Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Mindfulness

How to Reframe to Get Better Results

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How to Reframe to Get Better Results

Adventures in the Unseen World

This was a huge, life-changing discovery. Change is as simple as reframing how you see it. That means all you have to do is reframe the perceived problem in order to get different results. 

What needs to change – could it be me?

My passion lies in philosophical writing. Not in cleaning my home. 

My passion lies in the creativity of my mind and its amazing discoveries – not in the strength of my body.

I was beating myself up for not making some basic things happen. Did I not clean my home better because I was lazy, or it is a tad harder than it used to be, or that I really didn’t care? I was trying to change me so I could change my behavior. 

It wasn’t working.

Was the reason I was not willing to develop a regular form of exercise because I’m not very interested in exercise or because I’d rather write (yes) or I’m lazy?

I looked very hard to see what needed to change in me so I could change my actions.  

Change how you see the problem

It turns out that when I shifted the purpose of what I was doing, I shifted my attitude.

It created major change.

The shift began when I started to look at my choices and motivation differently.  Why was I doing or not doing whatever it was?

I began with my lack of motivation for cleaning my home. 

I love all the crystals I keep around me and I bet they would be really happy to be damp wiped more often and handled more frequently.  

Crystals, yes I could do that, but the kitchen floor? What did I need to shift in how I viewed caring for my home in order to create a shift in me?

See your home as sacred space

In my daily mediation, I think of various areas of my home as a sacred space. I care for them.  I occupy them with awareness.  

What if I saw my entire home as sacred space!!!  Now that would certainly create a change in my willingness and attitude toward caring for it. My home is my sacred chamber for safety and well-being. Of course I want to keep a sacred chamber clean and cared for. 

See how this works?

Shift how you perceive the task you with to accomplish.  Reframe it until you feel the shift in your willingness.

My body needed help

The same resistance I have felt toward caring for my home extended to my body. Caring for it, as in keeping it strong, was not very interesting or meaningful to me. It was not a priority.  I knew I needed to move my body more in order to help it be stronger and more flexible, but I kept putting off the things that would help that happen. 

Until, like my home, I changed how I viewed it. I reframed how I held my body and it changed my actions. 

My body is sacred space

When I began to perceive my body as sacred space, it immediately and dramatically changed my willingness to care for it.  Of course, my body is sacred. It is home for my soul.  I need to care for it as such. 

Finding the form of exercise I am to do to strengthen my body is not about me, it’s about what my body temple will appreciate and thrive on. It’s the food and drink I offer it, the activities I choose to do that stimulate and motive and are simply enjoyable. 

It’s not about me, it’s about my body and how I see its value in my life.  How I honor its service. How I care for its sacred space.

I change my perception and it changes my choices. And my willingness.

It’s not about chaining you, it’s about changing how you view what you are doing

How do you perceive how you contribute to the world? Do you see it as valuable?  Do you see your work as sacred? Can you see the impact your particular task has on the whole? Are you doing what you need to do to share your gifts with the world?

I write because my mind demands I go exploring.  But I must make certain that I publish my posts and newsletter and podcasts so there is a chance what I have discovered will be of value to someone else.  It’s only partially about how much I cherish and enjoy writing.  It’s also that what I learn and share effects and serves and supports someone else. We must share our gifts for that is why we were given them.

I write for self-discovery, but when I share what I discover I am in service to others in the world. And that is even more important. When I shift my view of my overarching purpose, I change my actions. 

All thing are vibration and they vibrate back to you

My hone is vibration.  My body is vibration. My intention is vibration. And vibration affects vibration.  Vibration has impact. It tends to move toward an aligned harmony.  I get to look at the vibration I am putting out into my life. 

Your home soaks up the energy you bring into it and reflects it back to you. You are the initiator of the energy you want to have in your life   And if you listen closely, your home will also tell you what it needs to make the space more nurturing for you. 

Your body gives you many signals about what it wants and needs. You have only to listen. And respond.

Keep listening. And change your own vibration by changing how you view your participation, your acts of service, and your impact.

Live in a state of aware gratitude

I am truly grateful for my home. It is shelter, it is nurturing. I want to give some of that back.  

I am very grateful for my body and because I truly want to stay active, I get to find ways to nurture and provide its desire to stay strong and healthy. 

Move through your home with appreciation – for the way it serves and supports you. Honer your body with the care it needs to stay strong.

Both your body ad your home are sacred spaces. 

Treat them as such. 

What do you need to reframe in order to shift your actions and thus the outcome?

Deeper Song Affirmation

I reframe how I view areas of my life and make changes that honor them. 

A Deeper Song Process 

  • Notice what part of your life you are neglecting. 
  • Identity how that part of your life serves you. 
  • Change how you view its value and service in your life.  
  • Let that new way of seeing it change how you care for it.
  • Honor it, care for it, nurture it
  • Repeat and increase your awareness.

