Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

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Respond Rather than React

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Respond Rather than React

Creating Conscious Connection

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

Reaction is unthinking. It is automatic, visceral, instinctive, primal, and uncontrolled behavior. 

Respond is to consider, and weigh our options and consciously choose your answer and your actions. 

Reaction seems to be emotional and very uncontrolled.  Response is measured and is consciously and mindfully reasoned out.

Recognizing and understanding the difference is empowering. 

We have control over where we focus our attention.  If we focus on the negative, what is not working, we experience fear and dismay and … all manner of negative emotions. 

When we are consciously selective, when we focus on the positive, the possible, the overarching well-being, we experience an entirely different emotion.  

They are both emotional – one focus is soothing and hopeful.  The other brings us angst and tension.  

A response can be negative but because it is a response rather than a reaction, it seems to offer us a logical way forward that a reaction doesn’t always have.

A logical way forward. A focusing of our ability to reason, to evaluate, to compare, and to choose.  Those quantities make up a response.  We want to cultivate our ability to respond rather than react as we move with conscious choice through our lives. 

The first step for moving into purposeful evaluation is to quiet your mind.  Shut down the what if’s and disbeliefs and particularly the scenarios of potential failure that we have a tendency to create. 

Our first tendency when facing a new situation is to begin to use our mind to evaluate, but I’m suggesting we learn to move into our Still Point with a deep breath and consciously relaxed shoulders, and sit in silence.  Listen as the silence deepens and calms and centers you.  This is where the truth lives. Not the what if’s, but the serene, awareness of natural unfolding cycles, and the consciousness of Oneness.  Go there. Be there. Trust that.  

Once you are centered in your Still Point, you are in a position to evaluate and mindfully choose your response.  

In this calm, centered state, feel yourself move to a place of seeing the overview. From that calm, centered, all-inclusive position, begin to consider your options, your possibilities, your potential path. Just observe with no emotion.

What can you actually control or directly affect?

Unless you are in charge of something on the physical plane, the majority of change comes from the energy and focus you create within yourself. Change begins within you.  That change radiates out into the world and is powerfully vibrant and influential.

As an 88-year-old woman, my in-person service work is now done within. I’ve held signs on street corners in protest a few times a long time ago.  I walked out on the highway in New York City to be part of the Hands Across America movement, but now my sphere of influence comes from within – though my intention and continually raising my vibration. 

This work is subtle. But it is powerful.  I watch as people join the Deeper Song Community from all around the globe and I know there are many of us, consciously moving to raise our vibration and the vibration of the collective consciousness.  We are in deep service and we are making a difference.  And because we are all doing inner work, energy work, consciousness work, we get to look more closely in order to see its subtle and powerful effect. 

And we get to trust.  Trust that this expanding, collectively raised vibration is making change. 

To convince yourself of your innate power to change, begin by making changes you can see and experience.  I can walk more and see the changes in my body.  I can study more and experience the deepening of my knowledge. I get to choose where I focus my energy.  

I’m relying on Gaia and my Soul Star to be my messengers, to help me support positive change.  I  consciously rise above the human chaos and focus on our wholeness, our heightened energy and I pick up my individual  harp and join the Circle of Light Beings as we play our music to raise the vibration of – everything.

Tune your individual harp strings to the sound of One.  Play your melody but stay in tune with the overarching symphony.  To respond is to make conscious choices.  Let us join together to raise the vibration of the whole.

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I move into my Still Point, tune my soul harp to the sound of One, and begin to play my melody for the well-being of all. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

  • In your quiet times, consciously raise your vibration and join it with the Circle of Light Beings and watch the powerful change that takes place. 

To explore your options and develop your personal approach, explore: 

How to Create a Transformative Energy Shield for Protection

The Gaia Gateway and Your Soul Star

The Power of Your Still Point

How to Hold High Watch for the Planet

How to Direct Energy Outside of Time and Space

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 have a discussion on the Deeper Song Explorers!

===DEEPER SONGS I EXPLORED THIS MONTH===

Simply Being – The Art of Wu Wei

There is an emptiness about Wu Wei.  There is a tranquility about Wu Wei, there is a posture of moving with the flow, being gently rocked in the current of life while serenely sharing your inner light

Wu Wei is a concept in Taoism that means non-action.   Wu Wei means do what is natural, appropriate and leaves no traces.  

The “leave no traces” is an interesting aspect to consider. 

Here’s how I think it is: 

Stephen Mitchell’s translations of the Tao Te Ching says: 

The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way and lets the Tao speak for itself.”

Wu Wie means to be present, resounds with inclusive clarity and leaves no traces.  

Wu Wei is about non-interfering, non-obstruction, and non-forcing.  It is about letting life unfold.  

Cara Lumen, spiritual philosopher and Founder of the Deeper Song Community is a cosmic explorer who consciously travels into the unseen world to serve as a bridge to help us expand our relationship with the spiritual world. She shares what she learns and guides us to the next level so we can sing a deeper song.  

In this episode we explore

Simply Being – The Art of Wu Wei

(20 minutes)

(LISTEN HERE)

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

Important Links From This Episode:

Stephen Mitchell Tao te Ching and Second book of Tao

Deng Ming Dao –  Everyday Tao-Living with Balance and Harmony

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

The Power of Your Still Point

The Concept of One and the You as Observer

Can You Experience Your Boundlessness

The Space of Inner Knowing

Metaphorical Messengers and the Unseen World

We Are One With the Whole

===INNER WORK===

Patterns

I drew the oracle card “Pattern” and had to explore what it meant to me. A pattern is a repetitive design. I looked at the pattern of my life.  Strong elements in my personal pattern are intellectual curiosity, communication, and spiritual exploration.  Those are some of the threads I weave into my life.  But the pattern is up to me.  I can change the emphasis of one thread over the other.  I can change the depth and width of the use of that thread in the overall design.  Each element has a different color range.  How fascinating to feel myself weaving my day into being.  What threads do I emphasize? What patterns do I create? What colors do I choose?  

