Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

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Keep Your Meditation Creative

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Keep Your Meditation Creative

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Sometimes we get so excited about new ways to meditate or concepts to contemplate or consider that we end up with this huge, bulky obligation that we then cease to do because it’s gotten too big. This is not about streamlining your meditation but it may very well be about changing it up periodically. You might choose to focus on one meditative practice more than another for a while in order to develop your skill and your experience of it.  I’ve had some breathing techniques I have frequently added and I have to watch it doesn’t make my meditation period too long. Perhaps I find a different place in my day that I practice breathing. 

I play my flute sometimes longer than others. I haven’t played my drums much recently. They are fun to do. I could have a whole separate drumming meditation. Like drumming down the sun. 

There are affirmations I used to say at my window altar that I have put off for a while. They are very nurturing strong affirmations. I would like them back in my life. 

So what do you do when you have so many ideas for your spiritual practice that you don’t do any of them? You get creative. You adjust. You modify. You may have a week of one focused type of practice to deepen it and also find the key components to include daily. 

You may have a few days in which you write affirmations on dissolvable paper and put them in water and watch that disappear. You may read a Tarot card for the week rather than one for each day. Do you see where I’m going with this? Have you by any chance overburdened your meditation practice with too much detail? 

The point of meditation is to quiet your mind and bring your attention inward and stay there for a while, allowing that stillness to heal and balance your body and your emotions and your mind. Even a pause for a period of consciously releasing exhales helps to bring you back to center. 

I have some songs I wrote that I play with my drum while looking out the window at nature. That could just be one form of meditation. I am learning more Qigong for self-healing and I might want to make a whole meditation using those practices. I have a singing bowl I haven’t used in a while. See how this goes? And let’s not even discuss the number of crystals that I have not held for quite a while. Those are deepening experiences unto themselves. It’s not a matter of routine, it is a matter of tuning into the moment, the day, the current need, to create a meditation segment that does what you need to have done in that moment. Do you need healing? Do you need centering? Do you need encouragement? What is the purpose of your meditation, the result you want, and what are the best forms of meditation to use?

I’m not doing nearly enough of my Transcendental Meditation. It doesn’t fit if I add in all these other things that I do. So I have to get creative.  New times. More sessions. Different days. Can you see where I’m going with this? Keep your meditation practice flexible and creative.  Create, experiment, explore, be flexible and notice what shifts. Keep your meditation practice fluid and responsive to your life.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION
I examine my meditation practice and find ways to make it more flexible.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • What are your favorite forms of meditation? Begin with one of those and perhaps do only that one in your meditation practice. Then move on to explore another one for a week or so until you deepen the practice and find what the results are.
  • Explore different times of day to do your meditation. I have one after I’m showered and am ready for my day but using meditation as a shift from a workday to an evening of personal time is a good place too. Create a flexible meditation practice.
  • Experiment with length. You’re not going to have a lengthy meditation every day so pick a length that works for you. 20 minutes was the recommended time for Transcendental Meditation. I don’t do that much.
  • Notice what forms of practice speak the most to you. I find my Qigong practices are very soothing. I would like to lengthen my TM practice. I would like to play my drums more frequently. Do the work and make your own meditation practice creative, individualized and perfect for you. 

===INNER WORK===
How to Help People You Don’t Like

I have a problem here. I know that I am supposed to send love and light to everyone but there are some people and situations and actions that are taking place in this world that I can’t bring myself to send light to.  Their deeds are too horrendous. And they are the situations that need it most. What do you do, what do I do when we see people expressing anger and hatred and evil and we’re supposed to send them light. How do we do that?

I have to back off from thinking in terms of individuals and individual actions and send wholing energy to the whole. Send peace to their hearts. In my cynicism I’m not sure it could get in. I can send energy to a situation, holding for the highest good for all of us. I only know to help a situation by sending light and holding my own vibration as high as I can manage. And hope they see it and recognize it in themselves. 

I am not to drop down into human emotions of anger or hatred. That hurts only me. It does not touch those I am focused on. Work on your own vibration. Work on elevating it. Work on keeping it the highest frequency you can manage. And keep on walking the high road. Make sure that your thoughts and your actions and your choices are all on the highest possible level you can manage. Stay on the high road. Shine your light. Show a different way. And know that others will see it. 

===SELF-HEALING===
Learn from the Past

Everything we’ve ever done has contained a lesson for us. Sometimes we get the lesson, sometimes we don’t. But if we pause to reflect and look at the overview of the path we have traversed, we will begin to see a pattern. A pattern of choices. A pattern of responses to those choices. I have a strong pattern of having written all my life starting in high school. I have a strong pattern of being interested in spirituality since my comparative religion class in college. Those are trails that have blazed their way through my life. Look to see what patterns you’ve been drawn to, what choices you have continued to make. And see if you like what you’re doing and where has taken you. Then see how you might change it to have a different outcome. Learn from the past. Use it to create your future. 

===OUTER  WORK===
Partner With the Univers

Letting the universe handle the perfect unfolding of our goals strengthens our confidence and reinforces our belief that anything is possible. We release our need to control and intentionally invite the universe to co-create the perfect outcome.

What are you forcing into being? What are you trying to rearrange that makes you go in the wrong direction? Are you listening? Are you observing the outcomes? Are you continually making positive choices?  

Slow down. See what you are creating in your life. Decide what you would like to create in your life. And partner with the universe to make it happen.

Have You Fulfilled Your Dream?

Did you have a dream as a young person? Gifts you wanted to expand? A path you thought you would follow? And did you do that?

Looking back, it wasn’t so much following a path as honoring my passions and interests in the moment. I did a very good job of that and there has been a pattern of flexible, spontaneous, in-the-moment choices. I seem to have a very strong need to share my discoveries and observations and lessons.  I do that in these newsletters.  But at the core of my path, I think it has been about being an explorer. An explorer of meditation, an explorer of yoga and Qigong and Tai Chi. An explorer of metaphysics. Always learning new concepts, always trying on something new to see how I like it or how I can adapt it to my life. There’s been a strong pattern of exploration. Underneath it may be the simple joy of learning. But as I have grown older, the calling has become a demand that I constantly explore something or learn something or share something or absorb something or apply something to my life. I am an explorer. Which also means I don’t stay with one thing for a particularly long time. I learn what I need and then build on that, rather than become extremely efficient at one particular step. Jack of all trades, master of none. Except in the broader sense of focusing on my spiritual practice.

Two friends in my life are entering into retirement and have the opportunity to structure an entire new 30 year path. It will be interesting to see what they keep and what they let go. 30 years is a long time. Do you know what you’ll move into when it’s time to retire, to stop working your regular job?  

Is there something you want to learn? Something you want to do? Someplace you want to go? What dreams do you still want to fulfill in this lifetime? Do that next.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

We are like musical notes in a cosmic orchestra. Each of us has our own tone and timber to contribute to the overall symphony. So on one hand we want to make sure we’re playing our tune right, and on the other hand, we want to make certain we are enhancing the entire symphonic piece. We wanna play our part right. We want to play our part well. And we want to support the collective effort as we do so.

So part of that work is how we think. The positive thoughts we hold, the positive expectations we have, the positive steps we take. All of those add to the uplifting of the all-encompassing energy. 

Another part of our path is our beliefs in what is possible. That light is fairly dim in the world right now. How do we counterbalance the negativity that is prevalent on so many levels today?

We are guardians of our own light. That’s our job. We are to hold our space with the highest level of awareness and expectation we can possibly manage. We must make our choices out of that centered, focused universal space.

What are you saying? What are you thinking? What are you doing? Make certain your choices are for the highest good of all. And keep holding a vision of oneness.

===HOW TO BE A STRONG CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF THE DIVERSE CIRCLE OF LIGHT BEINGs===
Let Your Light Shine

Does your inner light need polishing? Is it bright enough to change lives? Show others the way? To guide your own steps? We’re not on this path alone as humans, we are light beings working with the highest vibration that exists which is within all of us, to express ourselves in this life in a meaningful and impactful manner. That means we have to move deeply within ourselves to find out the gifts we are to share, the goals we are to achieve, the way we are to serve.

