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Mindfulness

Allow Life to Be Meditation

October 18, 2016 By Cara Lumen

woods sun beams

We think of meditation as sitting alone in silence. What if we took that whole sense of being present into our entire day? What would that look like? Feel like?

Begin with a sense of your inner self

When you meditate, you can hear the inner voice of wisdom. When you pay attention to your intuition, to those small nudges and prods that show up in your life, you are listening to the voice within. Your inner voice.

When you embrace your own self-awareness, you understand what you offer and who you should offer it to. All of this awareness comes from being introspective. From meditation. From stillness.

Live at the center

Let the world whirl and swirl around you. Your place is at the center. That’s where it’s peaceful and still. That’s where the wisdom is.

When you become agitated, or frustrated or bewildered, go within. There’s clarity there. When you’re confused and uncertain, go within. There are answers there.

When you practice going within, it becomes easier to pause and listen to the still small voice within and absorb the wisdom that’s ever present.

Our lives reflect what is inside

The more you access calm and serenity within, the more calmness and serenity will be present in your life. The more aware you’ll be of your gifts and talents, the easier it’ll be to find ways to express them. And the more loving you are in your heart, the more love surrounds you in the outer world.

Change who is within

Cultivate a practice of mindful awareness – of what’s going on inside and of what’s reflected outside. Cultivate stillness. Reside at the center of your being.

When you change what is within, you change what is without.

Allow life to be a meditation.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

The Power in a Ceremony of Releasing
Live Like Water
Share From Your Soul
The Power of Non-Action
22 – Create Your Own Spiritual Journey
23 – What Are the Truths You Live By?

Filed Under: Mindfulness, Spiritual Expansion, Unfolding Tagged With: meditation, Mindfulness, self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion

What Makes You Feel Valuable?

October 4, 2016 By Cara Lumen

peron huggin tree

We all want to feel valuable. We want and need to feel that we count, that our presence is appreciated, that we contribute to life. Sometimes we simply try too hard. The fact is, what sets you apart, what makes you valuable are your strengths – those qualities and attributes that are so much a part of you that they make you stand out.

Your strengths are the things that make you unique and valued.

Even the un-positive strengths have value

What if people regard you as “stubborn”, for instance? It’s easy to think up some negative connotations for stubborn. But what if you turn that into interpretations like determination, tenacity, a person who follows through. That’s a slightly different take on a quality. Now it’s true that being stubborn may benefit from a little flexibility, but see how you can turn a potentially less-than-desirable character trait into a strength!

You strength will make you seem unique

For a time, I believed I was too self-absorbed and self-focused. Until I realized that all creativity comes from within and the only way to get to it is through introspection, i.e. self-absorption and self-focus. It’s the artist’s way. We have to listen within. So my desire to be alone and contemplative sets me apart from a lot of people and makes me unique but it’s all exactly what makes my work valuable, it’s how I contribute.

You strengths may be subtle

I’ve always been a good organizer, but it was years before I realized that I was also a good organizer of ideas. I then put that ability to work as a coach and as a writer. What strengths do you have that would benefit from being applied in a new venue?

You have to see yourself as valuable

The very uniqueness, the very qualities that make you different, are what make you valuable. Stop comparing yourself others. They have their own unique combination of passion and talents, just as you do.

Begin noticing what people ask you to do. That is your strength. Notice what you love to do. That is your passion. Notice how you are different from others. That is your uniqueness.

Make choices to honor your path

No one walks the same path. Although we walk alongside others for short periods, we’re on life’s journey in our own unique way. We learn from others and move on. We share ourselves with others and move on. We are always alone on this journey. Always striving to be more, to give more of ourselves, to honor more of our gifts.

What makes you feel valuable, you do. Only you.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider

Take Time to Explore Your Talents
How Being Different Makes You Special
The Responsibility of an Artist
Share From Your Soul
Stoking the Fire Within
44 – How to Define What You Do So Others Get It
40 – Who Do yo Want to Serve?7

Filed Under: Mindfulness, Self Awareness, Self Mastery, Unfolding Tagged With: personal growth, self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion, Unfolding

Leave No Trace of Yourself

September 29, 2016 By Cara Lumen

fire - campfire

When we give everything we have, we have nothing left. When we participate with our whole heart, we are both empty and fulfilled.

