Self Mastery

How to Self-Heal

January 20, 2022 By Cara Lumen

How to Self-Heal

Living Our Deeper Song

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

We are responsible for helping ourselves. It is our job to change our focus and do the work. We do that by staying tuned to the vibration of wholeness. How do we do that?

We have to believe healing is possible. We have to imagine ourselves as healed and restored. We have to believe that we have the ability to self-heal.

Imagine. We use our imagination to visualize and even experience ourselves as whole. Remember what it felt like to… Use your imagination to create a vision of what is possible, what can be restored and corrected. Rather than focusing on what ability is slipping away, remember what it felt like to be active and strong, whole and healthy.

Focus on the positive. When I feel a positive self-correction in my body posture, I focus on that, I acknowledge my body for that and my spirits are lifted by that success.

Visualize. Visualization gives your cells permission to change, to repair, to strengthen. Visualize the way it can be. Visualize the way this positive change will make your body self-correct. Visualize yourself as whole and perfect and complete.

Trust. Your body knows how to self-correct, to heal itself. Watch for the small improvements. Watch for the subtle changes that make new ways of being possible.

Each day I sit in meditation and draw energy up from the earth and down from my Soul Star. I imagine those moving in a counter-clockwise spiral within my body that clears and releases and restores and replenishes. I don’t have to know the details, I trust my body to do its job. I just have to keep the positive intentions coming its way.

Notice the subtle changes. Let that encourage you to keep imagining wholeness, to keep expecting wholeness, to experience wholeness. We are responsible for our own self-healing. Do the work. Reap the rewards.

Imagination, focus, visualization and trust are our guides to self-healing.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am whole, perfect and complete.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

Create a visualization process in which you see what is out of balance return to balance and wholeness. What does that feel like, look like, be like?
Trust the self-healing process and notice the positive results. Let that encourage you to keep self-healing.

===INNER WORK===

Honor Your Natural Rhythm

We get so busy and caught up in life that we have no clue what our natural rhythm is – how we would prefer to organically move through life. My daughter has a very big job and works long hours and when I asked her what she did on a day off she said, “Nothing”, she just sat around all day. That was restorative for her because she does not have a job that will allow her to establish and work at her own rhythm. If you are caught up in a demanding situation, how do you find and establish your own rhythm?

In the 80s I worked as a temp at Estée Lauder’s headquarters in New York City. Of course, Estée was a woman and all of her officers were women. There was one vice president who, every day at 4 o’clock, stopped everything for 20 minutes and had a Perrier and was not disturbed. She regrouped. She grounded. She balanced herself. She changed her rhythm. Where would you put a pause to regroup in your day? And what would you do in that time? You might meditate. You might go for a walk. You may look out the window and take deep breaths. Build some conscious pauses into your life and establish a way for you to re-center yourself. Honor your natural rhythm and stay balanced.

===SELF-HEALING===

Raise Your Vibrational Set Point

We have great control over where we focus our attention and intention. We can focus on what is not working. Or we can focus on what is positive and creative and nurturing. In an instant, we can change our focus and our life experience.

Nurture and raise your vibrational set point. Focus your thoughts, your expectations and actions around your life so your experience will always be expansive, inclusive, and rewarding.

You are your higher self, expressing itself through the human form. Know that. Be that. Experience that. Remind yourself of that as you move through your day.

Give gratitude to your Higher Self, your Cosmic Self. Give gratitude to your human self, to your heart. Commit to this unfolding and trust you cannot do this wrong. It is your birthright.

===OUTER WORK===

Monitor Your Response

This is an incredibly important time to monitor your responses. Do you respond out of fear? Do you respond out of anger? Or do you focus on the higher positive energy? Somehow, someway, in this unfolding Divine Feminine, we have to build a new path. Each of us has to choose the direction and form of our own path. We must choose it with deepening awareness. And we must stay on as high a road as possible. Each day brings us a variety of circumstances that ask us to question our beliefs. To rethink our position. To re-visualize our future and make new choices. Making those choices, those changes, will get us there.

