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Our Luminous Legacy

How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice?

April 6, 2018 By Cara Lumen

How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice?

Our spiritual practice is not just the time we spend in a specifically focused state of awareness – it’s how we live our life.  It’s the thoughts we think, the words we say, the deeds we do.

Our spiritual practice certainly consists of those specific moments in which we pause to remind ourselves that we are light, when we are embraced in a whole that includes All-There-Is, but our spiritual practice is most evident in how we conduct ourselves.

Our spiritual life is reflected in the degree of our self-love 

You can’t understand how to give and receive love until you love yourself.  Sometimes we don’t do that enough, or very well, or at all.  We focus on what’s not working, what we seem to lack, how we come up short when comparing ourselves with others.

Begin to expand your spiritual practice by giving yourself unconditional love. And by accepting it because you are worthy and deserving of it.  Notice the degree to which you approve of yourself, appreciate yourself, and believe in yourself. In your spiritual practice take steps to release your limiting beliefs.

Look and offer gratitude for what you offer the world. We each made an agreement to come into the world to learn a certain lesson and to offer a certain gift.  Focus some of your introspective time on contemplating how you feel about what you bring to the world, how that changes lives and contributes to the well-being of all.

Begin your spiritual practice with unconditional self-love and gratitude for the gift that you are to our world.

Our spiritual life is reflected in our choices

Our “spiritual” choices can range from how well we care for or don’t care for our body suit to what we do to our emotional body through fear and worry and allowing ourselves to feel a loss of power in the midst of chaos.

Use your spiritual time to meditate on upcoming possibilities.  Try them on for size – how they feel, what it would be like to accomplish that particular undertaking, how it would feel to know that person better, to make that change happen.

Use your spiritual time to explore your emotional body and how it feels about the choices you’re making.

Our spiritual life is reflected in our behavior in the world

I spend time in my spiritual practice sending light to the world, the planet, endangered species, the environment, people who are in fear, people who are in hate.  Use a healthy portion of your quiet time to send unconditional love to yourself and to our world.  It will be felt. It will be effective.

Trust that as you raise your own vibration to be more aware of your light-ness, others will recognize that same light in themselves.

Our spiritual practice asks us to immerse ourselves in one-ness

We have to feel our one-ness – with everything. We have to feel our connectedness – with everything.  When you understand that there’s only one energy, and that it includes each of us, you begin to understand how a tug here will affect a place over there and you begin to pay more attention to how steadily you are standing in your own light.

Whether you’re standing under a tree, walking in the woods, or sitting in your favorite meditation chair, the objective of your inward quiet time is to leave behind the confines and restrictions of your bodysuit and experience yourself free floating in the Emptiness That Holds Everything.  Lose your connection with your humanness, lose your identity of self, and experience your authentic identity as One In Source.

Then take that feeling of inner connection out into your world.

Life is an illusion and a dream. Go exploring

Some 95% of our existence is unknown. We live in only a teeny 5% of what’s possible. Think about that!

Another purpose of our spiritual practice is to explore those invisible realms. To move beyond the beliefs and limitations and narrow view of being human and move into the light of our Oneness.  The wholeness and freedom of one light.  Feel it. Know it.  Accept it.

Be mindful of your spiritual connection and expression throughout your day. Develop a conscious spiritual practice and bring that awareness and those feelings back into your restricted body-suit life. During your interactive hours, keep bringing forth the feeling of oneness you experienced in your meditative spiritual practice.

Because everything is one, there is no “other”

I can do a pretty good job of feeling that the animals and plants and the elements of nature are all one light energy with me.  I have a harder time in some one-to-one encounters with fellow humans who have an opposing viewpoint.  I come closer to shifting that when I realize that we are a fellow species on the planet and our well-being is interconnected.  It helps me look for common ground and see us both as illumined light beings.

Can you offer unconditional love?

I can’t yet.  I’m still working on accepting unconditional love directed by me to me.  That’s sort of Unconditional Love 101.

But I want to help the earth.  I want to help us through this chaotic change.  So I do it energetically.

In my spiritual practice and in moments of mindfulness, I send the wholeness of our one light out into the world as a reminder to all who see it and feel it that we are all one.

We are all interconnected. We are all responsible for each other.  We are each of us responsible for the well-being of our entire world!

You.  Me.  Us. We are responsible.  We must be the change.  We must be unconditional love radiating out to everyone and everything.

We can do that.

Up-level your spiritual practice

Realize that your spiritual practice is not just body-suit time spent in meditation, contemplation, ritual, ceremony, etc., it’s how those specific practices translate into our daily thoughts and choices.

If your spiritual life is well focused, so is your life.  Look no further than yourself for the “how” to make the corrections. It all begins inside – with you – and your innate wholeness.