Zen master Shunryu Suzuki said, “When you do something you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.” And I wondered if I did give my all in every situation.

Immerse yourself in creativity

It’s easy for me to get lost when I write. I, as a person, simply watch as the words flow through me onto the computer. I’m not even a middleman anymore. I’m like a cord plugged in, simply conducting current from one place to another.

When you truly lose yourself in your work, you disappear and the only trace of your presence is in the work you create.

Immerse yourself in learning

Hours go by when I’m trying to learn something. It may be a tutorial or a set of instructions. It may be when I’m practicing a chosen craft or figuring out a new way to apply what I know. The energy of the idea is there, but I don’t feel my own presence. When I immerse myself in learning, there’s a feeling of being a conduit that produces a result that can then be shared.

Immerse yourself in the present

I’m getting better about allowing life to unfold. I simply observe what shows up and make a choice in the moment. The Suzuki quote above appeared in a post that crossed my desk with the interpretation of not leaving a trace on the planet. My take is about immersing yourself so deeply in the moment that you are not there – only the energy of Tao and what has been chosen to be shared is active.

Mere minutes passed between my reading the quote and my beginning to write this post with my own interpretation. The connection and translation was almost immediate.

Embrace the state of not-doing

Wu wei means not-doing. In “Do Nothing and Do Everything”, Qiguang Zhao says, “Wu-wei is a behavior that arises from a sense of being connected to the world. Your inner voices, the voices of nature, and your intuition are your connection to the Tao.”

To get out of the way, to leave no trace of ourselves, we have to rely on our inner voice to share its message, the voice of nature to show us how to live in the moment and our intuition to show us what to do next. Then we disappear and the communication is complete.

Give yourself completely to whatever you do. Lose yourself in the creation, the process, the emergence of the ideas. Get out of the way and simply allow things to happen.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Live Like Water
Stoking the Fire Within
The Length of Your Reach
Mindfulness as a Path to Self-Awareness
Can You Learn to Do Everything Through Being
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence
35—How to Hold the Space for Change.

Filed Under: Mindfulness, Self Awareness, Self Mastery, Spiritual Expansion Tagged With: positve change, self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion, Unfolding

Live Like Water

September 27, 2016 By Cara Lumen

stream

Water lives an unfolding life. It moves around, through, on top of, and beneath anything in its way. Its movement is constant and steady, even when it’s in a still pond gently evaporating into the atmosphere, only to return as rain. What would life be like if we lived more like water?

Adapt while moving forward

The most powerful aspect of water is its ability to adapt even as it continues to move forward. It may gain speed if the current demands it. It may go over a cliff if that’s the path. It may rest quietly beside a boulder and nurture the life within it. Wherever water finds itself, it adapts.

Like water, our life has its dips and dives. It races and then comes to an almost stop. If we are to live like water, our task is to adapt to wherever we find ourselves and whatever we need to do next. That requires us to be patient, flexible, and creative.

Pause where it is needed

Water doesn’t need to rest, but on its journey it finds places to pause. The pause may be to gather the strength behind it to push forward or over. Or it may simply need to stay in one place in order to nurture what’s around it. When a pause is needed, water pauses.

Pause in your life like water.

Be in the moment

Can you imagine water daydreaming, or looking backwards or even looking ahead? No, water enjoys each and every moment. She is present and aware. There is no mental activity in water. Just a serenity, a contentment, a being present in the moment.

Be true to yourself

Water is water, whatever the form. Whether she’s a waterfall, a pond, a river, an ocean or even steam rising from a kettle, water is always water. She is true to herself. She accepts what she is and is content.

Be creative

When water is persistent, it can carve rock. When it settles deeply into the soil, it can nurture giant trees and tiny flowers. When it gathers, it nurtures animals. When it evaporates, it returns in the form of rain to nurture the earth.

Water adapts. It changes form. It offers itself in small amounts and large amounts. It’s patient. It’s persistent. It’s creative.

What would your life look like if you lived like water? Adaptable, flexible, strong? What would your life look like if you felt like water? Serene, content, adventurous?

