personal growth

The Willingness Day

August 25, 2016 By Cara Lumen

What would happen if you spent the day being totally willing – willing to try something new, willing to simply be? What would that look like? What would that feel like?

Why is willingness important?

If we’re not willing, we’ll never try anything new. We will miss everything! There are often reasons why we are not eager. We may be afraid, we may not know how, or we may not have the self-confidence to even try.

When you’re willing, the world opens up to you.

Willingness is being eager

Curiosity leads us to the most exciting places. When we take a moment to look, to explore, to consider, we begin to see how the opportunity fits into our life and we move eagerly forward into the adventure.

Wiliness is being flexible

Practice being more willing in your interaction with others. Go along with what the others want – as long as it’s in line with your values, of course. Allow others to lead the way. It can lead you to fascinating places you might never have considered.

Willingness is being amenable

Be open to suggestions. Listen to the others’ ideas and viewpoints. New worlds of adventure and opportunity open up when you stay open to the natural flow of events.

Willingness makes you ready, eager and prepared to do something

A willing person is curious and eager to go exploring. She is the person who is ready to expand her ideas and prepared to do whatever it takes. Wouldn’t you like someone like that on your team? Wouldn’t you like to be like that?

Is that you?

Or do you need a little work? What happens if you decide to have a Willingness Day?

Today I’m willing to listen and absorb what the other person is saying before I respond. I listen to the concerns that are hidden behind the words. I will be open to hearing things I didn’t expect.

Today I’m willing to try something new. I will simply allow an idea to emerge and go exploring. I will even push past my apprehension and uncertainty. I will go two or three steps further than I though I could.

Today I’m willing to trust. For the whole day I will trust Tao to provide exactly what I need, whether I think it looks like it or not. And I will trust that I have the wisdom and self-knowledge to make the right choice.

Today I celebrate my willingness. I’m going to dance and play throughout my day in celebration of my open, receptive willingness to immerse myself in the natural flow of the day.

Happy Willingness Day!

To Sing a Deeper Song:

Why Unfolding Works
The Power of Non-Action
The Power of Exploring the Unknown
Allow the Right Action to Emerge
Just Chose
The Reward is in the Journey
34- Use Labels to Expand Your Possibilities
29-Are You Wiling to Move Beyond Your Comfort Zone?

Let the Full Moon Help You Celebrate Cycles of Change

August 17, 2016 By Cara Lumen

Life moves in a constant series of cycles. That means we’ll never be stuck in the same place with the same problem. We’ll always be changing. That calls for a celebration – of growth and expansion and new adventure. What better reminder of our many opportunities than to tune into the rhythm and power and serenity of the full moon.

A full moon lights the way

If we were to use the full moon as a reminder of the cycles of our life, we’d celebrate the clear view that she offers to our path ahead. As we stand in the light of the full moon, we could be grateful for where we are and appreciative of the opportunities we see ahead. We could offer gratitude for our many gifts and opportunities for change.

A full moon illuminates the dark corners

When we pause to celebrate the full moon, we can take a moment to allow light into the dark corners of our life, to release what doesn’t work, to clear space for something we’d rather have in our life.

A full moon creates a serene experience

If I were to create a celebration of life using the full moon as a reminder, I would meditate, listen and absorb the messages from my inner voice, from nature and from my intuition. I would sit quietly and be in Tao. Be Tao. Every month. At the full moon.

A full moon can serve as a reminder

It’s right there on my calendar, the reminder of the date of the full moon. How easy it is to choose that day to create my own awareness and gratitude celebration. I could take that time to acknowledge the blessings I’ve received during the month. I could consciously release what no longer works for me. I could journal how I notice how I’ve grown and changed. I could even write down the unexpected gifts I’ve received.

But I’m not into planning. I let my life unfold, and in my full moon meditation I might visualize a smooth path ahead, a gentle climb. I’d want to leave room for a few unexpected surprises because I really do like change.

A full moon ceremony can be simple

All over the world, people create ceremonies around the full moon. That means that energetically, in your own full moon celebration, you will be connected with people all over the world. What an expansive feeling!

You can find others to join with you in person or you can create a ceremony for yourself alone. You can certainly go online and find all manner of suggestions for ways people celebrate the full moon.

But you need to create your own version. Your own ceremony. Your own acknowledgment of change.

Experiment. Add. Subtract. I personally like to journal, so I have something concrete to help me notice my progress from month to month and document the changes and growth I’ve undergone.

As I love crystals, my personal full moon ceremony contains crystals that I hold or have near by. I have essential oils I can add. I know chants. I have chimes and a bell. If I played better, I could use my flute. And I’m sure the moon won’t be concerned over my talent if I chose to play it anyway…

I invite you to create your own Full Moon Ceremony

Begin with gratitude. Acknowledge the unexpected gifts you have received, the progress you’ve made.