To Sind a Deeper Song Consider:

Make Use of Emptiness

The Power of Being in Intentional Space

The Deepest Sound is Silence

Nurture the Garden Of Self

Call on Your Sacred Space Within

Do You Keep Sacred Time

How to Open Space for Change

Come Sing a Deeper Song

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Messages from a Snowfall

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Messages from a Snowfall
An Inner-world Exploration

The snow fell thick and heavy and wet and built up on the branches of the trees, bending them into positions of servitude they had never before experienced.  They whispered – “Learn this lesson, when it feels heavy, bend. When it melts it nourishes the roots.”

The world was different.  Each branch  of every tree I could see bent under the weight.  It was magical, the ice glimmered in the sunlight and the world was transformed. 

It was a beautiful snow, thick and silent and glistening. It was a heavy wet snow. It built up on everything. My empty flower pots looked like they were topped with frothy white layers of whipped cream snow.  The sun behind the clouds caused the whole world to look like a fairyland.  It glistened.  It sparkled.  It sat silently in its breathtaking beauty. 

The lesson of the heavy snow

I looked for the lesson in the snow – the heavy snow that made everything bend and simply wait patiently for change to gradually come.  Sometimes life is like that, it gets heavy and we feel bent over.  And all we can do is wait patiently for change. The tree branch bends gracefully.  I wonder if I bend as gracefully when the load seems heavy.

There is nourishment in change

As I looked at the heavy snow, I knew that it carried the water that was so welcome in the earth and eventually, one small released drop at a time, it would nourish and nurture where it was needed. 

Do I give time and space in my life for events and circumstances to nurture me?

There’s stillness in change

There’s a serene stillness in this glistening world of snow-bent branches. No place to go.  Nothing to do.  Simply sit there in beauty and with for change to gradually occur. 

There’s a leveling that takes place. Everything looks the same – white.  Just as we are the same.  No differences.  Simply nature in a blanket of white so there’s no longer a notable difference.  There’s a lesson there. We get lost in how we look on the outside. When we know ourselves as light, we sit in the stillness of a quiet moment of simply being present and experience the oneness of all of nature. 

There’s cleansing in change

There’s cleansing in the snow.  When it melts it’ll wash away what’s no longer needed.  We must be ready to make room for and accept the fresh new beginning that comes when the storm passes.

There are lessons in change

The trees have to adapt to the heavy snow by bending and changing form.  The earth, although frozen hard now, will need to thaw and absorb what is offered.  Eventually, the roots in the ground will be nourished and in turn, support the tree in growing taller and broader. 

But all in good time.  All when the cycle moves forward.  

Change is like that – unfolding stages Always in a cycle of beginning, middle or end.  We have much to learn from nature. 

Allow yourself to absorb the change

If I were a tree, I’d bend with the unfolding change.  If I were the ground, I’d wait until it was time to absorb the change.  If I were an animal, I’d burrow in the proffered change and wait for the warmth to return.  

Be like snow – fall softly and cover everything

Feel the stillness.  The peace.  The simple act of being present calls deeply to me.  Perhaps I can learn to live like snow, resting patiently on a branch, waiting for the sun to help me change form so I can move to another level of my calling.

Patience and a willingness to change. I can do that. 

And that’s the message I received from a beautiful, very wet heavy snow. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS: 

  • In a quiet place, feel yourself as a snowflake, forming in the sky, falling gently to earth to land. 
  • Notice where you land. You look around and there are many of you – many snowflakes, many points of light covering the world so that what’s underneath is hidden and our wholeness begins to be more evident – covering our world, our earth. 
  • Be with that.  Feel yourself being included in and absorbed into a greater whole – a whole with great power to make change.
  • When you’re ready, allow yourself to melt, to change form, to move on to the work you’re called to do, taking with you the stillness and peace and oneness that you felt when you were simply snow. 

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Can You Let Your Life Unfold? 

Do Not Conform to the Ways of the World

When I See Myself As Light

Life Messages from a Potter

The Power of Non-doing

Create a Releasing Ceremony For Yourself 

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Create a Releasing Ceremony For Yourself
An Inner-world Exploration 

There is “stuff” within us that’s in our way. It may be making us sick. It may be making us unhappy. It may be keeping us from doing something. Some of it we recognize.  Some we don’t. We need to let all those unwanted inhibitors go. We want to release whatever is keeping us from moving forward in our relationships, in our health, in our business.  Can you identify a personal problem you want to solve, and can you also identify the cause?  Think about letting it go. 

Is your body suit showing signs of imbalance?  Let go of whatever is causing that. We may not know the specific cause of an imbalance, but we know we want to release it.

