Spiritual Expansion

Immerse Yourself in the of the Void

Living Our Deeper Song

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

When we immerse ourselves into the oneness that is the Void (Rumi calls it the “Nowhere that you came from”) we experience ourselves as whole, perfect and complete. There is no striving. There is no separation. There is only oneness. We enter the void through our inner world. We sit or stand quietly and go within and keep going until our body disappears and we are void.  

In that void is everything. It is wholeness. It is serenity. It is the highest vibration that exists. We don’t connect with it, we are it. When we allow ourselves to move into the silence within, we have the experience of being everything. All that is. All that will be. We are part of a void that includes everything. Wholeness. Unconditional Love. Serenity. Wisdom. It’s all there. In the All-That-Is. In that silence within. 

How do you get there? How do you experience it? By moving within. Closing your mind to the external and moving into the void. The void of wholeness. The void of All-that-is. The Nowhere That We Came From. As we immerse ourselves in the experience of the void, our body responds with healing. Balancing. Restoring. And all we are doing is residing in an awareness of being one with the void. Allow the void to restore balance to your physical body, to expand your spiritual experience. Give yourself over to the void. Trust it. And let go. Let go of anything and everything that no longer serves you and is no longer relevant.

In the void of wholeness, the void of oneness, the void of All That Is, know that you are whole, perfect and complete. Experience that in your life. As you stay in that void, feel your entire being respond and realign and replenish and restore. Then, when you are ready, gradually come back to your experience as a human being and trust the expanded awareness flowing through your life, the void of wholeness. Trust it. And let it bring you into balance.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I make it a practice to move into the void every day and experience the wholeness and unconditional love and inclusiveness that is there.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• Perhaps you want to record a guided meditation for yourself that takes you into the void. That lets you return to the vibration of wholeness, the experience of wholeness. Or just do it in meditation.
• Notice what shifts and self-correct if appropriate. 

===INNER WORK===

How Do You Nurture Your Inner Self?

We mostly know how to take care of our bodies with good diet and exercise, but how do you consciously nurture your inner self? Do you have a meditation practice? If not, maybe you want to establish one. Do you walk in nature? Or at least sit and contemplate as you look out the window at nature every day? Perhaps watch the sunset or the sunrise?

Do you meditate? Do you listen to music? Do you write poetry or make up songs? Do you spend time with a dear friend? Do you hug your pet? Those are ways to nurture your inner self. Perhaps go exploring today to find a new way, a new experience you can create that will deepen your awareness of your inner self and its messages and guidance.

The Healing Power of Solitude

I live alone so solitude is a major part of my life but what I want to talk about here is actually choosing a specific time to be still within. To be alone with your thoughts. To be alone with your feelings. To be alone with your body. To be alone with nature. To let yourself immerse yourself in the ebb and flow of the ongoing cycles of life. To become part of the flow. And be nurtured by the love, be nurtured by the compassion, be nurtured by the peace that resonates in the silence. You can turn it into gratitude for the day or a blessing for the day but find a time in your spiritual practice to be aware of the sound of silence as you sit in solitude and listen to your Inner Self.

Send Love Ahead to Your Day

Vibration is not restricted by time and space so you can send the vibration of love ahead to your day and simply step into it as you move along the way. Isn’t that a nice idea? To send love ahead. Send love ahead to a meeting. Sounds love ahead to a conversation. Send love ahead to something you’re going to work on. And when you get there, love will be waiting for you. Lots of love. Give it a try. And watch the miracles happen.

Surrender Box

I get a lot of good ideas from Daily Om and this is one of them. It is the idea of a Surrender Box. 

There’s a great deal in our life that we need to leave up to the organic flow of the universe. So instead of trying to wrestle something to the ground or manhandle it into place, we let the Universe take care of it. We put it in a Surrender Box and let the universe handle it. Instead of worrying or feeling defeated, we just let go. Perhaps we say something like “please resolve this for the highest good for all” or “I release this to its natural unfolding.”  Then we turn it over to the all-compassing, compassionate universe.  

Have a real box. Write down on paper what you want to release and put it in the box knowing that it will all work out the way it’s supposed to. Let the universe and its all-encompassing all-knowing wisdom provide the next step whether it’s to let it go or to take action. The Surrender Box allows you to let go of any worry and concern and turn it over to the unfolding of the universe which is going to make it happen anyway. You just get to step out of the picture and stop worrying. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Feeling Empowered by Qigong for Self-Healing

I just finished Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong, with Master Chunyi Lin. on the Shift New and it has completely shifted my belief system and expectations about being able to self-heal. That Qi (energy) knows what to do. You just have to point it in the right direction and trust. You do that with your mind (Yi).

I’ve taken four or five other Qigong classes but I was doing that only as a meditative exercise choice. It wasn’t until I took this class that I realized that everything is changing including my body because I am actively directing Qi with my mind and trusting the Qi to know what to do. I just have to point it in the general direction. That’s huge.