The old habitual responses are damaging. Many are based on outdated beliefs and no longer useful habits. They no longer have value. Once again we go back to ask what you believe you deserve and what you believe is possible. Thats what you will get and it should keep changing for the better. I can sit here and focus on all the ways and things that can go wrong. Or I can use my imagination and visualize how things could work in entirely new ways, in new structures, new formats, and new interactions. Everything needs to be examined and questioned. Then we must turn to focus on the unfolding possibilities that are being revealed to us in every moment. Are you getting the lessons? Are you changing your viewpoint? Are you free in your thinking to move into this new unfolding incredibly unusual Divine Feminine?

Foresight and Exploration

This is a time of change that is so dramatic that we need great foresight to see the unfolding possibilities. Then we must go exploring and see how we can shape the new ideas we find and utilize them and bring them into being. Be on the lookout for new ways to accomplish what resonates with you. Then explore and experiment and see if it is yours to do. Technical things come to mind, but there is huge philosophical change being called for in today’s changing world. Look ahead, go exploring and participate.

Have You Stopped Exploring?

It had been a very long time since I simply sat outside in nature but this week I did – on my new blue four-wheel walker with a seat. I call her “Adventurer”. I took my double flute and sat on the patio and played to the world. Now that I’ve managed to do that, I can do it again – often. I’m not sure what the neighbors thought about the old lady and her flute but they will figure it out. So now I have solved the physical challenges of sitting outside. Yeah for adventuring. What change do you need to make in your life that will open up new possibilities?

Preconceptions and Expectation

Preconceptions are limiting beliefs. They are made up out of our imagination, low expectation, and lack of information. And they can mess us up. Move into a new situation, a new experience, a new relationship with inner stillness and observe and experience and evaluate as you go. Let it unfold and choose in the moment. Be present. Do not anticipate. Immerse yourself in the experience and evaluate from your Still Point.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

How Do You Shift Your Consciousness?

You can intentionally use the power of sound and vibration to shift your own state of consciousness.

Do you find yourself humming when you are happy? You are using vibration to shift your mood. It is an organic response that helps shift your mood.

Stop what you are doing and notice your mood. How is your day unfolding? What has been your response? You can change your mood by consciously altering your focus. If I focus on a beautiful sunset it moves me and deepens my connection with the flow of the universe and all my human stuff fades away.

Perhaps identify a doorway that you pass thorough during you day and each time you move through it, pause to relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, perhaps close your eyes for a moment, and move to your center. Be fully present and move into your Still Point and simply be in the Center of your Being.

Pause. Breathe. Make a conscious choice.

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

Explore New Pathways

The first step in understanding where you fit in to this rapidly evolving planetary change in opportunity, is to understand yourself. Understand your gifts. But most of all, understand your calling. You may have been on your life path for a long time, so you can see the pattern of the choices that you made. But this is a time to not just examine the past. Let’s stand tall right here at the entrance to the future and look around at what has become available. Look at what is now possible. Look at what calls you. Look at what gifts you can offer. Look what you need to learn in order to move forward. And go learn it.

I don’t have to get a job, I don’t have to earn money, but I very much want to remain relevant in our world today. I know many of my gifts, but where are they to be placed in service now, next? I can only ask that question of my inner self and wait patiently for the answer, or the insight, or the actual opportunity. I have given away some really good ideas recently because they’re not mine to do. But they need doing. And I seem to know people that could do them.

It seems like our next steps are all about change. Changing what we think. Changing what we believe. Changing what we think is possible. Changing our expectations. So I am standing here and looking around at what is evolving in the world around me and noticing what needs doing. Then I am to consider the “doing” part and see if it is mine to do.

I’m in the waiting stage right now. The nudges I’m getting seem to be ideas for other people which is actually very exciting. And that’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now – getting ideas and passing them on to the people who are ready to do them or whose path it fits. So my job is not to do the ideas myself, but to allow ideas to fly through me to others for the doing. I can do that.

