Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song
Sing a Deeper Song
Life changes, we change. We know what we’re changing from, but not what we’re changing to.
We have to trust the process.
You’re standing where you are based on the choices you made up to now, things you did and things you didn’t do.
[Read more…] about The Path Ahead Cannot Be Seen
Persistence is an awesome quality. Putting one foot in front of the other eventually gets you there. Taking yet another tutorial in order to understand a new process takes persistence. Where are you persistent in your life and where does it lead you?
Persistence begins with purpose
I wanted to put one of my books up on iBooks. It involved several steps and a couple of new software programs. I was familiar with e-publishing concepts because I had put books on Amazon, but the steps for iBooks were slightly different. But I really, really, wanted to get the book up.
When you’re clear about what you want to accomplish and the value it’ll have in your work and in the world, you’ll be propelled forward by the simple power of your purpose.
Perseverance asks for tenacity
I worked at this publishing process over the course of several days. I had to redo a few lengthy steps because I’d chosen the wrong template. I had to repeat steps because I’d forgotten how to use the software. But as the goal, the end result, was foremost in my mind, I kept learning and studying and making steady progress.
I realized that I often put off some things because I have a fear that I will have to push my way though something technical. It often turns out to be a valid expectation, but the more I explore, the more I learn, the more I master, the easier it all becomes. Tenacity eventually creates ease of doing.
Persistence asks for patience
Things went really well in iTunes Producer because the directions are very clear but I got in trouble at what I thought was the “submit your manuscript” screen. If there was a “submit” button, I couldn’t see it. I thought it may have been because there was a row of icons at the bottom of my screen that were probably hiding the “submit” button or the “next” button. I knew there was a way to hide the icons in Settings but I couldn’t find it. All I really wanted to do was complete what I was doing and submit my book. The reason I couldn’t find the solution was because I didn’t remember that the row of icons was called a “dock”. The entire iPublisher program froze up and I had to force quit. So close and yet so far. I was very frustrated.
My next step was to look at a tutorial on hiding the dock, which would have fixed the problem. But I waited until the next day to publish. I hid the dock, recovered the work I had done the day before and sure enough, the “submit” button was in clear view. I did it!
On my first try, I did not get the job done. I did not complete what I set out to do and that was discouraging. But I observed my dogged persistence and was impressed by my perseverance, my willingness to figure out the next step, and the number of tutorials I read to figure out this process. I admired my own steady persistence.
Persistence requires you to be patient – with yourself and with the process.
Persistence requires determination
What do you really want? What are you willing to work for? When will you set aside time to make it happen?
My big takeaway from this several-day-long immersion in the publishing process was that I can do it. I can figure it out. I can make it happen. In fact, with determination I can make a great many important things happen.
Take small steps and celebrate!
Moving though a process is like walking on a trail. There are plateaus and there are hills. There may even be a few detours.
You pause to catch your breath where you need to and then you move on. Perhaps you encourage yourself by looking back to see how far you have come. Then turn forward and put one foot in front of the other until you reach your chosen destination.
You can do it!
The power of ownership!
There was a huge sense of ownership when I put the second book up on iBooks. It was easy, the steps were clear and I knew what I was doing. I felt a bit proud of my persistence and very proud of my accomplishment.
My big takeaway was that, given time, I can figure it out and make stuff happen. I learned that my knowledge builds with each experience, so the steps become easier. But most of all, I just watched as I cleared out a chunk of time to immerse myself in the process and stay with it until it happened.
Now that was rewarding.
Where have you shown persistence? What did you keep working on until you figured it out? Acknowledge that in yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back and know that with patience and perseverance you can accomplish anything you set out to do.
To Sing a Deeper Song Consider
Abracadabra! I Will Create As I Speak
In order to bring something new into our life, we have to let something we’re holding on to go. If things are not flowing into your life as easily and rapidly as you desire, perhaps you should look at what you need to leave behind?
Explorers travel lightly
Backpackers pack efficiently because they know they have to carry the full weight of whatever they take with them. They make things do double duty. They re-use things. They choose the few vital things like a compass and a knife and a canteen and a sleeping bag and carefully select and add one thing at a time, noticing the weight and the time it takes to put it into action. They leave a lot of things behind.
Since life is constantly changing and we are on a continuous adventure of exploration, we should learn to travel lightly.
