Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Self Mastery

Too Much Information, Too Little Knowledge

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balance-2

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

How Choosing the Right Word will Clarify your Choices

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choice sign

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

What Have I Left Undone?

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ioncompete

I love the adventure I’m on. I love what I learn and the ways I figure out how to apply it to my life. I’ve always been drawn to helping the people who are already serving lots of people, and I hope my work helps them reach further afield.

I’m not drawn to beginner steps — or even intermediate steps. I love the total immersion I feel doing my work.

And yet I wonder. What have I left undone?

Cherish what you learn and pass it along

I have a large collection of ideas that excite and inspire me. A great many have been shared, but there are perhaps too many partially started projects that have could be completed. Part of this pattern of incompletion is that other things have become more interesting to me. Another major reason I leave work behind is that I’ve learned what I needed to learn from the creation of the outline or article or whatever form I used to figure out the question I posed for myself. I’ve grown from the experience and am ready to move on. But I need to take time to pass along what I’ve uncovered. I may need to broaden the trail I leave for others to follow.

Who needs what you have yet to complete?

Am I willing to go back to my earlier content and take the time to share it with others? After all, there’s only so much time…

I was recently asked if I used the goal-setting word count feature in Scriviner. My answer was “no, I almost can’t stop writing.” There is no goal. I let my life unfold. I respond to a phrase that resonates by leaping to my computer to write a blog post to figure out my ideas. And yet there are many ideas that are just partially developed but not delivered. And of these there are a lot.

My goal is to stretch me

This discussion came up because a friend has a series of small books written with information that would be incredibly empowering to others, including for me. And yet she’s immersed in new work that’s fulfilling her in much more meaningful ways. We both want to keep going rather than step back and re-pave part of the path we have traveled.

How do you smoothen the road for others?

If neither one of us put out the foundational content, are we making the road rougher for those who follow? What life might we change if we share our work and someone finds it at an important crossroads in their life? We could make a huge difference. Simply by putting out our incomplete work.

Trust the moment

When an idea comes burning through, I have to grasp it and explore it. The more I open myself to new ideas and insights, the more ideas show up. As my interest evolves, new topics present themselves for exploration.

I don’t feel my uncompleted work is as important as hers. But I will look again to see what needs to be moved further up the list toward completion and sharing with others.

Examine your purpose

Who do I serve? Will this uncompleted work have an impact on someone’s life? How does that compare with the impact of what I’m doing now? What choice would meet my purpose?

My focus has changed. For a long time, it has been primarily to grow me or deepen my place of service by producing more foundational, introspective work. Now my work is evolving into projects that inspire and motivate others to take a more active part in the care of our planet. So I’m caught up in an exciting new direction and there’s work left undone. I have to evaluate what will be best for the people I serve.

We change, we expand, our focus changes, our purpose evolves. We must make conscious choices in every moment.

What have you left undone? And do you need to take time to give it to others before you move forward?

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Why We are Afraid of Change
Accept Yourself as You Are
Are You Inspired By Your Own Life?
The Purpose of Barriers
Feeling Powerless is Not a Reason for Inaction

Clean Your Inside Home

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packing boxes

It may have been a dream, it may have been a message from the stone I held, but when I woke up from a meditation I remember that my insides, my heart area, my inner landscape had been full of packed boxes and I was going to “take them downstairs” to dispose of them.

Here’s how I interpret that. Somehow, in an inner state, I had managed to box up all the old stuff I no longer needed — the beliefs, the hurts, the lack of confidence in my own value, old stuff that was getting in my way — and had gotten the boxes ready to be taken away so I could live in a spacious cleared space. The keys were in my hand, I just had to let in the movers and release the stuff I no longer needed.

Can you picture that? Can you feel that? What happens if you clear out your inner space of all the stuff you have stored there and start with a clean, sparsely but effectively furnished space?

Feel the light coming in through the windows, feel the breeze moving freely through the doorway. Feel the room where you can stretch and move and express yourself. You now are an open space ready to live life simply, one moment at a time, each experience mindfully savored.

I don’t know what was in the boxes. I have had dreams about moving before, but this was not about me moving, this was about me moving stuff out — getting rid of it — simplifying. So that what was left inside was pure me and clear light.

Packed up but not gone

The next day I went back into meditation to see what had happened and the boxes were still there, packed up and ready to be moved — but still there. I began to take deep, cleansing breaths and with each exhalation the boxes began to move. I pictured a big wind coming in to push them out of my inner space, some of them were heavy and it took a small tornado to lift them and take them away (I’m from Kansas!).