Look at new fields of opportunity, look at new pathways leading to them, be very aware of your own gifts in a particular passion. Go exploring, make some choices, do your thing.

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

Path of Curiosity

This is the time for trying new things. Of course it’s more comfortable to walk the familiar path and do the familiar things but with the world changing so rapidly we will be left behind if we remain on the path that we have been on. I choose the path of curiosity. That means I explore new ideas. I may try them on for size. I may make a different version of them. But I am mostly looking at change – how to change, ways to change and what to change, because the world is changing very rapidly and we have no idea what is going to look like yet. Our expectations will take us there. Our imagination will take us there. Take the path of curiosity. That’s what’s called for now in this unfolding world.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

World Work

It’s a tad tricky to be an 89 year old woman and still feel like you are contributing to life. I felt much better when I realized that I am fulfilling an important role – making others think.

As I go exploring wherever my wonderful mind carries me, I write to figure out what I discover, how I might bring the concept into my life. When I share that with you, I hope it prompts some new insights in you.

Our impact can be very subtle and it can be very far-reaching. This idea that I am still relevant by sharing my inner world explorations adds a depth of meaning to my life that is very welcome.

How are you touching lives in the world? What is your world work?

======THE UNFOLDING DIVINE FEMININE=== ===

The Divine Masculine Has to Change

I’ve been so busy wondering what the Divine Feminine will look like that I forgot that the Divine Masculine has a tremendous amount of change to make too. It involves a great deal of letting go of how things have been and expectations for how they can be. It calls for moving into a place of honoring a new role, a new participation in the group involved in the formation of the new world. The masculine must be a partner, not a dominant force – a collaborator, not a boss. How flexible can Divine Masculine be? It’s going to be a little like pushing and shoving to find space for the feminine self expression as roles grow bigger and smaller. It is time for both male and female to let go of old beliefs and expectations and gradually evolved into what is to be.

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

Spiritual Practice

What Do You Need to Leave Behind?

Self Healing

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

Expanding Awareness

How to Hold High Watch for the Planet

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

and the

Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

Watch the Signs?

Sometimes the Universe has to bop us on the head to get our attention. A friend of mine got Co-Vid even though she had two shots and a booster, her boyfriend ended their relationship and she got so many personal clients that she got to cut back on her job! It was like a helium balloon being freed to fly.

What is holding you to the ground and how do you let it go?

As I watch my body continue to adjust and strengthen I must ask more of it, expect more of it. A long time friend is ready to do her website and I get to write all the content for it. It is wonderful and exciting and rewarding. My hot-air balloon rose a little too.

What is releasing in your life that leaves change for expansion? Pay attention. The Universe has exciting plans for you.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Nudge

The change was subtle – a shift, a release, a new way of being.

The change was subtle – a shift, a release, a new way of being. But the vista it opened up was huge – wide and welcoming.

The change was subtle – a shift, a release, a new way of being. But the vista it opened up was huge – wide and welcoming. First I will go exploring, then I will choose. A new path is unfolding for me. I will find it deep within.

– Cara Lumen, January 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!

Expand Your Self-Sufficiency and Self-Determination

September 17, 2021 By Cara Lumen

Expand Your Self-Sufficiency and Self-Determination

Live Your Deeper Song

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

We may surround ourselves with support, but at the core, we have to be self-sufficient. We are the only ones who can determine and manifest the destiny we want. We are self-determining explorers in life. We make our choice. We adjust that choice. We respond to the results of that choice. We learn the lessons. Then we turn and make new choices based on what we have learned. Your self-sufficiency comes from trusting your inner wisdom and relying on yourself. Trusting your inner voice to guide you in the direction you are to go. And have the self-determination to make it all happen.

You may need to learn something new. You may need to partner with someone. You may need to get someone else to do it for you. But the choice is yours. You are the determining factor in how your life unfolds. You are not a victim of circumstances. Each event and experience in your life is full of possibilities and it is your choices that direct the unfolding of your life. Self-sufficiency and self-determination are the cornerstones of moving forward. What do you want? How do you get it? And most importantly, what values do you use to evaluate it after you achieve it? Is it what you expected? Is it what do you want? Create and adjust. You are in charge of your unfolding life.