MORE OF OUR LUMINIOUS LEGACY:

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden  

Live in the Center of  Your Being 

What Is The Foundation Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Discover Your Spiritual Heart

Join the Circle of Light Beings

 How to Access the Divine Feminine 

Filed Under: Mindfulness, Our Luminous Legacy, Self Awareness, Spiritual Expansion Tagged With: Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Expansion, transformational community, transformational thinking

What Are The Foundation Stones Upon Which You Build Your Life? 

February 7, 2018 By Cara Lumen

Our Luminous Legacy

“If it’s time to restructure our life, it’s always the foundation that must change first. Knowing this, we must ask ourselves, ‘What is the nature of our foundation? Do we have foundation stones? What are they? How many are there, and are there any missing?’”

I set out to figure out what foundation stones are and if I had any, and what were they. The book is Bowl of Light by Hank Wesselman, a shamanist with whom I’ve studied.  The words were spoken by Hale Makua, the Hawaiian kahuna mystic.

What are foundation stones?

A foundation is an infrastructure that supports and dictates the shape that is formed. That can be the foundation of a building. It can be the foundation for a body of work.  It can be the foundation for your life path.

How is your life unfolding?

Life is constantly evolving, so it makes sense that we should check our infrastructure often.  We do that by noticing how things are going.

There’s a very tall, very expensive, fairly new apartment building in San Francisco that is slowly sinking and tilting.  The builders now say it should have been built from steel rather than concrete, which is very heavy, and that the foundation should have reached down to bedrock, not fill.

Good hindsight.  Bad original decisions.  Hard to correct.

So, perhaps we get to look at what is shifting, or leaning or unsteady in our lives and work on our infrastructure.  Our foundation stones.

What is your purpose?

Before you begin to restructure or rebuild or rearrange, you need to look to see how your purpose has shifted.  It’s pretty obvious that there’s change when you graduate, or change jobs, or get married, or have a child, or…. Those are major changes that suggest we need to restructure our life.

It’s the subtle changes that can sneak up on you – the aging process being one example.  Physical change occurs in very small increments over time and you make small adjustments to accommodate them. Then suddenly you realize standing or walking or lifting is a lot harder to do than it once was. That’s when you notice your foundation has a few new cracks in it.  And you need to make some adjustments in your foundation stones.

Define the purpose of your restructure

Create a mission statement for the change you want to make. “At the end of this (book, post, experience),  people will leave with an understanding of….”

That’s a very powerful question to ask.  What is your purpose? What is the purpose of this action? How does it help others?

The answers to these questions focus your choices and dictate the design of the foundation you build. Do you know your life purpose?  Do you know your soul’s purpose?

Define your core purpose before you begin to restructure and shift your foundation stones.

What is the nature of our foundation stones? 

It may be that our foundation stones shift and rearrange themselves in importance as we move through life.  “Figuring out life” is something we work on all our lives, but that process will take many shapes and forms.

If I’m an athlete, my physical well-being stone will be quite large.   As I age and my interests shift, that foundation stone may change shapes and become less prevalent.

The Foundation Stone for the Indigenous People is respect

A foundation stone for the indigenous mind is reverence, an active sense of respect.

That means respect for our earth and all who live here – plants, animals, people, land, rivers, oceans.  When indigenous people kill an animal for food, they leave an offering for its spirit.  They honor each part they use, the skin, the bone, the flesh.  They treat each part with respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of life.

We could do that. We could add a blessing to our meals to thank the source of the food, to the land that nourished it and the people who brought the food to us.

Indigenous people are conscious of the soul of the earth and take great care to listen to her needs and care for her.

They do not feel they own the land, they have great respect for what is offered and provided by the land.  It’s not about worship, it’s about reverence and respect and honoring the energy, the spirit of the land.

I want to become more reverent of the soul of nature. I will spend time looking out my window at the snow falling and mindfully observe the changes it makes in the landscape.  I will watch the sun go down each day and offer gratitude for the events and lessons I’ve received that day.  I will become more conscious of my consumption – of everything – and choose to live more simply and walk more softly and leave a lighter footprint on my planet.

The desire to be more reverent of the earth requires me to shift my awareness, to become more mindful, to be aware of the spirit of the land upon which I walk, the spirit of the birds that cross the sky, the spirit of the mountains in the distance.  Look for the spirit in all things and honor it.

Spirituality is a verb.  Spirituality is action

Every moment of our life is spiritual.

Our spirituality expands with every experience we consciously explore, every choice we make, and with every thought we think – both positive and negative.

Take a long look at your spiritual foundation stone. Is it strong yet flexible? Is it responsive to my life? Can you trust your spiritual foundation to support your service to our world?

Spirituality is a verb.  Make certain your spiritual foundation stone keeps you fluid and responsive.