Create a Ceremony of Releasing

You may feel the need to reset your life at the New Year, on your birthday, at the solstice and equinox, the full moons, the new moon.  Or you just may think, “Today’s the day.”

You want to create a Ceremony of Releasing that works for you.  So begin to experiment. 

I do my Ceremony of Releasing through shamanic journeying, which is a form of mediation.  I can get very creative in how I release what I want to let go. 

Put it down and leave it behind

In my meditative journey, I’ve carried an emotion in a knapsack on my back and simply laid it down along my path, only to turn and see it change to water and become a new form to nurture others. 

I’ve carried an anger I wanted to get rid of in a bag with the intuition of burying it, only to lay it on the ground and have it turn to earthworms who actually waved at me as they went off to do good work for the earth. 

The lesson, it seems, is that whatever you want to get rid of that’s harming you can be changed into something useful.  

Let the fire consume your unwanted blockages

Another ceremony for releasing unwanted beliefs, idea, unknown-unwanted things is to put them in a fire.   The fire changes it to smoke, the smoke dissolves in the air and it is released into a form that no longer harms. 

I, however, seem to have a hard time burning things. Destroying even a twig.  I have no idea why.  You will create your own Releasing Ceremony to honor your purpose and intention.

Release your unwanted belief into the earth

In a recent shamanic journey, I thought to place the perceived blockage I wanted to release into pinecones, but I didn’t want to destroy them in fire. So I visually buried them with the intentions for them to grow into something useful.

Release your unwanted blockage into water

Sometimes I go and stand under the waterfall in my Sacred Garden.  That certainly clears things out.  But there’s also a quiet pool there where I can also release what I no longer want to carry with me.

Let water rinse away what you wish to release.

Let air carry away your blockages

Blowing bubbles is a fun way to release whatever you want to release.  You could use a balloon.  Or, you can simply stand in a gentle breeze and feel the air moving through you to carry away what’s no longer needed or wanted. That’s a good one. 

What you release may take different forms

In one of my releasing journeys, I ultimately found myself wearing an imaginary cape that was weighing down my shoulders and affecting how I felt and even how I walked.  Sometimes cloaks feel cozy; this one did not.  I filled this imaginary cloak with all the emotions and beliefs and feelings that no longer serve me.  I thanked them for their service and threw the cape into the fire where there was a loud roaring sound as the flames consumed it.  Sparks flew up, smoke rose, and all those burdens, beliefs, unknown “whatevers” that were holding me down, changed form.  I stood up straighter and felt myself filled with a golden pillar of light, not one of protection but of inner strength. 

This is your releasing ceremony.  Do what works for you. 

You can make a list of what you no longer want.  You can write it on paper, and tear up the paper or burn it over the sink.  Whatever symbolic gesture of releasing you can think of will work. 

You can simply tear the paper up into small pieces over a wastebasket. 

You can dance and release.  You can take a deep breath and when you breathe out release what you no longer want. 

You might pause as you enter your house each evening to mentally shed your work day and bring yourself as a loving presence into your evening. 

You might create a releasing ceremony at the end of your day and put aside anything our have accumulated.  You can release it then or you can put it in a bowl to be mutated by your helping spirits during the night.  Do whatever works for you.

Look closely for what you want to release

A key part of the releasing process is to identify what you no longer want.  Look behind the obvious problem to identify the subtle causes. It may be a belief, a fear, a misunderstanding, a disappointment, an unknown that is causing something physical to appear. The blockage or unwanted energy can take many forms. I found I had expectations of a family member that I had to release. A particular expectation.  Something I wanted, but something that was not going to be given. 

Identify what you want to release and create a symbolic way to release it.  

Blow it toward the flame of a candle. Shake it out with a rattle. Beat it out with a drum.  I have a wind whistle and I can release the unwanted, unknown, unidentified “whatever” to the wind by using my breath.  I can also do that without a wind whistle. 

Set an intention to release

The core of a releasing ceremony is your intention.  You don’t have to know the cause but you do want to have the intention: such as,  “I release whatever is making my back hurt.”  You have no idea what that is, but you can release it.  “I release whatever is in the way of my feeling loved.”  “I release whatever is holding me back from expressing myself fully.”

What’s your intention for your Releasing Ceremony?

Do a Releasing Ceremony often

Some days it’ll be obvious that you need to do some form of a Releasing Ceremony because something happened and it affected you. The sooner you can release it, the less impact it will have in your life. 

On other days you won’t know what you’re releasing but you’ll be willing to let go of what no longer serves you.  You don’t have to know what it is, just notice how your life changes after you do.  

Before entering your home, you might blow any burdens, worries, upsets or disappointments out into the wind.  Just let it go.  Then enter.

Offer gratitude

When you release something, thank it for its service and let it go.  

Perhaps at the end of the day go back over your day and see what you have been given and look for what you want to release.   Do a short releasing breath before you sleep with an affirmation like “I let go of whatever I no longer need.”   