Think of your day as a tapestry you are weaving and choose your pattern with thoughtfulness and creativity.

===OUTER WORK===

What is Driving You Forward And Does it Leave you Room to Explore?

When we look closely, we will be aware that that are several core driving forces moving us forward.  It’s important to know what your core focus is and also periodically examine it for relevance. 

Survival is certainly a focus.  But what level do you seek?  Are you comfortably tucked into a modest home or do you want something luxurious that takes more time and money? Your choice will determine the size of the job you take and how long you work at it.  Supporting your choices will determine how locked in you are to the path you must take to support it.   If I have a backpack and an open road, I need only to take a dishwashing gig in a restaurant to find food. If I am running a big company, there are many layers I must master and manage. 

Balance is important.  Adjusting our goals is one way to make space to adjust our actions.  

I’m still in a stage of evolution; however, the clues from my inner self are getting stronger and clearer. But I do not make myself so busy that I do not have time to listen and explore in the moment. We need to make space for new ideas to make themselves known.  Spend quiet, contemplative time often.

Are you too busy to have time to listen, and think and consider what new opportunities are presenting themselves?

Find time to go exploring.  I have modified my offering output so that I can literately sit here and say, “What do you feel like doing?” My absolute favorite thing is to explore through writing.  That’s easy and fun. Shaping that into the format to share with others is the next step. 

So I mindfully listen in stillness and make room to explore what shows up.  

I love to learn but I’m rather full up.  I love to create and that’s a priority. What is important to you? What is your priority? What is your driving force?  What is crowding you so much that too don’t’ have time to explore?

Make some choices and leave room to explore.

Who Do You want to Serve? What do You Want to Help Them Do?

With the world undergoing such rapid and dramatic changes, this would be a good time to pause and make some thoughtful choices.  What new needs have opened up that you might fill? Who do you want to serve and what do you want to help them do? Let the answers to those questions guide your choices as you set about to create your “next.”

I was in Michael Port’s first Book Yourself Solid Coaching certification and one of my favorite tools to work with is the “who and do what” statement. 

If you are considering a new step, whether changing jobs, moving into retirement, or starting your own business. figure out the answers to these  three statements: 

I help (kind of people you want to help) 

To Do (what does your service/offering help them accomplish?) 

So that (what they can do after working with you that they couldn’t do before?)

Making those decisions will get you rapidly focused on the direction of your net step. 

How do you want to be in service next?

“I help spiritual adventurers explore the Unseen World so that we broaden and deepen our personal journey and turn to share our discoveries with others.  We are guides and way-showers with our light held high.”

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Prayer for Sacred Pauses

Goddess of the sacred pause
please grant me the courage
to lay aside swiftness
and take up slowness,
to embrace limitations as learning,
silence as stabilizing,
waiting as worthy,
and sitting as divine.
Goddess of the sacred pause
help me to know stillness as strength,
patience as powerful,
and healing time
as holy necessity. 

© Molly Remer 2019

The Unexpected and Its Source

The dish I had ordered for my altar was not the color I had ordered, it was not ceramic as I had thought.  It was plant-based resin and it has been a tremendous source of energy from the moment I opened the package.  This feather-shaped dish sent energy to heal my body, my heart, my insight.  All this happened within seconds of my opening the package. I had a sense the person who created this had infused it with very powerful healing energy.  I accepted the gift.  

I had ordered the dish from an artist on Etsy and the package came from Latvia.  I had to look up exactly where Latvia is. “Latvia is a democratic sovereign state, parliamentary republic Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been part of the Russian Empire since the end of the 18th century, but after the Russian Revolution of 1917, they became independent states.”  It is on the Baltic Sea across from Sweden and down from Finland.  My little package had traveled a long, long way.

I wrote the woman who made it and asked what she had added to it energetically. And she wrote back “only a little piece of my heart.”  

Be aware of the energy of “inanimate” objects.  Learn to feel their energy.  Learn to interpret their energy.  

This particular item is a  small dish shaped like a feather.  I got it to serve as an offering dish on the altar I am creating under the window next to my desk.  

I have to thank the universe for bringing this energy to me.  I thought I ordered blue – I would not have ordered it in black.  I thought it was ceramic or I would also not have ordered it.  But the Universe made those choices for me.  It wanted the energy it carries to get to me. 

I have recently learned of the powers of the Condor in Peruvian shamanism so I will use this feather to represent the Condor, which represents the Upper World, the realm of the divine origins and Spirit.

So unexpectedly, I have received an additional gift.  It has opened my heart and offers to take me on journeys to the upper world.    

But the gift was greater than that. As I work with this dish and it keeps reflecting back powerful energy to me, I realized this is reflecting MY energy, perhaps enhanced by the women who made it, but the resonance is so strong in  my heart chakra that I have come to understand it is the energy of my own heart that I am expanding. And when I held it above my crown chakra, it was like being blessed with very powerful cosmic energy. This is my own focused energy being reflected back to me! So here is my big lesson – don’t give others credit for the energy that is actually coming from you.  

I did not expect this. I simply ordered a small dish for my altar. And I got much, much, much more. 

Be aware of the powerful positive energy you project and notice how it is reflected it back to you. 

Create Releasing Ceremonies

One of the strongest images I have received in my journey work is the idea of leaving behind what no longer serves us – to lighten our load as we move forward along our path.  

A Releasing Ceremony helps us leave behind what is no longer aligned with our purpose, what is actually stopping us. Setting aside those obstacles clears the path for a positive journey into our next adventure.

In your Releasing Ceremony, you can be specific or general.  With my blessing, I release whatever is causing my body to resist standing up straight. I am grateful for my eyesight and intentionally release any and all elements of my past and present that are causing my vision to blur.

Move deep within to create your statement of release. Feeling what you want to release, move out from the deepest corners of your being and begin to lift.  

You have to believe that you can make this healing happen.  It’s not you making it happen, it’s you opening yourself up to allow it to happen, to allow our body to self-heal, to self-correct.  Encourage it.  Keep releasing the known and the unknown beliefs that have brought you to where you are.    

