Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Mindfulness

Make Use of Emptiness 

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Make Use of Emptiness
An Inner-World Exploration


Why is bamboo a symbol of exemplary conduct? Because it makes use of emptiness. That emptiness makes it flexible, open to receive, and ready to respond as needed.

We should cultivate the emptiness of bamboo. 

How to be empty

Our body suit keeps us busy.  It stimulates us and talks to us. In order to be empty like bamboo, we must cultivate stillness, mindfulness, and serenity. 

One waits in emptiness.  Does nothing. Says nothing.  Sits silent and empty.  Not even expectation. Just being.

And therein lies the power of emptiness.

That’s one of the purposes of a spiritual practice.

Be flexible 

Bamboo is empty and it is flexible. Just as bamboo does, think of yourself as moving in a soft breeze.  Gently swaying.  It changes your view, brings you fresh air and gives you more options.

When you are empty, you are present and capable of moving in any direction. And you can also continue to stay perfectly still.  There’s no forward movement to stop.  There’s no bending to unbend.  There’s simply a presence and a sense of expectation. Simply being.  Empty.  And present.

Be open to receive

When you are empty you have room to consider whatever shows up.  You can observe, explore, make choices.  You can decide what you want to bring into your emptiness.  Or perhaps you would just rather stay empty for a while.  You have great flexibility of the possibilities you can choose. 

When we fill ourselves too full, there’s no room for anything else.  Practice emptying yourself.  Empty your mind. Empty your breath.  Sit in stillness and see what shows up. 

Be ready to respond as needed 

There’s a readiness about being empty.  There’s no forward motion to check. No backward motion to halt.  You’re in a state of simple readiness. But emptiness is even less active the that. It’s stillness. It’s simply being.  

Then you can respond, not react.  A circumstance presents itself.  You see it, consider it, weigh your options. Maybe you explore a bit before you choose. Be flexible in your response to whatever shows up. 

The choice is yours

To move or not to move, to accept or not to accept. To believe or not to believe.  In your emptiness, there’s an awareness.  An awareness of your destiny, your reason for being, your purpose.  And in that emptiness is the opportunity to view your options.  To consider choices.  

Still, you do nothing. You are empty. You observe.  

Act only when you are ready

At some point, you may choose action.  And for the moment you fill yourself with purpose and plans and readiness and choices.  

Then you return to emptiness.  Observing.  Simply being.  Being present.  Being still.  

Cultivate emptiness

Empty. Being. Simply being.  No expectations or concerns, no thoughts, or planning. Simply being present. In an emptiness that’s full of presence.  

Until it’s time to fill yourself with a new choice. 

How do we cultivate emptiness?

Time Stands Open

I sit before an
empty parcel of time.
Mine to fill.
Mine to squander.
Mine to enjoy. 

I sit. 

I feel. 

I experience
the emptiness.

The waiting. 

There is no
expectation. 

There is simply
an open space,
a segment of time
that is mine to do with as I choose.

I go within
to see what time
wants from me.

Mindfulness.
Stillness.
Emptiness.

Experience emptiness.

Clear your mind
and soul.

Be empty. 

I do. 

I sit mindfully
in an open parcel of time.
And simply am.

-Cara Lumen, 1995

Deeper Song Affirmation

I cultivate the art of emptiness. 

Deep Song Process

  • Sit silently and empty your mind.  Simply be.
  • With gentle persistence, release any thoughts or worries or mental activity that shows up. 
  • Simply be. 
  • Do not make an effort to empty your mind. Simply empty your mind.
  • Practice nothingness throughout your day. 
  • Notice how you feel and how your experiences change.

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider

The Packed Potential Before the Beginning

The Pillar of Light Process

The Intentional OM Hum

How to Walk a Path of Inner Stillness 

Another Part of You-The Unseen World

How Do You Make Your Actions Lasting and Meaningful?

How to Interpret the Messages from Within 

I help transformational thinkers raise their personal vibration so that we, collectively, can raise the consciousness of our planet.

To receive our weekly
Deeper Song Insights and Applications
Join the Deeper Song Community.

Do You Keep Sacred Time?  

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Do You Keep Sacred Time?
An Inner-Word Exploration 

In the course of your day, do you take frequent mindful pauses in which you consciously acknowledge the sacredness of the moment?

If we are doing it right, every moment is sacred, but let’s take small steps to increase our awareness. 

Learn to be more aware of the moment

In order to cultivate awareness of the sacred in your life, practice becoming more aware of the meaningfulness of 

something you do frequently. 

Choose an ordinary and frequent action as a reminder to pause and connect with the unseen world around you.  Walk into a room and pause to feel its energy. Sit down at your desk and mindfully pause before you begin your work offering.  Become conscious of how your body moves and functions and offer it gratitude for its service. Use an often-repeated action as a reminder for you to move into mindful awareness. Pause to breathe, still yourself, and experience the energy around you. Let that mindful action serve as a pulse point, a moment to check in with your inner world and become more aware. Create frequent moments of sacred connection, of being mindful of your surroundings and how you feel both within and without.

Several times during my day, I pause to look out the window at nature.  In seconds, my body stills, my breath evens, and I am transported into a serene inner state.  

How will you prompt yourself to remember to be still and aware and feel the sacredness of the moment? 

