personal growth

Get To Know Your Inner Voice

November 3, 2016 By Cara Lumen

We’re it. We’re all there is. The entire Universe is within us. All the wisdom, all the knowledge. It’s there, it’s at hand, ready to be heard. Everything we need to know is within us. We learn and we’re guided by the voice within.

How do we learn to hear it?

The Universe is Within

It’s an interesting idea that we contain the Universe within ourselves.

Rumi says:
“Everything in the Universe is within you.
Ask all from yourself”

That means we’re pretty much on our own. And yet we get guidance and signals and insights all the time. When we learn to hear them.

The signs we ignore

Our days are full of signs and signals. When we allow our days to unfold, all manner of exciting and unexpected opportunities show up. Learning to interpret our inner voice will help us make choices that are aligned with what we need and want in the moment.

How your inner voice talks to you

Your inner voice is different from your intuition. Your intuition is a hunch, a feeling. Your inner voice KNOWS. Your inner voice holds the values you have embraced, it holds your connection to All-That-IS, Tao, or whatever you call the unknown part of you. It’s always speaking to you. You just have to learn to listen.

Learn to listen to your inner voice in silence

When you sit in silent expectation, when you are willing to embrace your inner knowing, you will understand. You may hear a word, you may see an image, you may get an idea or clarity or see a connection you had missed. You may simply KNOW. But most of all there is a sense of serenity and peace, a feeling of being safe, cared for and loved. It’s your inner home, your place of safety and refuge. It welcomes you with open arms and holds you close to its heart.

Visit your inner voice often.

Learn to interpret what you hear

You’ll emerge from your time of silent contemplation with a new perspective, with new resolution, new determination and a new sense of peace and willingness. Let this new awareness slowly infiltrate your life. Feel your way into the great wonders that have unfolded within you.

Choose what to apply in your life

Your inner voice will show you many options. It’ll deepen your understanding and expectation of what’s possible. Notice it and let it simmer within you like a vapor rising to surround you with its wisdom.

Trust yourself to understand

You’ll interpret the messages from your inner voice in the way that’s most suited to the moment. It helps if you clear out your preconceived ideas and allow this wisp of knowing to simply surround you and hug you and be absorbed into your being.

Act from a place of knowing

Then do what you need to do in the moment. That’s all. Shape things as they show up. Don’t force them, or push them away. Simply take what feels right in the moment and let the rest move on. Shape what you keep into the size and shape that expands your choices, your next step, and move through the doors that have opened for you.

Don’t play small

Your inner voice is the knowledge of the Universe. It knows no bounds. When you are willing to push beyond your own boundaries, consider concepts you’d never thought about before. You can trust that you’ll never be given an opportunity you cannot do. Simply flow into your next choice, your next action, with the ease of rain falling to earth.

Your inner voice wants you to play big

You’ve been given many gifts. You’ve been given a passion and talents to develop that passion. Your inner voice has a BIG vision for you. Listen. Interpret. Act.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Allow Life to Be a Meditation
Live Like Water
The Many Faces of Your Calling
Mindfulness as a Path to Self-Awareness
How Do You Nurture “Different”
37-Self Mastery As a Choice
35—How to Hold the Space for Change.
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence

How to Track Your Self-Awareness

October 20, 2016 By Cara Lumen

Self-awareness is the cornerstone of making aligned choices. The more aware you are of what you need, how you’re perceived and what your passion is, the better you’ll be at making the choices that are perfect for moving forward.

Take a beginning survey

Write a description of how you feel on your mental, physical and spiritual planes. Perhaps add an observation of how you feel about the path you’re on, what you’d like to see happen or change. Put a date on it and periodically revisit it and add new observations. Make a note of the subtle improvements you have made.

You’ll find a lot of useful introspective awareness processes in my book. Shape Your Journey, Clarify Your Calling

Look at your reflection

An interesting place to observe your personal growth is in the reflection you see of yourself through the responses of others. Even more interesting is the fact that what you don’t like in others is exactly what you don’t like in yourself. Work on that one!

Keep your acknowledgements in one document and begin to notice the threads and similarities. This will help you see where you’re succeeding and where you need work.

Notice your cycles

Because you’re always changing, you’ll need to stay constantly aware of your progress. This isn’t about comparing yourself to anyone else. It’s your personal journey and your personal responsibility.

Establish some pattern of introspection and mind map or journal, or do whatever you need to do in order to pause and listen to your inner voice. Having a record of various points in your inner journey is helpful in identifying the beginnings and ends of cycles.

Some people are more introspective that others

I get a little carried away listening to my inner voice and trying to figure out what all those nudges and insights mean. But inner awareness is the focus of my work. I even include a Deeper Song Process in my weekly newsletter to members of Deeper Song Community that comes from my life experience and curiosity.

