sacred space Archives - Cara Lumen

Are You Sacred Space?
An Inner World Exploration

If I do not see myself as sacred space, I may not act like sacred space. So my first step is to see if I like the idea that I am sacred space and what it means if I am.

Unconditional love is at the heart of sacred space

To see if you can experience yourself as sacred space, sit quietly and focus on your breathing. Quiet your mind and begin to feel yourself wrapped in a mist of unconditional love. Feel it permeate your cells, the molecules, the space between the molecules. You sit there as one gentle flowing mist of unconditional love.

Do you accept unconditional love for yourself? Can you feel yourself as unconditional love?

Unconditional love is at the heart of knowing yourself as a sacred space, and that unconditional love has to be focused first on you. You must love yourself unconditionally. Only then can you see and feel and hear yourself as sacred space.

You may have to work on that. I did.

Can you feel unconditional love? Can you accept it for yourself? Do you feel you deserve unconditional love? What’s stopping you?

What does unconditional love feel like?

Unconditional love feels like you’ are perfect just the way you are. That you are valued and appreciated and have meaning and impact in the world. You count. In fact, you count a lot. Whatever is going on in your life, you are loved. You are love.

Stop and absorb that. You are unconditionally loved.

Let unconditional love move into your heart, let unconditional love move into your mind. Let unconditional love move into your all-seeing third eye so that everything you see is unconditional love.

You are now living as sacred space!

Feel your connection to all

We are all one – one energy, one pulse, one expression of life. Move through your life mindfully with an increasing awareness of being connected to everyone and everything. Feel connected to the birds outside your window. Feel connected to the trees and the clouds and the wind. Feel your oneness with nature.

Take that feeling into your life. Feel the connection with your breath. It will remind you that you are sacred and you are to move through your life in a sacred manner.

Cultivate the inner stillness of sacred space

In sacred space, there’s no worry, no anger, no intolerance. Only unconditional love and serenity. The serenity of being present. The serenity of being accepted and the serenity of offering acceptance. The serenity of being safe in the Web of Life, deeply embraced by the Emptiness That Holds Everything.

Be that. Feel that. Know that.

A sacred space is aware

As a sacred space, you must stay present and aware. Aware of your thoughts. Aware of your beliefs. Aware of your actions and words. In all you say and do and think, you naturally and organically radiate your sacredness because you are sacred. You are sacred space. When you mindfully radiate your sacredness, those around you will feel it, recognize it, and respond.

As sacred space, how do you treat yourself?

Sacred space is, well, sacred. You treat it with care and reverence. Since you are sacred space, your body is a temple. It houses your soul. You must treat it with appreciation and respect and great care. You feed it, you cleanse it, you open windows to air it, you take it for walks in nature. You place your body in sacred service.

How will seeing your body as a temple change how you care for its sacred space?

Learn to recognize the sacredness in others

You are sacred space. I am sacred space. Everyone and everything is sacred space! That certainly changes how we walk in the world.

Now that you know you are sacred space, what changes do you need to make? What does that look like to you? What does that feel like to you?

I have to greatly broaden my feeling of connection with all the living energies in the world. All of humanity. All of nature. I know we are all strands in the Web of Life and are connected at the core in the All-That-IS. I need to learn to live as the interconnected sacred space that I am.

Honor yourself as sacred space

At the end of each day, pause in gratitude for the offerings that have come to you. Those gifts may have come in the form of words or actions or thoughts. They may be in the form of gifts or actions or circumstances. Your day has been blessed. Your sacredness has been noted. And you have offered your light, your sacred self, in service to the world.

Pay attention. You are sacred space.

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider:

What is the Difference between Spirituality and Religion?

You Are Never Separate

How to Weave the Sacred into the Ordinary

What Does Spiritual Friendship Look Like?

Abide at the Center of Your Being

by Cara Lumen

It’s way too easy to stay busy and forget who we are and what we are here to do. We get caught up in deadlines and projects and family and forget to take that sacred pause, the moments in which we move within and connect with our wholeness and our oneness with all.

You have to make time for your inner work

Like anything else that is important, you need to set up specific times to contemplate. When I first learned Transcendental Meditation 40 years ago it was suggested we do it 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes when we came home from work to mark the change between work and an evening of relaxation. I even know of a married couple who do not speak to each other upon arriving home until each has gone to a quiet place to release their day and embrace their forthcoming time together. Pauses are good, whenever you take them.

You may walk daily and find that a time to contemplate. You may journal every day to record some introspective thoughts. I find journaling helps me sort out what I’m thinking and feeling. It may be as simple as blessing your office space as you sit down to begin your day, and offering that space gratitude for its gifts when you leave. It could be about blessing your food as you prepare it and as you eat it. It could be a gratitude journal that records your blessing.

Decide what form your sacred time is going to take and place it into your daily schedule.

It has to be quiet time

You need to spend enough time in this contemplative mood to let things percolate and rise to your conscious awareness. You need to breathe deeply and consciously relax your body with a mantra like AUM or just by watching your breath. You can consciously go through your body to relax it and talk to it to see what it needs from you. You may want music. You may not.

Create your sacred space

When you create a sacred space for yourself you establish your intention to take time for contemplation. As you use your sacred space the energy will begin to build around it. I do Falun Gong in the morning which ends in meditation. I am surrounded by crystals and I have a small collection of hand holders that I choose from when I meditate. I have a Goddess piece of driftwood that is three feet tall that I’m going to take with me even to my smaller apartment. It helps me think of nature and of possibilities. It will be part of the focus for my meditation. But it could be a sacred space on a table, or the top of a bookshelf. Gather items that are meaningful to you – a feather, a shell, a rock, a photo. Perhaps use a chime to begin and end your meditation. Or light a candle. Give yourself some signal that you are devoting this period of time to inner reflection. You will quickly find your sacred space becomes an oasis of peace for you.

Still your mind

You don’t get to make lists while you meditate, you don’t get to plan projects or run assorted possible scenarios through your mind. You are to listen to your inner voice and it won’t be talking about the physical plane stuff. Let your mind transcend the limitations of what you know how to do here in the physical realm, and go exploring where all things are possible. All things. And then some….

Where will your sacred space be? When will you set aside time to be there? Today’s a good day to begin.