In one journey, I laid aside what I no longer needed and watched it turn into butterflies of transformation. In another journey, I watched what I laid down to leave behind turn into water to nurture the life near by. 

Release what you no longer need however you are called. Burn it in fire and watch it turn to smoke.  Dissolve it in water.  Simply lay it down and leave it behind.   It is up to you to choose what you want to release and how you want to release it.  Look at your willingness to let go and make certain you are truly willing to release it – what you know and also what you don’t know, what you are not aware of. I release any and all beliefs, ideas, circumstances that are holding me back from wholeness in the present moment.

Make releasing a part of your daily spiritual price.

Further Exploration: 

The RIver of Time – The Discovery

What Do You Need to Leave Behind?

Your Offering

I got a lovely lotus incense burner from Etsy with the intent of actually burning incense in it.  But instead, I have turned it into an offering bowl in my morning ceremony.   It is interesting to feel your intentions being offered as if they were the smoke of incense being carried off into the world. What do you offer the world today?

I offer my healing voice. I offer my curiosity.  I offer my willingness to explore.  You get the idea – create some form of an offering moment each day and with intention send that focused energy out into the world. 

===DEEPER SONG  INSIGHTS ===

When the Time is Right

This change has been a long time coming.  I have felt it but nothing definitive showed up.  Until now and I sure was surprised.  “Sound healing with your voice. That is a new step for you. Heal with your voice.  Heal with your tone. Heal with your intention.”

So, here I go exploring and experimenting with and sharing how we are to use our own voice to heal – ourselves, our planet, others.  That’s all I know at this point.  

Deeper song member Noralee noticed that I had changed gong sounds at the end of my podcasts.  I had been using a handheld energy gong but have begun using a 6” desk gong that sits on my desk.  Christina Gerber  and I had a long conversation about using humming to heal.  I have written The Intentional OM Hum. I have made up songs to the elements that I used to sing but now play on my flute. Recently I am beginning to use a focused intentional hum toward my body and my life.  I will experiment with vowel sounds and pitch and sequence.  I will begin with an intention and see what evolves.  I may play with the poetry pattern I know of beginning with a word that is repeated and placed in an expanded context.  I have words I sing in my head as I play my flute but it never occurred to me to sing them to anyone else. 

My intention is for my voice to be healing.  That could take many forms. I can do that.

In my journey on this topic of my unfolding process, the Circle of Light Beings were a primary component – singing our individual songs and also combining our voices to support an overarching collective, harmonious sound.  

What it looks like is that in some future podcasts, I may sing to you!!!!  

Aren’t new adventures fun! 

A Deeper Song Exploration:

The Intentional OM Hum

How to Use Sound for Self Healing

The Deepest Sound is Silence

Play Your Body Song  

Join the Circle of Light Beings

How to Interpret the Messages from Within

How I Found Connection – The Visionary Harp  

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Create a New Model For Our Changing World 

Our world is constantly changing.  Things are different but just how different are they? One major shift is that everything is now online. What do you need to do to get better at that?  Create a home office, get a better microphone, adjust your lighting, figure out how to host on Zoom?  

The first step in creating change is to recognize that change is needed.  

The second step is to explore the possibilities.  I like doing podcasts better than videos.  I don’t want to teach a class but I will work 1:1. I increase my FaceBook connections by friending people I take online classes with.  Where else do I need to do to make myself known – to reach the people I want to serve?

The second step is to choose from all the possibilities you have explored. For instance, my spiritual practice keeps evolving as I immerse myself more deeply in that experience.  I moved things around so I can easily add my xylophone and my tongue drum to my morning spiritual practice.  Drawing an oracle card each day has become very meaningful for me. Experiment, rearrange, choose what resonates.  

Develop what you have chosen to explore.  Take it a few steps further so you can see the possibilities, so you underhand the potential.  Take time to understand how this new direction feels to you. How it expands and challenges you.  

Adjust.  Constantly adjust because as you grow, as you get better at what you are doing, you can take on more challenges or expand your reach. 

Create your new model for this evolving world by recognizing the need for change, exploring the myriad of new possibilities that are evolving, choose those that resonate, develop them to fit your needs, and adjust until you own them!

===MESSAGE FROM THE SACRED EARTH ORACLE CARDS===

Stretch 

“‘Stretch is the oracle card I drew for us for the next two weeks.  It shows a woman with many roots and branches coming from her head and arms and hands.  She is expanding her reach by deepening her roots and broadening her reach.  Part of stretching is about exploring and another part is about nurturing what we have going for us.  I might expand my reach through an action I take and I might deepen my reach by deepening my inner work.  

There is an element of being flexible when we stretch.  We must know how far to reach and when to pull back.  

What area of your life are you ready to expand? How far are you willing to stretch in order to grow?

Sacred Earth Cards

===CARA’S CORNER===

I am a Happy Rebel

I am such a rebel.  I keep choosing and using only what resonates with me in the way I want to use it. 

I just signed up for a three-month online course – “Andean Shamanic Journeys and Rivals to Align with the Divine Feminine for Strength and Purpose” and I already know I do not want some of the details I will be taught, I what the overview, the insights that I can turn and creatively apply to my own life and explorations. 

I’m not a rule follower.  It’s not that I’m a rule-breaker, but I am a major adapter.  I take a core idea and shape it into what works for me. It’s great fun and is very freeing.  

I am an over-view person, not a detail person so that’s also part of my free-wheeling response.  

For instance, in the intro to this new course, there was a detailed ceremony.  But what drew me were the intentions of some of the steps. I know I will find a way to add those intentions to my own spiritual practice in my own way.  I would work with the intention and let the “how” part simply evolve.  

Perhaps not so much a rebel as an individualist.  I can work with that….

My DEEPER SONG

My way.  My creative way.  My personal way.  

My way, my creative way, my personal way unfolds before me like a golden beacon of adventure.   

My way, my creative way, my personal way unfolds before me like a golden beacon of adventure, bringing deeper understanding and broadening views.   

I go exploring. 