Chuck the outmoded beliefs
Begin by looking closely at what you think can happen. If those beliefs are not big enough they can keep you from seeking, considering, choosing and expanding the new choices.
For instance, as I grow older, some physical things look and feel a little harder. So I simply make physical adjustments in how I participate. However, I never let physical restrictions stop me from taking part in some manner. I can participate, but I have to make room to explore the possibilities of how.
What do you need to leave behind to have time for the new vision?
Life is a series of choices. If I want to do one thing, I may have to do less of some other thing.
We change and our needs and desires change. Look closely at what is calling to you and make time for what resonates the most.
Honor your own process. I like to immerse myself in a project, so setting aside ten days to focus on one aspect or one project suits my personal rhythm and my learning style. I also like to create more than complete, so I have added a “Completion Day” in which I get things out the door.
How do you like to work? And what do you need to make that happen? Take only those actions on your journey forward.
Who do you need to leave behind?
Take stock of the energy exchanges between you and your friends. Is it balanced? Has a friend grown too needy, too demanding? You always have a choice. Make room for supportive, nurturing empowering people in your life. Let the others go.
I love to learn but I’m realistic about how much I can absorb at one time and how much time I’m willing to spend on a specific class. I choose the best and most productive and most enjoyable use of my time and leave other opportunities behind.
Be prepared to cross a new threshold
Where are you going next and what do you need to take with you? What do you need to leave behind? You don’t pack snow boots when you are going to the tropics. You may need to leave some habits behind. You may need to find new, more streamlined versions of something that nurtures. Where are you going, and what are the most supportive ideas and relationships you need to take with you?
As I explore subtle group energy work in many forms, I have to make some choices. I take parts of what I’m learning and creatively adapt what I keep into practices that fit my personal purpose, my physical energy and my time. I don’t know exactly where I’m going or what will be required but I’m definitely leaving space to explore what shows up.
As new doorways open, new opportunities appear
What happens if you lay every thing down that you’re carrying around and step through the new door with just you and an open mind? Trust that whatever is needed will be provided. When you leave the “old” behind, you have room to embrace and explore the new. You are free and open to the new experience. You let the experience shape you.
As you end each day, lay down all your burdens, beliefs, and expectations.
As you begin each day, pick up only the tools you need for that day. You will become more productive and more joyous in moving through the opportunities you’re now free to explore.
What do you need to leave behind? Will you let go so you can move on?
To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
Find and Use Your Power Within
What Seeds Do You Allow to Grow in Your Garden?
How do You Put your Spiritual Insights to Work
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
-T.S. Eliot, “The Rock”
What do you truly know? What information have you absorbed enough to apply, reject or question?
It takes time and effort to sift through the flood of readily available information to figure out 1) what is true, 2) how it aligns with your core values and 3) if or how you want to take action.
What is true?
We have a responsibility to check the facts, particularly when it affects the well-being of our world. Identify a fact-checking source, bookmark it and run some of the things you hear through it. Find news sources you think are reliable. I love PBS News Hour for its thoughtful questions, rational discussions and in-depth reporting. I learn a lot. It educates me, expands my understanding and increases my empathy.
My practice is to write my interpretation of the situation or question in order to help me figure it out. I like to share my discoveries online. It may or may not resonate with you. That’s why we have choices. Follow people that inspire and motivate you and people who stretch your understanding of areas that call to you.
How does this information align with my core values?
Most people haven’t looked for or examined their core values. Core values are how you guide your life — honesty, kindness, empathy, exploration, inclusion, continued learning, spiritual expansion.
What’s important to you? What do you need more of? Where will you find it? From whom?
There are wonderfully thoughtful people on TED talks. There are also bloggers and podcasters who will inspire and motivate you. Listen, strengthen, expand and even question your core values to make certain they lead you where you want to go.
As I continue to embrace and expand my core values, I develop specific ideas in my work, try out new concepts, and seek new teachers. The idea for this article is based on a statement by an actor interviewed on the Stephen Colbert show that resonated and motivated me to explore. Allow inspiration to come from anywhere.
Be open. Remain curious. Question. Explore.
Is there an action I want or need to take?
Do you need to take action because of your expanded understanding? What would it be? Sometimes it’s enough to clarify the facts so that in the future your decision will be more clearly informed. More extensive information may change your mind, open up your thinking and offer new solutions.