Your spirituality stone

We all have a spirituality foundation stone. It may be large or small.  It may have shifted position over the years. But we all have one.

What does your spirituality foundation stone look like?

I know that spirituality is, for me, my center foundation stone.  But it has had many shapes and colors and tonality over my 85 years – Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Transcendental Meditation, Metaphysician, Reiki, crystals, New Thought Clergy, QiGong, Tai Chi, Taoism, Shamanism. I’ve built upon each layer, keeping some of what I learn, discarding other concepts that do not resonate.  Bits and pieces of spiritual exploration layered throughout life, carried forward and adapted.  A mosaic. A foundational stone with many layers and many colors.

What matters now is what I’m currently doing in my spiritual life –   how it’s expanding my awareness and nourishing my life.  Shamanism is taking me on unbelievably informative meditative journeys. The form of my illumined service keeps expanding as I build up layers of spiritual insight.

My spiritual foundation stone includes continuous spiritual exploration, a powerful need to learn, an enthusiastic response to many things spiritual and a powerful need to follow my own calling.

What does your spiritual foundation stone look like and feel like?  Is it strong enough to support you right now?

Your purpose stone

We each come into this world with a soul’s purpose.  It’s an agreement we make before we enter this body suit.

It may be a purpose that focuses on personal growth.  It may be a purpose that expands our world service.

One of our major tasks is to identify our soul’s purpose and make certain we accomplish it.  It’s the lesson we have come into this lifetime to learn, the gift we have come to give.

My awareness of my soul’s purpose has recently shifted as I listen more closely to my inner guidance. I have seen myself as a messenger and an interpreter of the inner worlds, which I still am.  But my purpose has recently expanded into helping light beings recognize their own light and consciously join with light of other light beings to heal our world.  I’m just now coming into that place of service.

Look at your purpose stone and see how clearly marked it is. And what’s changing within it.

Your gift stone

To accomplish your soul’s purpose, you come into this world with certain gifts.  You may or may not develop them, but they are powerful tools if you put them to use.
Some people recognize their calling at a very young age.  I began to write for my high school newspaper and was made Managing Editor in my senior year.  The faculty saw my gifts for writing and organizing before I did.

Sometimes your gifts take a while to uncover.  My foundation gift stone contains the ability to see the overview and to share that with others through my words.  My gift stone also includes my willingness to listen to and be guided by this very loud inner voice that leads me on all manner of adventures. It’s taken me a while to figure that out. I have the freedom to continue to explore.  I’m fearless when it comes to taking a new path.

Take time today to journal to find what’s in your gift stone.

Your Illumined Service Stone

Finding your place of illumined service may take some exploration.  Some people know they have to be involved with music, or a particular sport, or a certain form of business.  They know it early in life and their path is quite focused.

Others of us wander around experimenting.

But there are always signs.  Look at your gifts.  Look at what others ask of you.  Look at what you love to do.  Those are clues to your illumined service.

What other foundation stones might we have?

Based on the idea of having a foundation stone of respect, I personally need to add an unconditional love stone. The passage that I read didn’t list what the foundation stones are.  That’s for us to figure out.  Spirituality, Gift and Service are just three that showed up for me.  You may have an entirely different set of foundation stones.

A Learning Stone

A Learning Stone is part of my personal foundation.  I have to be constantly exploring and examining and adapting and applying.  It’s a big stone in my foundation.

Interaction with another’s foundation stone

Sometimes we’re drawn to people with similar foundation stones. Sometimes we’re drawn to someone simply because their foundation stone is something we want to learn, to absorb, to adapt.  What foundation stones of others are you drawn to? Do you need/want to add your version of that stone to your foundation?

A Like-Minded Explorer’s Stone

As my spiritual path evolved, I have moved from friend to friend, learning from some, exploring with some. The more specialized my own philosophical interest, the fewer people who are walking on that exact path.

Find the people that grow you and spend focused, exploration time with them.  (The two people that expand my work are in different parts of the country and we regularly connect on Skype.)

A Love Foundation Stone

The Love Foundation stone may be about giving love.  It may be about being able to receive love.  It may be about how you give love to the world through your thoughts and actions.  Look at its qualities and shape the stone the way you want it to be.

How many foundation stones are there?å

There are as many foundation stones as you need.  Take time to figure out what your foundation stones are and how they need to be modified or strengthened.

Tangible Service in the world may be a foundation stone. Help the world may be a foundation stone for you. Select and build on the foundation stone your need for this part of your life.

How to reshape a foundation stone

The first step in reshaping your foundation stones is to identify the foundation upon which you currently stand.  Are your foundation stones steady or do they rock a bit?  Are they big enough and strong enough to hold you where you’re headed?