Is there some gift tucked away that you haven’t thought about for a long time that you would like to share? I’m thinking of something like a love of singing. Are you to sing in the choir, or a quartet or a choral group? I’ve done all of those things along the path of my life. How am I now expressing my love of singing? Get creative when it is time to reposition your gifts.

You never know when or how you will touch the lives of another person. One of the staff here who sweeps the halls on Thursdays told me that every time he hears me play my native flutes he stops and leans up against the wall and simply listens. I didn’t know that. I was just playing my flutes because I need and want to play my flutes.

I write in this newsletter because I need to figure things out and anchor them in my own life. And it is exciting to share what I discover. With you. I don’t always get feedback from you, but sometimes I do and that’s supportive and welcome and encouraging. I have to share in my excitement of what I discover. So you’re going to get this newsletter whether you write me back or not.

What gifts are you neglecting at this point in your life? If you used to be a runner and are kind of old, try walking. My fingers wouldn’t work on the piano anymore and my eyes are not able to read the music but I sure can tune into the classical music channel and hum along and remember melodies I know and listen more deeply. What kind of substitutes for a love or a gift or a talent are you making in your life now? And what gifts have you been neglecting? Do something about that. 

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===
The Eagle’s Eye

One of my earliest spirit guides is an eagle. His name is Sampson and in my journeys I get on his back and he takes me to see the overview. The beginning, middle, and end. The possibilities.  I can’t see them from my human life. So I get on his back and we go exploring to look for a new potentials, new possibilities, new insights. 

How do you keep an eye on the overview? How do you see it? How do you explore it? Are you constantly looking for new possibilities? Or are you sort of mired down in the detail of whatever you were doing? Keep your eye on the broader possibilities and potentials. Be like the eagle – soar high, look for and plan from the overview. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===
New Opportunities to Live Longer

Every day in science something new is discovered. Things that make us live longer. And better. And more productive. And new ways to extend our lives. It’s not easy to keep up with the dramatic changes.

I haven’t read this, but Brian Clark suggested this. “In the new book The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, the authors envision a scenario based on today’s current research and advances that has human aging reversed within the next 10 years — just as the eldest Gen Xers cross 65.”

“Which brings to mind some questions:

  • What’s your purpose that keeps you going?
  • What would you like to change going forward?
  • What do you want to do with the rest of your life?”

It may give us an opportunity and a need to rethink our potential and possibilities.

I find out about a lot of new discoveries by subscribing to Good News Network. 

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Expanding Awareness
The Vibration behind Your Beliefs

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

===CARA’S CORNER===
Do Something You Have Not Done For A While.

I have begun to play my skin drum again recently. And yet I am applying some of the techniques I learned when I learn to play my synthetic Remo drums. I’d like to say I made the skin drum. However, it was a workshop 30 years ago in which what I really did was weave the skin onto the frame. I had nothing to do with obtaining the deer skin or cutting it in a circle or poking holes around the edges of the rawhide. Nor did I make the round frame that it went in but with help, I wove the skin onto the frame to make my drum. And then I didn’t know what to do with it.

I bought a hide beater from the woman who held the workshop. When I started studying shamanism ten years ago, I began to play it more. I have created my own songs to the different directions. I just let them show up and evolve until they are what I want to sing. But I’ve been playing this drum with my hands in the manner I was more recently taught by Christine Stevens in her Shift Network classes. Funny how things come in cycles and you get to revisitg amd reexplore and refame an  experience. Interesting how we combine various phases of our life into the present moment.

What do you need to bring forth into your life today? I have so many crystals I have not held and talked to for a very long time. I have several shelves that have special items on them that could host many ceremonies if I chose to do so. What have you put aside that you want to revive? And when will you do it?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
My Drum Calls

My drum said, “Pick me up, play me, let me sing again.”

My drum said, “Pick me up, play me, let me sing again.” I lifted her into my hands, turned to look out at nature, and let her speak again.

My drum said, “Pick me up, play me, let me sing again.” I lifted her into my hands, turned to look out at nature, and let her speak again. I play better now. We talked for quite a while. It was good to get to know my friend again. We have both gotten better with age.

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.

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Trust Your Intuition – Follow Your Inner Voice

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Trust Your Intuition – Follow Your Inner Voice

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Our intuition is the first sign of our inner voice speaking up. It comes as a subtle feeling, an awareness and when we pay attention it opens up a new pathway.

Do you follow your hunches? Do you listen to your intuition? Check it out. See where it leads you. Test it to see how on target it is all the time. Learn to trust those subtle thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere.

I use my intuition to make choices. Sometimes it’s as simple as what I’m going to eat and other times it’s more complicated – like what I am going to write. And sometimes my inner voice talks so fast I can only sit here and dictate what it says into my computer. 

The more you listen to your inner voice, the louder and more clearly it speaks. When change is going to happen in my life I get a feeling, a hunch, an awareness. I don’t know what is going to happen, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, I just know that there is a change in progress.

So I keep listening and I keep considering and I keep exploring whatever shows up to see if that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. And then one day it’s totally clear. My next step is right there in front of me. My next project, my next pathway, my next offering, my next place of service. All right there as clear as day. My inner voice has spoken.

First, learn to listen and then learn to trust. Notice the hunches, notice the thoughts, and pay attention to the gradual unfolding process. If they unfold. When they unfold. How they unfold. Keep tuning in as things progress. Learn to trust your intuition. Follow your inner voice. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION
I explore my hunches, my nudges, my intuition as they appear in my life. I learn to trust them.
DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • Learn to pay attention to those random thoughts that are not actually random but are simply not noticed. Notice them, consider them, and see how they unfold. 
  • Listen, explore, and learn to trust.

===INNER WORK===
Do Not Second Guess the Future

It’s a natural tendency that when you get really old you start to think about how you might die. And you hope it doesn’t hurt. In fact, you very much hope it doesn’t hurt. But in a recent journey, I clearly got that it’s not time for me to consider that right now even though I am rather old. I am to get on the ball and do my work and make every day a meaningful and loving experience full of joy. I could keep really busy doing that. 

What are you anticipating with some dread and how is it sapping your energy and spoiling your present moment? Take life one day at a time. Savor it. Enjoy it. Do your best work in it. And expect the best!

I realize that I’m counting pretty heavily on this new self-healing Qigong class I’m taking to help me make changes in my body. But there are subtle changes for the good taking place even now. I just have to notice them and build on them and encourage the subtle changes.

For instance, it hurts very much to get up out of a chair. And I was beginning to sit there and rock back-and-forth in anticipation of the pain, which only makes it worse. And yes, it hurt to stand up. Then one day it didn’t. And I had to teach myself not to anticipate that it would. Do not anticipate, particularly in the negative. And if you can’t hold a vision of ease, at least hold a neutral space in which the action can unfold organically.

Remember that what you get is what you believe you deserve and what you believe can happen. So if I believe I can stand up easily and effortlessly that’s what I can create. That’s what I am creating. That’s what I have created. Stay positive and expect the best.

Come From Your Spiritual Center

It’s easier to get pulled off track – by a situation, by an interaction with a person, by something not working the way it is you want it to. Whatever shows up in your life, take a breath, pause to return to your spiritual center, and rebalance. That moment will change how you view what is unfolding and will also greatly focus and enhance the way you respond. Keep mindfully coming from your spiritual center.

===SELF-HEALING===
Don’t Give Up

I get discouraged sometimes when my body takes its own sweet time getting better because it hurts. And yet, there is progress.  Small steps in the alignment of my body. There is progress but it sure is slow.  I have to keep holding my vision of wholeness and give it time to evolve.  I get discouraged but I know I must keep focused on the successes. When you get discouraged, what do you do?

Create a Self-Healing Segment in Your Spiritual Practice – The Wide Reach of the Vagus Nerve
As I continue to take more and more responsibility for self-healing my body, I’ve begun to look at the meridians. I know very little about them and I want to learn. Somehow I’ve started with the vagus nerve and there are two ways that I’m really attracted to stimulating it. One is the Lower Dantian Breathing Technique with Grandmaster Chunyi Lin. I do this one many times a day.

The other practice I’m going to establish is to massage the vagus nerve manually. As part of my self-healing program, my intuitive healer friend Christina Gerber is going to teach me about the meridians. She says the vagus nerve runs the length of the body so Kegel exercises help the vagus nerve reset. Also, moving your tongue in your mouth side to side to reset it and massaging from your clavicle upwards along your neck to your temples front and back of the ear resets it.

