Search Results for: Expand Your Spiritual Heart

Are You a Conscious Elder?

October 13, 2017 By Cara Lumen

What is the different between being a “conscious elder” and simply being old?

Are you a Conscious Elder?

A person who is a conscious elder has matured spiritually. She/he combines that deepened spirituality with emotional and intellectual awareness and curiosity. The wise person integrates heart, mind, and body.

Not every old person explores and expands as they age. Some shrink into the comfort zone of the past, the familiar.

How has your available time changed?

I love it that I’m not trying to sell anything to keep myself balanced in the financial flow. It’s not that I have a lot, but I am tucked in so I have the deep joy and pleasure of exploring what I want and writing about what I want. It is very freeing.

As an elder, you’ll have more time. What constructive action will you take?

Why our elder viewpoint is needed

We have time. We have experience. When we mix in curiosity and a desire to make a difference, we have active contribution and gate-opening guidance to share. We become teachers and guardians. To do that, we have to have an ongoing commitment to our own development and growth.

Elders as teachers

In the world today, it’s very easy to pass your wisdom forward. Blogs, videos, podcasts, online courses are all easy forms to use to share your knowledge and insights. Use your own sense of curiosity to go exploring and then pass along what you learn.

Elders as guardians

Being a conscious elder is not about holding on to the past and being unwilling to change. It’s about developing new insights based on your unique overview of having lived a lot of years plus the advanced self-awareness that allows you to discern the core values that need to be preserved.

Not everyone can move beyond their own world of self and see the overview, the broader picture, the future as a reflection of the present and the past.

Elders can guide

As our consciousness matures, we learn to make room for and honor different viewpoints. If we are truly wise, we have conversations with those with differing views and find the shared core values and begin there.

This willingness to find common ground helps us steady the ship of our world.

Elders have patience

Because we are experience, we have learned patience and the value and gifts of the unfolding process. We have patience. We see the overview. And we have the ability to move beyond ourselves to hold a higher consciousness for the world.

Question your beliefs

In order to elevate our own consciousness, we have to know where our own beliefs came from. We need to question each of them and clean out our belief closet to make certain the ones we keep still hold true.

We need to identify our core values. They will have changed somewhat as we age. We must research the facts behind our beliefs in a willingness to change those beliefs based on new information that keeps emerging.

We must move beyond our perceived separateness

As conscious elders, we must hold the entire world in light. We know we are light. We know we are one. We know we come from the Originating Mystery and will return there. There is no separateness. We’re all one energy. And everything we say, do, and think affects that whole.

Become a Conscious Elder

You may become a peacemaker as the younger generations explore and establish their own values and beliefs. You may become an advisor in your community, bringing your wisdom and experience into the creation of a new way of being and doing.

Whatever happens, there’s an opportunity in every situation. We have to look for it. Look for the opportunity itself, not whether it needed or did not need to happen.

How will you put your elder consciousness to work in order to pass this world forward to future generations?

That’s our job you know. To guard our world and keep shining our light upon it.

To Singe a Deeper Song Consider.

Building a Transformational Community to Heal Our World

Your Desire to Heal the World

The Guardianship We Hold

Are You Inspired By Your Own Life

What is Your Unique Purpose?

Are You In Illumined Service?

August 14, 2017 By Cara Lumen

I was meditating and suddenly was given the words “illumined service.” Wow. I want to do that. What does it look like? How do I do that? Where do I begin? I went exploring.

Illuminate is to enlighten

“To illuminate” is to shed light upon, to show the way, to come from love, inclusion, empathy and wholeness in our own life, our own work. Then that illumined energy naturally and organically shines out into our life and our interactions. What kind of adjustments do you need to make in order to come from a constant place of light?

Our passion is the beacon that shines

We each have a calling, a passion, a pull that has guided us along our path. That’s our place of service, the focus of our work.

Illumined service means to give fully of your passion and your gifts. To take your spiritual inquiry as far and deep as you can. To grow yourself in all dimensions and share what you discover.