I don’t know what’s going on in my body, I only know what is manifesting and that change and rebalancing continues to happen.  I have an idea of a possible cause of this realignment from a past life. So I sit here and direct Qi energy to the parts of my body that are being grouchy and the Qi energy is restoring balance to my body.

Here’s a link to the class. They have scholarships that are half price. This is his website. springforestqigong.com.  He sends out self-healing topics weekly. A self-healing class is taught there too. I really like what I’m learning in Spring Forest Qigong and what it’s helping me to do to heal myself. 
Grandmaster Chuny Lin, chunyilin.com

Positive Pause

Establish a time every day that you pause to realign. The form could be a nap. But the form could also be a few minutes of deep breathing while looking out the window at nature. Or meditation using a mantra. The point is to find at least one if not more times in your day that you really stop and recenter yourself into that Still Point into an awareness of you as pure vibration. Into a consciousness of releasing the frenetic energy and bringing in peace and calm. And love. And compassion. A pause. Possibly several times a day. It will rebalance you, it will recharge you. And it will keep you going in the right direction

Relief from Lower Back Pain

Qigong Pressure Point to Relieve Lower Back Pain with Master Chuny Lin.  Easy to do. Share it with those who need it.

===OUTER  WORK===

The Power of a Small Change

If I stand here and I turn to my left one step, and then start walking, I will end up in entirely new destinations. One step. One step can change my entire outcome, take me to an entirely different place. What is that one step? How do I recognize it?

Some of it is about experimenting. If I do this differently today how does it feel? What difference does it make in how I feel at the end of the day? Does it lead me to a different outcome? What small shift will you make today that may lead you in an entirely new direction? Go exploring and find new adventures.

Do The Work

In the second Qigong class with David Penn, he taught us some Qigong moves that I can’t even come close to doing. Not because they were hard. Simply because they required me to stand up straight – which I can’t do at this moment in time. But what they motivated me to do was to do my version of it. To try. For instance, he was teaching a standing squat. Well, I can hang on to things and stand up and move more or less, into kind of squat. So it inspired me to do what I can do. And build on that. I’m going to review the class because it is very rich in ideas. But the core shift is to just start doing the work. The best you can. On a consistent basis. And expect your body to respond and get stronger and better and more aligned. What do you need to begin to do even if it seems like you’re pretty far away from being able to achieve it? 

Cultivate Curiosity

Curiosity can take you on great adventures. It takes you into unknown corners and down unexpected panels. Curiosity cultivates new experiences and deeper wisdom. Learn to listen to your inner voice. Learn to notice the nudges in the universe that open new doors of opportunity and learning. Listen to the nudges of curiosity and go explore. Have a great adventure. Find a way to both stretch beyond your usual world and hold a space that is deeply, personally embodied. 

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

The Far Reach of Embodiment

Can you think of someone who has a quality that is so richly embodied that it resonates from something she/he does? It makes you recognize the quality and it encourages a desire within you to embrace that quality in your own life. That’s the far reaches of embodiment.

I am drawing two of my friends into a circle of three because we are all healers. We have mildly different approaches but we are at the core drawn to and interested inour role as healers. One friend I have known for 20 years, the other for six. And now we are three friends walking a similar path.

Who is in your life that is setting an example of qualities and experiences you would like to increase in your life? The wonderful young woman who comes to clean my home calls herself my Gal Friday. And her willingness and creativity and joy in doing the numerous things that keep a home going is inspiring. She loves to clean. Do you have something you love to do that people will notice your joy in doing it?

When we are joyous and enthusiastic about what we are doing that joy radiates out and inspires and motivates others. We are the embodiment of our beliefs. How are you doing with that?

I am a good friend to people that I want to interact with but I’m not so good with people that I’m not particularly drawn to. So I’m not sure how I’m seen in this senior center, but that’s OK. I have connected with friends online who are walking a path similar to mine.

How are you perceived? And is there anything about that you would like to change? Do that.

Self-Responsibility

I don’t know what my living accommodations are as I get older. This is independent living. Which means I have to stay independent. But now I have help with cleaning and taking trash out and picking stuff up off the floor. What do you do when you age and become less self-sufficient and have no family? When you are on your own and are not capable of being on your own? What are your choices? What are your resources?

Yes, I get more and more creative about how to get dressed, how to care for myself, how to feed myself. I’m aware of the type of help that I need. I have Shelly who comes to clean every other week and do my laundry, and this week I hired her to come for 20 minutes on her way home on the opposite week to take out trash and change my sheets and pick up things off the floor that I can’t reach anymore. It was a relief to make that commitment to hire that extra time. Look around for an older person that you might do some small deed for. It will be greatly appreciated.