Add a ceremony of releasing to allow yourself to let go of what no longer serves you: beliefs, people, work, projects, expectations.

Then just be present with nature.

Be with the moon and listen. Feel the connection. Be aware of your connection with all that is. Immerse yourself in the feeling of oneness. Lose yourself in it. Become one with nature.

Make your full moon ceremony focus on whatever you want it to. Make it look however you want it to. Use the occasion of the full moon to take stock, to offer gratitude, to celebrate the beautiful cycles of change and to steady yourself on the path.

To track lunar movement check out
Moon Phases 2016 – Lunar Calendar

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
Live in the Nowhere That You Came rom
Learn to Honor Your Inner Rhythm
Everyone Walks the Same Path
The Power of Your Personal Path
41 – How to Make Decisions When Your Let Your Life Unfold
37-Self Mastery As a Choice

Two Steps Past Hard

August 11, 2016 By Cara Lumen

I recently noticed that it was hard to hold some of the positions in my standing Qi Gong practice and that I’d been allowing myself to shorten the session. What, I wondered, would happen if I took it two steps past hard. Not one step – that’s easy. But two steps, steps that took a little effort, took some determination. Steps that could also lead to improvement or even a breakthrough.

Acknowledge the stuck place

You know the adage “use it or lose it”? The older we get the more important that is. Particularly with our body – and our brain. I’m giving my brain plenty of exercise, but my body, not so much. I need to take my body two steps past hard.

Baby step or giant step?

I’m a determined person. So once I decide that I really do want to push through something, I settle into the harness and move forward. It doesn’t really matter what size step you take as long as it moves you past your stuck place.

When I was learning Scrivener writing software, I had to watch the beginning tutorial five or six times; and each time I mastered a new small step.

Each time I edit a podcast I get better at the process. The same is true with videos, I’m getting more proficient with each one I do. Sometimes moving past the stuck place is simply a matter of persistent practice.

Choose your steps

My stuck place is that in my creative hurry to get to my computer to start writing, I shortchange my standing Qi Gong practice. And yet this is a valuable part of my morning spiritual practice. I simply need to hold each position for a longer period of time. And yes, my muscles are not particularly happy with that!

So I have to take two or even three steps past that hard place – every day.

Acknowledge your victory

And you know what? The minute I hold those positions longer, I’m going to feel very pleased with myself. I’m going to feel confident that I can do even more. I will feel that I’m on the road to reclaiming some of my body strength. And soon I’ll be back to holding the positions even longer than I thought was possible.

All because of taking two steps past the hard place.

Where are you stuck?

Your stuck place may be a subtle internal stuck place or a noticeable physical plane stuck place. You can work on either – or both. I can identify a few too many subtle stuck places when it comes to learning new technical stuff. But once I take it to the other side of stuck, I find wonderful new opportunities open to me.

What is hard for you?

What did you do in the past that you can’t or won’t do any more? If it has to do with your body getting older, find some alternative strength-building ideas and put them into action. If you are stuck emotionally, go deeper within to find your answers – meditate, journal, mind-map, talk to someone – whatever it takes to identify where you’re stuck and to figure out two steps to take you past that point.

“Hard” is created by being unyielding

Hard is about being resistant and rigid. It’s about being inflexible. It can also come from gradually letting things slide.
But hard also means being strong and unbeatable. Drop your resistance to change. Embrace the goal you know you need to achieve. And start working toward it. Two steps at a time. Two steps past hard.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Learn to Honor Your Inner Rhythm
The Freedom of Not knowing
Lose Your Attachment to the Outcome
The Power of Exploring the Unknown
42 – The Stuck Place Called Decision
35—How to Hold the Space for Change.

The Length of Your Reach

August 4, 2016 By Cara Lumen

As we move along in our lives, we sometimes forget how many lives we actually touch. Like the pebble dropped into the pond, our waves go on and on until they reach the far shore. That’s a lot of territory to cover – a lot of lives to touch.

The power of your personal touch

It’s easy to see how you touch the lives of the people you personally interact with – your family, your friends, your co-workers. Your interactions with them are tangible and the results often evident. This is the perfect place to begin to practice expanding your reach. Make certain you say only kind things, listen to what is not being said and respond to that, watch the reactions you elicit and decide what to change about yourself. Notice the effect you have, the difference you make. The people you interact with are a mirror in which you see the reflection of yourself.

The power of your passing touch

You touch people by your mere presence. They’re attracted to your enthusiasm, your joy, the spiritual energy that emanates as you check out at their counter, or walk by them, or they simply feel your energy from across the room. You don’t realize that you touched those lives and you don’t know how profound the impact was. It’s the reflection of the goodness within you that they respond to. They see your light within.

The power of people you inspire

You may inspire someone because of your tenacity, your thoughtfulness, your determination and perseverance. You may inspire them by a kindness you showed.

We can become more impactful when we move consciously through our lives. Begin to give some thought to how you inspire people and how that, in turn, affects their lives.