Go exploring. Expand your self-sufficiency and move forward with self-determination.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am responsible for the unfolding of my life.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

Take a reality check. How is your life going? What areas are successful? What areas need work?
Create a plan. Make some choices. Experiment until you find a stronger balance that moves your forward.
Expand your self-sufficiency and move forward through self-determination.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

How to Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner Work

How to Make Decisions That Let Your Life Unfold

How to Hold the Space for Change

Why Have You Been Chosen

How Strong is the Foundation You Build On?

Do You Have The Courage to Stand Alone

The Backpack Journey

Our Global Deeper Song Community

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

Journey to Gaia’s Misty Circle

A Deeper Song Adventure

There are many ways to create a self-healing process. I plan to create several journeys using different healing approaches. Intention is key. Belief in change is vital. Belief in your ability to manifest change. Those are a kind of a starting point.

I can go to the Seven Sacred Rays with my healing request. I can journey to my ancestors with my healing request. I can go to Gaia with my healing request. In my personal Sacred Garden, I have a Healing Hut that has a thatched dome roof.

This healing journey is to a Circle of Light in an old grown forest in which we reach out to Gaia to restore balance.

In this episode we explore

Journey to Gaia’s Misty Circle

(20 Minutes)

(Listen Here)

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

and the

Deeper Song Website

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

We Are Cosmic Consciousness- A Deeper Song Expanded Perspective

Journey to a Chamber of the Seven Sacred Rays

Become a Pillar of Light

Journey to Our Ancestors to Expand Our Consciousness

Journey to the Sacred Masculine

Journey to the Sacred Feminine

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Meditation Practice

I learned Transcendental Meditation 50 years ago. I did it for a lot of years. And then I somehow fell out of the practice. I have revised it periodically. But recently I have put it steadily and strongly into my spiritual practice and it is making a huge difference. It’s as if my mantra is going in and rearranging everything, clearing, clearing, reconfiguring. I have found which chair to sit in that keeps my back straight and free. My mudra is thumb to my middle finger with hands resting on my lap close to my body. This meditative practice is now established in the beginning of my day.

When I learned TM, it was suggested that another good time to meditate was to separate the workday from family time. Meditation is a powerful way to change your energy. We don’t meditate before sleep since it gives us energy. It was suggested we meditate 20 minutes twice a day.

You can use a mantra – or simply be in silence. (TM used a mantra) A mantra is a divine sound that has been received or experienced by an adept in the state of deep spiritual absorption. It is a condensed form of spiritual energy, the sound body of the Cosmos. It can also be thought of as a compact prayer. Meditating with mantras is one of the most powerful ways to quiet the mind. A mantra is a tool that allows our awareness to more easily turn inward. It’s an especially good meditation tool for beginners and a type of sound technology which has profound effects on our brain waves.“Om” is a powerful mantra. Pronounced Aum.

Place into your spiritual practice a time to quiet your mind and still your body and simply go to your Still Point and be present in the Cosmic Consciousness.

Change Your Vibration with your Focus

As I struggle with disbelief over the actions of humans, I am comforted by the words of Sister Jenna in her interview at The Shift Network’s Awakening with Spirit Summit in which she said, “Wherever you focus your thoughts manifests as a vibration.”

Now I know that our thoughts create our reality but I had not thought of my thoughts as a powerful vibration. How do I use that new awareness? As I work with my body I focus my intention on wholeness and restoration and ease of movement. As I focus vibration on my spiritual life, I feel my vibration going deeper into the unknown to allow my inner world to guide me more clearly.

The soul is pure vibration. I experiment with ways to experience myself as pure spirit, pure vibration and I focus my attention on higher and higher expectations of myself and of the world around me.

Are You a Spiritual Eclectic?