Support – Giving and Getting

We each have a support system. It may be a big one or a little one. But there is someone we can call upon. And there are others that can call upon us. Support is about both giving it and receiving it. 
I need support in caring for my home as I age. I hope I give support in my newsletter as I explore life and figure out ways to do it thoughtfully. It’s an exchange but it’s not an exchange with the same people. The wonderful person who comes to clean my home does not read my newsletter but she says I am her favorite hippie… So this flow of giving and receiving support is not necessarily an exact exchange. It is a pattern of moving energy in our lives. How is the balance of your giving and getting? Are you getting enough help? Are you giving enough? Do both. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Leadership

How does one lead in this volatile environment of strong and opposing viewpoints? It’s probably not going to be through reasoning. Somehow the communication of inclusion has to come through the heart. It is up to each of us to make room for the individuality of another and respect their choices and not impose ours on them. It’s a live and let live approach. I can show you by example what compassion looks and feels like. I can show you by example what respect for other cultures and beliefs looks like. But words won’t do it. We lead by doing. We lead by example. And those who are aware look at us and say, “Oh, I want to do it that way. I like what that feels like to be receiving that energy inclusion. I like how that affects my awareness.” 

What kind of example are you being in the world today and who are you sharing that example with? And what changes is it making? Lead by example. 

Filter the News – A Choice

I watch way too much news. It is depressing. And as I sit here in my 89-year-old body I don’t know how to help. Perhaps I can’t. It is not mine to do.

But I do have control over how I nurture my body and my soul – by what I think and focus on and consider is true. This is a period of massive self-destruction. There’s so much wrong about thinking that I don’t even know where to begin. What I do know to do is to focus on what is working. The people who are doing good things. The people who are having positive and creative ideas. Change may be as simple as shifting my focus. Not to ignore what’s going on, not to not prepare for it or look for solutions for it, but to hold a vision of a higher energy, a higher belief system. And inclusive, interconnected, loving way of being. What do you look for as you move through life?  How do you expect to change and contribute?  Where are you focused? What do you expect and what are you getting? Look for the positive that exists and support that. It will change the world. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Expanding Awareness
How to DeepenYour Cosmic Consciousness
Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the 
Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.  – Betty Friedan

Here is A Qigong experience of the Void with Master Gadu Doushin.

===CARA’S CORNER===

Next

I have a comforting belief system about dying. It comes from two books where a psychologist hypnotized and interviewed people about their life between lives. Michael Newton did pass life regression with people specifically asking about what their life was between lives. He wrote Journey of Soul and and Destiny of the Souls.

The time between lives is a time of checking in, regrouping, rethinking, replanning and re-choosing. Even re-choosing whether we want to come in for another lifetime. For me that is very comforting. 

At 89, living in a senior center where people literally move on a lot, I am acquiring a philosophy of death and “next” that works for me. We all have to do the same. My vaccinated son-in-law at 75 got Covid. I can’t tell him my philosophy or the joy of a potential “next” because he’s very conservative and not receptive.  Nor would it be any comfort to my daughter who is 12 years younger when there comes a time for him to move on. I’m such a stand alone person, even as I find I have to ask for more help on the physical plane than I used to. I’m not afraid of being dead. I’m not too excited about the process of becoming dead in case it is uncomfortable. So I want my mind to continue to identify and reformulate and share philosophical ideas that help me and others with the concept of death. 

What do you do that gives value to your life right now and are you doing enough of it? Embrace the gifts of each day, each moment, each awareness. And let the rest unfold.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
Next

My “next” comes from “now”.  How I see it. How I expect it to be. How I use it. 

My “next” comes from “now”.  How I see it. How I expect it to be. How I use it. What is the foundation I am standing on? What is the belief system that moves me forward? Will they serve me well?  Are they what I want?

My “next” comes from “now”.  How I see it. How I expect it to be. How I use it. What is the foundation I am standing on? What is the belief system that moves me forward? Will they serve me well?  Are they what I want? Shifts I now make will make a huge difference in my “next”. I choose thoughtfully.

Cara Lumen, May 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.

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The Gift of Letting Go

Living Our Deeper Song

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

I’ve done some dumb things in my life. It’s not pleasant to look back and wish I hadn’t done them. But what I have learned to accept is that I did the best I could at that particular time. Based on what I knew, based on what I was feeling, I made a choice. Many of my choices were made out of an immediate perceived need or a lack of awareness of a broader motivation or outcome. But that’s just part of maturing and growing up. Your awareness deepens.  Your choices become more aligned.

I never did anything mean on purpose, but I may have done some unthinking things that were hard for people to be around. 

The fact is it’s over. It was part of your learning process, it was part of your life choice. It’s in the past. So first of all, forgive yourself for the blunders and missteps you made along the line regardless of the reason. And then forgive and release any feelings regarding other people’s choices and actions. They too were acting out of the moment in their particular level of awareness or need.

Live in the present and do the best you can. Don’t beat yourself up for what you don’t manage to do. Feel free to acknowledge yourself for what you do that works. Just keep releasing and moving forward. There is a gift in letting go. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I forgive myself for the unaware and unthinking things I did in my lifetime and I move forward with clear and focused intention and awareness.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

• Notice when a memory shows up that holds something that you wish you hadn’t done. How did it actually turn out for all affected? Take a moment to understand that you did the best you could based on who you were at the time. See if there is a lesson, an awareness, and what not to do in the future. But in general, forgive yourself and move on.