What small foundation stones are outdated, or no longer useful?  Clear those out.  What about that belief pebble that is stuck under a foundation rock that makes it wobble?  Get rid of those hidden, no-longer-useful beliefs.

Your life is the way it is because of the foundation stones you’ve built upon

If your life is not unfolding as you would like, you’ll want to examine your foundation stones. Particularly look for pebbles and large rocks that say, “I don’t deserve that” and “I don’t think that is possible.”  Clear out the old, out-dated, no-longer-useful rocks from your foundation.  It will make you stand taller and be stronger.

Then look closely at where you want to go next. And begin to build up the foundation stones that’ll take you there.

Your foundations stones will be different from mine.  They’ll have different meanings.  They’ll be of different shapes and have different priorities.

It’s for you to decide.

What are your foundation rocks and are they the ones you need for this next portion of your life?

To Deepen Your Luminous Legacy Consider:

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden  

How to be Nothing

 How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World  

Live in the Center of  Your Being 

Filed Under: Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Expansion, Transformational Community Tagged With: Our Luminous Legacy, self-awareness, transformational thinking

How To Be Nothing

December 13, 2017 By Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

How To Be Nothing

Ninety-five percent of our existence is invisible.  Our human part is full of ego and separation. The rest of us, the majority of who we are, is in The Great Nothingness, the All That Is. We are all one energy, one vibration.  There is no separation.  We are all just part of the Great Nothing.

How does it feel to be Nothing?

If you’ve ever meditated and “disappeared” in the process, you understand how to be nothing.  Have you ever had a moment when you’re totally one with what you’re doing:  that perfect physical act that’s effortless and seems almost miraculous?

That phrase or idea that comes floating in from nowhere that sends you catapulting in the right direction? The feeling of everything falling perfectly into place – effortlessly?  That is the Great Nothingness in you, coming through your bodysuit, pushing through your human ego. Pulling you into Oneness with All.

What is “out there?”

The Sufi poet Rumi says,  “Live in the nowhere that you came from even though you have an address here.”  Nowhere.  And everywhere. All That Is, The Great Mystery.

Put aside the limiting human approach of seeing yourself as separate and feel yourself absorbed into an unseen unity of all there is. Move into the inner realms, the unseen world, the Great Nothingness. Know that you’re one with all.

It’s challenging to lose our feelings of separation

Even trying to imagine ourselves as being part of a great universal nothingness, we want to feel separate. We want to feel we are a unique individual. That’s our limitation as humans and what we must learn to move beyond in order to feel and be nothing – and at the same time everything.

From our limited humanness, we cannot understand the concepts of a great nothingness, a nowhere that we came from.  We have to look within our inner world to begin to understand and accept and experience. We are all that is. Each of us – are one.

The invisible realms are noticeable

I explore the invisible realms every day as I take regular shamanic journeys. To create Our Luminous Legacy series, I go to my inner realms for guidance. I went within to the invisible realms to channel the first draft of this newsletter. I closed my eyes, asked my helping spirits for guidance and wrote what showed up. It flowed as fast as I could type. Of course, there were small edits, but the words appeared out of nothingness and flowed into my human world with ease. We are always connected to our inner realms.

There are no forms in the invisible realms, although, in order to communicate with us in our limited body suits, the helping spirits appear in many shapes – power animals, teachers in human form, wee folk, talking trees and animated elements.

The invisible world speaks to us in metaphors, symbols, shapes and unexpected images that only have meaning to us as individuals in our body suit form.  So in our imagination, we get shapes and subtle messages that only we can interpret for use in our body suit life.

If you have meditated deeply, you’ll know nothingness

Years ago, I was led in a guided meditation in which we steadily moved through each part of our body, focused on becoming the space between the molecules.  For each part, we gradually moved past skin and bones and tissue and blood into the space between the molecules.

Our arms disappeared from our experience.  Our legs disappeared.  Our body disappeared.   We went through one part of our body at a time, moving into the space between the molecules.  I absolutely remember the moment the last part of my awareness of my physical body disappeared into the space between the molecules. I was like a pinpoint of consciousness floating in space, in nothingness. No body.  Just one point in my head where my third eye had been.

That’s the feeling we all want to recapture.  We want the experience that there’s nothing but this one link from our consciousness to this all-encompassing radiant light, this embracing vibration of positive energy, this floating experience.  The Great Nothingess.  The Nowhere That We Came From.

Learn to lose your ego

We spend most of our lives paying attention to what we do, who we are, what we want.  Our human lives focus primarily on our needs and wants.  We are, after all, the only one who can live our lives.  We begin to cherish our uniqueness, our individuality, our gifts, our achievements.  And it makes us stay separate.

This is not about merging with another person.  No, that’s ego and ego. I’m supporting us both in this idea of losing our ego selves to become pure light. No body, no ego, no separateness.  Just one all-encompassing experience of simply being. Nothing.

