Don’t Withdraw
Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!
It happens gradually and it happens subtly – all of a sudden you’re down at the bottom of the rabbit hole and don’t even know how you got there. That happened to me over the past 13 years living in a senior housing. I did fewer and fewer activities. My circle of friends got smaller and smaller. Covid closed down on some of the activities I’d been doing. My world got smaller and smaller and smaller and because it was so gradual, I didn’t notice it. Until my world changed.
I moved into long-term care and the people here are so incredibly kind that it opened my heart. Nine months later my friends have told me that I have changed and that I am showing kindness in a way that I had not before.
It’s interesting how change creeps up on us. It can be so subtle that things we have been doing gradually disappear.
How do we guard against this? Things fade away so slowly, we don’t notice they’re leaving.
I knew I was participating less but I didn’t know how it was affecting my life, my emotions and my personality.
In my case, it was a change of venue and the exposure to young people living their lives with enthusiasm and energy and purpose. They opened my heart and changed my life.
One way to look for change is to do a meditative journal on some sort of a regular basis like quarterly and then take time to review what you were thinking and doing and feeling a few months ago and where your choices led you. Do a shamanic journey to ask for guidance from your guides.
If I had even made a note someplace that I was seeing more young people maybe I would have paused to look at what that was doing for me. But I didn’t think to do that.
If I were creating a way to track my personality changes, I might start a list like:
- Who do I spend time with?
- What do we get/give to each other?
- What do I no longer do that I used to do?
- How might I put that back into my life? Do I want to?
- What new people have come to my life?
- What new ideas have I explored and what do I want to do with them?
- What new circumstances impacted my life recently?
- Where is my curiosity leading me?
Ask your friends how you have changed.
Do you have friends that support you? How are you isolating yourself? How did you used to participate that you are no longer doing?
If you create some sort of list with dates you will be able to identify the gradual changes that have snuck in and changed your life. Then at least you have a chance to correct them and create more balance.
I noticed my gradual move towards isolation but what I did not recognize and could not identify was how that was changing my entire persona. Nor for that matter, I did not know the cure until it happened and the change was both remarkable and rapid.
If you have a good friend you might want to make an agreement to help each other notice the subtle changes that are happening in your persona and your life. How do you recognize what you do or do not want to change?
I had a core problem, in fact I still do, I am not drawn to the company of old people so as I got older in independent living, so did my friends. Do you see my dilemma? It took being in touch with younger generations to bring me back into the world. And I had to completely move in order to do it.
How are you closing down and in what areas and what steps will you take to open yourself up again.
Deeper Song Affirmation
I look for and track subtle changes in my personality so that I have an active choice in the direction I’m going.
Deeper Song Process
- Record the general flow of your life at this point in time. Put a date on it.
- Look back over your life and see what aspects you have allowed to drop by the wayside. Write those down in your journal.
- List the people that you are drawn to and communicate with in your life today and put a date on it. Write down what gifts come from that exchange and friendship.
- Make a note on your calendar three months from now to review this journal and notice any changes or progress.
Life is about change. Change can be very fragile. And change can take you in the wrong direction if you’re not on the lookout. Keep on the lookout.
===INNER WORK===
Deepen Your Inner Awareness
How And When To Reframe Your Life
It’s pretty obvious when you make a big move in your life that you have to reframe a lot of what you’re doing. What’s not so clear is when it is time to reframe and make a big change. Change often requires letting go of something or learning something new, or changing directions. It is from that new point that you begin to see your world differently.
My move to Evergreen totally reframed my view of who I am, who I am to serve, and the value of what I have to offer. All of those were great things brought about by a change in my environment.
Sometimes a change in view is quite subtle but it opens up an entirely new vista for you to consider and explore. Other changes are like major bonks on the head until you get that you need to make a change.
Each new choice, no matter how small or how large, gives you a different view and asks you to reframe your life.
Pick something that you are doing on a regular basis and try to do it a little differently. Approach it from a different angle, question your reason for doing it, look around and identify a new approach. Do it at a different time, do it longer or shorter. Experiment and adjust until you are sailing right along. Change your thinking, change your life. Change your view and change the possibilities that open to you.
Walk The Path Alone
It may be a Divine Feminine thing to want to walk our path alone. I am aware that in my life cycles no one person has been with me all the time. That means that if I had a partner all this time neither one of us would have walked our true path.
I have had important friendships in my life and influential and course-directing teachers and experiences, but I have always walked my path alone. And I feel very, very fulfilled because of it.