===INNER WORK===

An Affirmation of Wholeness

Create an affirmation of wholeness that you say every day. Even if it is not manifesting on the physical plane. I like “I am whole, perfect, and complete.” Another one I like because of my eyes is “I see clearly within and without.” Those are positive affirmations that send a message of intention to the universe. So as I bend over my walker perhaps I say, “I stand tall and in deep service in the world.” Perhaps in moments of aloneness and perhaps loneliness, I say “I feel the love and support of others on this path of wholeness.” 

Can you add affirmations about how you want it to be and add it to your spiritual practice? Create affirmations of wholeness and watch them manifest.

===SELF-HEALING===

Sing a Cathartic Song

One of the qigong suggestions for clearing your lung meridian is to just sing a cathartic song. I had to giggle. What came to mind was “I feel the Earth Move” by Carole King from a long time ago. If you were going to sing a cathartic song, what would it be? Would you dance with it, would you clap your hands? Look around for a song that will release tension and concern and worry and start singing it.

Meridian Points   – Kidneys

The bottom of the palm of your hands has access to the kidney meridian. When you clap the bottom of your palms together, you are activating your reproduction organs, your intestines and your kidney function. It’s a pretty easy step to take. See the exercise here.

Yi and Qi 

Yi is your mind and it directs the energy which is Chi. It’s very powerful combination. As I study more self-healing Qigong, I realize how empowered I am and how much work I can to do to help myself heal.

I am using my imagination, my Yi, my mind to move energy all over my body. I free it up. I clean it out. I let it go. I rearrange the energy in my body and let the Qi restore wholeness. Most of all I seem to be clearing pathways for the flow of the energy up my spine and in the stuck places in my hips and my Lower Tan Tien. Using your imagination to clear out unwanted stuck energy can replace it with wholeness.                              

This Stuff Works!!!

As unbelievable as it seems to me, this Qigong self-healing is working on my body. It is making amazing changes, unusual changes, unexpected changes and I am simply doing the focused work, using my mind Yi to focus the energy QI. 

There are some actions like breathing out the released energy in the form of smoke. Or cutting out what’s not wanted by using scissors fingers. There’s some hand movements that move the Qi. And it’s working. 

I was explaining this to my very conservative son-in-law the other day and realized he was sitting there with his arms folded across his chest in a very defensive manner. It was unconscious of course, but this self-healing with only energy was way too far out for him. And yet it’s working. 

If you want to go exploring, I suggest you subscribe to Grandmaster Chuny Lin’s website. You will get a weekly Qiigong self-healing practice. Give it a try and see what you think. I’m seeing progress. Grandmaster Chuny Lin, springforestqigong.com, chunyilin.com

Trust the Process, Do The Work

The words the Indigo Healer gave me in my journey were “trust the process, do the work.” I have found a self-healing method that resonates with me and seems to be effective. I get to trust the process and do the work. Where do you need to place your faith? What path do you need to follow right now at this particular point in time? Do you have your eyes on the right path? Look for guidance. Examine it. Then trust the process and do the work.

===OUTER  WORK===

How Do You Manifest a Dream?

Do you have a dream? Something you would like to do or achieve or experience? How do you manifest that dream?

Do you need to do a reality check to get some idea of what is necessary to get you to that goal? If it’s a destination, you need to plan – you have to find out how to get there and what the weather requirements are and where to stay and how much it is going to cost and all those details. Then you can know if that dream is realistic and achievable.

But what if you were looking at a dream that is simply unfolding. And all you get are glimpses and glimmers? For instance, I’ve been writing a certain form of poetry in this newsletter for several months now. And I have been collecting them. Do I want to do a book? I know how to put a book on Amazon. But is that what I want to do? Right now?  At all?

I have a goal of walking without my walker and I’m doing many things to help manifest that one. What I get to do in that physical plane journey is to notice what works and what doesn’t work. Experimentation is part of achieving a dream. 

Are you dreaming big enough? Are you stretching your imagination to see the potential and possibility that opens before you? I don’t want to blame it on my age but I’m not as into big projects as I used to be. Smaller more achievable projects seem to be more satisfying for now. Honor your inner guiding nudges.

Do you even dream? Do you have a vision of a future experience that you’re going for? Sometimes those dreams are meant to be surprises – an unexpected new friend, an opportunity that you had not anticipated.

I think of dreams as a shape-shifting cloud, always in changing and re-arranging itself. That means I have to stay flexible and aware and I particularly have to notice my response so that I keep myself moving in a direction that works for me.

I don’t have a dream journal but I have a vision board. I have a goal of self-healing that keeps me open to new ways to do that. Adventuring is like being a tumbleweed rolling across the prairie, skipping and bouncing and rushing and slowing down and getting stuck behind a rock, then jumping free to go tumbling again. Are you dreaming? How big are you dreaming? And how are you achieving your dreams?

Know What is Too Much

Know the limitations of your interests, your attention span and your path. I was tempted by a Qigong offering until I realized that I’m full up, it has too much detail for me right now, and it felt overwhelming. So I didn’t do it. It was too much. 