The vagus nerve has a huge impact on mental and gut health. It’s known as the “wandering nerve” which encircles the digestive system, lungs, and heart and as a result, impacts nearly every part of the body. From immune to inflammatory response, to fight or flight, the vagus nerve plays a major role. As a result, stimulation of the vagus nerve is important for both physical and mental health. 

Keep adding self-healing techniques to your spiritual practice. You and your body deserve it.

Imbalance as a Lesson

If I work to heal various parts of my body, I am very aware that the imbalance that I experience is meant to be a lesson for me. A lesson of correction. A lesson of self-healing. Perhaps even the doorway to an entirely new path.

It’s not my favorite way to get a lesson. But there are messages in any imbalance and an opportunity for you to create change in your life. 

Along with my hip adjustment, my dry macular degeneration is also a lesson that is kicking in. Something for me to heal. Even though there is nothing Western medicine can do about it. I know the acupressure points around my eyes and massage them every day. I know I will learn more ways to help it in my Qigong self-healing class, and I look up exercises for the eyes online and go exploring. What prompts me to keep exploring is the belief that my health, my well-being, my self-responsibility and my choice of actions can create positive change. If I don’t, I sit here and just let stuff happen to me. And I’m a victim of this whole aging process. I’m not gonna do that. I keep adding self-healing practices to my self-care. I am taking a course on Qigong self-healing. And I am putting specific self-healing segments into my day so that I consciously stop and pay attention to these areas of my body and life that need to have adjustments made. And I get to work on it with my own energy and my own intention. Don’t just accept an imbalance in your life. Do some research, choose the steps that call to you and do them. Take responsibility for self-healing and expand your spiritual practice to include a regular self-healing time. Pay attention to the results and adjust your self-healing practice as those results unfold. How is your self-healing practice shaping up?

===OUTER  WORK===
How Do You Make Your Choices?

Some people make their choices based on an in-the-moment response and their instinct. Other people spend a lot of time weighing and considering what their options are and where they might lead. Where are you on the spectrum?

The choice of what to eat might be made out of instinct in the moment. Many of the things I write about come in the moment. I find a couple of words or a phrase that calls for explaining and I sit down and write about them. It happens pretty fast actually. I’m not one to spend a lot of time considering the options but perhaps I should be. How do you make your decisions? How do you find the balance between logic and emotion? Or do you?

It’s fine to make a choice between what kind of cookie you want to eat but you need to take a little longer when you’re making a choice between some major change in your life. We do need to consider options. At the same time, we don’t want to overthink them and make ourselves not do anything because we’ve got too many things going on in our minds. How do you find that balance between what your heart wants, what your instinct says to do, and what your mind says is a reasonable and logical step to take? It may depend on your personality and it may depend on the type of decision you’re making.

I write in the newsletter all the time. I find an idea and I write about it and put it in the newsletter draft. However, when I review it, I can just as easily take it out depending on what else I have written that week.

Noticing results is one indication of how your choices are working out. For instance, I had some fairly obvious body responses to some Qigong moves I started doing. So I continue their practice and increase the frequency I do them. That choice was made from the observation of a result.

Some of your choices will depend on how much you trust your inner voice. How much do you trust it to be on target for you? I knew in an instant that I was going to leave Kansas City and go to New York City. No questioning, no wondering how it’s going to happen, not even concerned about what that meant when I got there. It was just instinctual I knew I was going to do it. That sudden, instant knowing decision came two more major times in my life – when I moved from New York to California and when I moved from California to Kansas City.  In each of those huge decision-making moments there was no questioning, only a complete knowing it was what I was to do next. 

In looking over my life I’m pretty much an in-the-moment let’s-do-it person. That’s not necessarily a good thing. Sometimes examining the options might’ve been a better choice. But these were all wonderful moves.

How do you make your choices? Do you lean too much towards deep analysis or do you instinctively and intuitively jump on anything that calls to you? Both are extreme responses. Find balance in how you make your decisions. Whatever that looks like to you.

Adjust as the Situation Changes

I’m having a hard time playing my native flutes. Some of the tones are not clear. My fingers feel like they cover the holes on the flute correctly. But then I noticed the end joint on some of my fingers are being bent to one side by arthritis. So even though I feel like I am still bringing my fingers straight down to cover the hole, in actuality the ends of some of my fingers are not covering the hole completely to make the pure tone. That’s disturbing and I’m not sure what I do with those jauntily curved fingers but I am learning to adjust my fingering now that I know why the unclear notes are occurring. It is easier to play my wider double flute than the round single flute.

What physical changes have come up in your life? Make adjustments in order to continue forward. Stay flexible and creative and keep going…

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===
Add Music to Deepen Your Meditation

I play music as part of my daily meditation.  My native flutes for certain but I get a lot of pleasure from myKalimba Thumb Piano. It is soothing and easy to play.  It is also an inexpensive addition to your meditation practice.

The Kalimba is an African musical instrument consisting of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs. Here’s what it sounds like: Kiss the Rain

It is believed that the thumb piano was invented twice in Africa; one version originating on the west coast using wooden or bamboo tines around 3000 years ago, and the other version originating on the southeast coast using metal tines around 1300 years ago.

It can be a solo instrument or as an accompaniment to singers, musicians and dancers. I use it for meditation and my cat, Sebastian, is particularly fond of its sound. Here’s the one I have Kalimba Thumb Piano

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

I’m trying to stay balanced between me and the bravery and the horror stories of the Ukraine while keeping my spiritual focus on the higher vibration that embraces all of us. I’m not always successful.

I wish I had an attention thermometer. It would help me stay on track. It would make me notice when I was focusing too much on the physical plane and need to go spend more time on the spiritual plane. I just have to teach myself to recognize that in myself. I could listen to less news and spend more time reading books and looking at videos that help me raise my own vibration. What kind of balance are you maintaining in your life and how do you need to change it?

===BROADEN YOUR HORIZON – EXPAND YOUR VIEW===
Self-Healing

I started my Qigong class on self-healing this week. And it certainly is an interesting concept to know that you are responsible for what your body presents to you in wellness or sickness. And it is through energy, because we’re all energy, that we can change how it is manifesting. That’s really neat, and it’s also a very sobering responsibility. I don’t want to blame myself for what’s going on in my body because I know in fact it’s a healing of a past life experience because that’s where it started- in a healing session around a past life experience. I have to look closely at this very subtle change toward wholeness that has recently taken place. And trust that more signals and results will follow. Because I am the guy responsible for getting well, I have to stay open to the nudges and clarification that comes with what I am to do. I’m getting results.

When you undertake a self-healing process or self-correcting process, keep track of the steps you take and the results that occur when you do. I have two simple breathing exercises that have begun to make more shifts in my body. Look at what you do and look at what happens when you do it. Then adjust. 

I’m probably gonna take a second Qigong class about ceating longevity because as an old person Qigong seems to be a very powerful way to change and support my physical body. Keep exploring, keep practicing, keep changing.

I’m taking Heal Yourself & Others With the Power of Qigong and the class I will probably take is Live Long QiGong with Robert Peng. Here’s a free online event with him: Premiere: Saturday, April 16, 10:00AM (PDT) 
Encore: Tuesday, April 19, 12:00PM (PDT)

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===
Why Are We In Each Other’s Lives?

How did you find me? Why are you reading this? Why am I writing this? We are in each other’s lives for a reason. Do we know what it is? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Trust the fact that we are connected.

Why are certain people in your life? What gifts are you giving each other? What lessons are you offering each other? Sometimes the exchanges are uncomfortable. And sometimes they are full of joy. Know that with every interaction with any individual there is a gift exchange involved. You give something to them. They give something to you. Be aware of this lovely gift exchange.

Why are we walking this part of the path together   I’m glad we are.

===THE UNFOLDING DIVINE FEMININE===
A Dramatic End of an Era

The era of the old white male is coming to an end and they are fighting like a flounder on a hook. The very worst of male dominance is in evidence in our world today. A stark contrast was given with the hearings to install Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court of the US. The bullying techniques exhibited by some of the white male members of the senate were reminiscent of high school bullies. Those insecure people who had to pick on the people they see as stronger and potentially more powerful than they are. Do you know any of those?