– Cara Lumen 

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 adventurers explore the Unseen World so that we broaden and deepen our personal journey and turn to share our discoveries with others.  We are guides and way-showers with our light held high.

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How to Cultivate Deep Listening

By

How to Cultivate Deep Listening

An Exploration of the Unseen World

You have access to great wisdom when you cultivate deep listening.  It begins with your intuition, your hunches, your nudges, and moves into the deep listening of your inner voice and your imagination.  

It’s a journey of learning to trust.  It’s a skill of learning to interpret.  And it is the open portal to the Unseen World. 

Cara Lumen, spiritual philosopher and Founder of the Deeper Song Community is a cosmic explorer who consciously travels into the unseen world to serve as a bridge to help us expand our relationship with the spiritual world. She shares what she learns and guides us to the next level so we can sing a deeper song.  

In this episode we explore

How to Cultivate Deep Listening

(12 Minutes)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

The Space of Inner Knowing

How to Hole High Watch for the Planet

How to Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner work

The Cloak of Empowered Service

Metaphorical Messengers and the Unseen World

TRANSCRIPT

How to Cultivate Deep Listening

An Exploration of the Unseen World

You have access to great wisdom when you cultivate deep listening.  It begins with your intuition, your hunches, your nudges, and moves into the deep listening of your inner voice and your imagination.  

It’s a journey of learning to trust.  It’s the skill of learning to interpret.  And it is the open portal to the Unseen World. 

95% of the world is Unseen, and even using hunches and visioning and inner voice listening, we’re going to miss a lot of the guidance being offered to us.

We just need to begin and once we cultivate the capacity for Deep Listening, the unseenWorld will find other ways to communicate with us, to offer us its gifts.  

But we begin with cultivation Deep Listening. 

I’m Cara Lumen, spiritual philosopher and founder of the Deeper Song Community. I am a cosmic explorer who consciously travels into the unseen world to serve as a bridge to help us expand our relationship with the spiritual world. I share what I learn and guide those who are ready to the next level so we can sing a deeper song.  

Thank you for being a part of this journey.

In this episode of Reflections of a Deeper Song, we discuss How to Cultivate Deep Listening

A number of years ago I became aware that sometimes when I wrung. some really great ideas seem to be coming in from someplace other them me. I pictured a trio of Shakespeare type men with feather pens over my right shoulder telling me what to write.  Ultimately I came to understand that it was only be listening to my inner voice and I was just writing some really good stuff. 

Give yourself credit for the guidance of your inner voice.  I’s you talking to you.  

It is important to cultivate the ability to listen deeply because the more we listen the more we hear. We just have to practice more 

There seem to be three levels to developing a Deep Listening practice. 

– First we have to learn to recognize the Hunches and Urges that seem almost accidental in nature. But they are not. 

– Then we begin to do more  Intentional Listening. Nut just trusting your intuition but actively calling on it for guidance.

– Ultiantely we begin to Cultivate a Deep Listening Practice and we come to rely on our inner guidance and wisdom  That’s the really fun part. 

The first step in developing a practice of Deep Listing is to learn to hear your inner voice. 

Think of a time when you had a hunch, followed it and it turned out to be right.  Were you surprised?  Were you pleased? Were you a bit amped?

Intuition is one way you Inner Voice speaks to you. 

Think of a hunch you had that turned out to be true.  That’s your Inner voice giving your nudge. Notice how many times your intuition or hunches are right and begin to trust them and follow them.

Years ago, I began getting flashes of ideas that I began to immediately write into fleshed-out articles. It would be a phrase on television, a phrase I read. I just suddenly knew I was to expand on that and share it with others.  So I did.  

Those flashes of inner knowing that I am to expand on a specific topic continue today and I pay attention. 

Flashes of Insight are a form of your inner voice speaking to you. 

As a writer, I listen to my inner voice and write down what it says. I am at the point that I literally feel myself get out of the way and let the words flow through my typing fingers. 

I consciously get my human mind out of the way and let her rip.  No human mind in there, only trust and deep listening to my inner voice. 

The unexpected flow of phrases and ideas grew until I knew I was generating them from a place of deep awareness –   far beyond the limitations of my human self.

Unexpected Inner Nudges are part of Deep Listening

How, then, do you cultivate Intentional Inner Listening? How do you purposefully talk to Your Inner Voice?

You begin to cultivate a habit of Intentional Inner Listening

You can begin with journaling.  When you write things down, your mind believes that information is safe and it moves on to access another layer, a deeper layer. So journaling is like peeling layers off to get to the core.

When I learned shamanic journeying,  a whole new world of intentional inner listening opened up. It is a form of meditation in which you set an intuition for your journey, go to your Sacred Garden within and wait to be given your answers in the form of metaphors – figures, natural objects. Whatever shows up is a metaphor that only you can interpret.  It’s rather imaginative with talking animals and shape-shifting rocks and helping spirits in many shapes.  

You begin with an intention and see what shows up.   

Once I learned that 94% of our experience is in the Unseen World I began to use shamanic journeying to intentionally go to the unseen world.  It is not a rapid process but I am persistent in my quest. I find myself sitting outside portals waiting for an invitation to enter, That may go on for several journeys before I am invited in.  

In order to receive guidance from the Unseen World, you wan tot develop a  practice of Deep Listening.

When I mediate, my body gradually disappears until I experience myself as pinpoint of consciousness in my third eye  I am no longer limited by the physical realm, I am in the unseen world and all things are possible  

Listen an you will receive answers.

Begin.  Perhaps you journal your thoughts because writing things down allows you access to a deeper layer.  Perhaps you draw with an intentional question to be answered and see what shows up.  Definitely meditate – use a mantra to quiet your mind.  Learn to do shamanic journeying if your like but as part of your spiritual practice is to give yourself space and time to explore the inner unseen world.  Listen deeply. There are messages just for you. 

I love my Inner voice.  I can be watching television and one phrase comes leaping across the room to me and I quickly write it down and later explore  it though writing for my newsletter or my podcast. 

I have Leonard to go even deeper in my shamanic meditative journeys. 

