Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

positve change

How Your Belief System Dictates Your Choices

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“I’m scared to death,” she said. “I’m worried”  “I can’t do that.”  I don’t know how to…”  You get the picture.  Our belief system dictates our outcome because it dictates our choices.  If we believe we can’t do something, chances are we don’t even try.  If we believe our work is not important, we may not be as productive or put it out in as much volume as we might.

Beliefs can be insidious

“Insidious” means subtle but in a hurtful way.  The subtle part is tricky because sometimes we don’t even know we have the beliefs.  In a recent shamanic journey, I found I had a limiting belief that my work didn’t matter very much.

I love doing it.  I thought I did a good job.  But I didn’t have the feeling that it made much difference in the overall scheme of things.

The outcome of that belief was that I have a hard time completing things, putting covers on completed books and actually putting them on Amazon.

It’s much safer, easier and more fun, just to sit here and explore with my mind.  It was not the actual doing of the work it takes to put it out the door that was limiting me, it was the belief that what I had to offer didn’t matter.

Subtle.  Insidious.  Hurtful.

How do you identify your limiting beliefs?

To find and release my limiting beliefs, I take a shamanic journey.  I go within my imagination and ask my helping spirits to show me these limiting beliefs.  I usually get an answer.  Then it’s up to me to figure out how to yank that limiting belief out of my inner garden, the place where I grow my hope and crops and yes, also the weeds of limiting beliefs.

Sometimes, in my imagination, I bury that limiting belief.  Sometimes I wash it away or let the wind carry it off.  Use your imagination to release the limiting beliefs you identify.

Some limiting beliefs are given to you by others 

“You can’t do that.”  “You’ll never make that happen.” “The chances of doing that are slim.”

Who knows why people say these things to each other!  Perhaps because it looks hard to them.  Perhaps because they have no vision or no passion.  Perhaps because of their own limiting beliefs.

We’re given body suits in order to express certain aspects of ourselves and we’ve been given the gifts to make that happen.  Open your gift box and see what’s there.  It may be a talent, a skill, a way with people, a passion for something.  We all have gifts.  But not all of us use them.

Believe you have important gifts.  Look for them.  Then add them to your life in a way that shares your gift with others.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider

Unleash the Power of Your Inner Garden

The Mirror of Appreciation

What Do You Really Want?

What is Your Unique Purpose?

Why Do You Believe What You Do?

Are You Fighting Structure? 

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Look closely at how you define words that guide you. You may subconsciously be stopping yourself from moving forward. My friend was fighting the idea of structure. And I wondered if the resistance came from how he defined the word.

If you really are a free spirit, structure may feel confining. However, if you are a free spirit you probably need some structure. Hmm.

Structure is about relationship

Structure is the relationship between the parts or elements of something complex. Relationship. How they work together. How they support each other. What is needed and what is not.

When something has many moving parts, (like an idea), you have to make up some boundaries, some sort of categories, in order to bring the pieces into a manageable size. Organizing many things into a few categories helps you see the overview.  And that helps in creating a workable end result.

Why do you need structure?

A structure holds things together. A structure holds things up. We need the support of structure in our life. A structure can be loose or tight.  A loosely structured day is free-flowing and open to change.  You may not accomplish what you thought you would, but in the relaxed structure of your day, you may have discovered something that opens a new door.

The work world thrives on structure, hierarchy likes leaders and teams and levels of responsibility.  Even an entrepreneur has to find ways to wear every hat at one time or another and that means learning to work within several levels of structure.

You learn through structure. You are productive through structure.

Structure does not need to be confining

The structure of my home keeps me safe. The structure of my day – as in sleeping and eating at regular times – keeps me healthy. We need the support of structure in our life.

It is important to know how much structure you can handle.  Before I retired, there was the structure of coaching appointments and posts to write. I had outside influence on what I needed to put into my day.

Now that I’m retired, I get to choose.  I find two posts and one newsletter a week to be comfortable and still give me time and energy to toss in a few other creative projects, particularly when those projects have no timeline.  So I commit to that basic output and make it happen.

When I enrolled in a long-term course of study on shamanism, I was able to keep that schedule but other things I’d added, like vLogs and podcast, went on hold.  There is give and take in structure.

What do you want to accomplish?  What brings you joy?  Make that a cornerstone of your structure.

Structure brings clarity

You have to structure your ideas so others can hear what you have to say.

Let’s say I want to write a post. I have to choose one point to make. That becomes my structure. The boundary. The confines of what I will write.

I build ideas and explanations around that one idea.  I choose only what will clarify and support the main idea I want to convey.  Nothing else belongs in the structure of that post.

This post began because a friend was fighting structure. And I wondered how that applied to my life and yours.

The core purpose defines the structure.

Structure brings boundaries

The boundaries that a consciously chosen structure brings are a good thing. If I didn’t limit the topic and purpose of this post, I would be all over the place. Not a good thing.

If I were teaching a course, I would have to consider the boundaries of time agreed upon and the level of the students. Those boundaries are then built into the structure of what I present.