And this lovely, gracious, extremely smart, extremely well-educated woman, who happens to be black, sat there with grace and integrity and patience with the bullying and childlike actions of the men who were theoretically there to infirm her. 

Could you do that? As a smart, educated, proven professional woman could you and would you sit there and let anyone try to bully you? She has to in order to gain the position she is so overqualified for. I would’ve lost the job because I would’ve had something to say about their behavior. But then I’m white and she’s black and she’s smarter than I am. She just stayed calm and centered and polite and the belligerent senators were taking the their last gasp at trying to feel relevant. 

Are you experienced enough and confident enough to know your own worth? So that no one and no circumstance can rattle you and make you move off of that focused centered position? I may have to practice that. 

Know your own worth, believe in your own value and trust that knowledge. 

I wonder what the world will be like when the Divine Feminine sets the tone. 

My Two Favorite Books

There are two foundational books that always strengthen my spiritual awareness when I read them. One is The Prophet by Khalil Gibran which I discovered in my 30s and actually provided me with the name of my current business.

On the last page. in the next to the last paragraph, it says, “And I shall return and you will sing to me a deeper song.” I caught my breath because I knew I wanted to sing my deeper song. And so I am. And so are you.

The Tao Te Ching is the other book that is foundational for me. I like the Stephen Mitchell translation the best. It is so much about how to live a spiritual life, a mindful life. I have read them both many times. Do you have a life-changing book that you return to throughout your life? If so what is it? Is it time to read it again?  

===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEPER SONG PODCAST===
Spiritual Practice
How too Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner work
Listen to my 
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify / Google
and the Deeper Song Website
==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===
Save The Animals

Spring is the time of year I take time to donate to organizations that help save animals: World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy,Sierra Club– whatever way you want to support the nurturing and growth of nature.  

===CARA’S CORNER===
When You Are Ready the Answer Will Appear

I’m into self-healing. My collection of skills is expanding. My holistic friends offer me insights and skills of their own to add to my own physical growth practice.

When you make a major shift the key is to keep an eye out for the results it produces. Or doesn’t produce. I am feeling shifts in my body and it still hurts. So I will continue to explore additional options to help it rebalance.

Part of allowing change is to realize the changes to be made. I’m getting extra help on the physical plane as my son-in-law drives over to take out the trash which was becoming quite a challenge for me. My dry macular degeneration is kicking in and I have to get creative working around that too.  I’m not sure how that’s going to work and look like. What kind of adjustments are you making in your life to accommodate the changes that are showing up? Do you want those changes? How do you want them to unfold? Do you have a great deal of choice in the outcome? Get to work.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===
My Work

I am the only one who can fix this. I’m the only one who can make change. I’m the only one.

I am the only one who can fix this. I’m the only one who can make change. I’m the only one. I explore, I experiment, I make choices, and I do the work.

I am the only one who can fix this. I’m the only one who can make change. I’m theonly one. I explore, I experiment, I make choices, and I do the work. I keep exploring and experimenting and change keeps happening.

Cara Lumen, March 2022

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

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!

Weekly Deeper Song Newsletter Subscribe at  www.deepersong.com

Find Your Own Voice

By

Find Your Own Voice

Living Our Deeper Song

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

This is a time of searching. This is a time of exploration. This is a time of questioning. Most of all, this is a time for choosing. It is time to find your own voice. It will be a new voice. It will be a different voice. It may be an unexpected voice. It will be a stronger voice. It will be based on the dramatically changing needs of the world today, the calling of your heart, and the most impactful and far-reaching use of your gifts. It may be a professional job. It may be a volunteer position. You may step out on your own. It may be a service within the confines of your group of friends. But your role will change. And much will change because of it.

Find your voice by noticing why people are drawn to you. What do they seek from you? What do they ask of you? How has that changed recently?  What is your new unfolding vision for yourself and for our planet? What do you believe is possible? How do you see your own role evolving?

Notice how your beliefs and expectations may have changed. Notice what new strengths you have developed in response to the emerging Divine Feminine and the violent reaction of the Divine Masculine who is lashing out in all directions. We must keep our center. We must keep our focus. And most of all we must continue to choose for the highest good for all. Or at the very least the highest good for the most people.

Let your new role unfold. Be patient. But be curious. Go exploring. Try on different versions of similar paths. Or try a whole new path all together. Find your voice. It is needed. Make it a strong voice placed deeply in service for the well-being of all.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I step into the passionate calling of my new voice

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Close your eyes and listen with  your heart.  What circumstance, situation on earth calls most to you?  
  • Give some thought to how you might serve that calling.  
  • Go exploring and find your new voice. 

===INNER WORK===

Being Light

How can you simply “be” light? How do you walk through your day as a Light Being? You do it with intention. You do it with an awareness of yourself as a spiritual being, cosmic consciousness itself. You are essence in a physical body. It is an essence of the highest vibration. That’s who we are. If you know yourself to be light, how does it change what you do and how you do it? 

I will move into a gathering with more awareness of the collective consciousness. I will give gratitude to my human form and for the many ways it allows me to participate in this life. I will give gratitude for my mind which is part of who I am, a favorite part granted, but just part of me. Since our consciousness creates how we express ourselves, I will listen to my consciousness. I will support her in staying on the high road and seeing the highest good for all, for being present and not just reacting, but for responding with compassionate inclusion. This inner work is constant. It’s about being continuously aware. Aware of what you are thinking. Aware of what you are doing. Be aware of the nudges of the universe and what you are to do with them. Move through your day with awareness and let Spirit guide you.

===SELF-HEALING===

The Power of Encouragement

I was practically cheering as I walked down the hall to get the mail. My body is doing such a fabulous job of self-healing and the results are encouraging and rewarding. Which do you notice – what is working or what is not?

Focus on the wins and build on them.  

===OUTER  WORRK===

Focused Action

As both men and women search to find our new role in the unfolding Sacred Feminine, we will have to try out a variety of roles. Some of them are roles that have not even been invented yet. So we have to keep listening to our inner voice and turn to the world and try to place  ourselves in new roles in unfamiliar and rapidly unfolding situations, finding unexpected but much-needed evolving places of service.

So many new ways to do things are being discovered daily that we need to stay alert to what is calling us, what is appropriate for us, what is next for us, what is possible. And then we go exploring to see where it leads us. How does our heart feel? What are our goals? What are our accomplishments? Are our choices accomplishing what we want to get done? Are we going in a positive direction?

Take an action, focus in on a situation, and adjust according to the response  you get.  Stay flexible.  Do the work. 

Find Your Natural Rhythm

We get so caught up in schedules and appointments and obligations that we forget to establish our own natural rhythm. When do you do your best work? Are you a morning person? A night person? Do you work in strong bursts and then change pace for a while? Or are you a strong, steady type? Those are all valid ways to work which may not be allowed in the way we structure our life and work. It is helpful to know your natural rhythm and find ways to honor it.

I’m super creative in the morning. So whatever writing or creating I’m going to do is worked on then. Sometimes I find study is a good use of my energy in the afternoon. Take time to notice your natural rhythms and see how you can adjust your day to accommodate them.

Bring Nature Into Your Life

I have been known to have twigs and leaves and acorns in an arrangement in my home.  My windows are lined with plants with colorful leaves. I have sun catchers in my window rather than shades so I can easily look out and be with the flow of nature.  How do you bring nature into your environment?

My meditation chair faces a window so I can be with nature during that time of contemplation. I play my flutes to the new day.  I play my flutes to the sunset.

My Qigong practice begins by bringing energy up from Gaia and down from Cosmic Consciousness.  I pause as I move through my day to look out at nature to see what she’s sharing with me, what mood she is in, what messages she has.  

How do you live with the unfolding cycles of nature?

What Are Your Options?

There is always more than one choice. There is always more than one way around a problem. What are your options? Do you simply stop and stare at a blockage in your life and not move forward without looking around for different ways to get around it? Over, above, around – all are approaches that offer different options. Is it really a problem or is it actually an incredible opportunity that asks you to rise to the occasion and give more of yourself than you have before? It is an opportunity to grow. There are always options. Do it. Don’t do it. Partially do it. Give it to someone else to do. Consider your options and expand your expectations before you move forward.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Cultivate Your Inner Voice

It takes time to cultivate the interpretation of your Inner Voice. Mine sometimes shouts at me. Other times it is a nudge so slight that if I’m not paying attention, I will miss it. Sometimes I reject what the inner voice says because it doesn’t feel like it’s the right time. But usually, it is. My Inner Voice has so many good ideas that it often makes me stop what I am doing and go act on the idea. 