I cherish the deep friendships that have walked beside me for part of my path. They were mostly strong women and we were empowering to each other.
Relationships can call for compromise. Each person gives up a degree of something that they would have loved to do or become or be. When you walk the path alone and want to make an abrupt turn or an about face or race madly towards a new direction, you are free to follow your heart and your instincts. Encourage the strength and willingness and confidence to walk the path alone so you can be true to your calling and your gifts
The Art Of Contentment
Contentment is about being satisfied with where you are and what you are doing. I am content with where I live and who my friends are, the work I am doing with my writing and my new role of service that is unfolding.
I stay alert to new possibilities and potential and take the time to explore but I am content with what I have in the moment and what I choose to do in the moment, to not be complacent, but to allow myself to be nurtured by what I have and find contentment in the moment.
Contentment is about settling into your work and doing it well. Contentment is about pausing to appreciate your life and your accomplishments, to acknowledge your wins and release what you perceive as your losses.
Contentment is not a lack of ambition, it is a recognition of where are you and how far you have come. It is not about where you are supposed to be, It is about being clear about where you want to go.
Do you acknowledge your progress, your successful choices, your motiving insights? Do you acknowledge yourself when you let go of non-nurturing relationships or a less-than-successful project?
Clear your life of bumps and hard places and tuck yourself into contentment.
===SELF-HEALING===
Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself
Go Back And Heal A Past Pain
My choice to leave had impact. I did not intend to cause pain. My choice at the time felt like it was about my own survival. So while I ultimately flourished and was very true to myself, my choice had impact on those I left behind. We never know, do we, how our actions will affect others?
There is no point grieving because it’s over and done. If you feel you need forgiveness, forgive yourself. If you feel you need to apologize, do that. Then release it. Release the choice and its impact. It is over and done. It is complete. You can send energy back in time to heal the past pain but you can’t go back and change the action. Your choices were made for a reason. Let go and move on. Build on what you learned and what you accomplished because of that choice.
Flexibility and Determination
There are many ways to reach your destination. There is up, over and around and any one of those paths will get you where you want to go. It’s important that we stay flexible in how we accomplish something and still stay determined to make it happen.
Flexibility means to be creative about the way you make things happen, or help them happen or encourage them to happen. We get to be creative and innovative and experiment until we find the best path, perhaps the most flexible path or the easiest path or at the very least the path that gets us there.
We have to keep experimenting and exploring and pushing ahead. We have to be determined at the very least to keep going in a specific direction. Our end goal may change but the journey is ongoing. For instance, if I am on the road to physical recovery, I may try many roads to get there. But the purpose of the core path is to get well.
Understand your core focus. I want to keep finding ways to contribute to the well-being of the planet and that is changing as I age. At the same time the very fact that I’m aging gives me a broader range of insights from which to choose that helps me seem to be wiser and even more creative.
When one door shuts another one opens. When one path gets too hard there are ways to keep going in the same direction that are less challenging and difficult.
Be flexible about how you keep going towards your goal but stay determined to get there.
===OUTER WORK===
Explore New Potential and Possibilities
Believe In Your Ability To Learn
It is important to know and believe that you always have the ability to learn. At any point in your path, you can learn a new skill and take a new direction. Sometimes we need to learn something new just to keep up with the changing times. But what I am talking about is what we need to learn in order to grow and expand our consciousness and awareness. How do you do that?
I constantly explore the nudges of the Universe to find ways to live more deeply, to find out what truly resonates and see how I want to apply it to my life path. Keep learning. Keep exploring. Keep changing. You always have the ability to learn.
Self-Care
Are you so busy helping others that you neglect your own self-care? What does self-care look like to you? What nurtures you? What restores you? How do you take care of your body and your emotional and spiritual needs?
Become aware of what works for you. Is it a nap? Is it a long walk in nature? Is it cleaning and cooking and other forms of self-care?
Do you hum or listen to music? Do you read? Or go to the gym? Explore a little and become aware of the affect that particular form of self-healing has on you. Then consciously weave it into your life.
===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness
Gratitude As A Spiritual Practice
I do not have a gratitude ceremony as part of my spiritual practice but I like the idea. What comes up for me is who/what I am thanking? Am I thanking the Universe? I’m part of the Universe so am I thanking myself? And if I am creating my own experience by what I think and feel and do, then I am thanking myself. And that seems odd to do.
I can thank Nature for her gifts. I can thank my friends and family for their presence.
