Service

On Spreading Yourself Too Thin

March 13, 2017 By Cara Lumen

I’m feeling stretched and tempted and pulled and I have to draw a line. I have to make a choice. I have to determine what’s essential and begin there.

So, what is essential?

My temptation and overwhelm comes from taking several courses at one time. They, in turn, lead me to other courses. I sign up for a third course and then, suddenly, there’s too much. I have to decide what is essential and then see what else there’s time for. I dropped the third course before it even started.

“Essential” will change

Look at your big plan, your overall objective, the purpose that drives and guides you. My core objective at this point in my life is to expand my spiritual awareness and participation in the world. That’s my measuring stick. If something comes along that feels tempting, I hold it up to my measuring stick and do a reality check of my time.

And then I pass it by or start unsubscribing to things to make room for it.

Clean out your inbox

I’ subscribed to more vegan blogs than I can possibly absorb. So, for the moment, I’m going to make a list of the ones I like, unsubscribe to most or all of them, and when I want to find a new vegan recipe I’ll go to my list. Voilà. A lot of emails are now off my plate.

When I was working on my books, I subscribed to a lot of book writing and book publishing blogs. Again, I will make a list and delete many of my subscriptions. That will also keep me from being pulled off course by being tempted to learn something from those sources — for now.

I get new opportunities. I love The Shift Network (www.theshiftnetwork.com), who are busy folk offering lots of opportunities But when my plate if full, it is full. I have to be discerning of my time.

Allow time to absorb and savor

When I sign up for a course, I want to immerse myself in the content. I want to attend the webinars, and do the homework, and practice what I’m being taught until I absorb the parts I want into my life. Savor. Absorb. It takes time. Are you allowing enough time to assimilate the step you just took?

Allow time to grow

Since we learn from everything we do, if I don’t have time to take a course that appeals to me it’s possible that I’ll learn what I need to learn from another source. We have to trust that our learning will continue on the path we’ve chosen and that education can come from all sorts of directions.

Leave space for new opportunities

An idea based on one of the classes suddenly expanded into something I needed and wanted to do next. Suddenly my plate was full of planning, creating, evolving and sharing this new idea.

But with that choice, something had to go.

Back to what is essential

The Deeper Song Community is my priority. But I’m a prolific writer and am way, way ahead in posts even though I put out two a week. I’m content with two podcasts a month. I publish a weekly newsletter. The rest of the time I can create whatever I want, more books, a new project, a video. Free time. My choice.

I keep flexible and let my life unfold.

Taking my cues from what shows up and how I feel, I am flexible enough to keep adjusting my schedule to find the most willing time of day to exercise — or tidy my home — or whatever habit I want to create.

Allow life to unfold

But life can’t unfold if it’s full up of “to-do’s”. What do you need to let go? What do you need to unsubscribe from?

Can you voice your primary purpose for this part of your cycle? Maybe you think in months or quarters or years. Or just moments. What’s your purpose?

When I was publishing my books, there was much to learn about the technical aspects. And that was a priority. Now that I know how to do that, learning the back end of publishing is no longer a priority.

I’ve absorbed and incorporated elements of the two courses I’ve taken. One has enriched my personal spiritual practice and the other has opened doors of opportunity for planetary involvement. Those are important to me. I have to make room to cultivate them. I prioritize and choose and decide how much time I’ll spend on each new project. It’s a choice — a choice about finding and keeping a balance.

Trim those distracting bright shiny objects

Look for the wasted time in your life. Look for those bright shiny objects that pull you off track. Trim them out of your life. In Feng Shui they suggest you begin with an empty space and then put in one thing at a time until you achieve the balance you want.

This is a form of Feng Shui for your time. Look at an empty day. Even when you put something in it, look closely to see how you can modify it or do it faster or better.

If I want more exercise, then I want to add five minutes of walking when I go for the mail or choose a regular time to put on some music that makes me want to dance and move.

If I want to keep my home neater, I will spend five minutes after lunch to tidy or clean.

Look at the time you’re not using wisely. I started to write time you are “wasting” but that’s a matter of how you perceive “using” time. We’re back again to unloading.

Pay attention to how you feel. You can’t do that if you don’t sit still and feel how you feel.

When you change tasks, check in with yourself. How do you feel? What do you need next? Do you need to stretch, take a short nap, go outside, call a friend? Play a run of Spider Solitaire? What do you need in the moment? Leave time for those unscripted, unplanned, tuned-into-yourself moments throughout your day.

Relax and re-choose

Begin to find your own rhythm on a weekend when you don’t have anything “scheduled.” On separate pieces of paper, write out your ideas about what you want to put in your life. Begin to place them before you as you think of them. Put some ideas in a “love to” row. These are the things that nourish you and make your heart sing

As you work, there will evolve a “have-to” row. Some of that will be caring for yourself, some may be caring for others and some might be ready to be put in the “do-not-do-anymore” pile.

Use these visuals to find balance. Use these visuals to prioritize. Use these visuals to unsubscribe to what’s no longer relevant in your life.