I continue to be amazed at the clarity and wisdom and insight that is offered through my inner voice.

There are more things I am going to do to cultivate a practice of Deep Listening. I play my native flutes every day and have begun to use them to talk to nature, the weeping birch outside my window, and her swaying branches. I use an intentional hum to move vibration throughout my body and listen. When I exercise, I notice what muscles need and compliment hem on the good work they are doing and how much stronger they are dieting. 

I journey every day and end up in amazing places in the unseen world. 

I am working to cultivate easier access to a Point of Deep Stillness

I listen to my inner voice as I begin to wake up.  I try to remember my dreams  

The Unseen world has many ways to speak to us.  We just have to learn to listen.  Speed time each day listening deeply.

  • I hope I brought you some new awareness, deeper ways to connect and insights and encouragement for your next steps. 
  • Pause to be with what we have explored.  See what portals have opened up for you.  Where you will go exploring next.  This is a Journey of Discovery and we walk this part of the path together. 
  • Ashe, The creative in me honors the creative in you. 
  • To join me on further explorations I invite you to subscribe to this Reflections of a Deeper song podcast.
  • I also encourage you to join the Deeper Song community at www.deepersong.comto receive weekly posts or this podcast and the Deeper Song newsletter.
  • Until next time, this is Cara Lumen inviting you to Come Sing a Deeper Song.

How Does A Tree Know When To Drop Its Leaves?

By

How Does A Tree Know When To Drop Its Leaves?

Living Our Deeper Song

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

The Weeping Birch tree outside my window recently began to drop her leaves. How does she know it is time? Is it marked on her calendar? Is it simply the subtle changes in the weather? 

How do we know when it’s time to let go of something, to release it, to let it fall to the ground and be left behind?

I can see more sky as leaves fall to the ground in golden showers. I like that because I like the shape-shifting clouds. Letting go offers a new view. 

If I were a tree with acorns, I would release them and they would be gathered and stored and later used to nourish a squirrel in the middle of winter. By releasing my gift, it would keep on giving. 

When is it a time for withdrawing in order to restore and replenish in preparation for a new season? A great deal happens when we let go of our leaves.

We can let go at any point in our life and at any stage in a cycle. What kind of inner wisdom do you call upon to let you know when it is time to let go – to leave something behind? And when you do, what can you see more clearly? 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I easily and effortlessly let go of patterns that no longer serve me.
I rest and restore and make room for new growth. 

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Go within and see what you need to let go.
  • Release it and study the new view it reveals.
  • Notice what new insights show up in the space that opens up.
  • Go exploring.

===INNER WORK===

Deepen Your Inner Awareness

Intuitive Planning

When you listen to your inner guidance, it will lead you to your next step on the path you are to explore. Pay attention to those nudges and hunches. They are your inner voice guiding you. 

Then go exploring. Visualize. Can you imagine walking down that path? See how it feels and notice what opens up for you to consider. Make your decisions based on what you discover. Follow your intuition. It will take you where you need to go next. 

===SELF-HEALING===

Take Responsibility for Healing Yourself

The Healing Power of Music

I have listened to and performed music all my life. I sang alto in the high school girls’ trio and girls’ quartets. I took voice lessons at the local college and sang in the chorus of their production of Bizet’s opera Carmen. I went through periods of liking Carol King and Rob McKuen and Peter, Paul and Mary. For about 10 years I listened to nothing but classical music. 

You can listen to all sorts of music on your television. During my day I often listen to light classical music and take great pleasure in listening to the range of instruments and the power of their individual sounds as well as the incredible harmony and emoting they produce.

Music reaches deep within. It changes our vibration. It changes our intention. It changes our expectations.

Where does sound fit into your life? How does it affect you and how can you go exploring more broadly? 

Optimism and Longevity

Japan recently broke another record for having even more centenarians.

Work ethic, a seafood-rich diet, deep family ties, and now improving medical technology are elongating the lives of the longest-living people on earth who are yet further defying perceived limits on the human body, mind, and spirit.

Optimistic men have a better shot at living a less-stressful, healthy life. Now I’m not a man but I sure can be optimistic. 

Optimistic means to be hopeful and confident about the future. Hopeful is pretty easy, confident may take some practice. How do you feel about your future? Is there a difference between how you feel about your immediate future and your future future? How do you approach each day? Is it with optimism and gratitude and high expectations? Or is it with dread and uncertainty? You are the captain of your emotional vehicle. And you can make those choices. When you move into conscious gratitude, you become more aware of the positive aspects of your life. Begin to be more aware of what is working physically, mentally, and emotionally. Be grateful for the positive forward steps that you take. 

I will tell you from experience it gets a little trickier as you age and stuff starts not working so well. But I am in control of my expectations. So not only do I practice coming from a place of gratitude but I keep looking for the positive aspects that keep showing up in my life. Stay optimistic and enjoy a longer life.

===OUTERWORK===

Explore New Potential and Possibilities

Where Do You Find Like-Minded Friends?

The more eclectic your interests, the further afield you have to go to find people who share your excitement. I think we begin with one interest at a time to develop our tribe around it. For instance, when I became a Reiki Master Teacher over three or four years in New York City in the 80’s, other Reiki students were my friends. And the more advanced my studies became, the narrower became the field of people who were interested in the same depth that I was. 

That was also true when I became a practitioner in the Center for Spiritual Living. Again, the more deeply I delved into the work, the more advanced were the people I was drawn to hang out with because our interests were similar. 

 Five years ago in a shamanic class with Sandra Ingerman, I was paired with my friend Martha (Minnesota) and we have talked nearly every week for five years. Even though we each have other interests that we are developing, we have a strong core interest in the metaphysical and our spirituality and we remain close friends. I met another close friend, Thuy, (France) when we were both students in the same class. Christina, (California) another good friend I speak with regularly I actually know in person from when I lived in California. And another friend, PJ, (Colorado) reached out to me because excerpts from one my books “Getting Your Feet Wet in Science of Mind” is on the websites of many Center for Spiritual Living Churches. Noralee (Canada) proofreads this newsletter and always sends me encouraging words along with the corrections. I periodically get emails from other followers of this newsletter.  I love that I am connected with people all over the planet. 