As the space cleared and the boxes left, the sun and fresh air came in, and it felt awesome. Only mindfully chosen ideas and concepts will be let in. But the space is now clear and free of clutter and is mine to arrange as I wish.

The freedom of cleared space

What freedom! What joy! How wonderful to have made my inner space a room of light — pure loving light! I was left with a clean open space with a clear view all around, fresh air coming in and the sun shining through the windows.

There was room to move, to think, to breathe, to dance. All because I had cleared out my inner stuff. I can breathe deeply again. I now fill myself with healing, wholing energy and have the space cleared for it to do its work.

Create your own cleansing process

Perhaps you can create a ceremony to clear your inner space, maybe meditate with the intention of releasing what no longer serves you, maybe sit outside in nature and bring in deep, cleansing breaths with the intention of clearing out your inner space.

There’s stuff we carry around that slows us down — things like beliefs that are no longer true, or ideas that are outmoded. Change is constant and we need to keep our inner room open and clear for the constant activity of change that’s taking place there.

What do you have to give away from inside in order to feel lighter and more open?

You may not need to know exactly what it is. Just set the intention to clear our your inner space by releasing everything that no longer serves you.

Then do your life dance in your clear space of light and love!

How will you clean your inner house? And when?

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
Reserve Space For Yourself in Your Life
The Move From Inner to Outer Work
What Do You Do When You Feel Stuck?
Take Time to Explore Your Talents
How Being Different Makes You Special
How to Develop Your Distinctive Voice

Accept Yourself As You Are

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woman hugging self

The people who stuck with the same thing for 40 years are in a different place than those of us who wandered around exploring a wide range of concepts. And I wondered if I had been wrong.

Don’t compare yourself with others from your past

I recently come across a group of people that I followed and learned from when I began my holistic professional career in the 1970’s. They have been developing their place of service for a long time and it’s both interesting and discouraging to see how far they have come.

But that’s not me

Before I began to beat myself up for not having as much to show for my life as they seemed to for theirs, my inner self hollered very loudly at me: “You don’t like to repeat things. You never have! You are an explorer and discoverer”. Now that doesn’t make me a good or a bad person, but it does make me an adventurer rather than a settler and that’s very helpful to know. We need both types in our world.

I don’t like to teach the same thing

I teach to learn. And once I learn something, I don’t want to repeat it. The fun and challenge and reward for me is in the creation of the system or exercises or material that moves both me and the student from here to there. But once we are “there” I don’t want to return; I want to keep exploring. Therefore, the trail I leave is a narrow one, not a well-traveled path.

But that’s OK.

I have actually been doing the same thing

There’s a pattern in your life — based on your passion and your gifts. I’ve been writing all my life, I’ve been exploring philosophically, and I’ve been seeing overviews and connections all my life. Those three things are what have nourished and inspired me and helped me grow into the person I am today. Just because it doesn’t look like you’ve been doing the same thing all your life, look closely and you’ll find a pattern.

Honor who you are

After moving to New York City years ago and finding all the budding holistic adventurers that lived there, my life totally changed. I jumped from one teaching to another, taking from it what resonated and making up my version that fitted my needs and passion. When you are taught something, it’s yours to shape. You keep some of it, you toss some of it, you modify some of it. And that’s perfect. Honor your unique way of learning and doing and appreciate your life.

Wherever you are is perfect

I am in the right place at the right time — for me. Just as you are. So we get to look around and see what we’ve created, decide what we want to keep and chuck the rest. Then we move forward.

The reason I’m back in touch with these pioneers from my past is that I’ve come in a circle and have met them further down the path. However, I still take only parts and pieces, the concepts that align with my current exploration and thinking.

So there is to be no jealousy, no regret. My life is good, just as theirs is. I, too, am in service. Perhaps not on such a grand scale as they are, but that wasn’t what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to do exactly what I have been doing and I needed to arrive exactly where I am now.

Just as you did.

Accept who you are at this point in in your life. Don’t compare yourself with others. Simply turn and look at the richness of your own life and deepen your own place of service.

You are who you need to be. You are where you are meant to be. Accept yourself as you are.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Are You Inspired By Your Own Life?
Where Do YouPlant our Stake
How do You Put your Spiritual Insights to Work?
The Emergence of Collective Individual Spirituality
How to Grow fromYour Inside Out