Learn to trust your inner voice. Learn to ask your inner voice for guidance. And listen closely to the very soft nudges it brings to you throughout the day. 

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

Continue Working On Your Own Evolution

We are being called to set aside who we are, what we know, and where we think we’re going because our world is dramatically changing. It clears out the old and births the new. We have to stay flexible. We have to evolve. We have to chart a new path. We have to explore and make new choices. This is a time of major change.

The question I’m asking myself a lot is what I am to do now? What is needed from me now? Where will I have the most impact?  How can I be the most useful?

What’s coming up for me is based on my natural curiosity about the unfolding feminine and the form she is evolving into. 

I also intend to go with the flow. I will not plan so far ahead that I cannot make an instant course correction when a new insight shows up or a new opportunity comes to me. I will not lock myself into a long-term plan for now, I think there’s too much change going on.

You can’t rush change. You can’t rush recognition of new possibilities. But you can teach yourself to be aware and observant and thoughtful. As this unfolding continues, you will find criteria to use as a measuring stick. You will also find things that are so exciting, it will blow your mind because you never thought that would be possible in your lifetime. The idea that you would be able to do it opens realms of new possibilities. Let your imagination soar.  Go exploring.  Make new choice.  Create new expectations for what is possible.

I’m not sure what staying flexible does for year-long plans or objectives or goals like we used to do. I think we might have to take it project by project. Perhaps even moment by moment. A project could be completed in any length of time that will make it usable and we will find out what change that leads to, what it evolves into. Continue work on your own evolution and enjoy the unfolding opportunities that present themselves. 

Reach Out

 I cherish my online friends.  I talk to them at regular intervals and we support each other on our respective journeys. Each friend seems to address a different area of interest of mine and it is very supportive to be able to have regular conversations with people who are walking a similar path and exploring in a similar direction at a similar level. We do not share all parts of our paths, but we support each other on the part of the path we share. 

Perhaps you make the first connection. Reach out and make arrangements to have a conversation on Zoom with someone you would like to know better. Or begin with an email exchange. The more specialized your area of interest, the trickier it is to find someone interested at the same level you are. The more advanced you get, the more you need advanced people in that area to share your journey with. Reach out. Arrange a monthly call and see how you can support each other.

How will you begin to build your far-reaching online community of friends?

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

Expectation

As I watch the challenges in the US, I have a choice – I can worry or I can raise my expectation of what is possible. I’m going to do the latter. So even though the answer, the next move, the solutions are not yet obvious, I’m going to trust that the solution for the highest good for all will emerge and prevail. What do you expect is possible? Raise your expectations and you will invite in higher energy.

Understand Your Process

How do you learn?  What process do you go through to make your observations?  What are the criteria for your choices? 

I’m an over-view person.  I see the potential and its variations very rapidly.  I do not remember detail very readily.

I have a friend who remembers detail forever.  She weaves it into lovely patterns of understanding.  Both of those learning styles are gifts. 

Give some thought to how you learn, how you make choices, how you choose your action steps.  Once you understand your pattern you can create a methodology to evolve an effective deepening process for your decisions. 

However you make decisions is perfect for  you but understand how  you work and figure out how to utilize those preferences. 

Change and Possibilities

Because change is happening so rapidly around us, we have to keep looking for the new possibilities that are emerging. They may be in a form that we recognize. They may not. They may be ours to do. They may not. I think we are entering a stage where we need to question everything we do because there’s going to be an alternative way to do it. Solar panels came to mind. 3-D printing of houses come to mind. Elimination of plastic come to mind. These are huge changes in how we used to do things. Keep learning. Pay attention to what is new and available. And keep questioning your choices so that you can keep building and finding new ways to do everything and anything.

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Creator Economy

Brian Clark says this is a creator economy.  There are so many platforms that give us access to people all over the world that our business goals can and need to be global.  This includes coating, teaching, designing, marketing, technical development, and reaching a worldwide audience.   Brian says, “It’s an amazing time to be a creative entrepreneur and build your personal enterprise.”

Look imaginatively at the unfolding needs that you can now identify in the world and find innovative ways to fill that need.  This is a period of creativity and originality. Enjoy. 

======THE UNFOLDING DIVINE FEMININE=== ===

Establishing New Feminine Qualities

This has been such a male-dominated world that there are no Divine Feminine examples for us to copy. We only have the masculine view of the world. But that is changing.  So what do you see as the new, unfolding feminine qualities? I see independence. The Divine Feminine walks her own path in her own way in her own time. She has confidence and she is strong and she is very, very, very attuned to the guidance of her inner voice. She is so strong that she does not need support. She may choose to partner with someone in order to increase that strength or expand the possibilities. But she really prefers to walk alone. Independent. Wise. Inquisitive. Smart. Feminine is all of those. If you don’t believe that, you are still listening to the male-dominated world. And you have some choices to make. There are probably some beliefs to change. Forget what is out there right now like unequal work opportunities and unequal pay. And especially look out for the unequal expectations – by others and by ourselves. Each of us, both male and female are evolving into this new feminine. Men and women both have to change their beliefs in what is possible for women to do. 

How do we do that? We notice what calls us and we go exploring and keep a lookout for any of those restrictive feminine role clichés that are bound to show up. 

There are many ways to approach a situation. If I wanted to help fight fires but am  a small sized woman, not a big strong man, I have to perhaps create a role for myself in that profession. I may be the pilot to spot the new fire path and report back. I may create a new tool for fighting fires. I may develop a new conservation technique that prevents forest fires or reseeds forests. There are many ways to participate in helping a cause. We have to learn to think beyond anything we’ve imagined before because the opportunities are different and the tools are different. Be clever. Be creative. Be innovative. Create your own version of being in the Divine Feminine in this unfolding time.

=== DEEPER SONG  PHILOSOPHIES ===

Look Within

My strongest guiding philosophy is to keep looking within. I love my inner voice. I love that the more I listen the louder she speaks. And when I listen, I discover new opportunities, new paths, new possibilities. Are you listening to your inner voice? She is showing you the way.

===INTENTION BLESSING===

May we hear and heed the call of the Divine Feminine. 

May we expand our hearts and our expectations.

May we walk the Path of Light with a sure foot. 

May we keep our gaze on the summit.

May we take this journey with a full heart. 

I entwine my light with yours and we move forward to guide the way.

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

Just read this about aging from Brian Clark 

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

Spiritual Practice

The Magical Power of an Affirmation

Self Healing

A Transformative Clearing Process

Expanding Awareness

New Consciousness – New State of Being  

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

===CARA’S CORNER===

Pass It Forward

I have been collecting crystals for 50 years.  This week I passed along my crystal jewelry collection, with the exception of one labradorite necklace I wear, to my daughter, Cathy.  I was surprised to find that I felt relief the next day. I had made some of the jewelry in a jewelry-making class in New York City and I got to point those out to her.  One rutilated quartz necklace had been shouting at me for days that she wanted to go be with Cathy now.  It’s interesting how rocks can talk, can make their wishes and their needs and their gifts known.  We just have to listen.  

What do you need to pass forward?  What do you need to let go?  I still have a huge number of crystals but I found a group who were ready to move on to help Cathy deepen her spiritual practice.  

There is a time for everything. Sometimes that time is to stay and sometimes it is time to let go. 

What do you need to pass forward?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Letting Go

I let go.  It was time. 

I let go.  It was time. What I released was needed elsewhere. And it made room for me to bring in the new. Or expand what I kept. 

I let go.  It was time. What I released was needed elsewhere. And it made room for me to bring in the new. Or expand what I kept. Now there is room to grow.

Cara Lumen, January 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!

Understand Your Role

By

Understand Your Role

Living Your Deeper Song

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

I’m a start-up gal.  I love to explore and identify ideas and use them in unusual ways.  I’m not always much of a completer but I’m definitely an originator.  It is important to know your calling and honor it as your special gift. 