My concern over US politics promoted me to explore the power of focused group energy and to become active in worldwide peace meditations. My State does not represent my political views but I still plan to write to my congressmen to ask them to be statesmen and Americans before they are a political party.
There’s power in numbers. There’s informed and knowledgeable action you can take. Take action and know that you make a difference.
How do you know what you don’t know?
I was deeply shocked to find that I was so unaware of the needs of so many people in my country. It was simply not in my experience to know what some people were going though. Now I find myself listening for ideas on how to train people for the new technology jobs and how education in general needs to change to prepare us all for the rapid changes in our world. I look for ways to protect our environment and to motivate others to do the same.
I take courses in what interests me. I read blogs that educate me. I listen to TED talks for motivation, inspiration and to make me think. And I watch for the nudges the universe provides that suggest a direction I should explore — either to clarify or to investigate an idea more thoroughly to see if it’s mine to do.
How deep is your knowledge?
If you’re really focused on a specific area of interest, you’re going to know a lot more about it than you do about areas that you have not explored. Know that. Identify resources you respect to keep you up to date with areas that resonate with you and keep moving deeper into your own area of expertise and thoughtfully share that.
Have you moved beyond mere information into owning it — into true knowledge?
To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
How Choosing the Right Word will Clarify your Choices
The Shedding of Your Skin
Accept Yourself as You Are
Mindfulness and the Moment
How Do You Define Success?
VLOG: Insights of a Deeper Song
PODCAST: Reflections of a Deeper Song
In my advanced Shamanism course we were asked to identify for ourselves three objects to use that meant protection, self-confidence and good luck. I readily found objects to represent the first two but I couldn’t seem to identify the good luck or good fortune piece. Suddenly I realized why. I was calling it by the wrong name.
Where does luck come from?
I don’t believe in good luck, I believe I create my own reality so all “luck” comes from the choices I make within. When I looked up good “fortune” I found “change, destiny”. That felt better. Since I’m deeply aware of the role of constant change and the power of our own choices when faced with the opportunities that are presented to us, I modified good luck to “wise choice.” To me that means an ever-deepening self-awareness while listening and seeing the abundant signs and signals that are offered. So I began looking for clear vision and wise choice.
One I realized that I simply needed to call it by what I perceived its purpose to be, I found it — right in front of me.
Are you calling what you are looking for by the right name?
I find it helpful to look up the definition of the word I’m seeking to embrace so that I may approach it from different angles.
When you think of success what do you imagine? “Success” means “favorable outcome and triumph”. That covers a broad range. I might feel a favorable outcome is to simply finish a project, never mind how great it turns out to be. Triumph may mean earning a lot of money. It may mean being acknowledged. Look up the word you are using and expand its meaning by examining the different words that mean the same thing.
What does “success” mean to you? To me it means continually being excited about what I find to learn each day. It means moving ever deeper into my spiritual exploration and expanding my awareness. The definition is simply “favorable outcome”
What does “happiness” mean to you? “Happiness” means “contentment and satisfaction.” That’s a pretty calm, steady state to be in. A warm fire, a good meal, a meaningful conversation. Or it could mean something far more boisterous like climbing to the top of a mountain. How do you define happiness? How do you recognize it?
I personally would go with the concept of “contentment.” The closer I bring myself to filling my days with the exploration and learning that calls to me, the more content I am.
What about “peace?” The word “peace” means “quietness and solitude.” When we talk about world peace we don’t have the right word. “Coexistence” is the word we want — “the state of living in harmony despite different ideology or interests.” That makes it much clearer. Take that deeper: “Different” means “contrasting, varying”. So we’re looking for a way to lovingly co-exist in an inclusive manner that embraces our diversity. We can work on that.
When you look more deeply into the words you use you may find yourself choosing new ones that’ll both deepen and broaden your awareness of what you really mean.
“Spirituality” means “the quality of being connected with the human spirit or soul.” That certainly leaves room for a lot of interpretation and a variety of methods to achieve it. Whatever you need to think or do in order to feel that connection with the Originating Mystery is your own adventure — one that only you can take in your own way. Just as others must seek it in their own manner.
The next time you try to define something in your life or find yourself searching for something you can’t seem to find, look up the word and find the alternative descriptions and see if that will put you on the right track.
To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
Why Do You Believe What You Do
How Do You Define Success?
When Change is Hard
Be the Story you Want to Tell
Change Your Expectations