I sometimes picture the Great Nothingness as Cosmic Soup and how we are each a flavor that affects the whole soup. What flavor we add (negative, positive) affects the overall flavor. Our individual seasoning of “self” blended into the whole.

I used to think in terms of the Web of Life, but being a strand of that made me still feel separate.

There are only limiting words to describe this disappearance, this dissolving of our body suits until we are free floating in a healing, wholing state of pure light, being vibration, just being.

When we go within, when we disappear into the nothingness, we heal, we release the human stuff that’s blocking us, and we step into light, healing, wholing, oneness.  We feel embraced and included and supported.  When we open our own hearts, we feel love – spiritual love from our collective spiritual hearts.  The world drops away and we are in Nothingness.  There are no problems, no pain, no worries. There is just a sensation of being.  Our body disappears. We are Nothing. And Everything.

What do you learn in the Great Nothingness?

Nothing. You learn nothing. You do nothing. You simply are.  When you move back into consciousness, you can bring back to your human form that feeling of calm, that feeling of connection, that feeling of well-being and you can walk around with that glowing from inside you all day.  That will affect how you experience your day and how others experience you.

You can purposefully move into the Great Nothingness before you begin to work, or sleep, or before anything you’re doing in your body suit.  Bring this feeling of oneness with you in all you do.

What if you feel separated?

Coming back to the human existence can be jarring.  Ease back into consciousness.  See what feelings and awareness you can bring with you. Continue to experience yourself as immersed in a greater whole. Maintain those feelings of calm and stillness and flow easily and effortlessly through your life. Just float. Just be. Be present.  Be.  Float in meditation.

Flow in your work, let your intuition and imagination have full rein.  Back away from the confines of your body suit and flow through your day, flow through your life, maintaining your experience of being within and of the Great Nothingness.

Can you “be” light throughout your day?

Find a way to slip into the stillness within, even with your eyes open.  Take regular moments throughout your day to take a deep breath, let go of your body suit and float in the Invisible Realm.  It’s replenishing and restorative.  And it’ll change how you experience your life.

Go within each day

Every day, go to a quiet place and simply be.  Let go of feeling separate in your human world. When you are worried, go within.  When you are scared, go within.  Remember these are all body suit experiences, not experiences of the Invisible Realm.

There is no separateness within

It’s challenging to imagine a world where all are in agreement.  The Invisible Realm is not like what we see and experience living in the human world.  In the Invisible Realm, there are no separate opinions and thus no disagreement. We are part of a whole. Everything is one.  One Energy.  One Light. One. How different our worldly experience would be if we could bring back those feelings of oneness to the physical plane.

Go within for comfort and lessons and guidance. Go talk to the great Nothingness and bring back the knowledge of the Oneness. Know that there is no one else, nothing else.  All simply is. One.  One radiant light of wholeness.

Bring the wholeness of Nothingness to your physical plane experience 

Allow wholing energy to come to you on the physical plane. Sit.  Go within and feel your oneness with everything, all that is.  Step into the light that is everywhere and feel its wholeness embracing you, encompassing you, filling you. Feel it hug you and love you and support you, even though those are human feelings. Feel your individual light merge more deeply with the light of all that is.  Feel the support from this ongoing, massive field of energy.  Let it lift you and heal you.  Soak it up.  This is healing light. Healing energy.  It makes things whole.  Because it is wholeness.  It is All There is.

You learn to be by being.  Let your body suit go and float off in your Invisible Self and merge with the Light That Is.

Simply be.

Will you practice simply being? Will you immerse yourself in the Field of Wholeness? Will you radiate the light that you are?

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY PRACTICE

  • Two or three times a day, take time to go within and simply be. Be present.  Follow your breath, slowly and mindfully, in and out.
  • Feel the light energy from within vibrating around you, encircling you in light.  Blending and merging with your body suit.
  • Notice how you let go of everything and how your body suit responds.
  • Lose all awareness of your self until you no longer exist but are simply present in the glow, the light, the wholeness.
  • Feel and experience yourself in the Invisible Realm.  If something shows up in your imagination, explore it, talk to it, ask its purpose.
  • Journal after this to solidify your experience.

A Message from My Spiritual Heart

Our Luminous Legacy emerges from my spiritual heart. I know myself to be a spiritual explorer who serves as a messenger and a bridge to the Invisible Realm.  The Luminous Legacy series is part of the maps I leave to guide you on your own inner journey.