I am a collector of spiritual concepts. I have been an intrepid explorer of many ways to explore, deepen and express one’s spirituality – shamanism, Taoism, metaphysics. I go deeply into the theological and philosophic concepts in the practices. I take from them what works for me, what balances me, what nurtures me. I have a rather eclectic spiritual practice. When another aspect of a spiritual practice shows up that calls to me, I go exploring and experiencing to find what resonates and bring back and adapt what I find into my practices. Go exploring. Become an eclectic spiritual explorer.

Make Sure Your Connection is Secure

I had been without my big monitor for four days, I had ordered the wrong cord and I was finally rescued by my son-in-law, Ron, who came over and basically unplugged and re-plugged a connection that I had considered faulty. I had never made a secure connection in the first place.

We have to make sure our connection is solid. That it completes the circuit. What parts of your life do you not have plugged in correctly?

===OUTER WORK===

Do You Find Your Work Meaningful?

How do you judge the value of your work? Is it meaningful? Is it effective? How are you in service?

Begin with self-growth and self-satisfaction. For me, it is self-growth that brings me self-satisfaction. I want to keep exploring and leaning and trying new things. What areas of the work you do bring you self-satisfaction? How does your work further self-growth?

Observe and acknowledge your impact on the world. It’s not that it has to be a huge impact but you do want to feel and know and understand that you are making a difference somewhere and somehow. Notice that. And also know your work may be so far-reaching, you will never know how and who it is impacting.

What Have You Outgrown?

When we were growing up we outgrew our clothes at various times. They no longer fit. As we moved into young adulthood we outgrew certain phases of exploration and even expectation. This pattern of out-growing ideas, beliefs, patterns, and actions continues all our life. What have you outgrown and what are you going to do about it?

As I restructure my spiritual practice, I am taking a very close look at my place of service and it is about continuing to help people be aware of themselves as higher consciousness and to learn to come from that position. Focusing on that allows me to let go of a lot of things I used to write about. You could say I’ve outgrown those ideas. I have moved past them in my own personal development.

Some changes happened organically. Like when I knew it was time to let go of my car and a lot of independence for myself.

I go through phases of learning. I see myself explore and absorb and experience. Then I adapt and then move on. Always exploring. Always questioning. Always changing. What is it time for you to let go? Do that.

The Tone of Your Voice

It’s not just the word, it’s the tone of your voice that sends the message. Every time we use our voices, we send our energetic imprint out into the universe and to the people around us. And, like the words we use when we speak to people, our voices can communicate what we are feeling, what we desire, and what we really mean.

Before you speak, center yourself. Move to your heart to connect with the energy you really want to share. Take responsibility for the power your voice has to impact the space and the people around you and let your voice be a sound that creates harmony and compassion in the universe.

Use Your Breath to Draw a Line

A sign of relief is a breath that signals change. A yawn is an intake of breath that signals change. We can take a deliberate deep breath to draw a line between what we were feeling and the focused calm energy we want to experience and share.

What a powerful tool! Begin to use your breath to change your focus, change your direction, change your intention and use a deliberate breath to move back to your Still Point and move into your life from a different intention.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Fall Equinox – September 22

Fall Equinox is a good time to see how you’re doing. You’re about to harvest the crops that you planted in the spring. Did you plant what you needed and wanted? Did the new crops you planted work out? Do you want to plant more of them or less of them next season? How does your garden grow? Does a crop need thinning so the strong plants can mature? What are you harvesting after this year of work?

This is not a time of planting, it is a time for observing and being grateful for what you have produced this year. Perhaps take a moment to journal about your year so far. What you have accomplished, what worked, what didn’t work. What lessons you have learned. What lessons you did not learn. This is the time for observing and evaluating and contemplating how you would like your life to be different. Nothing to plant yet, this is the time for harvest. How did your Garden of Self grow this year?

Simple Steps

We only take one step at a time. We can only follow one path at a time. All it takes is one step to change the view of the path ahead or the road behind or the side-road beside us. One step. And we have a new viewpoint. We have new choices. We have a new opportunity.