Do this process several times a year so you’ll never again spread yourself too thin.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Accept Yourself as You Are
Why Do You Believe What You Do?
Feeling Powerless is Not a Reason for Inaction
Reserve Space For Yourself in Your Life
How to Design an Unfolding Routine

The Great Collective

March 7, 2017 By Cara Lumen

Isn’t it phenomenal that we can so easily get to know people from other parts of the world thanks to the internet! As I join group-energy-focusing calls, I meet incredible people in the break-out groups. I am on several Facebook forums from courses I have participated in and interact with people from everywhere.

The websites of the world peace calls often show photographs of some of the participants and suddenly I’m connected with a diversity I do not experience in my walking-around life. It’s expanding, it’s energizing, it’s empowering to know there are spiritually focused, globally conscious, action-oriented people like me all over the world.

We are one energy

When you find so many people gathered together to focus on one common purpose, the world seems smaller. As you tune into the focused group energy, you feel an amplification of your own personal power. As you focus your energy on a particular need, it is no longer yours alone to do, it is a group effort, a combined flow of focused power. And this makes a difference.

Believe we can make a difference

Know we make a difference. Feel the energy of those who are rising above the pettiness and criticism and opposing positions. Allow yourself to rise on the collective gathering of light and lose yourself in the folds of oneness.

Absorb this oneness. Fill yourself with it. Energize and replenish yourself with it. And when it’s time, return your replenished and restored self back to your personal space.

You can join the group energy any time. Someone, somewhere, is holding high watch for the cause you support.

Go deeper within

In a quiet place, allow your body to simply disappear, until there you are, floating in nothingness and everywhere, absorbing, accepting, contributing, exchanging, and simply being the energy of all that is, the nowhere that you came from, the village of nothingness, the uncharted block.

Allow the voice within to speak to you. Trust it.

Disappear you

Let go of your Body Suit. Leave your human mind and its limitations behind. Merge with the wholeness. Heal with your wholeness.

And when your work is complete, return to reside in that sacred place deep within. The “you” of you. The All-That-Is. The energy of the whole.

That’s our work. That’s our calling. Be the wholing energy you are. Share it with the world.

And so it is.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider

What is Self-transformation?
Our Work in the World
How to Hold the Space for the New Vision to Emerge
The Emergence of Collective Individual Spirituality
How to Manage Your Subtle Energy
What if You Broke the Mold?

Where Do You Plant Your Stake?

February 14, 2017 By Cara Lumen

When you plant your stake in the ground, the universe responds. Where are you planting your stake?

A new stake is a signal that attracts

I took two courses that inspired me to create a new stake to plant. One took me into deeper inner work; the other showed me how to take this inner work out into the world to make a difference. I planted my stake. I want to make a conscious effort to heal and balance the earth.

The stake I planted was like an antenna

As ideas began to come to me, some vibrated more than others. Some I adapted. Some I acted upon. Others I ignored. I absorbed and adjusted and made my choices.

The realignment began to bubble outward. Since I’m a writer, I began to write. I wrote articles on activating a Tree Messenger and becoming an Armchair Activist.

When I was searching for how to help heal the world, I listened to a webinar from which I understood that we can heal our rifts when we look for what we have in common. I began to write about that.

Expand your territory

Now my mission is larger. It moved beyond me and my work. I am a messenger of sorts, an interpreter of ideas. An “idea magnet” who thinks up ways to apply what I learn. Although my path is not formed or firm, I stay open and circumstances show up to be explored. One seed grows many varieties and can adapt to many fields. I write. I share what I write. And as , the seed grows and grows.

Where have you planted your stake?

What are you invested in? What calls to you? What gifts are needed? Where do you want to do your work?

For several years my work has been about spiritual exploration on the inner plane. My inner plane, in particular. Suddenly my work has turned global. In simply responding to my own inner work, I’m using my gifts to inspire and motivate and suggest options to others.

My stake is still planted in spiritual expansion, but the garden has gotten bigger.

Look at what you’re invested in. Getting a promotion? Finishing school? Finding a soulmate?

Think bigger. Mark off a larger territory. You are needed!

I’m becoming more invested in harvesting my wisdom and understanding into signposts and maps for others who might choose to follow this way. And right now, my stake is in exploring ways to heal our planet and sharing what I find.

Is your stake planted in the right place

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

The Power of Positive Purpose
Our Work in the World
The Move From Inner to Outer Work
What if You Broke the Mold?
The Many Faces of Your Calling

How to Manage Your Subtle Energy

February 9, 2017 By Cara Lumen

We are beings of energy and how we manage that energy affects our experience of the world.

If you embrace anger and hostility, your negative energy radiates from you and will affect those who come near you. It may serve as a magnet to draw some people who are also angry or it may serve as a repellent to people who don’t want to be around anger.

A being of energy, you have a choice about what kind of energy you send out!

Use a directed and focused vibration of wholeness

“Directed” means we pick a cause or a situation we’d like to change for the better. We want to raise the consciousness to a higher plane.