Some of this I came to understand by studying the enneagram.  There are boss types and creative types and worker bee types.  Some people thrive on being in service to others.  It’s important to know your own preferences and honor them. 

If I insist on being strongly creative, then I probably need to find someone else to do the technical work of editing my podcasts.  If I love to strategize, I may best be in service by stepping in at various stages along the path of a project to help organize some ideas and structure them for action, a getting-projects-unstuck sort of person.

Know your role.  Know your gifts and let those guide your path.  

You may fill different roles in different situations.  I usually instinctively and organically step in to organize – whatever it is.  I also always want to write publicity or explanations or guidebooks.  I use my writing to focus thoughts    – including my own.

Look back over your life and notice the most rewarding, fulfilling experiences you have had.  What was your role?  How rewarding was it?  How would you adapt what you are doing today to make it more rewarding? 

Sometimes we get in a rut in playing our favorite roles.  Part of it comes from people calling on us to do what we are good at.  Other times we are so good at performing a function that it simply is usually our job to do. 

Go exploring.  Move outside of your comfort zone.  I’m not a particularly good artist, but I have taken art classes and I have a good time making line drawings of some of my journeys.  I have studied music and sung in many choral groups – now my musical expression is through native flutes and drums for my own enjoyment. Your gifts will evolve over the years.  Your talent will be applied to a variety of formats.  Go exploring.  

Notice what has evolved as a new opportunity for you.  Podcasts are a natural for someone like me who has two degrees in theater and was television talent. I have been a professional copywriter and a Content Development Coach. Now I get to write what I want to in my own newsletter.  

Your gifts will evolve. Where you apply them will unfold.  Go exploring.  Learn to use your gifts in new ways and see where it leads you. It’s not enough to simply understand your role, it is important to choose your role to fit where you are in your life path today. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I look at my path of the past and my path of today and bring forward the best in myself.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Look for new ways to apply the gifts you have been given.  
  • What new roles are opening up into unexpected ways that the unfolding world is calling to you?

===INNER WORK===

How to Overcome Fear

I am writing about how to overcome fear to figure it out because I don’t have an answer.  My legs hurt a LOT when I get up from a chair.  I think it is because my structure is shifting, but it hurts and now I experience fear and apprehension before I stand up which simply makes it a worse experience. 

What do you do when you anticipate pain?  How can you change that fear? Anticipation can be numbing. 

Do you go into circumstances expecting the worst?  Do you picture all sorts of devastating scenarios before you move into a situation?  It’s really hard to keep a positive thought when your past experience has been painful.   

I send Reiki to my hips before I stand.  I center and take a calming breath before I stand – so I can stop the anticipation of pain that I expect at the move I am planning to make.  I need to focus on what I do that feels aligned. But boy, negative anticipation can really stop you cold. 

I don’t have an answer. As the pain stopped happening the fear went away. If you continually experience something negative you come to expect it. You anticipate it.  You fear it.  You tense up and make the experience even more extreme than it actually is.  

The next day I was able to stand up with less pain and the fear and apprehension begin to dissolve. How do you stop anticipating the worst?

I don’t have an answer for this.  Only the problem.  And the negative anticipation makes the experience worse.

 
What are you anticipating in your life that needs to be shifted? How will you do that?

Solitude

The centered awareness of being in your Still Point. Your complete immersion in the heartbeat of nature.  Losing your sense of self in the expression of music.  A quiet mind that makes room for deeper awareness. How do you find solitude?  How do you create stillness? 

Solitude is replenishing. It is restorative. It is revealing. You can be in solitude alone and you can feel alone in a crowd. Create moments of contemplative thought throughout each day.  Take a releasing breath.  Gaze out into nature. Allow for the deep absorption of the energy around you.  Be aware.  Take time to be alone. Find your Still Point and reside there.

===OUTER  WORK===

Forgive  Yourself

Looking back over my long life, there are some less than stellar choices that I made along the line. But I also know I made them in the moment from what I knew and understood and felt and experienced. So yes, they were somewhat unaware choices. Perhaps unaware of the long-term effect. Perhaps unaware of the immediate effect. I simply was not aware. And what’s true of you is true of others. People who hurt you or added negativity to your life were probably doing it out of simply being unaware of certain circumstances at the time. Everyone needs forgiveness for the past. Just let go and leave behind your less-than-stellar choices and actions so you can move forward. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Let go. And move on.

When You Are ready the Answer Will Appear

I’m reading a book that is rich and deep and is exactly what I need to learn right now. Don’t you love it with the right information shows up in a form you are eager to accept?  And I have another book I will read next that will be equally expanding.  

So what do you do with new information?  In my process of absorbing an idea I write about it – here and in podcasts. That’s one way I figure things out.  Then I find creative ways to apply the concepts and experiment with them and adjust my actions as I get results. 

How do you explore a new idea?  Where do you find your transformative ideas?  Keep looking. Keep exploring and experimenting.

Goals and Your Progress

I have completed three months of physical therapy and next week I meet with my therapist to outline what I want to accomplish in the next three months.  This is interesting because setting these goals depends on how my body responds.  It is not like setting a goal I know I can accomplish. I’m not going to aim for walking to the end of the parking lot driveway.  I will aim for quality – standing tall, everything working smoothly and in coordination, and providing the foundation upon which to build up stamina.  

There, I found it – my goal is to strengthen my foundation – the strength and stamina, and flexibility that I can build upon.  

As you begin to consider goals for the coming year, how strong is the foundation you are building to stand on?  And what beliefs do you need to change in order to know that what you imagine is possible?

Lift your gaze.  And your expectation of what is possible.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Recognize the Positive

Our thoughts can be positive or they can pull us down with their negativity. As you move through your day, notice the direction of your thoughts. Notice how much encouragement you give yourself. Notice how much discouragement you give yourself. And make some changes.  Look at what you have created and focus on those manifestations that truly represent the progress you choose to make. Pat yourself on the back for that. Release the less than stellar choices as experiments that you learned from.  Learn from your mistakes and move on. 

Self-Sufficiency Training

I journeyed to find out what I need to actively do to help my body, to restore its stamina and flexibility. The message was, “This is a form of self-sufficiency training. How much are you willing to do to strengthen your body and help it restore to some semblance of stronger usefulness?”

Do the work.  We have to do the work.  We can’t just sit and hope, we have to take action steps.  We need to be conscious of our choices. We need to structure our personal progress so we explore, develop and mindfully choose what we need to know and accomplish next.  Create your personal well-being program, your own self-sufficiency training.  What does that look like for you?

===DISCOVERIES ===

There’s a once-in-a-lifetime astrological event happening in 2022…The United States of America’s Pluto Return.

This means that Pluto is returning to the exact point it was when the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776…

And it only happens once every 225 years! There is a seminar here on November 12: Astrology Hub

===MY DEEPER SONG  ADVENTURES ===

Listen to the wind. It talks.

Listen to the silence. It speaks.

Listen to your heart. It knows.
– Native American Proverb

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Shine Your Light in the Corners

Those of us who are called are to not only raise our sights but also focus on shining our light of Consciousness Awareness in all the corners.  How do we do that?  

My version begins with looking for and identifying those who are working in light, who are walking the planet in an ever-deepening place of service. When you identify them, step up and walk beside them for a while. We support each other, we encourage each other, we learn for each other, we inspire and motivate each other. We teach each other. And perhaps we even protect each other. 

Be responsible for your own path.  Make conscious choices.  Takes conscious steps.  Lift your gaze.  

Keep walking upward on your path.  Keep listening to the encouragement you receive and notice where it comes from. 

In this continuing flow of  change, we must keep choosing – we must keep choosing light, we must keep choosing awareness we must keep choosing Cosmic Consciousness. We must choose it each day, consciously, with curiosity and determination as we search for the lessons and guidance to move us into a positive, inclusive, cosmic future. 

Shine a light in the corner of your life and take heart with what you find.  The corners are full of unexpected gifts to help you move purposefully along your path.

Do You Follow Your Insights?

It sometimes takes time to trust that inner voice,  your intuition, those hunches that seem to show up out of nowhere. But they are you talking to you. They are your inner voice, your inner wisdom, your inner guidance offering you nudges here in the human world. Pay attention. At least consider them. Perhaps explore them a bit to see how they unfold. Let your hunches direct you as those insights take you adventuring. You’ll be surprised where you end up.