But that’s a very small group of people to interact with on a regular basis to explore my specific interests. I share slightly different interests with each of them.

I have taken a lot of classes on the Shift Network and they have Facebook groups in which I have found like-minded people on a particular topic. My suggestion is to follow a topic that calls to you and see what friends you find with similar interests.

For those of you in the Deeper Song Explorers! perhaps we can each share our favorite topics and teachers along with a link. 

Do You Have A Vision Board?

I haven’t made a vision board in years and as I approach 90, it feels like a strange thing to be doing. But it’s a good idea and now we can do it digitally and have access to some fabulous pictures. 

You can have areas on your vision board like “relationships” and “career” or you can just start with what you want in your life and find graphic representations for your vision board. 

What do you envision in your life? Make a vision board to help it manifest.

Look for A Creative Alternate Solution

One of the most helpful things my daughter Cathy has said to me recently is that I’m not the only one with a particular problem. With that in mind, I put inquiries out to the manager of this senior complex and the Social Security Director to see if there is a transportation company that would bring a wheelchair, put me in it, put me in the back of a van, take me to my eye doctor appointment and bring me back. And I found it. You don’t just stop needing things because you can’t move very well. 

What do you need in your life that you can find creative ways to get help with? Maybe there’s a special need that you want to build a business around that you can offer. Get creative as your needs change. 

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Self-Healing Spiritual Practice and Deepening Awareness of Our Cosmic Oneness

An Altar Turns Your Space Into Sacred Space

As I continue to contemplate the pending downsizing, creating altar space has been first on my list. Without it there’s not much point to my life. It could be space in a bookcase or a table. I once had an altar on the floor. It could be an arrangement outside your window. Create sacred space and work with it, mentally be in it, and spend time with it every single day. 

I continue to rethink what I need and want to choose for the smaller space that awaits me. What ceremonies do you perform? Does it involve music or chanting or drumming or movement?

I use instruments to sing and play to the directions every day. I have a collection of special crystals to talk to and hold every day. I might begin to add an intentional element to my alter and work with that to manifest what I want in my life. 

Periodically changing and rearranging the elements of your altar could meaningfully deepen your spiritual practice. It will shift your focus and let you deepen different aspects of your spiritual practice.

Spend some time rethinking and rearranging your alter space and the ceremonies you choose to bring to it. Then notice what changes in your life experience. 

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

Expand Our Role in the Rapidly Evolving Universe

Is There a Past Mistake You Need to Heal?

We all have things in our life that we wish we had done differently. I’m not suggesting you dwell on what choices you made along the line, but are there any past actions you might do differently if they occurred today? 

What comes to mind specifically is a personal interaction with another person that you could’ve handled better. In my case, those mistakes were usually because of my lack of awareness. Maybe you write that person a note and reestablish contact. Maybe you call them up. Maybe you just forgive yourself in your mind. A mistake is not intentional, it is one step taken in a particular moment for a variety of reasons. Sometimes you wish you hadn’t done it. Sometimes it was a happy mistake and worked out well. In your life are there any interactions that you wish to apologize for? Or, as you look at how it played out, you may find out it was not as big a deal to the other person as it was to you and you can actively forgive yourself.

This introspection is not intended to blame, it is to create an awareness that helps us not make the same mistake again. Our choices were made out of what we had to offer in that particular moment. Our awareness in particular, is a foundational cause of our choices. We are either aware of what we’re doing or are in a situation in which we are not very aware. We make our choices based on what we understand in the moment. Sometimes that awareness is more on target than others.

Learn from your less-than-stellar choices of the past. Try not to repeat it. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Support and Encouragement for our Unfolding Role in the Future

What Brings Meaning To Your Life?

We get what we focus on. What aspects of your life are important to you, or nurturing to you and what do you do to encourage them, to cultivate them? 

My mind is important to me. It helps me learn. It helps me experience. I cultivate it in many ways. My spiritual practice is important to me. It has many aspects and I continue to explore there too. 

What aspects of your life do you value and how will you expand them? Identify and explore and find the things that bring meaning to your life and do more of them. 

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

Explore and Interpret the Guidance and Messages of the Divine Feminine

The Masculine In Religion 

It wasn’t until I listened to the Episcopal service for Queen Elizabeth that I remembered how predominate the masculine energy is in man religions. I guess I’m pretty far into this concept of the rising feminine. 

I was brought up in an era when women didn’t go to college, they just got married and had kids. But I did go to college. I even got a Master’s Degree in my 40’s and I did go off and make my own professional life.

When I got divorced, I could not get a credit card in my own name because everything was in my husband’s name. A gas credit card was the break I needed to begin to establish my own credit. But I had no work history to add to it. It’s been a long road.

Women today are brought up to believe they can be independent. And young women are the ones calling for major change today. 

So here we are in an era where women are standing strong and yet we do not earn the same amount of money for the same job as men do.

I’m no longer around any young people but I know one granddaughter has two children and is making major money while working from home. 

“These times they are a changin” (Bob Dylan) and that’s a good thing.

These Times They Are A Changin

Bob Dylan 1964

Come gather ’round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin’

And you better start swimmin’

Or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who

That it’s namin’

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

The battle outside ragin’

Will soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin’

Please get out of the new one

If you can’t lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin’

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

That was nearly 60 years ago!

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

Simply Being- The Art of Wu Wei

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

===CARA’S CORNER===

Make Better Choices

What my life looks like and feels like is because of the choices I have made and continue to make. Therefore, all change is up to me. Some of my choices are very conscious. Some are rather unconscious. I need to check both out to make certain they are what I want and are taking me where I want my life to go.

For instance, I know that I need to add more movement to my life. That’s a given. So my choices becomes what form that takes. Then the choice becomes how willing I am to extend myself, as in do more or do it longer or do it differently. Of what am I willing to let go?  How am I willing to change? 