If you’re capable of making thoughtful, aligned choices that seem to keep taking you in a rewarding and personally expanding direction, you’re already pretty self-aware. But since you keep changing, you have to keep looking at what you want and how you’re sharing your passion. Trust yourself to make aligned choices and trust the Universe to provide you with the right opportunities from which to choose.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Allow Life to Be a Meditation
The Power in a Ceremony of Releasing
Live Like Water
Stoking the Fire Within
23 – What Are the Truths You Live By?
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence

What Do You Do When You Feel Stuck?

October 13, 2016 By Cara Lumen

When you’re depressed you feel stuck, unable to find your way out and, most of all, unwilling to even make an effort. You’re unwilling to change, unwilling to try something new, unwilling to look at possibilities. But you can get yourself out of depression simply by looking around.

How stuck are you?

Often the depression part comes when you feel stuck and have absolutely no idea what you want and need to get yourself unstuck. The not-knowing is so huge that you don’t even try. So how can you move out of that?

Remember that life moves in cycles

There’s no way you can stay stuck because the natural flow of life is in cycles. You’re always changing. Sometimes not happily so, but nevertheless you are always changing. So the good news is: however stuck you feel, however depressed you are, life is a moving process and it will change.

Identify the cause of your stuck-ness

Look to find what’s missing in your life. It may be encouragement, it may be a focus for your work, it may be some genuine downtime that you need for recuperation and regrouping.

I certainly have gone through periods of not-doing because my body had been pushed and truly needed to rest. Give yourself permission to goof off. Listen to those natural, organic reasons for feeling stuck, for not being willing to tackle anything new.

Wait for the cycle to change

I’m writing this now because I’m watching myself move through a period of unwillingness to do any of the things I could do. However, because I allow my life to unfold, I’m being patient with the cycle, this whatever-it-is.

And I don’t know what’s missing. I don’t know what steps to take to help myself move forward. What can I do, how shall I move forward when I really want to stand still?

My body will show me the way

I can wait for my inner wisdom to give me a sign as long as I don’t wallow in this whatever-it-is. That means I have to be willing to consider change, to consider next steps. To look closely at what and why I’m resisting.

Fear is not the cause of this stagnation. I just pushed my way through months of learning new programs that would take me to my next step.

Fatigue is not the cause. I’ve just taken it easy for the last few days.

Discouragement is not the cause. I have fabulous projects at various stages of completion. I’m on the right track and it’s working well.

Uncertainty about my direction is not the cause. I’m very clear about what I want to say, who I want to say it to and how I want to offer it to the people I serve.

Something is changing

There is some change happening deep within me and it simply needs some time. Something at my core is changing and it’s too subtle for me to recognize. It could be a need. It could be a new direction that hasn’t yet been made clear. Whatever is changing is still changing and it isn’t time for me yet to know what it is or what to do.

And so I wait.

I could go exploring

Even if I sit here like an owl, turning my head first one way and then the other, it only commits me to looking, not moving. You know how nature moves in cycles. There’s no particular date for a bud to bloom or a leaf to drop. Nature just hangs out in the moment and things happen. Could I be like nature and just be in the moment?

From my owl position I do not want to move. I’m full up of exploring new ideas, or digging deep within myself to find answers that I then share with others. Sitting here looking around is a big enough move for me right now.

What if this inability to move forward is not about what I have, but that it’s about what’s missing? How do I identify what’s missing – how do I start doing that?

The exploration for the missing piece

For me, the missing piece is interaction with more upbeat, interesting people who are passionately moving along their own paths. I already have a few such people in my life. Do I need more or do I simply need to interact more frequently with the ones that I have? Or is it simply time to wait for life to unfold – to evolve – to emerge?

Wait your way out of stuck-ness

I definitely have good stuff going on in my life. I love what I do, I share with people and I know when I make a difference. I’m using my skills and acquiring more.

But in this particular moment there’s stillness.

There’s waiting. There’s patience. There’s unclarity. And most of all there’s no need to do anything except watch.

Feel your way out of stuck-ness

The more I keep tuned into my own feelings, the more easily I’ll recognize the answer when it appears. The more I honor my own inner nudges and make it OK to read, or look out a window, or whatever seems to call to me, the more balanced I become and the more aligned with my passion and purpose.

Notice your rhythm

Maybe you’ve been pushing yourself too fast or too hard and suddenly you simply need to pause and regroup. The change in rhythm can be misconstrued as stuck-ness, when, in fact, it can simply be self-healing. Small changes in rhythm are absorbable. The large swings are more noticeable and can be misinterpreted as stuck-ness.

I will wait for the change to happen

But I won’t wait too long. There comes a point when a person has to cut bait – let it all go and just move forward. One foot in front of the other, one task completed, another begun.

When I start to move, even with the smallest of steps, I’ll acknowledge that particular victory. Even writing this article is a victory – I’m exploring what I think and feel about being stuck, about being dispirited and trying to figure a way to get myself to move forward. And I’m sharing what I discover with you.