Live your life like water.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

30 – The No Plan Plan
35—How to Hold the Space for Change.
How to Create An Empty Day
The Freedom of Not knowing
Lose Your Attachment to the Outcome
Why Unfolding Works
The Power of Non-Action

Filed Under: Mindfulness, Spiritual Expansion, Unfolding Tagged With: Mindfulness, positve change, Spiritual Expansion, Unfolding

How To keep Negativity Out of Your Life

September 6, 2016 By Cara Lumen

keep out sign 2

I watch the world make scary choices. I watch people vent anger without any thought to coexistence, and the only thing I can do is make certain that my vibration is as peaceful and loving and thoughtful as I can make it.

When I send that vibration of inclusion and serenity out into the world, it resonates with those who need and accept it and they, in turn, respond and modify their own vibration. My job and primary place of power is to change myself. And that keeps me very busy.

How do you handle the negative?

Sometimes the negativity in the world is so prevalent that I feel helpless. Why are people afraid to allow others to be different? We’re all the same energy with unique expressions that add to the richness of our life experience. There’s so much negativity and judgmentalness affecting our world. I don’t care where or why this negativity exists. But I do care about what I’m going to do about it.

How do we change the world?

The major way we can change the world is to change ourselves. When I get through a day without thinking a single judgmental thought, my vibration reflects that. When I sit quietly and listen to a rant while trying to hear what is underneath the words without being judgmental, I gain some insight. And that leads me to compassion, which, in turn, changes my personal vibration.

Then, my compassionate, inclusive, vibration is felt by others. And perhaps it changes them. Perhaps it calms them. Perhaps it reassures them. My job is not to cause a change. My job is to be the change.

Shift how you see the problem

“Problems” are simply opportunities to consider a different approach. We learn from each of the barriers, blockages and problems we encounter. They prompt us to think. They broaden our frame of reference. They deepen our understanding. They cause us to make a new choice. They cause us to release something – a belief or an expectation.

So I watch people being unkind to other people and the first thing I do is look at my own life to make certain my circle of influence is filled with my own kindness and that I encourage acceptance and compassion in those around me. Even better, if someone in my circle is negative and critical, I release them from my circle.

Notice negativity

I can feel negativity in my body. It hurts and I need to walk away from it. Now, I don’t know whether it’s because of being old or bored or feeling irrelevant, but old people are often very negative.

I live in a senior center and have had to withdraw from being with people who are negative, who gossip and who criticize. This is so not my tribe. I am lucky the Internet exists because my forward-thinking, still-getting-things-done tribe is online. Even when I’m alone in my apartment, I’m surrounded by like-minded people online!

Notice the energy of negative and remove yourself from it.

Monitor your own negativity

I have to watch my own negative thoughts. As my body ages, there are things that I have to work harder to do. I started to write “things I can no longer do” but that’s negative.

The positive side is that I’ve begun to put more effort into my physical well-being, whatever that means and looks like to me. So instead of indulging in self-talk that says ‘I can’t do that any more.” I become consciously creative and learn to say, “How can I do that differently that’ll work for me?”

The more thoughtful you are, the more alone you become

Because I’ve been a moderate rebel all my life, I finally figured out that the majority of people in the world do life differently than I do. That doesn’t make either of us right or wrong – just different. I like being different. I like standing alone in my own selection of values.

But what I no longer spend any time doing, now that I’m interacting with people who are like-minded, is giving much thought to what those who aren’t like-minded are doing and thinking. l’m focused on making as much of my life positive as I possibly can. I’m focused on deepening my own spiritual understanding.

Are you focused on the negative?

What would feel different in your life if you only looked for and noticed the positive? That means that if something feels negative, you excuse yourself and go find situations that are more positive. It may mean releasing some friends. It may even mean changing jobs. But most of all it means changing yourself.

Just focus on what you love, what you do well, on who inspires and motives you. And go fill your life with more of that.

That’s how you keep the negative out of your life. Fill yourself up with the positive!

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Our Opinion Requires No Thought
Mindfulness as a Path to Self-Awareness
Lose Your Attachment to the Outcome
The Power of the Label You Choose
46 -How the People You Hang With Affect Your Life
35—How to Hold the Space for Change.

Filed Under: Mindfulness, Self Awareness, Self Mastery Tagged With: self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion

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