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

Spiritual Practice

Journey to a Chamber of the Seven Sacred Rays

Your Role as a Visionary Harp

Self Healing

The Backpack Journey

Simply Being  – The Art of Wu Wei

Expanding Awareness

Your Role as a Visionary Harp

Our Destiny and Self Responsibility

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

===OUR UNFOLDING ROLE===

Your Soul’s Purpose

I turn 89 this month which means I have a lot of life to look back over to see what my soul’s purpose has been and still is. Some of the themes are evident, the curiosity, the creativity, the writing, with the common thread of spiritual searching. My path has held consistent themes. 

Finding your purpose is not always easy. You must embrace life wholeheartedly, explore many different pathways, and allow yourself to grow. Your purpose is as unique as you are and will evolve as you move through life.

Purpose is what excites  you.  It is what fills you with satisfaction. It’s what drives you. Can you identify your soul’s purpose? 

Jump Time

What appears to be chaos is actually opportunity. It is jump time. Time for us to take giant steps, leaps of faith, and trust that we will discard what is no longer needed and encourage what is beneficial for this next unfolding. So the old habits, the outdated thought patterns, the no-longer useful beliefs are dying and they are not happy about it. But they are no longer needed. They are to be rapidly replaced with a sense of world community that makes us care for each other, support each other, walk strongly beside each other. No wonder some people are really grouchy at this change. It goes against the grain. It makes their perspective outdated and wrong and not useful.

This is a giant jump we are taking. There’s new technology. New urgency. And those of us who are moving forward must let go of what is no longer working, what no longer serves us, what no longer serves others. It’s it is if we’re about to step out of a warm shower and choose a fresh wardrobe for the day. How do we want to craft our life? How do we want to shape our exchanges with others? All of life comes from our inner world. It comes from our beliefs and intentions and expectations. So we can actually sit quietly and make stuff up. We can visualize people living in harmony. In collaboration. And peace. We can learn to feel the experience of inclusion. And look for it and bring more of it into our day. We are jumping into the future with every choice we make. Make sure they are conscious choices.

Who are you becoming?

===CARA’S CORNER===

I Am Moving into the Cosmos to Do My Work

Here’s another of my shamanic journeys: 

Question: I have turned onto a new path.  What guidance can you give me? 

Journey: I am walking beside the male hiker guide that I met in my last journey. He whistles and walks jaunty down the path. I walk without my walker beside him. I don’t walk jauntily but I am waking strongly. 

Are you going to show me my path? I ask. He grins and takes a larger step. I follow. Suddenly we are in a circle from which emerges nine paths. There is no straightforward path, there is a choice to be made. And that choice will make all the difference. I want to go to the cosmos they say. Seven of the paths turn into one of the seven sacred rays. I do not want to choose a path of an individual ray I say. I want a higher path. The golden path. A higher path. My guide and I rise three feet off the ground. Angel With The Golden Wings comes down and takes my hand and off we go. We fly even past the Void into the Cosmic Consciousness. There is a humming there. Because those who are there are busy. They are imagining and creating scenarios in the air and they are helping others. I get to work. Suddenly I am in a long golden robe and I’m in the Circle of Light Beings. We have our Individual Harps playing a  song that is very intertwined. “This is one place I serve,” I say. Angel With The Golden Wings nods in agreement. “You need to get to the book on the biofields,” says my guide, my Male Hiker. That will give you some tools to begin to do deeper work. It’s OK to have this imaginal concept but the biofield is the way the work is done. Keep studying. 

“I am worried about my body and my capabilities to keep going because I’m having a really good time.” You have work to do and you’ll be able to do it. You are prepared for the work. You will do the work. You can do the work. You want to do the work. It is important work. Yes, you can share more journeys with the Deeper Song Community. Perhaps do a journey specifically for the group. Your body is entering a new phase of participation. Be patient with it be supportive of it, do some work with it so it can get strong again.

“I’ve just gotten out of my chair and it hurt my body a lot. Can you please help my body so I can do this better?” You have some choices to make and one of them is to care for your body better. Do that first. Keep your mind open. You have work to do and you will be shown what to do and how to do it and when to do it. Rise above your humanness. The Flying Indigo Rug is good, the Cat is good, the new direction is good. Let it unfold.

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Trust

My inner voice speaks to me. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I don’t. 

My inner voice speaks to me. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I don’t. But I always trust – trust its wisdom, trust its guidance. 

My inner voice speaks to me. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I don’t. But I always trust – trust its wisdom, trust its guidance. And I keep exploring.

Cara Lumen, November 2021

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 spiritual explorers find powerful and creative ways to connect with and explore their own cosmic consciousness.

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!

Expand Your Self-Sufficiency and Self-Determination

By

Expand Your Self-Sufficiency and Self-Determination

Live Your Deeper Song 

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

We may surround ourselves with support, but at the core, we have to be self-sufficient. We are the only ones who can determine and manifest the destiny we want. We are self-determining explorers in life. We make our choice. We adjust that choice. We respond to the results of that choice. We learn the lessons. Then we turn and make new choices based on what we have learned. Your self-sufficiency comes from trusting your inner wisdom and relying on yourself. Trusting your inner voice to guide you in the direction you are to go. And have the self-determination to make it all happen.

You may need to learn something new. You may need to partner with someone. You may need to get someone else to do it for you. But the choice is yours. You are the determining factor in how your life unfolds. You are not a victim of circumstances. Each event and experience in your life is full of possibilities and it is your choices that direct the unfolding of your life. Self-sufficiency and self-determination are the cornerstones of moving forward. What do you want? How do you get it? And most importantly, what values do you use to evaluate it after you achieve it? Is it what you expected? Is it what do you want? Create and adjust. You are in charge of your unfolding life.

Go exploring. Expand your self-sufficiency and move forward with self-determination.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am responsible for the unfolding of my life.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • Take a reality check.  How is your life going?  What areas are successful?  What areas need work?
  • Create a plan.  Make some choices.  Experiment until you find a stronger balance that moves your forward. 
  • Expand your self-sufficiency and move forward through self-determination.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

How to Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner Work

How to Make Decisions That  Let Your Life Unfold

How to Hold the Space for Change

Why Have You Been Chosen

How Strong is the Foundation You Build On?

Do You Have The Courage to Stand Alone

The Backpack Journey

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!

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

Journey to Gaia’s Misty Circle 

A Deeper Song Adventure

There are many ways to create a self-healing process. I plan to create several journeys using different healing approaches. Intention is key. Belief in change is vital. Belief in your ability to manifest change. Those are a kind of a starting point. 

I can go to the Seven Sacred Rays with my healing request.  I can journey to my ancestors with my healing request.  I can go to Gaia with my healing request.  In my personal Sacred Garden, I have a Healing Hut that has a thatched dome roof.  

This healing journey is to a Circle of Light in an old grown forest in which we reach out to Gaia to restore balance.

In this episode we explore

Journey to Gaia’s Misty Circle 

(20 Minutes)

(Listen Here) 

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

We Are Cosmic Consciousness- A Deeper Song Expanded Perspective

Journey to a Chamber of the Seven Sacred Rays

Become a Pillar of Light

Journey to Our Ancestors to Expand Our Consciousness

Journey to the Sacred Masculine

Journey to the Sacred Feminine

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Meditation Practice

I learned Transcendental Meditation 50 years ago. I did it for a lot of years. And then I somehow fell out of the practice. I have revised it periodically. But recently I have put it steadily and strongly into my spiritual practice and it is making a huge difference. It’s as if my mantra is going in and rearranging everything, clearing, clearing, reconfiguring.  I have found which chair to sit in that keeps my back straight and free.  My mudra is thumb to my middle finger with hands resting on my lap close to my body. This meditative practice is now established in the beginning of my day.  

When I learned TM, it was suggested that another good time to meditate was to separate the workday from family time. Meditation is a powerful way to change your energy.  We don’t meditate before sleep since it gives us energy.  It was suggested we meditate 20 minutes twice a day. 

You can use a mantra – or simply be in silence. (TM used a mantra) A mantra is a divine sound that has been received or experienced by an adept in the state of deep spiritual absorption. It is a condensed form of spiritual energy, the sound body of the Cosmos. It can also be thought of as a compact prayer. Meditating with mantras is one of the most powerful ways to quiet the mind. A mantra is a tool that allows our awareness to more easily turn inward. It’s an especially good meditation tool for beginners and a type of sound technology which has profound effects on our brain waves.“Om” is a powerful mantra. Pronounced Aum. 