Depressed means gloomy, glum, sad, unhappy, melancholy, dejected. Each one of those words is not something I want to be. And actually, I’m none of those. But I am a little off balance. I’m a little unmotivated. I have a lot of “I-don’t-want-to’s” showing up.

And so I wait

I make mind maps with pencil and paper to uncover my unconscious concerns and capture them in a form I can see. I wrote this post to figure out what I think. And I wait. I’m waiting for me to change just as my life continues to change.

And I trust

I trust the cycles. I trust my own evolution. I trust my perpetual enthusiasm, which seems to be taking a rest. I wait. And I act on whatever willingness comes up.

And let that lead me on to the next step.

And the next.

One step at a time. One small change at a time – back to happiness and fulfillment.

To Sind a Deeper Song Consider:

The Power in a Ceremony of Releasing
Live Like Water
Stoking the Fire Within
What if You Broke the Mold?
How Do You Define Success?
47 – Empower Your Feminine
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence

What Makes You Feel Valuable?

October 4, 2016 By Cara Lumen

We all want to feel valuable. We want and need to feel that we count, that our presence is appreciated, that we contribute to life. Sometimes we simply try too hard. The fact is, what sets you apart, what makes you valuable are your strengths – those qualities and attributes that are so much a part of you that they make you stand out.

Your strengths are the things that make you unique and valued.

Even the un-positive strengths have value

What if people regard you as “stubborn”, for instance? It’s easy to think up some negative connotations for stubborn. But what if you turn that into interpretations like determination, tenacity, a person who follows through. That’s a slightly different take on a quality. Now it’s true that being stubborn may benefit from a little flexibility, but see how you can turn a potentially less-than-desirable character trait into a strength!

You strength will make you seem unique

For a time, I believed I was too self-absorbed and self-focused. Until I realized that all creativity comes from within and the only way to get to it is through introspection, i.e. self-absorption and self-focus. It’s the artist’s way. We have to listen within. So my desire to be alone and contemplative sets me apart from a lot of people and makes me unique but it’s all exactly what makes my work valuable, it’s how I contribute.

You strengths may be subtle

I’ve always been a good organizer, but it was years before I realized that I was also a good organizer of ideas. I then put that ability to work as a coach and as a writer. What strengths do you have that would benefit from being applied in a new venue?

You have to see yourself as valuable

The very uniqueness, the very qualities that make you different, are what make you valuable. Stop comparing yourself others. They have their own unique combination of passion and talents, just as you do.

Begin noticing what people ask you to do. That is your strength. Notice what you love to do. That is your passion. Notice how you are different from others. That is your uniqueness.

Make choices to honor your path

No one walks the same path. Although we walk alongside others for short periods, we’re on life’s journey in our own unique way. We learn from others and move on. We share ourselves with others and move on. We are always alone on this journey. Always striving to be more, to give more of ourselves, to honor more of our gifts.

What makes you feel valuable, you do. Only you.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider

Take Time to Explore Your Talents
How Being Different Makes You Special
The Responsibility of an Artist
Share From Your Soul
Stoking the Fire Within
44 – How to Define What You Do So Others Get It
40 – Who Do yo Want to Serve?7

Share From Your Soul

September 13, 2016 By Cara Lumen

There’s a place within you that’s rich with wisdom. It’s filled with love, it knows and experiences the deep connection of everything. It’s oneness. It’s our soul. It’s our voice within. When we go there for guidance, for wisdom, for self-expression, we bring forth the purest sound, the clearest music, the most profound richness.

Go there.

How do we live within?

Your mind is far removed from your soul. It is thinking and processing and interpreting all the time. It keeps very busy.

Your soul simply is. It’s like a clear deep pool, willing to reflect its message to you when you just look.

You have to make time for silence

To hear the purity of your soul, you have to learn to pause before you act or speak in order to feel and know what’s at your core. It takes silence to hear the message of compassion, the clarity of purpose that resides deep within.

When you listen, you can hear

Interpret not with your mind but with your feelings, a deep knowingness that simply is. Then you simply are. You just are. Your presence is serene. Your gifts are rich. Your effect is far-reaching.

You are immersed in the “doing” when you share from your soul

Musicians who are lost in their music share from their soul. Writers who close their eyes and share from deep inside themselves share from their soul. People who act with an awareness of their innermost selves are sharing from their soul.

Simply be still and hear the message

Listen. Learn to interpret the stillness, the silence, the subtle nudges. Then interpret them in your life. When you share from your soul, there is a richness, a depth of essence that is profound and far-reaching.

Practice stillness, practice being

Begin your day with silent contemplation. Begin your work with a blessing that your soul goes out with everything you say and do throughout the day and touches the souls of those who receive your work.

Work consciously, mindfully and let yourself be guided by whatever shows up. Make choices in the moment – from your soul.

Consciously talk to you soul

Ask for guidance. Listen to the response. Follow your intuition. Use each moment to share a piece of your soul.