When we express gratitude, it makes us aware of the abundant blessings we continue to receive. We notice the gifts of health and our mind and our talent. We notice the gift of our spiritual awareness. Gratitude expands our experience – gratitude for our food, gratitude for our home, gratitude for our work, our friends, our expanding awareness. Gratitude expands our awareness of our many blessings. Where have you placed gratitude in your spiritual practice?
===RELEVANT AGING ===
(How to Stay Fulfilled No Matter What Your Age)
Don’t Go Backwards
I wanted to share my past books and was going to take time to record them when I realized that it’s not a good use of my time. I must continue to build upon and share what I discover in creating my new path of service.
My ego would love to see my past books on my web site for free but that will no longer move me forward from where I have risen at this point in my life. We must build upon our breadth and depth of knowledge and keep moving higher and reaching broader and broader shores. Don’t go back. Keep your eye on the future and keep walking ahead.
=== INSIGHTS FROM THE UNSEEN WORLD===
Guidance to Consider
How We Impact The Future
For me, the idea of journeying to future generations to see what we need to do now to help them has great appeal. I have journeyed to a future me but not to other generations.
Everything we do impacts the future. Everything we leave undone impacts the future.
For the first time in 45 years, I am around young people. I am learning from them and they are learning from me. I encourage them to vote and I share my knowledge of holistic healing. In turn, I am inspired by their awareness of their calling as healers at such an early age. I recognized some of my gifts early on but did not see how I would use them on a career path. My age group was expected to have children and be dominated by our husbands. Careers were not in our minds.
What do the younger generations need from us? Encouragement to do our job of protecting the planet better?
More and more people are choosing to walk the path alone all the way through the aging process so adjustments will need to be made to provide advocates for them as they age since they have chosen not to have children.
The world is changing and we must change with it. What kind of impact will your actions have in the future?
===DEEPER SONG DISCOVERIES===
Resources to Explore
Keep Going Forward
Let go of the past. Do not go back and try to relive it or change it or fix it. It’s a done deal and both the strong choices and the weak ones has impacted where we are standing today.
What do you need to learn next? What skills and gifts can you re-purpose into a new direction? Look at the life you have created and see what serves you best and do more of that. Rather than going back to try to remedy something, start from where you are and raise your sights and keep going forward.
I’m Going Exploring
The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) is an American non-profit parapsychological[1] research institute. It was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell,[2][3][4] the sixth man to walk on the Moon, along with investor Paul N. Temple[5] and others interested in purported paranormal phenomena, in order to encourage and conduct research on noetics and human potentials. The Institute conducts research on topics such as spontaneous remission, meditation, consciousness, alternative healing practices, consciousness-based healthcare, spirituality, human potential, psychic abilities, psychokinesis[9] and survival of consciousness after bodily death. The Institute maintains a free database, available on the Internet, with citations to more than 6,500 articles about whether physical and mental health benefits might be connected to meditation and yoga.
I subscribe to their newsletter and I am going to start listening to their offerings.
===GUIDANCE FROM OUR COSMIC COUNSELORS ===
Listen Beyond the Voice Within
A Journey To The Cosmic Counselors
I journey to ask “How can we as Light Bearers help heal the planet?”
I am in a Council of Women – Earth-Keepers. It is a large gathering of women. We carry torches in our hands and we are singing a lullaby to the Earth to comfort her. Small animals frolic at our feet. They feel safe and secure. Trees grow rapidly and bloom because they feel safe and secure in our presence. People are walking arm and arm in harmonious unity because they feel safe and protected in our presence. Our hearts are open and we radiate a golden pulsing light, it is the heartbeat of the Universe. In our collective imagination we see only peace and harmony. People helping people. People caring for the planet. People caring for the environment. People caring for each other. There is a golden glow that surrounds us all. It is peaceful all-inclusive unity. It is mindfulness and open hearts. There is a strong sense of oneness – of being a collective energy of love and peace and harmony.
“How do we achieve this” I ask. “How do we maintain it?”
“Through awareness,” come the answer, “through awareness of your words and your actions and your thoughts. Be aware of your overarching purpose, the care and wellbeing of the planet and all its inhabitants. Your individual choices have a ripple effect and other will see and feel it, explore it and pass it forward.”
“Be mindful of the far-reaching impact of your actions and help others become aware of how their actions might cause ham. Raise the collective consciousness. Be thoughtful. Be mindful. Do the work.”
We each place an offering into the fire in the center of our circle. I mindfully add my blessing. I watch the smoke rise to encompass the Earth with our blessing and promise. Our work has begun.