I need to stop thinking about the future because it’s not here, it is still unfolding, and I’m only guessing at parts of it. That is a waste of my time in this present moment. Be present. Notice what you are creating and what those choices are creating for you to consider. Give long thought to how you would like your life to be different and what steps you could take to make that happen. Then do those.

My choices include staying in the present. Doing physical stretching at my kitchen sink, standing up to do some of the Qigong even if I’m hanging onto my walker. And do Qigong at least three times a day. There are podcasts that I want to listen to. I want to listen to less news and check out at least one audiobook to see how I like listening instead of reading. That’s a pretty good list. 

I can go exploring. I may discover new opportunities that will change the results I’m getting today. What new choices will you make today? And what happens when you do?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

Change Your Choices

The choices are mine and I can change them.

The choices are mine and I can change them. I can look up instead of down. I can do it or not do it. When I choose, I must observe the results and let that guide my next choice.

The choices are mine and I can change them. I can lookup instead of down. I can do it or not do it. When I choose, I must observe the results and let that guide my next choice. It’s all up to me in every moment. I make choices that lift me up. 

– Cara Lumen, September 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!

Subscribe to this weekly Deeper Song Newsletter at www.deepersong.com

My Books

Keep Your Meditation Creative

By

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.

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.

The Rights of Nature

By

The Rights of Nature

Living Our Deeper Song

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

Nature has rights and it is up to us to make certain she gets them. A river has a right to stay clean and healthy and support the wildlife that lives in and around her. A mountain has the right to stay forested and protective of the wildlife that lives there. The air has a right to be clear and clean and sustaining. Nature doesn’t mess itself up, humans mess it up by our careless thoughtlessness. 

The rights of nature is an interesting concept. How are you doing your part?

I began recycling in New York City in the 80s when, at the first Whole Health Expo, they gave us cloth bags to carry our groceries rather than plastic or worse, paper. I have faithfully recycled for over 40 years. 

I no longer have a car but if I did, I would really work to get an electric one so I would stop adding to the pollution and the consumption of gasoline and oil. I monitor the thermostat in my home to keep my energy consumption low. I would install solar panels in a minute if I owned my space.

And yet I contribute terribly to the pollution of the earth. My food comes in containers that end up in landfill. I’ve been a vegetarian for 50 years so I do not contribute to the killing of any animals.

The rights of nature. How is your community caring for the rights of nature and how will you get involved to raise consciousness?

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I am more aware of the Rights of Nature and work to honor them.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS 

  • Take a close look at your community and see how you can stand up for the Rights of Nature. 

===INNER WORK===

Judgment Versus Opinion

Judgment shuts us down. It sets up barriers. It separates us. Opinion, on the other hand, is more open-hearted and willing to change. Curiosity lives within an opinion.

Monitor your thoughts. Notice the depth of your response – is it a reaction or is it inclusive thoughtfulness?

Judgment closes us down and is final, whereas opinion leaves us open-hearted and open to new possibilities and change.

Are you judging or are you trying to understand what lies behind a position you disagree with? It doesn’t mean you have to change your mind, but understanding brings compassion and open-heartedness.

Sometimes your response is based on how the other person presents their opinion as what-is-so versus what you believe. We each monitor facts through our own filters but we also have the ability to change our filters at any time.

How thoughtfully are you developing your beliefs? How are you presenting your beliefs – as an opinion or an unmovable position? Our choice is to live our values and let that example speak for us.

That’s huge. How are you living your values? Do you even think of them as values? Kindness, honesty, compassion, inclusiveness come immediately to mind. Some are easier to express in life than others. 

We must learn to distinguish the inner guidance we cherish and from which we form an opinion, from emotional judgment, which locks us in. Listen to your intuition and allow it to guide you without hardening it into an opinion or judgment of the choices others make. Stay fluid in your examination of the world around you. Make your own choices based on your personal values. And question those choices to make certain they are in alignment with compassion, integrity, and open-mindedness. Judgment contains a strong component of a need to be right. It quickly sets up barriers. 

When a strong opinion shows up within you, pause to see where it is coming from. You may think, “That’s not how I would do it. That’s not my choice.” But make it OK that it’s their choice – unless it is doing harm to others. It doesn’t mean you don’t try to right a wrong, it’s just that you need to know your values within yourself to make room for flexibility in your viewpoints. 

Have an opinion but leave judgment behind.

===SELF-HEALING===

Believe It is Possible

What we believe is possible determines what we experience in our life. That is true in life and that is true in self-healing. 

Recently on a healing seminar on the Shift Network, I heard a woman share that she had healed herself of several major imbalances over the course of her 75-year life working with energy and biofields. So I know that self-healing can happen. Do I believe it can happen for me? I do. And it is – gradually, in small increments, over time. What do you believe is possible for you to self-heal? Change your belief and change your results. 

===OUTER  WORK===

Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness means finding imaginative and unusual ways to overcome difficulties. It sometimes means substituting one tool for another – like using a rock for a hammer or your cupped hands to drink water from a lake. Resourcefulness is shortcuts and workarounds. It often means simply identifying the task to be done and finding a unique way to do it. Like the time I dropped the open gallon of ice cream on the floor and because I can’t reach the floor any more, I turned a large basket with a handle on its side, placed it on the floor and scooted the ice cream into the basket so I could reach the taller edge of the basket and pick it up. You get creative and resourceful as your body defines its limits. 

Workarounds and substitutions all lead you to creative, innovative, and resourceful substitutions. Have fun.

Mindful Walking

I have been so caught up in how I am walking that I have forgotten to walk mindful of the world around me. So for instance, in taking out the trash I begin by simply focusing on taking one step at a time. But as I progress, I am able to feel the breeze on my face and the sun shining on my body and I can even hear the sounds of nature around me. All because I’ve paused to listen. Whether the walk is a short one with a specific purpose or a long meandering one for restoration, walk mindfully and let nature speak to you.

===DEEPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE===

Cleanse Your Space for Healing

I learned a lot on the Science of Healing Summit at the Shift Network. One of the concepts that spoke to me was when they shared that in one experiment that had had a lot of healing going on suddenly it stopped. They realized they had to clean the incubator they were using so it could heal more. It worked.