I can stand in one place and take a step to my left or take a step to my right or take a step ahead or even back up a step. I can stand where I am and simply turn in different directions to get a new view of what is possible. It just takes one step one change the direction you are looking ad your whole life will change, new opportunities will appear and new lessons will be learned.

What one step will you take today to change your view? And what surprises does it bring to you?

Center of the Cycle

Our life is a series of cycles. Cycles that are intertwined. Our choice lies in what we hold at the center of that cycle. The concept. The decision. The choice we made.

I could look at the cycle of my physical well-being and depending on what I hold in the center, the cycle will change. If it is self-healing and wholeness, the cycle does one thing. If I see the center of the cycle as deterioration and illness, the cycle looks different. And I have choice. I can decide what I hold in the center of each spiral. Look closely at your thinking. What is your expectation of each of the cycles you are in?

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

The Fine Line Between Awareness and Fear

I understand that it is an emerging era. I understand it is the emerging feminine. And the masculine is scared and thrashing out and trying to stay in control. But it doesn’t help the chaos and destruction and disaster that seems to be manifesting in the world today. How do we straddle the place between awareness and fear? I think many of us are struggling with that one.

I know my part. I have chosen it. I can do it. And I am doing it. And I have to walk this fine line between staying aware of what is going on in the world and not being traumatized by it. So I am more selective on the news that I watch. I cannot control the choices that others in power make. I can only control my own choices. I choose serenity and tranquility. I choose meditation and thoughtful contemplation. And I work with what I can change. Not what needs to change. but what I can impact – through my choices, in my thinking, through my sending of energy to aspects of the world.

Am I being responsible? I take responsibility for my thoughts and my actions and my beliefs. I can hold the vision of higher consciousness with an invitation for those who can access it to join in. Rise above the chaos, center your heart in an awareness of cosmic consciousness and its presence within each if us. Build on that.

===CARA’S CORNER===

The End of a Cycle

It’s interesting to feel a cycle come to the end. There is a sense of completion, there is a sense of letting go, there is a sense of opening a path for a new cycle, a new journey.

As I come to the end of this cycle of my current path of exploration, there is a winding down, there is completion. In this case I feel I am winding down a series of podcasts about a particular topic. That’s the end of the cycle. And there is both expectation and emptiness because I have no idea what the next cycle is about. I don’t know where it will take us adventuring. I think it has to do with creating our Future Self. But that’s the only clue I have right now. So I complete the podcasts that I have written. I reevaluate the scripts I have ideas for. And I move into a period of waiting. I’m waiting to be shown where we’re going to go together next. There are many cycles moving simultaneously and they are different parts of each cycle. But I feel right now this particular cycle of exploration is closing out and a new one will open shortly. Hooray for adventure

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Closing Door

A door is closing. A journey is winding down.

A door is closing. A journey is winding down. A new adventure is on the horizon.

A door is closing. A journey is winding down. A new adventure is on the horizon. I pick up my pace and eagerly move forward.

– Cara Lumen, September 2021

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 spiritual explorers find powerful and creative ways to connect with and explore their own cosmic consciousness.

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.

The Path Ahead Cannot Be Seen

December 26, 2019 By Cara Lumen

The Path Ahead Cannot Be Seen

Adventures in the Unseen World

Life changes, we change. We know what we’re changing from, but not what we’re changing to.

We have to trust the process.

Where you are now is the result of what you have been doing

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…]

The Power of Persistence

July 25, 2017 By Cara Lumen

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

The Resilient Entrepreneur

The Three-Year Promise

Abracadabra! I Will Create As I Speak

Why We Are Afraid of Change

How to Pull Forth Your Strength From Within

05-Do You Have the Courage to Stand Alone

What Do you Need to Leave Behind?

May 9, 2017 By Cara Lumen

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

What is Self-transformation?

VLOG: Insights of a Deeper Song

PODCAST: Reflections of a Deeper Song