As I increase my personal spiritual work, I face the boundary of time, so I have to pick and choose how much time I’ll spend and what exactly it is I’ll do. Boundaries call for structure and structure creates boundaries.

Structure illuminates chaos

I’m redoing the template that helps me format my e-books. I’m making decisions and choices that will affect every e-book I write from here on out. But once this template is made, once this structure is created, I’m set. My books will look nice, they will come together quickly, and be easy to publish. All because I created a structure that serves as the foundation.

Structure will change as you become more skilled

I’ve written books in Pages.  Then I learned Scrivener. Then I learned iBooks Author and now I’m back to Pages. But I had to do all that exploring in order to understand what I needed and what I did not.  My move back to Pages came because of the discovery of one program, a grammar checker called Grammarly That has become a very important step and it’s easier to take from Pages. Your choices will change as you increase your skills and your structure will probably simplify as you need less outside support.

Keep the structure light

Too much structure means you have too many restrictions. Not enough structure means your house will fall down. You have to find a balance between what’s needed in the project and what you need for your freedom of expression.

Look closely at the idea of structure and make certain it’s not stopping you. At the same time, make certain you have enough structure to get the job done.

Look closely at how you define words that guide you. You may subconsciously be stopping yourself from moving forward

The Challenge in Repetition

What Do You Really Want?

The Mirror of Appreciation  

Repurpose Your Thought to Change the Outcome

The Stumbling Block Called Decision

How to Eliminate Worry

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Worry is full of “what if’s” and “maybe’s” and “might’s”.  It has nothing to do with what will or will not happen.  It’s like sitting there making up a worst-case scenario.  Don’t do that.

We make up stuff

My sister is moving.  There are many steps – selling her house, choosing a new space in an independent living complex, figuring out what to take and what not take.  She has herself worried sick.

For no reason. It’ll all simply unfold.  She’ll choose one of two apartments that are available. Her house is in good shape and is on the market.

And she’s nevertheless making up scenarios – bad scenarios.  If we’re going to make up “what if’s”, make up some good ones!

What if she loves the new apartment and feels the relief of not having property to take care of and finds she feels safe and secure? What if her home sells easily and effortlessly?  What if she keeps stumbling on pieces that are perfect for her new apartment? Wouldn’t that feel a whole lot better than those negative thoughts!

Monitor your negativity

It sure is easy to beat yourself up.  A friend sent me a link to videos with some lovely stretching exercises and because I haven’t done much physical work recently, the exercises were “hard” for me because they asked more of my body than it was used to.  But only in a very good way.

I had two ways to go – I could get very concerned that my body was so stiff and beat myself up for not moving more, or I could be grateful for the videos and make some positive decisions about where I’ll put those movements into my day.

Which one feels better? The positive one, of course.

Don’t settle for second best. 

What you look for, you get. What you expect, you receive.  Guess who gets to change all that. You do!  Expect the best and it’ll be there.  Settle for second best, and that, too, is what you’ll get.

See how easy it is?  Change your thinking and your world changes with it.

Unfolding frees you up

The practice of unfolding is amazing.  It releases you from striving and worrying and over-planning.  When you trust that your life is unfolding exactly as it should and that you’ll never be given more than you can handle, you’re good to go – to let it all unfold.

Explore different ideas

That doesn’t mean you sit there like a bump on a log.  You get to think and explore and learn new things, but be open to where that leads you.  Be open to who shows up for you to serve, what shows up for you to do, and what unexpected places you find yourself in.

It’s an awesome, ongoing adventure, this unfolding life, and all it takes is to simply allow it to happen.

Let go

Although I’m a natural list maker, as I practice unfolding I learn to be more general in my intentions.  For instance, I’d like to increase my knowledge of making video logs.  That’s a much looser intention than a list of overwhelming steps I might need to take to reach that goal.  With that general direction to flow in, I simply notice what opportunities show up and make a decision in the moment about how or if to take them.

When your life is open, great things appear

With a to-do list, your life can get very full.  Without a list, your life can become very exciting.  Which would you rather it be?

Cut down on your “things-you-should/could-do” list. Keep your to-do list as simple as you can.

It helps to choose only one important thing to do each day.  It’s very freeing to effectively accomplish that one thing.  Suddenly you have time open and can either choose another “important” thing to do or simply go exploring wherever your passion leads you.

Unfolding is a powerful way to let go of worry.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

No Timetable, No Destination

The Mirror of Appreciation

Repurpose Your Thought to Change the Outcome

The Unfolding Vision Board

Did You Over–plant?

The Unfolding Vision Board

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woods with sun

When you choose to let your life simply unfold, can you make a “vision board”?  A vision board is a collection of pictures and words that hold your view of the future, your wish for the future, your intention for the future.

But if you let your life unfold, you really don’t vision, do you? You don’t spend time imagining “what if.”

If you don’t vision, if you don’t make conscious plans, how do you “vote” on your future? How do you make stuff happen?  You draw your future to you by your present thoughts and actions and beliefs of what is possible and what you deserve.  And all that creation of your future happens in the now, the present moment.