What does it mean for me to clean my space? We’re not talking housecleaning here, we’re talking energy balancing.

In my meditation practice each day I ring a bell to disperse any negative energy that might have come through the night or still resided here. I have a conscious practice of clearing. 

Clearing out beliefs might be a bit of a challenge, but beliefs can easily get in the way of moving forward, self-healing and discovery. So when you’re stuck, look closely to see what beliefs you need to clear out so you can move forward. It may be as simple as saying, “I now release all beliefs that no longer serve me.”

As my body continues to adjust to whatever this is that’s going on, I get to focus on the steps it takes forward, not what still needs to be corrected. Focus on the positive.

You can have a ceremony of clearing or you can wave your hand with the intention to clear and release. Periodically focus on clearing out your meditation space, your workspace, and your sleep space. And then perhaps turn and see what you can do about shaping up your intentions to keep intentions and beliefs positive and open for rebalancing.

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

New Thinking

I may not be right, but I believe that it is time to move into a new way of communicating our offerings to people. I have a solid understanding of what I was taught 20 years ago as the way to attract people on the web to get them to look at your business and consider what you offer. But my belief system is changing and I have to figure out how and what I’m going do about it.

I am also working with several very strong healer friends on their website content. So the focus becomes more on the depth and broadness of what they do rather than the tools and techniques they use to create positive change in your life. The people they seek to serve will not go online looking for how to cure a cold. They will go online and look for how to restore balance in their physical body or in their life in general. And they will be open to subtle energetic shifts and both gradual and dramatic changes. But the question won’t be for the form that healing and helping is used in the moment, but the focus will be on the fact that change occurs. 

Years ago in New York City, I remember looking online at the site of a young man who was a Buddhist. Positive energy poured off the page. That’s what I think will happen as more and more energy-aware people search for help online. They will go to a site and experience the energy more than the words, and make their choice from the energetic connection they experience. Because they are more deeply attuned to the energy of wholeness, they will be able to make their choice to get the assistance they need to rebalance themselves based on the energy flow they experience from the site.

I seem to be focusing on healing sites and realized that if the web content is focused on the idea that core energy change would take place that would have a far-reaching impact rather than focus on a solution to a  specific problem, it would certainly attract people who were aware of energy, we who are aware of consciousness, or aware of how our thoughts can change our reality. Anyway, that’s my new thought on how to draw people to your business. I shall explore further. 

===OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

Caring for the Next 7 Generations

As a matter of common knowledge, we know that a generation averages about 25 years—from the birth of a parent to the birth of a child—although it varies case by case. We are to make our choices with an awareness of and concern for the next seven generations. I had to look up the list.

  • The Greatest Generation (born 1901–1927)
  • The Silent Generation (born 1928–1945) (that’s me – wonder why we are silent…)
  • Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964)
  • Generation X (born 1965–1980)
  • Millennials (born 1981–1995)
  • Generation Z (born 1996–2010)
  • Generation Alpha (born 2011–2025)

I have great-grandchildren who are just starting their lives. And I’m sitting here with an environment that’s in trouble, humanity that is in trouble, and I’m also sitting here with a whole lot of new ways to do life differently – like solar power and space exploration.

I was reminded recently that I used to use a typewriter and I was in New York City when computers entered the workplace. Now I dictate into my computer and my phone. And I can talk to my TV.

My first tendency is to say I can help by holding High Watch. That means that I hold an energy of wholeness and positiveness and help make it stronger so others see it and rise to that higher vibration.

My choices leave a mark for better or worse. As do yours. Make your choices today as if you were preparing our world for your great-grandchildren and beyond. What would you like for them to have available and what would you like for them not to have to deal with? Build on that.

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

Spiritual Practice

Become a Pillar of Light

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

and the 

Deeper Song Website

==== DEEPER SONG EXPLORATION ===

Qigong Summit at the Shift Network, March 14-18. Qigong is easy to do and extremely powerful. The summit is an opportunity to listen to gifted teachers and learn more about how you might want to add it to go onto your life. Highly recommended.

===CARA’S CORNER===

The Catalyst of Change

I experienced a very powerful energy shift in one of the movements I do in my meditation and it is exciting. I get to look at how it happened and what it means and what I’m going to do about it. The movement is based on the spiritual practice of bringing energy up from Gaia, the earth and bringing energy down from the Cosmos. I have done that in various forms. But the form that offered the huge shift for me this week was my left hand reaching down toward the ground to bring up the energy from Gaia and my right hand raised above my head to bring down the energy of the Cosmos to fill my body with those energies for self-healing and balancing. Suddenly the connection was huge. I was filled with healing, wholing, balancing energy and all I was doing was sitting there with one arm down and one arm up. It was a major healing experience. I felt my whole body filled with healing, wholing energy. I was holding a position and the energy was extremely active. It was clearing and relaxing and restoring and rearranging through my whole body. It was a huge shift and an amazing experience. 

So what does that mean? I’ll bet it means I’m getting better at noticing energy changes in my body. But it also means that something has freed up, something is cleared out. There’s more room for rebuilding and self-healing to take place in my body. It also means that my awareness of that subtle shifting energy has deepened. What do I do now? How do I adapt? 

I simply let it unfold. It means that each time I do that meditative, intentional move or any other meditate move, I pay attention to any subtle shifts – what’s happening in my body and what new awarenesses I have. My intention was for healing my body. But perhaps my intention is to shift to broadening my vision and expanding my insights into what I am to do or consider next. My job is to notice the subtle shifts, interpret them, and then open myself up to the opportunities it brings for me to change. Change in my beliefs. Change in my expectations. Change in my choices moving forward. I am to adapt, and be open for more change. 

What shifts in energy have you noticed recently?

===SING A DEEPER SONG ===

The Shift

The shift was profound and unexpected. 

The shift was profound and unexpected. It opened a whole new level of expectation and promise.

The shift was profound and unexpected. It opened a whole new level of expectation and promise.

I will build upon that. 

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.

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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