When you start to take on a new commitment, a new task, stop and evaluate it for a reality check of how it fits into your life and your time. Take on only what you can complete with joy and satisfaction. Know when it is too much and draw the line.

The Fog Creeps In

Carl Sandburg wrote:

The fog comes in

on little cat feet. 

It sits looking 

over harbor and city 

on silent haunches 

and then moves on.

What situation or thoughts or events have you allowed to creep into your life? How long do they stay? Why are they there? When did they move on? Make sure the fog in your life moves on.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Own What You Learn

If I don’t apply what I learn, it doesn’t do me any good. So if I don’t practice the Qigong moves I am learning, I won’t know their benefit. If I don’t make the changes that I decide I want to make, I won’t experience the results. Are you doing the work? Are you exploring and applying and making the changes that take you in the direction you want to go? I love to explore but I also need to turn and choose what I want to apply and where I want to apply it and then do that. Are you owning what you learn? Are you actively applying it to your life?

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

What is Your Cause?

I don’t have a specific cause. I care about the environment a lot. I care about equal rights a lot. I care about human rights a whole lot. And all I’m doing is sitting here in my apartment sharing a lot through this newsletter. At 89 I’m not supposed to go out and attend a rally or have people sign petitions. But I can hold High Watch. I can send positive thoughts and wholing energy to those doing the work. I can keep my consciousness raised to embrace those inclusive ideals that are important to me. Don’t let the inability to actively physically participate keep you from doing the work. Use your intention, your consciousness, and hold High Watch for the world.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Inclusiveness and Exploration

Why do people try to make other people think the way they do? How do you learn anything if you don’t embrace diversity? As I watch this trend to need to be right, particularly from males, I don’t want to bother to figure out why. I could use words like insecurity, but that doesn’t do me any good in being around it and coping with it and hopefully even changing it. Women by nature are inclusive and compassionate. But I think it’s important that we look at our own beliefs and actions to make certain that we are inclusive and have made conscious changes to include the beauty and uniqueness and lessons found in another cultures. I don’t have any friends from other cultures. But I study eastern philosophies and embrace what they teach – Taoism in particular.

Are you making an effort to learn from people from other cultures, and the backgrounds of their belief systems? You don’t have to embrace it, but it’s helpful to understand its origins and applications and current meanings. That helps make you compassionate and inclusive. Both good trades to cultivate. Go exploring and expand your inclusiveness.

The Scenario of Opinion

As I write this, there are protesters outside the US Department of Justice where the Supreme Court has leaked a document saying they will overturn a fundamental right to freedom of choice over their bodies that women have had in this country for nearly 50 years. 

What gives us the right to tell other people what to do?

I’m a vegetarian. What if I wanted to make a law that no one could eat meat because that’s how I feel – that animals should not be killed.  As it stands, I have my choice, others have theirs, and I just don’t go to their house for dinner. 

At the core is our freedom as women (notice this does not affect men) to choose based on what we need, what we think, and what we ultimately decide for ourselves. It is a fundamental freedom of choice created by men that threatens and affects only women. 

I wondered how the emergence of the Divine Feminine would unfold. It’s a lot of anger and hatred at and demeaning of women by the masculine. 

I don’t know how it’s gonna play out. I just know that the Divine Feminine continues to emerge, continues to be a formidable focus for the energy we are all experiencing. The feminine is inclusive. She encourages individualism.  Those are good traits to encourage and embrace.

When you discover that you have a strong opinion that is totally different from someone else’s, as hard as it may be to do, try to put yourself in their shoes or try to understand where their thinking comes from. And know that they have feeling that are just as strong as yours. You don’t have to change your mind. It just means you broaden your understanding and manage your own life, not theirs.

I write this to myself because I’m super mad primarily at white men in the United States trying to tell women what they can and cannot do. That mindset was around when I was a young woman and I have loved every minute of defying that and learning to stand on my own two feet and standing in my own power. We cannot lose that freedom to be the women we are meant to be. I don’t mean to offend anyone, I’m just trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who feel so strongly about something that they feel they have to tell someone else how to live their life.  The feminine warrior is rising up in me and as I have done all my life, I object to being told what I can and cannot do. There has to be a shift in group consciousness.  Not sure how it will play out. Women have equal eights!  Go Divine Feminine!

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

Expanding Awareness

How to Deepen Your Cosmic Consciousness

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

This is a particularly powerful message from Sandra Ingerman.

===CARA’S CORNER===

Loneliness

Every time I hit a personal snag, I realize it is mine to fix. No one can do it for me. I’m the one that has to recognize it and fix it.

As I write this it is a Saturday and as far as I can tell I won’t have any one-to-one interaction with anyone until Thursday when my son-in-law comes to help me do some things in my apartment. That’s five days in which I have to fix it. To change it. To find a way to not be lonely. What am I going to do?

I have three friends I talk with on a regular basis. One weekly, one every three weeks, and one monthly. Our interests are so specific and focused, the calls are very stimulating as well as rewarding in the form of friendship.