===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEARERS===
Expand Your Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe
How To Feel Self-Reliant and Useful
I have solved this for myself but not for others. As our bodies decline, how do we keep feeling relevant and valuable? Not everyone wants to experience that but for me it is my life blood.
Feeling reliant and useful is cornerstone to wellness. It keeps you focused on what you can do now to contribute to our world.
Does this call to you? What are the meaningful interactions that give you a positive purpose?
Not everyone needs to feel relevant but for those who do and find a way, it is life-changing. What makes you feel relevant? Do more of that.
A Moment In The Sun
I pause to feel the morning sun warm my shoulders. I close my eyes and turn my face to absorb the sun’s warmth. I let it seep into my shoulders and my arms and my body. I yawn and relax into the moment.
“Thank you for your blessings,” I say to the sun. “Thank you for warming the Earth and helping us grow. Thank you for warming my heart today, for expanding my awareness of who I am and what is possible and what I am to do next.”
I sit in silence and absorb the warmth and listen to the promises. “Simply be present in the light and warmth and promise of the sun.” I soak in the promise. I soak in the potential. I feel my resolve strengthening, my purpose clarify. I hug myself soaking in the warmth and promise. I sit in the sun and simply am.
“Is there a message” I ask. No answer. Then “You are to be present and aware. Listen to your heart. Be aware of the insights and nudges of your unfolding life. Honor the ever-changing planet.”
My mind pauses and I soak in the healing sun. All is well in my world. I have the sun watching over me.
=== ===THE UNFOLDING DIVINE FEMININE=== ===
Explore and Interpret the Guidance and Messages of the Divine Feminine
The Power Of The Divine Feminine
The more cornered the Divine Male feels, the more dominating he tries to become. We see it in the old white men trying to govern the bodies of every woman in the US. We see men in other countries suppressing women to keep them from becoming the strong individuals they already are. World leaders are still mostly men. But that will gradually change.
How can we help the Divine Feminine emerge more strongly?
If you are female, look closely at your beliefs about what is possible for you and raise your expectations for yourself and your future.
If you are male, look closely at the qualities the Divine Feminine expresses through women and also through you – qualities like compassion and inclusion and cultivate them in your life.
Let’s bring into being a world of harmony, compassion and inclusion.
===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
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 ===
If you have a topic that you would like to see explored in this newsletter, please email me at caralumen@gmail.com. Past issues of this newsletter are found at Insights Of A Deeper Song. Past Podcasts are found at Deeper Song Podcasts
===CARA’S CORNER===
Change Is Up To Me
I’m not going anywhere. This is it. No more moving cross-country for a new adventure. Any changes must be made internally by what I choose to do and think and be.
Evergreen is building a new complex that will have private rooms but that will take three years so any changes in my life will have to come from within by way of my imagination and choices.
If you were reconstructing your life experience right now in the present, what would you change? What would you release? What would you add? How would you do that?
I am always looking for intellectual companionship and I’m finding that among the staff. I was also drawn to the younger staff when I lived in independent living.
It’s up to us to figure out how to nurture ourselves and make ourselves happy. No one else can do that for us. We must look within and find what resonates and make those choices.
My social worker here is trying to get me to participate more in group activities but I assure her that I have a strong group of stimulating friends and activities online. They all happen to be in their very active early 60’s.
We need to be true to ourselves. We need to honor what we have learned about ourselves, about what we are choosing and what inspires and motivates us. I am responsible for making choices that move me forward. As are you. Your life. Your choices. Your experience.
===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
My View
I sit alone and look out my window – at the same trees, the same view because I cannot leave here.
I sit alone and look out my window – at the same trees, the same view because I cannot leave here. I must build my inner world and cultivate my life experiences from deep within.
I sit alone and look out my window – at the same trees, the same view because I cannot leave here. I must build my inner world and cultivate my life experiences from deep within. What I do with that is up to me. I choose to go exploring. I still have life to do and work to do…
– Cara Lumen September 2023
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 Transformational Leaders
deepen our relationship with the Unseen World
and expand our role in the New Consciousness
Cara Lumen, explorer, spiritual philosopher, teacher, guide, leads us on a journey of self-awareness, spiritual expansion and impactful service. She helps us believe in our value, trust in our gifts, express our passion in a unique manner and build something meaningful around our wisdom and expertise. She helps us sing a deeper song.
Live in the nowhere that you came from,
even though you have an address here – Rumi
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