“Focused” means our intention to bring into wholeness. Our focus on the highest vibration, the deepest connection with the voice within.

Pick a cause and decide what to send it.

The kind of energy we project onto a situation or person can affect the probability of something emerging or not emerging.

That’s very powerful.

We can direct our own subtle energy and affect the outcome
— for better or worse. So we need to choose carefully.

The bet between the sun and the wind

There’s a story of a bet between the sun and the wind over who could make a man take off his coat. The wind blew and blustered but the man only drew his coat tighter around him.

The sun simply began to shine. It offered warmth and nurturing. And the man quickly shed his coat.

That’s how powerful our personal subtle energy can be. Are you blowing or shining?

Manage your own energy field

We can all learn to cultivate a positive energy flow around ourselves. We do that by consciously cultivating a positive outlook, releasing fears and energetically building our own subtle forms of energy filters around our energy body.

Keep your thoughts, beliefs and expectations both positive and inclusive.

Work where you are

This work as a light-bearer can be done privately on the physical plane. Whether you are concerned about a person or a situation or the planet, look creativity and positivity at the opportunities for action right where you are and get to work.

Begin with daily energy work. Create your own system of directing focused positive energy. Work face-to-face on the local level.

Our focused energy work can transform our world.

Monitor your own energy field

Before you walk out the door, monitor your energy field. Monitor it too before you pick up the phone or begin to write an email. Cultivate an energy that encourages a positive flow around you and all those persons with whom you share your day.

How to shift your subtle energy

Check your expectations of what’s possible. Do I believe we can reverse global warming? I should. Although my human mind would settle for slowing it down, my inner voice says “reverse it”. What do you expect to happen because of your vibrational work? Think bigger!

We are one energy

I used to like metaphors such as “the web of life”, as in “we’re all part of the web of life”. But that still makes me feel separate. I have to know and believe that there’s only one energy and it’s me. Just as you must believe there’s only one energy and it’s you. We must find ways to feel our oneness, and focusing group energy is a powerful step.

According to the Sufi poet Rumi, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the ocean in a drop.”

You are the whole. The whole is you.

Take care of it with positive awareness. Use your focused subtle energy for wholeness.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
How to Hold the Space for the New Vision to Emerge
The New Wave of Powerful Purpose
The Emergence of Collective Individual Spirituality
I Am You
We Are Part of a Larger Spiritual Order
Hold the Space for Things To Change

Feeling Powerless is Not a Reason for Inaction

February 6, 2017 By Cara Lumen

The situation feels too big. We feel too small. We feel powerless. And yet we long to help. We long to help heal and whole and change. And yet we feel small and ineffective because it all seems too big, too overwhelming.

So we do nothing.

Feeling powerless is NOT a reason for inaction

That feeling of being overwhelmed and being powerless almost stopped in me my tracks. What can I, a woman in her 80’s, do to participate and help heal the world? How can I help the planet, the wildlife, the refugees, the sick, the struggling, and yes, the political divide?

There’s a great imbalance in today’s world. Is it the chaos of positive change or the crumbling of something old or the emergence of a new way of being? I have no idea. I just know there’s a mess out there and I’d like to help heal it.

There are lots of things I’d like to protect or change. It’s overwhelming. Where do I start? What do I do?

Begin with your own focused intention

We can send energy. Every day, for instance, I send out wholing energy into the world. I use meditation, chanting, reiki and my tree messenger to add my intention to address at least one aspect that calls to me.

We can give our gifts

We each have a unique gift that only we can give. What do you need to give more of to the world?

I can expand what I offer. I can trust that what I share is passed along to the people who will benefit most. I can listen well within and follow the guidance I receive. I must be productive and I must expand my reach.

How will you expand and share your unique gifts?

We can join together

Focused energy sent from a group is incredibly powerful. Find people focused on the change you want to see in the world and join with them to visualize, to take action, to send energy.

We can be diligent and persistent

Know that your energy counts. Your intention has impact. There are millions of us all over the world who are sending healing energy to people and places and situations that need our help. Find groups who gather together on the internet to focus energy.

Do your part every day.

Picture us as a group of people, each holding their place on a rope that’s attached to a huge boulder. Our combined energy is steadily and surely pulling that boulder into place or out of the way or up the hill — wherever it needs to go. That steady, sure movement happens because we keep our energy working toward the common goal.

We must expand our connection to our invisible self, our universal oneness

Move more deeply into the wisdom of the collective that lies within you and find your strengths and determination there. Trust that the change that appears to be happening will produce enlightenment and a new vision for everyone. Know that the Wisdom Within is the universe, the originating power, the All-That-Is and that your focused energy is lubricating the forward motion toward wholeness.

Don’t feel powerless. You’re needed. Your participation is vital.

Do your part. Join with others who are focusing their vibration toward your joint goal and be the power in the world that you already are!

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

How to Hold the Space for the New Vision to Emerge
The Power of Positive Purpose
The Emergence of Collective Individual Spirituality
The Move From Inner to Outer Work
Change Your Expectations