and left space for the future to unfold? What would happen? What would that feel like? What would you stop doing?

I love to let the future unfold. It gives me room to listen to the small nudges and the big bumps on the head the universe provides that say – check this one out, see if you like this one, go here, perhaps this is what you want. The universe gives us many options. It is up to us to stay flexible and curious and look at what is unfolding from where we are right now. Not where we plan to be or where we hope to be, but where we are right now.

Sit right here in your day and don’t have a plan. And see what your inner self, your inner wisdom suggests are possibilities for exploration. Then from the same place of stillness, see what you want to do. Don’t think about what it will lead you to or show you how you might get there. Simply be present and experience the idea. That’s how you leave space for your life to unfold.

Balancing Life’s Chaos With Qigong 
with Daisy Lee

This is an ancient, never before offered in the US form of Qigong with my favorite Qigong teacher. I’ve enrolled. Intro :Saturday, June 18, 11:00AM Daisy Lee Event Page
Click here to access the event. If the following two broadcasts have already occurred, this link will give you access to the event recording as well as any further live events that may be scheduled.

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

Expanding Awareness

Journey to the Sacred Feminine

Journey to the Sacred Masculine

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

Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

Too Much – Too Little

I’m falling into some ruts and I need to not only identify them but to change them. What unhealthy habits have you fallen into? What are you doing too much of? What are you doing too little of?

I’m sitting too much. I need to get creative about where I stand up and how long I stand up and whether I walk or stand or do Qigong or whatever I need to do to change this lack of movement. It’s easy to unconsciously fall into a habit that becomes too much of one thing. Seek balance as you make your choices to keep your body and your mind and your emotions and your spiritual life healthy and expanding. If you don’t want to go for a walk – dance. If you’re watching too much television, go read something that’s less sedentary or more enlightening. 

Question your daily choices. Are you doing enough? Are you doing too little? But more importantly are you getting the results that you want and deserve? If I want my body to get stronger there are choices I need to make to make that happen. Look at the result you are achieving and see what you need to do more of and less of.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Rhythm of Wholeness

Too much. Too little. Not enough. Am I getting the results I desire? 

Too much. Too little. Not enough. Am I getting the results I desire? What do I want? What do I need to change? What do I need to release? I alone can make those choices.

Too much. Too little. Not enough. Am I getting the results I desire? What do I want? What do I need to change? What do I need to release? I alone can make those choices. I am the designer of my life. I have created the outcomes by the choices I made. What do I want? And how do I get it? I make changes. I have choice.

Cara Lumen, June 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!

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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!