I do what I do because I’m deeply called to my work. Although I don’t set out to inspire people with what I write, I know I do. They respond to what comes from my own inner truth; they’re touched by the words I use and the ideas I share.

I know this because people write to me about how they were moved. Otherwise I’d never know. But we have to trust that the way we live our lives, and the energy and positive intention of the work we produce, will inspire people we don’t even know.

The value of the lives you improved

Look back at the various nudges, helping hands and inspiration that have come your way over the years. For me, it was the teacher who made me Managing Editor of my school paper and started me on a lifetime of writing, the teacher of a comparative religion class that peaked my curiosity about the world’s great religions, the friend who got me involved in reiki so I became a reiki master teacher third degree, the practitioner who invited me to the Center for Spiritual of Living, where I spent the following five years becoming a practitioner, people I coached and learned from in the process, people whose webinars and tutorials sent me off on new creative directions.

None of those people know how much they changed and improved my life. But their effect was deep and lifechanging and has shaped how I have moved in the world to affect others.

You have done the same for others and you will never know how many lives you have changed.

Your energy and the far reach of social media

I had two signs recently about the ever-growing reach of social media. Someone shared one of my podcasts with her list on LinkedIn and Twitter and several new people from Twitter started following me. I don’t personally know all the people I reach through my posts and podcasts and videos on social media. I don’t know how my offering changes their lives and the lives of those they touch. I don’t know how something I write may spark an idea for someone else, who turns around and interprets it in their unique manner so that it touches another life.

But the signs that this is happening keep coming back to me. When I see them I have to understand that one of the ways I can make my life count is to keep doing what I’m doing – thinking and exploring and sharing what I discover. It all counts. It all matters. It’s all part of that ripple.

The next time you’re feeling irrelevant, like your life doesn’t count for much, just know that the wave from your pebble has hit a lot of shores, gone over a lot of rocks, swirled through a lot of leaves, and sent ripples to a lot of fish. Your wave counts. Your wave makes a difference.

Know that. Trust that. Be the best wave you can be.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
The Power of Your Personal Path
The Reward is in the Journey
Are You a Gift Person
The Desire for Freedom and the Road Less Traveled
Do You Know How To Love?
27 – Why Have You Been Chosen
28 – How to Walk Beside Someone in Service

Don’t Go Back

July 25, 2016 By Cara Lumen

It’s much easier to go back to the familiar than to push forward. We know what to expect. We know how to do it. But it doesn’t grow our own life when we stick with what we already know. It doesn’t teach us how to do anything new, or how a different approach might affect the outcome. There’s no advancement when we go back to what we already know.

Don’t go back.

I keep falling into the trap of thinking about going backward. For me, it centers around coaching. I have coached. I have even coached several topics. Yet when my business organically went away when I did some old lady things like move cross country and have knee-replacement surgery, I never tried to revive it again. Except on occasions, like recently, when I started to create a coaching course.

The fact is that I outlined the course eight months ago, left it for these exact reasons – that I didn’t want to do something I already knew how to do. So why does something I’ve already done, that I know how to do, show up again as a temptation?

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

A zillion years ago, as a PTA mother, I figured out that just because I was capable of doing every job didn’t mean I had to do it. It was a very useful lesson I’ve applied ever since. The more capable we are, the more opportunities there are to serve. The catch is to choose only those that will grow you.

What do you need to learn next?

Whenever I teach a topic, I always improve my own skills. A useful question to ask yourself is, “What do I want/need to learn next?” Then go teach some version that.

Yes, I know, we’re taught that in order to build a business we have to meet the needs of others, but that doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to be limited by that. What if we go exploring someplace we don’t fully understand, figure out how it works and what we need from it and share it with others? I bet someone wants to have our light shed on their journey.

Follow your call

All my life I’ve been a spiritual explorer. It’s taken many forms, from energy healer to spiritual counselor to philosophical spiritual explorer. Each experience adds to the dimension of the concepts I explore, what I discover and how I interpret that.

I decided to keep moving forward. Yes, I started to resurrect that coaching course, for about 48 hours, until I remembered not to go back. Only forward. That’s all you can do anyway, go forward. But sometimes we try to avoid the adventure of ongoing change by resurrecting what we already know how to do.

I’m going deeper. I’m listening to whispers and nudges that suggest I explore a specific direction or make a turn there. I’m curious, I’m inquisitive, I try out ideas in my own life. And then I share what I find.

I know others hear me and are moved, because they tell me.

Yes, I could touch some lives if I went back and did what I already know how to do, but I can grow my own life as well as that of others when I keep going forward.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

Lose Your Attachment to the Outcome
The Prime Real Estate of Time and Space
The Power of Exploring the Unknown
Is Everything You Know Still True ?
29-Are You Wiling to Move Beyond Your Comfort Zone?
34- Use Labels to Expand Your Possibilities