Place into your spiritual practice a time to quiet your mind and still your body and simply go to your Still Point and be present in the Cosmic Consciousness. 

Change Your Vibration with your Focus

As I struggle with disbelief over the actions of humans, I am comforted by the words of Sister Jenna in her interview at The Shift Network’s Awakening with Spirit Summit in which she said, “Wherever you focus your thoughts manifests as a vibration.”

Now I know that our thoughts create our reality but I had not thought of my thoughts as a powerful vibration.  How do I use that new awareness?  As I work with my body I focus my intention on wholeness and restoration and ease of movement.  As I focus vibration on my spiritual life, I feel my vibration going deeper into the unknown to allow my inner world to guide me more clearly. 

The soul is pure vibration.  I experiment with ways to experience myself as pure spirit, pure vibration and I focus my attention on higher and higher expectations of myself and of the world around me.

Are You a Spiritual Eclectic?

I am a collector of spiritual concepts. I have been an intrepid explorer of many ways to explore, deepen and express one’s spirituality – shamanism, Taoism, metaphysics. I go deeply into the theological and philosophic concepts in the practices. I take from them what works for me, what balances me, what nurtures me. I have a rather eclectic spiritual practice.  When another aspect of a spiritual practice shows up that calls to me, I go exploring and experiencing to find what resonates and bring back and adapt what I find into my practices. Go exploring. Become an eclectic spiritual explorer. 

Make Sure Your Connection is Secure

I had been without my big monitor for four days, I had ordered the wrong cord and I was finally rescued by my son-in-law, Ron, who came over and basically unplugged and re-plugged a connection that I had considered faulty. I had never made a secure connection in the first place. 

We have to make sure our connection is solid.  That it completes the circuit. What parts of your life do you not have plugged in correctly?

===OUTER WORK===

Do You Find Your Work Meaningful?

How do you judge the value of your work?  Is it meaningful?  Is it effective?  How are you in service? 

Begin with self-growth and self-satisfaction.  For me, it is self-growth that brings me self-satisfaction.  I want to keep exploring and leaning and trying new things.  What areas of the work you do bring you self-satisfaction?  How does your work further self-growth?

Observe and acknowledge your impact on the world.  It’s not that it has to be a huge impact but you do want to feel and know and understand that you are making a difference somewhere and somehow. Notice that. And also know your work may be so far-reaching, you will never know how and who it is impacting. 

What Have You Outgrown?

When we were growing up we outgrew our clothes at various times. They no longer fit. As we moved into young adulthood we outgrew certain phases of exploration and even expectation. This pattern of out-growing ideas, beliefs, patterns, and actions continues all our life. What have you outgrown and what are you going to do about it?

As I restructure my spiritual practice, I am taking a very close look at my place of service and it is about continuing to help people be aware of themselves as higher consciousness and to learn to come from that position. Focusing on that allows me to let go of a lot of things I used to write about. You could say I’ve outgrown those ideas. I have moved past them in my own personal development. 

Some changes happened organically. Like when I knew it was time to let go of my car and a lot of independence for myself. 

I go through phases of learning. I see myself explore and absorb and experience. Then I adapt and then move on. Always exploring. Always questioning. Always changing. What is it time for you to let go? Do that.

The Tone of Your Voice

It’s not just the word, it’s the tone of your voice that sends the message. Every time we use our voices, we send our energetic imprint out into the universe and to the people around us. And, like the words we use when we speak to people, our voices can communicate what we are feeling, what we desire, and what we really mean.

Before you speak, center yourself.  Move to your heart to connect with the energy you really want to share.  Take responsibility for the power your voice has to impact the space and the people around you and let your voice be a sound that creates harmony and compassion in the universe.

Use Your Breath to Draw a Line

A sign of relief is a breath that signals change.  A yawn is an intake of breath that signals change.  We can take a deliberate deep breath to draw a line between what we were feeling and the focused calm energy we want to experience and share.

What a powerful tool! Begin to use your breath to change your focus, change your direction, change your intention and use a deliberate breath to move back to your Still Point and move into your life from a different intention. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Fall Equinox – September 22

Fall Equinox is a good time to see how you’re doing. You’re about to harvest the crops that you planted in the spring. Did you plant what you needed and wanted? Did the new crops you planted work out? Do you want to plant more of them or less of them next season? How does your garden grow? Does a crop need thinning so the strong plants can mature? What are you harvesting after this year of work? 

This is not a time of planting, it is a time for observing and being grateful for what you have produced this year. Perhaps take a moment to journal about your year so far. What you have accomplished, what worked, what didn’t work. What lessons you have learned. What lessons you did not learn. This is the time for observing and evaluating and contemplating how you would like your life to be different. Nothing to plant yet, this is the time for harvest. How did your Garden of Self grow this year?

Simple Steps

We only take one step at a time. We can only follow one path at a time. All it takes is one step to change the view of the path ahead or the road behind or the side-road beside us. One step. And we have a new viewpoint. We have new choices. We have a new opportunity.

I can stand in one place and take a step to my left or take a step to my right or take a step ahead or even back up a step. I can stand where I am and simply turn in different directions to get a new view of what is possible. It just takes one step one change the direction you are looking ad your whole life will change, new opportunities will appear and new lessons will be learned. 

What one step will you take today to change your view? And what surprises does it bring to you? 

Center of the Cycle

Our life is a series of cycles. Cycles that are intertwined. Our choice lies in what we hold at the center of that cycle. The concept. The decision. The choice we made.

I could look at the cycle of my physical well-being and depending on what I hold in the center, the cycle will change. If it is self-healing and wholeness, the cycle does one thing. If I see the center of the cycle as deterioration and illness, the cycle looks different. And I have choice. I can decide what I hold in the center of each spiral. Look closely at your thinking. What is your expectation of each of the cycles you are in?

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

The Fine Line Between Awareness and Fear 

I understand that it is an emerging era. I understand it is the emerging feminine. And the masculine is scared and thrashing out and trying to stay in control. But it doesn’t help the chaos and destruction and disaster that seems to be manifesting in the world today. How do we straddle the place between awareness and fear? I think many of us are struggling with that one. 

I know my part. I have chosen it. I can do it. And I am doing it. And I have to walk this fine line between staying aware of what is going on in the world and not being traumatized by it. So I am more selective on the news that I watch. I cannot control the choices that others in power make. I can only control my own choices. I choose serenity and tranquility. I choose meditation and thoughtful contemplation. And I work with what I can change. Not what needs to change. but what I can impact – through my choices, in my thinking, through my sending of energy to aspects of the world. 

Am I being responsible? I take responsibility for my thoughts and my actions and my beliefs. I can hold the vision of higher consciousness with an invitation for those who can access it to join in.  Rise above the chaos, center your heart in an awareness of cosmic consciousness and its presence within each if us. Build on that.

===CARA’S CORNER===

The End of a Cycle

It’s interesting to feel a cycle come to the end. There is a sense of completion, there is a sense of letting go, there is a sense of opening a path for a new cycle, a new journey.

As I come to the end of this cycle of my current path of exploration, there is a winding down, there is completion. In this case I feel I am winding down a series of podcasts about a particular topic. That’s the end of the cycle. And there is both expectation and emptiness because I have no idea what the next cycle is about. I don’t know where it will take us adventuring. I think it has to do with creating our Future Self. But that’s the only clue I have right now. So I complete the podcasts that I have written. I reevaluate the scripts I have ideas for. And I move into a period of waiting. I’m waiting to be shown where we’re going to go together next. There are many cycles moving simultaneously and they are different parts of each cycle. But I feel right now this particular cycle of exploration is closing out and a new one will open shortly. Hooray for adventure

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Closing Door 

A door is closing. A journey is winding down.

A door is closing. A journey is winding down. A new adventure is on the horizon. 

A door is closing. A journey is winding down. A new adventure is on the horizon. I pick up my pace and eagerly move forward.

– Cara Lumen, September 2021

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 spiritual explorers find powerful and creative ways to connect with and explore their own cosmic consciousness.

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.