If you’re very attached to it, lay it aside to be picked up after a good night’s sleep, but do put it aside. 

When you do some sort of releasing, a “thank-you-very-much-but-go-away” ceremony each evening – however short, however elaborate – your life will change for the better.  Each day will become a clean slate upon which to uninhibitedly express yourself. 

What kind of releasing ceremony will you devise for yourself?  How often will you do it? 

Deeper Song Process:

  • What would you like to release? Identify it or identify the imbalance it’s causing. 
  • Choose one of the ways to release from above, or make up your own method.  
  • Choose a time for your Releasing Ceremony where you won’t be disturbed.
  • Sit quietly and decide what you want to release. You may want to write it down. You may want to say it out loud. You may want to just think about it.  Choose one thing to release in this first ceremony. As you progress, you can release multiple things during one ceremony.  Try to find the core problem.  Anger might be at the core.  Or fear, or disappointment.  Look for the emotion involved that you want to release. 
  • Create your Releasing Ceremony – whatever that means to you.  Music, candles, silence.  Do it physically or do it in your imagination.
  • Do the work.  Let go of what you no longer need or want and what no longer serves you.
  • In the days that follow, notice how you feel. 
  • Repeat as desired. 

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider:

Who Needs to Give You Permission?

The Power of your Imagination

Do You Believe In Yourself? 

Our Defense of Non-Existent Boundaries

What Are Your Weaving in Your Reality?

Live In Your Center 

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Live In Your Center
OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

“Stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.”
-Tao Te Ching, tr. Stephen Mitchell

There’s only one safe place to be in the midst of chaos – at the center of your being.  When you stand steady in the light that is your core self, the world can go crazy around you and you will simply stand there and be – be source, be light, be serene, know that you are integrated in the One Energy.

How do I stay in my center?

First, you have to realize that your safe center exists. You have to know that your center is the safest, most supportive place you can be. It is not a place in your body suit, it is a place in your invisible world.  

It is your center and it is filled with unconditional love for you and your process in life.  You can go to your this spiritual place for shelter – easily and often. 

Change begins from within

You have control over what you think and say and do.  And what you think and say or do affects your life experience.  What you focus on you get more of.  

What are you focusing on?  The good news or the bad?  The harmony or the disharmony? 

Your choice.  Your life. 

What to do when you feel helpless

There are some things you can do nothing about on the physical plane, but you can make great changes on the inner plane. Rather than feel helpless or hopeless, go where you can do a great deal to make changes in your inner self, the place within where we’re all one light and where we can join with others who are working to increase their light so we may affect the collective consciousness.  Working with our light within, we have power to create change. Working with other light beings, we have even greater power. 

Don’t get pulled off center

I watch people continue to make choices out of concern only for their own well-being, rather than the broader good. It’s tempting to become dismayed or discouraged because we’re so connected. 

But I’m not helpless – I have total control over my thoughts, my beliefs, my actions.  My job is to stay open and aware and flexible. And make certain my choices are inclusive and for the highest good of the most people. 

Let your feelings guide you

Notice how you feel.  Use your emotions and feelings as a barometer.  If you feel distressed, let go of what you’re focused on, move within and find that place of peace, that place of oneness where all of us are serene. Stay there for a while. 

Replenish yourself in this center of peace and light and unconditional love until you feel ready to go back into the world.  

Let your feelings and emotions guide you.  Turn off the negative news, the violent television shows, walk away from the angry person, do not continue a competitive conversation.  

You always have a choice. Reside in the center of your being, that place of peace and serenity that you can get to in the intake of a single breath.  

Move within, calm your mind, feel the lightness of the energy you have within you and let that permeate your entire being until the activity on the surface of your life no longer has any effect. 

Breathe – let go. Shift your gaze to focus only on the positive.  That’s how you stay in your center. 

To Sing a Deeper Song, consider:

Are You Sacred Space

Do You See and Hear in a Sacred Manner?

What Core Beliefs are Guiding You Today

You Are Never Separate 

Where Did You Come From?

Your Duty is to Be

Abide at the Center of Your Being

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Abide at the Center of Your Being

“There is no need to run outside
For better seeing.
Nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide
At the center of your being;
For the more you leave it, the less you learn.”
 –Tao Te Ching, Lao-Tzu

There’s a stillness inside that knows all.  Yet too often we persist in looking to the opinions of others for guidance or try to unobtrusively fit into the world around us.

When you sit in silence and observe, the guidance is given, the answers appear.  There’s nothing that exists except you.  Look within for your answers. 

Live at the center of your being.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Call on Your Sacred Space Within 

Do Things from the Soul 

What are the Foundations Stones Upon Which Your Build Your Life

Unleash the power of your Sacred Garden

Does Your Path Have Heart?