Namaste,

Cara

Our Luminous Legacy Series

1- Unleash the Power of Your Inner Garden

2-How to Be Nothing (this one)

Filed Under: Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Heart, Transformational Community Tagged With: metaphysics, Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

November 15, 2017 By Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

When I first realized that my thoughts create my reality, I began to actively monitor my thoughts, my beliefs, and my words.  Sometimes I was rendered totally speechless as I stopped myself from saying something negative and said nothing until I could find something positive to say instead. In the beginning, there were definitely unexpected pauses in my conversations.

Speaking in only positive phrases and ideas took practice to learn. I’m essentially a positive person, but I still had to change some of my thinking. It took a constant awareness of what I was thinking, how what I was about to say would resonate in the world around me, and an active monitoring of my thoughts.

Your words do create your reality so learning to speak only in positive terms is a very powerful step to take in order to change your life experience.  It begins with what you think.

Your Inner Garden defines your world

Imagine that you have an Inner Garden.  In it, you grow your life.  You harvest what you plant – both good and bad.

Your Inner Garden is a powerful metaphorical idea that’ll change your experience in the world.  Like any garden, it needs constant attention. On a regular basis, in a quiet setting, go within and notice what crops you’re growing, decide what new seeds to plant and look for weeds to pull out.

Remember, since your thoughts create your reality, the most effective and powerful way you can change your life is to change your thinking.

What seeds are you planting?

Our thoughts are industrious little things.  Always popping up where they’re not expected.  Some of them are fun and exciting. Others are scary and harmful. And our limiting beliefs are the sneakiest seeds of all.

The good news is that we have control over our thoughts.  And our thoughts are the seeds we plant in our Inner Garden.

Which do you plant, positive thoughts or negative thoughts?

Here’s an important concept to consider.  Your life is determined by what you think you deserve and what you think is possible. So the limiting beliefs, the doubts the fears that you allow to take root, need to be removed.   And that means that tending your Inner Garden is one of the most life-changing spiritual steps you can take.

What are the crops you have planted?

Pause for a moment and close your eyes.  Move inside to your invisible self and look around at the Inner Garden you’ve planted.  What crops are there?  How are they doing?  What do they need?

You may have different crops for different facets of your life – work, family, spiritual practice. Some crops may be larger than others.  Look carefully at your Inner Garden.  How balanced is it?

Our Luminous Legacy publication is a brand new seed. And this is actually the first seedling in the crop.  In the process of deciding on this new field I wanted to harvest, I spent some time looking at inner “seed catalogs” that are based on my experience and talents.  I was looking for the right format and the right “purpose” seed to plant.

I made many inner journeys to my helping spirits, asking for guidance. Gradually I chose my designer seeds (a name, a format, the cornerstone topics), the size of the crop, and how often I wanted to harvest it (once a month).

As I designed this new crop, I knew its purpose is to expand our Spiritual Hearts, help us focus wholing energy on our world and find new ways to expand our spiritual practice. I planted the starter crop of Our Luminous Legacy. 

See how this is done?  You get to decide what you plant in your Inner Garden. And you can rearrange it anytime you change your thinking.

To make both time and space for this new crop, I cut back on some of the other crops I’d been growing in my garden. And although this is a small seed, I’ll work to give it the best growing conditions I can. Choosing what to cultivate in my Inner Garden was deliberate – it was thoughtful, it was powerful.

Prune your Inner Garden

It’s easy for your Inner Garden to become overgrown.  Sometimes it’s because you’re enthusiastic about one crop and plant too much.  Another time, overgrowth comes from neglect, and another crop gradually takes over from the neglected one. Keep a careful eye on the size of your inner crops and the space they’re taking up.

For instance, with the planting of the seed of Our Luminous Legacy, I had to cut back on some of my other crops to make room and time for this new one – fewer posts, fewer books. But that’s the point of cultivating your Inner Garden.  You go within and consciously decide what you want to grow and what you have time to cultivate.

Look out for the sneaky weeds

In the course of our daily lives, unwanted seeds sneak in.  They hide in our beliefs and our thoughts and before we know it they’ve taken root.  It’s important that when we go within to tend our Inner Garden, we look at the weeds that need pulling out. This especially includes negative thoughts and limiting beliefs.

On one journey to my Inner Garden, I was surprised and not pleased to find that there was a belief that my work held little value in the world.  Well, I yanked that one right out and looked hard for the cause of it.

I produce a lot of content, and I love doing it.  Others seem to respond to it.  How did that sneaky weed of self-doubt get in there?   You have to keep an eye out for the seeds of unwanted crops, particularly limiting beliefs.

With the planting of this new seed of Our Luminous Legacy, I feel I’m fulfilling a purpose that’ll be of value to all of us.

Prune your plants

When a crop gets too old, it gets woody, and it’s hard for new growth to flourish.  What do you need to prune in your Inner Garden?

If I stop trying to self-publish a few ebooks, I’ll eliminate the anxiety that always seems to be provoked by the technical completion.  For the moment, I prune back that crop.