Monitor the present in order to direct the future

What you’re focusing on in this moment is exactly what you’re helping to gain momentum and power in the future.  If you focus on what’s not going well in your life, you’re simply attracting more of that.  To get more good stuff, we have to focus on and think about the good stuff.

Turn the negative around

I keep putting off uploading a short complete book on Amazon and iBooks.  It’s technical, I can do it, but it’s not half as much fun as making up new stuff.  I have to move the focus off how I feel and picture the positive effect my words may have on someone else’s life.  It’s selfish of me not to take those final steps. When I change my patterns and choices in the present moment, I change the outcome in the future.

I sometimes beat myself up for being such a loner.  But I can switch that vision of myself by focusing on the creative, focused, prolific productivity that being alone, working alone and having time to think alone produces.

Change how you view what you would put on your vision board

If I see my writing as being in illumined service, that shows up on my vision board as an intention to be a bright light, not a mound of dollar bills.  If I hold my regular conversations with like-minded healers as mutually supportive on my vision board, I promote growth and expansion not just a certain number of Skype calls a month.

Notice how you view the results you want on your vision board and see if they can become more expansive and inclusive.

You cannot force your vision

You cannot force a vision, but what you can do is make choices in the moment.  Make aligned choices that’ll carry you in the general direction you want to go.  The beauty is that each choice opens new doors, new side roads to explore, new opportunities you never expected.  So you don’t want a final result on your vision board, you want the flexibility and unexpectedness of simply traveling a path.

An unfolding life can still have a vision board

My vision board would show a woman traveler alone on a path carrying a lantern high.  Periodically she stops to draw a map and places it in an obvious place beside the trail so others can find it.

My vision board includes my helping spirits in the invisible world who guide me along my journey. They’re in the mist around me, ready to offer assistance.

My vision board holds side trails that tempt me to explore them.

And my path is always leading upward.

Sometimse on my vision board I turn to walk beside someone in service, to shine my light so they can better see and then take their own steps.

But there’s no end result on my vision board. No final destination. It contains only my journey – the one I’m on now and will continue to be on.  Change comes from my choices, in the moment, the choices that take me on a side path or up a hill or across a stream.

Make a vision board about your journey, not your destination.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Did You Over–plant?

What Life Decisions Changed Your Direction? 

What Do You Need to Leave Behind

How To Write a New Life Story  

Clean Your Inside Home 

Are You a Leader of Change?

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guardian

The world is shifting rapidly. New technology, new science, new possibilities, new expectations.  We either keep up or rapidly fall behind.

Change means constant flexibility, releasing, exploration and adaptation. And those of us who are flexible enough to see, realize and create an alternate option are being called upon to lead.

Change means flexibility

Change can be scary. It means moving out of your “comfort zone”.  It means learning new skills and embracing new beliefs.  Flexibility is the cornerstone of being a Leader for Change.

Change means releasing

In order to change, we have to let go of what we think we know and what we believe and be prepared to explore what we thought was inconceivable. As science continues to uncover new planets and deepen its understanding of how our body works and discover the relationship of man’s choices and the well-being of our planet, we have to change our minds.  We have to keep learning and shifting and keeping up.

Change is about adjusting and modifying what we think we know.  Embracing change means to be open and curious.

Change means exploration

What calls to you?  Where can you be in service?  People are training for the new technology.  They’re becoming active in the governing of their community and they actively participate in global organizations that are caring for the world. I work energetically with others all over the world to raise our collective consciousness.

Look at new opportunities.  Go where you’re called.

Change means adaptation

There are technologies that are leaving me behind.  I’m not a good texter but I can make a video. I’ve never done Instagram but I’m in Facebook communities. Find the new technology or idea that calls to you and make it your own.

Change your thinking

We have to stay flexible in both our thinking and our expectations.  What we used to believe possible is now very outdated and limiting. We cannot go back to the familiar, the comfortable, the safe. It’s obsolete, outmoded and stultifying.

There’s no way I can truly identify with the children who are 80 years younger that I am.  I did not grow up with the technology they have available now.  That very technology will color how they develop and how they see the world.  And that’ll be very different from my life experience.

But I can watch and observe.  And I can keep expanding my own service in the world and embrace some of the new technology so that I can share with others.

Be a change maker

My personal role is as an explorer and map maker of the unseen world, the spiritual experience, the esoteric concepts that run through the core of our lives.

People can serve in many ways. The knowledge that we each have to be more active in our governing process, at the local level and up, is beginning to sink in.  More women are running for office.  Young people see themselves as part of the solution.

I am active in transformational communities working to raise the collective consciousness and support light workers in all fields.

Find your place on the spectrum of change and get to work.

Whatever you do to allow change to flow though your life is perfect. Be conscious of the need to change.   Be open to new ways of being, new ways to express yourself, new ways of thinking.  And then hang on to your hat and enjoy the ride!

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

How to Effortlessly Radiate Ligh

Are You In Illumined Service?  

Choices That Create Your Future

The Guardianship We Hold 

Building a Transformational Community to Heal Our World