I am so far into my personal direction there’s no one in this senior center that has a clue what I’m doing.

I’m taking some classes, in fact, my two Qigong classes overlap for two weeks and that feels like a lot. 

What do you do when you feel lonely? How do you fix that?

The first thing I’m gonna do is look at my own choices to see where I have decided not to participate that might in fact be nurturing for me. What is available to you right now? And does anything resonate?

Is there an idea nudging you that would take you in an interesting direction? I am so full of learning right now that I do not want to undertake another project or even a finish reading the two books I have going.

I like being alone. I like being able to respond to my own rhythm. But what do I do when I feel lonely? I’m thinking about it. What do you do? How do you keep from being lonely?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Alone or Lonely?

I like being alone but I don’t like being lonely. And I’m the one that has to fix that.

I like being alone but I don’t like being lonely. And I’m the one that has to fix that. I must find the focus. I must find the activity. I am the one who must reach out.

I like being alone but I don’t like being lonely. And I’m the one that has to fix that. I must find the focus. I must find the activity. I am the one who must reach out. I sit and look out my window and do nothing. Tag. I’m it.

Cara Lumen, May 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!

You Are the Composer of Your Own Song

Living Our Deeper Song

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

It’s an interesting state of affairs when your belief system says you are the one responsible for everything that happens to you and you’re not exactly excited about what is showing up. Do you feel helpless? Do you feel angry? What do you do when you feel that you are totally responsible for every part of your life and things are not going well? Hmmm.

You get busy. You get creative. You try new things. Self-responsibility is an opportunity. It can be challenging and it can be unnerving. But most of all it is creative.

Here’s the problem I want to solve, the situation I want to change. What am I going to do about it? What resources do I have? What do I need to learn? Self-healing is an interesting opportunity to change your belief system. What are the tools that you are going to use in order to create your wholeness? That’s true of every level –  mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. You design your path. You design your journey, you compose your own song. 

That doesn’t mean we can’t look around and see what others are doing. Would that work for me? I would do that differently. Let me try that for a while. A great part of self-healing is being aware of what needs shifting or changing or releasing. And then do that. What’s not working in your life? What choices do you have that might change the outcome? Go exploring. Try them out. Observe what happens. See how you feel. If you don’t get the results you want, try something else.

Yes, we are part of a huge all-encompassing high vibration. We have access to that all the time. We don’t always take advantage of that. So expand your expectation of what is possible. Expand your expectation of what you believe you deserves. Those are game changers as far as creating outcome.

Go exploring. I’ve studied Yoga and Tai Chi and I am into Qigong right now. I’m working with tuning forks and native flutes and drums. I’m into shamanism and Reiki and bio fields. All of these are a part of my personal adventure. How diverse is your path of exploration? What new adventures await you? You are the weaver of your own life. You can pull into it any threads that calls to you. Pay attention. Go exploring. And compose your own song.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I broaden the range of my exploration as I continue to compose my own song of life.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• Try one new self-healing technique and see where it takes you. It can be meditation or toning or tuning forks or Qigong or whatever comes to you. Try something new and notice what happens.
• Continue to explore as your life evolves. 

===INNER WORK===
The Gift

My friend Martha Lacy offered to make an altar piece for me out of clay. She is an accomplished potter. I immediately got an image of an infinity shape representing the cycles of life in the past and in the future and how they intertwined. The images I wanted on each side appeared immediately – a butterfly for the organic changes in the waning cycles and a spider weaving her life from within in the waxing cycles.

In the first on Zoom session Martha shaped the altar piece with me making choices and decisions all along the way. The image of what I wanted was very strong. In the second session we began to put the design on. Again my internal images were very strong. I watched as Martha interpreted what I was seeing. The songs I would sing in ceremony with it began to emerge. It was truly a combining of our imaginations and an extraordinary experience. She also made me a rattle she designed and again I had string images for the decoration of that. We put specific intentions into the clay beads that are inside.

They have now been glazed and fired and I have a unique, one-of-a-kind ceremonial piece for my spiritual practice.

I have never entwined my imagination with someone in this manner before. She was interpreting my vision and I saw my vision take shape through her skill. I’m not sure where you get that kind of experience in life. I’m sure there are other places. Do you have a collaborative relationship with someone in which you nurture each other’s purpose and imagination? This was a first for me and it was very, very special. 

===SELF-HEALING===
Two Powerful Self-Healing Practices

I have added two powerful self-healing practices to my daily life and they are making a difference. I shared them in this newsletter before but they are turning out to be a remarkably effective combination so I thought I would repeat them in some detail. They come from two separate people and I learned them on that Qigong Healing Summit of the Shift Network.

The first one comes from Teja Bell TejaBell.com Rōshi (老師) Teja Fudo Myoo Bell – 84th Zen Ancestry Heir – Roku Dan Aikido. His talk was Integrating Embodied Mindfulness: Qigong and Meditation With Teja Bell. The movement I found so pwerful was a preparation for meditation.