On a personal crop level, I have a Reluctant-To-Exercise crop that needs to be replaced and re-planted with a Love-To-Exercise crop!

Prepare the soil of your Inner Garden

The quality of the soil is always important for a gardener. You want the soil to be rich and welcoming to the seeds you plant and the crops you grow. How do you do that? How do you prepare the soil of your Inner Garden?

You develop a strong spiritual practice, whatever that looks like to you. I’m referring here to the inner realms, the place of your soul, your Invisible Self that is the Nowhere That You Came From. We each have our own version of a spiritual practice.  Our unique exploration and embracing of the spiritual is what nurtures and nourishes our inner garden.

Plant different varies of your main crops

I have two main crops – spiritual exploration and communicating what I find.  I already combine those in the work I do.  And there are different varieties in each crop.

In my communication crop, writing has been my foundation, but I have also planted and harvested podcasts and videos and ebooks.

Even my spiritual crop has different varieties.  It has been fundamentally metaphysical for most of my life, and has included varieties like New Thought and Taoism and more recently, shamanism, which is becoming the more prevalent crop in my Inner Garden.

You will plant a variety of crops in your Inner Garden, and they will change throughout your life.  What crops are you presently growing and how would you like to change that?  You can alternate crops, you can change varieties, you can change the size of the crops that you grow.

This is all leading up to what you want to harvest in your life.

Combine your inner crops

Sometimes crops are planted together because each one assists the other.  One of my crops is to deepen my study of shamanism.  Cultivation of this crop means study and practice and a shamanic partner with whom I speak weekly.  We journey for each other and are supportive partners in the cultivation of this particular harvest. So in my overall crop of spiritual expansion, I have a plot specifically for the cultivation of my absorption of shamanism.

My shamanic partner is a healer. She is artfully beginning to combine two crops: she’s a medical scientist and is also embracing the spiritual healing of shamanism. Her new crop will be a combination of the mysticism of shamanism and the physical world healing she’s trained in.

I’m using my crop of shamanism as a guide to my higher purpose.  I’m relying on my shamanic journeys to guide me to what to share with you.

You might combine two talent crops.  You might combine two ideology crops.  Look in your Inner Garden for what crops can be planted together.  Come up with your own unique hybrid that makes both crops stronger.

Encourage cross-pollination in your Inner Garden

Allow the ideas in your Inner Garden to intermingle.  See those ideas as butterflies and bees that move among your crops and whisper ideas from one crop to another.  Allow the wind of your inner vision to cross-pollinate the crops in your garden. See what new hybrids emerge.

In my journeys I keep getting the words “Healing Voice” and I’m not certain what that means.  It could be my writing voice.  It could mean my actual voice in my podcasts and videos.  I have to let that concept move among the crops in my garden and see what develops.

Make your Inner Garden a retreat

Ninety-five percent of our world is unseen, and our Inner Garden is a perfect place to begin our exploration of the invisible realms. Make your Inner Garden comfortable and welcoming.

When I planted a seed for a tree in my Inner Garden, it grew to be a lovely shade tree the minute I planted it.  Now the Element of Water is beginning to speak to me in my shamanic journeys, so I have created a reflecting pool in my garden.  I will add a nature walk with old growth trees. Make your inner garden a place you love to go, to contemplate, to rest and to restore.

How you see yourself affects what you plant

Thanks to my shamanic journeying, I’ve made a huge shift in how I see myself.  I knew I was an explorer.  I was content to leave guideposts and maps along the path we all journey.  And I knew I was not the one to go back and lead a group on the journey.  But in one shamanic journey, I was told I was a messenger for the Inner Realms.  And that totally shifted how I see what I am to do.

A messenger explores, interprets and comes back with guidelines, maps, perhaps a plan and certainly a meaningful message.  That’s a greater responsibility than simply posting a few signs along the path we share.  A messenger needs to make certain the message is both heard and understood.

How do you see your work in the world?  Can you take on a new role that’ll make your work more meaningful to you and to those who follow it?

Begin to cultivate you Inner Garden

Set aside regular times to cultivate your Inner Garden.  Look for the limiting beliefs that may have snuck in and weed them out.  Prune plants to make them grow stronger. Tend your soil. Water your crops with attention. Examine the crops you’re cultivating and decide how much of each one you want to grow.  Select new crops you want to grow and plant those seeds.  Cultivate your soil. Harvest the crops that have matured.

Let your Inner Garden be the source of your positive work in the world.

***

A LUMINOUS LEGACY PRACTICE

How to Harness the Power of the New Moon

Each month, in Our Luminous Legacy, I explore the inner worlds and ask for messages to guide us. And each month I’ll provide us with active steps we can take to deepen our understanding of what was shared. It may be a specific action.  It may be a ceremony you can perform and repeat.  The purpose is to expand the reach, both inner and outer, of how we express Our Luminous Legacy.