This may mean you need to adjust what you’re doing so that your work is filled with the illumination of your passion. That your work is filled with love and happiness and the pure joy of living in light and loving every minute of it!

The first step to illumined service is to make certain your own light is as bright as you can make it.

Illuminate is to shed light upon

How do you “illuminate” you work? Begin by honing and polishing the gifts you’ve been given. Whatever talent you have, whatever skills you have developed, those are the tools you have to begin your illumined service.

Where do you choose to shed your light? How do you want to use your gifts?

You have a core calling. Mine is spiritual exploration and sharing my subsequent insights. My path has been to move from student of spiritual and metaphysical philosophy to teacher and now to my role as an explorer who simply draws maps and leaves guidebooks for others.

My main purpose is to use my gifts to explore and share what I discover.

Look over your life so far and see where you’ve made the most difference, what you’re doing when faces light up around you when you are present and sharing your gifts. That’s an insight into your place of illumined service.

Get out of the build-your-business mindset and into the esoteric illumination of your business

I was taught to “market” my business, to adjust my content so it had appeal to a specific group. We should make sure that certain people can find us and understand what we offer, but what if we simply followed our heart and shared our passion? The power of our enthusiastic energy alone creates impact.

I’m one of those people who have to keep moving on to new discoveries. I admire the patient teachers who nurture and help others find clarity. However, I’m driven to move into a place of ever-deepening inner work that challenges and nourishes me. And when I share what I discover, I open up choices and ideas to others. In my work, I shed light so others see clearly. I shed light on where I have explored and leave maps and guidebooks so others can find their way.

You can illuminate the path of others by leaving maps and guidebooks that point out lessons you’ve learned along the way. Include an invitation for those who follow to stop and explore and absorb and adapt what resonates with them.

Shed light on the path you have walked

You shed light on the paths of others when you simply show up and share your own discoveries and enthusiasm. Their path will not be your path but some of your detours may be theirs to take, your mistakes theirs to learn from, your discoveries theirs to build on.

Look at your own path and bring forth its lessons to shed light on the path of others.

Help others focus their light

You can help others honor their own gifts by teaching them to be selective and focused and clear about how they offer their light to others.

Whether your work is internal, like mine, or more direct as in coaching, or takes the form of a product or service, the purpose behind illumined service is to help others brighten their own light. To help them to reach further afield and to add their passion and gifts to the web of light.

Develop a consciousness of light

Being in illumined service is as simple as being conscious that you are in illumined service. That all you do and say is impactful in the life experience of others. Begin by monitoring your own path, the quality of your own light, the way you shine your light to help others see more clearly. This is not about influencing, it’s about making room for each person to increase their own illumination.

You illuminate your service by expanding your gifts and sharing them generously in the full awareness that you are an illuminated light in all you do.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

What Seeds Are You Planting For the Future?

Your Desire to Heal the World

The Guardianship We Hold

Building a Transformational Community to Heal Our World

Wakan Tanka, the Originating Mystery

Abracadabra! I Will Create As I Speak

What Seeds Are You Planting For the Future?

July 11, 2017 By Cara Lumen

We are constantly cultivating the Garden of Self deep within ourselves. What we say and do affects the growth of our inner crops. What we plant is what we harvest. I paused to look more closely at the seeds I was planting for the future.

What are you growing in your inner garden?

Any good gardener knows you have to prepare the soil. That means weeding out the old, the unusable and that which is no longer needed. Begin there. Examine your beliefs and expectations to make certain they’re aligned with your dreams and desires.

Taking a reality check includes knowing what you love to do, what you’re willing to do and what you keep putting off. That self-awareness will help you plan a balanced garden.

What do you want to grow in your inner garden?

Good gardeners have a plan. They look at color schemes, bloom dates, and their local climate. And they choose the size of the garden they plant based on the crops they want to harvest and what they can and are willing to care for.

Do the same with your inner garden.