He said that Qigong practice is an integration of your attention with the underlying principles though mindfulness. We are to cultivate a field of presence, a field of being. In our Qigong practice we move the chi and encourage its uninterrupted flow. 

He showed us several movements but the one that resonated with me most dramatically is one I now use many times a day. It feels literally like pumping chi. Begin with your hand in front of your heart to center and balance you. Lower your hands beside your body and with palms facing, gradually bring the qi energy up your body to your head.

At the top, turn your palms to face downward, close your fingers over your thumbs and begin to move your arms down as if bringing that energy back down into your entire body. 

It was the fingers over the thumb in the downward movement that energetically caught my attention so dramatically. I was surprised at how powerfully I felt the energy move. So I began doing that on a regular basis to begin my meditation and before I go to sleep.

The other addition I added to my meditation practice came from Master Chunyi Lin, Creator and Founder of Spring Forest Qigong (springforestqigong.com and chunyilin.com)

The movement is to breathe into the lower Tan Tien which is behind the navel and breathe out all the imbalance and negativity and stuff you don’t want as smoke. I often experience a very large and deep yawn when I do this.

The hand movement seems to simulate the breathing and the breath movement clears the chi. They came from two different people. They are very powerful combination.

I use the hand movement as the foundational movement and inevitably as I bring my hands up, I find myself yawning and taking a deep breath to exhale. I make it a point to bring in everything I don’t want into my lower Tan Tien and release it on the exhale which very often becomes a very large yawn. At that point my hands have reached above my head, my fingers close over my thumbs and as I lower my arms it is a very centering and focused motion that makes me feel like I am filling myself with positive Qi. 

I am making remarkable progress using a combination of two Qigong moves. 

===OUTER  WORK===

In my self-healing Qigong class, Master Chunyi Lin springforestqigong.com,  chunyilin.com taught us that there are six causes of illness: emotions, diet, injuries, change in weather or seasons, wrong medication, and living environment and that all qi blockages can be removed. Then you clear the space and give energy back.

Those are pretty easy to identify. Whatever’s going on in my body is from an injury in a past life. I don’t have any idea why the dry macular degeneration is showing up and Western medicine cannot cure it. They can only describe what happens. So I’m on my own with that one. I’m going to look for it’s cause and release it. 

An easy first look for the cause of illness is your environment. I love my apartment space. But because of my specialized interests I don’t have any friends here. My friends are online. So I’m missing periodic in-person conversations. And I know I fluctuate between boredom and depression. I could work on that.  It’s pretty easy to become more aware of the seasons in your response to health as well as the food you eat. After years of not eating dairy, I seem to be drawn to cheese and yogurt. I get to watch that.

What’s going on in your life that is emerging as imbalance and can you identify the cause of the illness as either emotions, diet, injuries, change in weather or seasons, wrong medication, and living environment? 

Master Lins deep breathing sequence to empty the Lower Tan Tien is a good place to begin. All qi blockages can be removed. Get to work.

What If You Keep Getting the Wrong Results?

Our thoughts create our reality so what shows up is a result of your thoughts and intentions. How are you doing? Do you expect the best? Don’t settle for second best. Do you expect a situation to change, to heal? It won’t if you don’t. What do you think is possible? What needs to change? How willing are you to change? What are you doing to help the change occur? Monitor your thoughts. Notice what shows up and change your thoughts accordingly. 

Test The Market and Your Focus for the Future

Several of my friends are getting ready to retire. That means they have another wonderful 30 years to do nifty stuff in. It’s a good time to test the market. Not only to see what people want from you but what you are excited to give.

One friend is both a healer and an artisan. When you start to build a business, you need to look at time versus income. That needs to be tested. Can you be paid enough to do the work the way you want to in the time you need?  Or do you have to modify it and offer it in chunks that are more affordable? You simply go exploring. You try things out and see how you like doing them and you see how people respond to what you offer. You can go exploring long before you retire. Begin to figure out this second career path. This flexible freedom that also inspires and motivates and stimulates your life experience. You can begin exploring any time. What do you want to create next? 

Do You Organize for Priority?

I’ve got a pretty good system on creating this newsletter. I have a template. I often write something every day, dictating in what I think just to capture the ideas. I often have so much material that I find I’m working ahead on the following week. So the first step in creating anything is to do something. Take some steps, get some ideas and explore them a bit. 

Two days before I want to publish it I begin to read what I wrote and see if it makes sense and see if I like it and edit it for clarity and focus. Sometimes I leave a whole segment out. So the second step is to look what you created and see what you want to work on. The third step is more detailed because it involves things like checking the spelling and the overarching message. And of course, final steps are having it proofed and then putting it in out to the Deeper Song Community and on Facebook and on my website.  Those are all separate steps leading to the outcome I want. 