New Moon, New Beginning

Because I see the New Moon as a new beginning, a time to evaluate, release and re-choose, Our Luminous Legacy will be delivered once a month a few days before the New Moon so you can review your month, make new choices and new resolutions for the following four weeks.

Your New Moon Ceremony has three parts

  1. Review and release
  2. Refocus and reframe
  3. Explore and choose

The first step in creating a New Moon Ceremony is to review and then release

Review your month

Because we are mostly water, it makes sense that our body suits respond to the pull of the moon.  I found that, for me, the time of the New Moon is like being shot out of a cannon.  At the New Moon, I go from almost being at a standstill to being swamped with ideas and energy.

But mostly I like the idea of creating a new conscious beginning for myself every month.  I look back to see what I accomplished and make a new commitment to some new ideas for the following four weeks.

It also helps to keep a list of your accomplishments, so you become aware of the wins you’ve had in the previous four weeks.

Start a folder on your computer and begin a “Luminous Legacy Acknowledgement List” in which you record both your accomplishments and acknowledge your movement forward. As you accomplish a step, acknowledge your success. How did you change?  Who did you change?  What hearts did you touch?

Release what no longer serves you

Around the time of the New Moon, go into your Inner Garden and spend some time looking for limiting beliefs such as  “I can’t”, “I didn’t.”  Pull those weeds out and put in some positive affirmations. State them in the present tense as if they have already happened.  “I do”, “I am”.

Releasing can mean everything from cleaning your physical space to releasing a project that now seems unnecessary, or identifying and releasing an unconscious habit that’s holding you back.

The second step in creating a New Moon Ceremony is to refocus and reframe

Refocus

Look over your Inner Garden to see what crops you want to focus on during the coming month.  What’s growing well? What needs pruning?  Is there a new crop you want to plant? Look closely at what you’ve grown this past month. Are you growing what you want to plant and is that crop serving you?

Reframe

Notice what’s changed – in you, in your circumstances.  How have you changed your expectations and your beliefs? How do you now see yourself? What has changed about you or your work?  What have you learned that has opened up new doors, new opportunities?  Look at your overall purpose and see if you have a new view of it.

This is the time to let go, weed out, and replant for the next four weeks and do whatever work is necessary for the continued growth of your Inner Garden. What’s your overall calling?  What work do you need to do in your Inner Garden during the next four weeks in order to support that?

The third step in creating a New Moon Ceremony is to explore and choose

Explore

Spend some focused times in exploration.  What has opened up?  What’s calling you? What needs more work?  What needs to be combined?  Try out different scenarios to see how you’d like to proceed in the next four weeks.

Choose

Choice is not so much about making new lists as about opening up to new possibilities.  Choice is about sitting in contemplation in your Inner Garden and feeling what calls to you, what you’re willing to do, what you want to do – or what you don’t want to do.  Then plant a few seeds and let them unfold.

Track your month

Because we’re tracking subtle movement in most cases, it’s helpful to note any accomplishments.  Notice your stuck places, too, particularly in relation to understanding how you personally respond to the cycle of the moon.  Notice how your energy changes with each phase of the moon.

Look for the new ideas and insights that surround you.  Let your life unfold and at the same time become aware of the changes that are happening so you can make use of the moon’s energy more effectively.

In your Acknowledgment journal each month:

  1. Review what you have done and release what no longer serves you.
  1. Refocus your purpose and direction based on what has changed in the past four weeks and reframe it into new steps that take your work in the adjusted direction
  1. Explore and choose how you move forward.  Perhaps outline a few steps, rearrange your schedule to relieve some pressure and develop a series of actions that you can and will achieve.

Track for your own self-awareness so you can see the ebb and flow of how you’re living your life.

Repeat at the next New Moon.

***

CIRCLE OF THE SPIRITUAL HEART

Our Collective Work in the World

As we expand our spiritual practice to be whatever it needs to be and learn to explore the inner worlds, we change our own vibration.  In turn, we join with others who are doing the same.  The collective energy of our raised vibrations resonates throughout the world and attracts others to the idea of raising their own light vibration. We increase the strength of the collective vibration and the overall coverage.

I hope you join us.  Each month when Our Luminous Legacy arrives:

– pause and make some plans of your own

– review what you have accomplished in the last four weeks

– spend some contemplative time exploring and outlining some possible choices for the following four weeks

– create your own way of celebrating and welcoming the New Moon.

(The day after the November New Moon is my 85th birthday, so it seemed fitting to begin this new monthly series now.)

Namaste – the Light within me honors the Light within you.

Cara

Filed Under: Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Heart Tagged With: New Moon Ceremony, Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Heart

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