I have let some things go fallow but I don’t want to weed them out. I just want to let them lie dormant for a bit. For instance, vLogs have taken over the space once occupied by my podcast. Short booklets have taken over from longer projects. I allow more space in my inner garden for meditative journeying to explore my invisible self. These choices will affect how much I plant and what crops I’ll harvest.

As there’s only so much time and space, plan your garden to accommodate your time and attention.

Expand the skills you need to cultivate your inner garden

When I learned how to make a vLog, it opened up a new way to communicate and a new audience to reach. The new skill nourishes me both inside and out. What new skills do you need to acquire and plant in your inner garden of the future?

Expand your knowledge of how to grow your inner garden

Growing your inner garden is a personal journey. With each new choice, each new awareness, you’ll need to make adjustments. You may need new skills. You may need to weed out an old pattern. Be fluid and flexible when cultivating your inner garden.

You may explore new spiritual processes and figure out ways to incorporate your version into your practice. You may deepen your understanding by reading a book or taking a course or watching a video online. You may acquire a new skill that creates new opportunities. Use your intellect to explore and your heart to choose what to keep.

Interact with people who make you think in order to nurture your inner garden

The more specialized your crop, the further afield you may have to go to find people who are cultivating a similar crop.

I have developed a small circle of friends who are on paths similar to mine. I speak with them individually on monthly Skype calls. We encourage each other and talk philosophically and in depth about our mutual interests. Each conversation nurtures the seeds of ideas that we are cultivating within each of us and cross-pollinates our ideas.
Who would you like to connect with monthly for a conversation that would enrich and expand you both? Make that connection happen.

What new crop do you want to plant in your inner garden?

You can’t grow everything in your garden. You have to be selective. What crops are you growing that bring out the best in you – your passion, your sharpest skills, your most eloquent self-expression? Do more of that.

Be realistic about your choices. I love to learn and am forever exploring new ideas. But it can become overwhelming. So much so that I sometimes end up doing nothing.

Be realistic about how much time it’ll take you to cultivate and harvest the crops you choose, and adjust your planting selection.

Cultivating your inner garden requires new self-awareness

Not only do we need to be aware of what we plant but we also have to be aware of what we allow to grow in our inner garden. We need to weed out any doubt or idea that doesn’t support our journey.

What do you need in your life? How do you need to change your work habits in order to find balance?

Know what you want to grow and how much of it you’re willing to cultivate. What do you need to change about your inner garden that will increase your value and your impact?

Plant new seeds in your inner garden

Select the seeds that offer the most impact.

As the world moves into the need for a more aligned group consciousness, I’ve become more active in group meditations. I’m more aware of and active in supporting the causes I hold as vital to our planet. I plant the seeds of subtle activism.

The more I read and listen and exchange ideas, the more opportunities I find to explore, the more seeds I want to plant, the more crops I want to harvest. The seeds I plant and cultivate in my inner garden are changing my inner landscape, and that affects my outer world.

What new seeds have you found to plant in your inner garden?

Choose your crops of the future

You have to adjust your crops. I prefer to let my life unfold, but I am actively selecting and planning new seeds that call to me. I allow time for them to ripen so I can see how best to use them. Those ideas that don’t resonate are not tended and they go away. Those ideas that call to me are explored and expanded and shaped into alignment with my passion and strengths.

Whether you’re planting a new crop for the future or weeding out things that you don’t want in your future, tend your inner garden in a manner that nurtures you. Thin out your ideas. Prune overgrown concepts to allow for greater growth. And fertilize and water those ideas and concepts you want to bring forth into your future.

Become a master gardener of your inner self.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

The Guardianship We Hold

The Three-Year Promise

What Do You Need to Leave Behind?

Your Body Suit and Invisible Self

40 – Who Do yo Want to Serve?

The Secret Garden

June 10, 2017 By Cara Lumen

As we begin to expand our inner work, this exploration of our Invisible Self, the Great Mystery, we want to create a launch pad, a Secret Garden from which we begin our exploration. It is part of our inner world, our Invisible Self.

Cara Lumen, spiritual philosopher, explorer, map-maker and founder of the Deeper Song Transformational Community help us sing a deeper song. In this episode she explains how to create and use a secret garden of your imagination as a safe space for contemplation and exploration.

Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all of yourself. – Rumi

(7:35) In this episode we consider:

1 – The Purpose of the Secret Garden

2 – The meaning of the elements in the Secret Garden

3- The Sacred Garden and healing

For Deeper Insights Consider:

Deepening Our Connection

How to Find Your Spirit Guides

Power Journaling

Your Body Suit and Invisible Self

Important Links & Mentions From This Episode

“Awakening to the Spirit World, The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation” Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wasserman

Members of the Deeper Song Transformational Community are Light Holders, Hope Shiners and Gatherers to our heart. Will you join us?

The Guardianship We Hold

May 30, 2017 By Cara Lumen

It’s been a long time since I thought about my position as a guardian. A guardian of the earth. A guardian of peace. A guardian of my calling. It’s both empowering and challenging to step into the role of guardianship.

Hold High Watch for the World

Some years back, as a practitioner in the Center for Spiritual Living I helped hold “High Watch” during the sermons. That meant I kept my consciousness focused on the greater good of the collective experience. I became very aware of the group energy and how my participation as guardian influenced the experience.

Become a guardian of what? You choose

You may feel called to become a guardian of the planet. You may feel called to serve as guardian of a special group: women, children, LGBT, immigrants, endangered species, air, water, homeless peoples, abandoned animals, a particular country, a specific cause.

Pick a group that touches your heart and position yourself energetically as a guardian.

Educate yourself

Understand the culture of what you’re protecting. I constantly learn new things from the in-depth reports on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) news. I get a glimpse of people who have ideas so far removed from my own that I watch in disbelief. I also see people do marvelous creative, innovative things that change lives and help move a group forward in their evolution. I learn of new technology, new scientific discoveries.

The world is experiencing a lot of dramatic change and it’s certainly challenging to keep up. What change do you want to see in your world? Choose one cause and begin to learn the beliefs and fears and needs of both sides.

Begin by changing yourself

Get yourself out of the way of the change you choose to support. Look closely at your unexpressed beliefs that will affect how you respond or react. Make certain you can see the situation from both sides and all points in between. Clear out your own unconscious judgment, and move into a neutral, supportive, nurturing place of holding high watch for the situation. Send the energy of inclusiveness so that opposing sides can recognize they are one and the same energy. Send the energy of empathy so that the choices people make are less self-focused and are oriented toward the highest good for the most people.

Find the community “yes”

I’m certain the majority of people want the environment to be safe but the opposition comes from what they think harms the environment. One group thinks pesticides are OK. Others feel certain they are not. How do you bridge that?

The extent of your ability to serve as a guardian depends on where you are in your own life. If you’re in survival mode, the wellbeing of the planet is not very high on your list. The more secure you are in your self-care, the more time you have to become a guardian, a steward, a protector.

The level of survival a person is experiencing affects their participation in situations outside their own needs and that’s why some other people are not as concerned or as involved as you are.

Be a guardian of our planet

A new consciousness is rising – a transformational consciousness of inclusiveness, a consciousness of deep reverence for nature and her gifts. And yet, those of us who are aware, and who are caring, are still in the minority.

However, because we are working with our higher consciousness, because we serve as energetic guardians, we do make a difference. Our focused consciousness and energy create positive waves in our world.

Spend more time visualizing the world you want. Learn new ways you can help make the change and share that with others. Meditate with others. March with others. Become active in your community, your state, your country.

Think of the world seven generations in the future

What we do today will impact future generations. We must think beyond our own life and be concerned with our legacy.

A guardian. A protector. A preserver. We are all of those. For ourselves and for our children’s children. We have a big job to do. How can you express and expand your role as guardian?

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Building a Transformational Community to Heal Our World

Wakan Tanka, the Originating Mystery

Abracadabra! I Will Create As I Speak

Where Do YouPlant our Stake?

Our Work in the World

VLOG: Insights of a Deeper Song

PODCAST: Reflections of a Deeper Song