Can you bring your attention to one step at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed? Do you know what steps you need to take in order to get the product or idea completed? Break it down into steps. See where you are and perhaps make new choices before you take another step. One step at a time will get you there. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Past Life Work and Time Lines

I believe in past lives and I also believe in parallel timelines so that everything is happening all at once. I have no proof. It’s just an idea that resonates with me. Particularly since this physical adjustment in my hips seems to be coming from a past life and has manifested through several dimensions. At least I hope that’s what’s happening. So rather than feel hopeless or helpless, I feel expectant.

I don’t know how these parallel timelines work. I’m pretty sure my choice today goes both forward and backward. As it has always done. But that can feel like a big burden if you consider you have many lifetimes. But when I work with it right now, my energy is now, my choice is in the now and my expectations are formed in the now.

I have looked ahead 10 years and there I am doing jumping jacks which I can’t do right now so something good is happening today. I’m also planning a new garden in that future life. It’s still an experimental garden but there are new crops there to explore. 

As for past lives, I have gone back beyond this injury on my right leg in a past life to see that I was part of a circle of very strong women friends and the injury was an accident, not a battle. And I had a very strong circle of very strong women around me then as I do today.

So what action do I take today to continue self- healing and to bring harmony among my many lives? I don’t know. I’m making stuff up here. But I keep going back to the core belief that I get what I believe I deserve and what I believe is possible. So it all lies here within me. What do I deserve? What is possible? Do I expect to be able to walk without a walker again? Kind of. Do I expect for my eyes to reverse so I see clearly? I have to work on that. Western medicine seems to have no cure and that’s an interesting blockage for my belief system since I am bringing things forward from a past life. Do you think I could just handle the eyes as part of simply affirming “I see clearly within or without.”  I’ll try that. And “I now release anything that no longer serves me from this lifetime and all my past lives.” And maybe I’ll start lobing light balls into the future.

How are you working with your time lines?

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===
Jupiter/Neptune Conjunction April 12

If I had known about this earlier, I would’ve written you in time to help you celebrate it. This conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune only happens every 154 years! I got some lovely information from Astrology Hub forwarded from a friend about creating a lovely altar as an invitation to your guest. But I kept my ceremony very simple. I focused on two things – self-healing and the next part of my path. I decided to take a dismemberment journey where I put myself back together in the energy of these two powerful planets. It was an interesting journey and I went to the misty circle in the middle of the redwoods and I got help from a whole lot of squirrels. I’m still working on figuring it out. I did not dismember but my team is now bigger!

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===
Where Do You Find Your Answers?

There is only one place to look for the answers you seek – deep within you in the silence. Insight comes from your inner voice. It comes from your intuition. It comes from simply knowing. Be aware that it may not be time for you to have an answer. If I go looking for a solution to the world crisis of today, I may not get a whole lot because it’s unfolding, there are many choices that will take it in a different direction, and my role has not been clarified other than I simply send energy for clarity and knowledge when the time is right. Be patient with unfolding. But bepersistent. Be aware. Be flexible. And go exploring. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Expanding Awareness
Stand Steady in Your Own Truth
Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Googleand the 
Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===
The Cycles of Life

My friend did the clay work while I watched on Zoom and designed the piece we were making together. It was a powerful experience. The vision of what I wanted was very clear at every stage. We were making an altar bowl and a rattle. The altar bowl concept began with the sign of infinity. The cycles of both past and future that are ongoing and ever connected. So how do I use that concept of connecting cycles in my spiritual practice, my daily life, my expectations?

The first thing is that everything is vibration, the same high vibration so whether I am in a cycle of the past or a cycle of the future or in the moment where cycles begin and end, it’s all the same energy. My choices don’t affect the energy, they affect how I perceive the energy and where I see myself in the energy. Think about that. Where do you see yourself in life? I’m at the end of my physical plane life but I see it as a high point, not a low point. I see that as being at the top of a tall mountain that I’ve climbed with more to go to reach the top. How do you see where you are in your life? Are you going downhill or uphill, racing to higher heights or lower depths? That’s important to know because it’s a viewpoint you can shift and it will make a huge difference.

So here I am building on a lifetime of wonderful adventures with a great deal of wisdom and knowledge and interests and introspection to build upon. And I feel useful as I find ways to share that information. That knowledge. That wisdom. That awareness.

At 89 I’m not exactly planning years in advance but I am holding steady on my path. I’m taking conscious steps to continue to explore and deepen my awareness and my wisdom and my expectation.

You need to be creative as you age. There are always choices to be made and expectations to be changed, not lowered, just changed. It’s part of the cycles of infinity – increasing and decreasing cycles of energy and our place in them.

Be present. Be aware. Explore and experiment. Find what works right now in the here and now of your current life. Be creative. Make changes. Expect positive results. 

Different aspects of your life will be in different parts of the cycle. The waxing, the waning. Just notice and be positive and creative and expect the best. Life is a series of interconnected circles of expansion and contraction. Go with the flow. 

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
This Day is Mine.

This day is mine.

This day is mine to spend as I choose. 
I will fill it with peace and serenity and love. 
I will use it to encourage self-healing. 
I will use it to raise my vibration and deepen in my inner wisdom. 

This day is mine.
I use it wisely.

Cara Lumen. April 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!