Turn your work into a sacred offering

How can you remind yourself that your work is sacred?  That everything you do is filled with the energy of your intention?

My writing is sacred to me.  The act of going within, of listening and bringing forward insights and deciding what to share is creative. It’s a time in which I touch my soul, call upon my gifts, deepen my own understanding, and do something I truly love. I bless the work as I begin and offer it gratitude for its emergence when I finish. And when I post it, I send it with my blessing and the intent to encourage change. 

Your exchanges with others are sacred

Interactions with others are always sacred. You are experiencing the vibration of another person and you are sharing your vibration with them.  You resonate with each other and both of you are changed.  

What could be more sacred than a shared vibration?! 

What kind of sacred moments do you create in your day?

If you pause and observe, you’ll find that many sacred moments already exist.  It may be in the pleasure of freshness you feel after your morning shower.  It may be the softness of your cat’s coat as he snuggles next to you.  It may be the sound of rain rapping noisily against the window while you are warmly tucked inside.  A sacred moment may come in a look, a smile, a comment, a thoughtful gesture or a random thought.  When you look for sacred moments, you’ll find them everywhere.

Purposefully create sacred times  

I recently took a damp cloth to wipe a narrow bookcase that holds some of my crystals and it turned into a sacred experience. I was present, I took time to resonate with each rock and shell. We exchanged energy and there was a deep pleasure in wiping their surfaces.  I was cleaning and the experience became sacred. 

The act of feeding yourself is a sacred time. Thoughtfully choosing what your body asks for, preparing it with mindfulness and love, offering gratitude to the farmer who grew the food, the trucker who brought it to market and the shopkeepers who made it available.  

There is a history of service to everything when we pause to appreciate it. 

Sit silently in nature and listen. Watch the sunset, or the moon rise, or the stars twinkle.  Listen to the wind blow, the birds sing, the crickets chirp.  All are sacred moments.  

Everything is sacred when you pay attention

Every moment is sacred when you pause to become aware of the sacredness.  Begin with gratitude.  Notice what you are grateful for and how the mere act of appreciation brings you into a greater awareness of how everything is sacred. 

Walk mindfully.  Notice how one foot touches the floor and your weight shifts. Then notice the other foot. Make walking sacred. 

Create small acts of ceremony

Ceremony creates sacred moments and even very small acts can be turned into a ceremony. 

Greeting someone with hands in prayer position and saying Namaste (Nah-mah-stay – “the Light With me Honors the Light within you’) is a simple acknowledgment of the sacred light within you both.  Ashe (ah-shay) means “The creative in me honors the creative in you”.

I bless my computer each day so the words I write will touch hearts in the way I have intended and people will be uplifted and encouraged to soar higher. 

I take a shamanic journey every day to ask for insights and clarity of purpose.  

There are small ceremonies I have created for my body temple in the form of conscious, supportive, stretching and Qi Gong movement throughout my day.  

When you sit down at your desk to work, set an intention to bless every word you speak, every interaction you have, every idea that you send out.

When you drive home from work, offer gratitude for the day and send a blessing ahead to the night to come.

Your ceremonies can be simple or elaborate.  Some evenings I light a candle, look out the darkened window and play my Indian flute.  Sometimes I just shut off my computer and thank it for its partnership and support that day. Those small ceremonies can grow into contemplation and gratitude, or can simply be a signal to close out my day.  

What kind of ceremony of sacredness do you want to create? 

Consciousness makes it sacred

You can turn every moment into a sacred experience.  It’s a matter of awareness and conscious focus.  Practice that.  Learn that.  Do that. 

Deeper Song Affirmation
I am aware of the sacredness of each moment. 

Deep Song Process

  • Begin by examining your spiritual practice.  How can you make it not longer or more elaborate, but more meaningful?
  • Identify a way you can honor the work you do as sacred. Put that into practice.
  • Identify how you will learn to see your body as sacred and let that manifest in the care you give it. 
  • Love yourself.  Honor and appreciate and offer gratitude to your body suit, your spiritual incarnation in this lifetime and the journey you’re on. 
  • Close your day with conscious gratitude.  It can be a brief moment or it can be the inner musing of a reflective journal.  Close your day with awareness.  

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider:

How to Walk a Path of Inner Stillness

How Do You Make Your Actions Lasting and Meaningful? 

Create a Releasing Ceremony For Yourself

When I See Myself As Light

Do You See and Hear and Walk in a Sacred Manner?

Broaden and Deepen
Your Personal Journey 

I help spiritual adventurers explore the Unseen World so that we broaden and deepen our personal journey and learn to share our discoveries with others.   We are guides and way showers with our light held high.

To receive our weekly
Deeper Song Insights and Applications

join the Deeper Song Community.

Reserve Space For Yourself in Your Life

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woods with sun

We get caught up in the have-to’s and should’s of our life and neglect our own needs and wants. What would you do if you reserved space for yourself in your life?

You need time to find your own rhythm

If you were left alone with nothing to do except what you wanted to do, what would that be? First you’d probably sleep a lot, to regroup from your busy life. Then you’d begin to examine how in you would like to fill your time — what you would like to do, who you would like to be with.

The way you can begin to find your own rhythm even in the middle of a demanding life is to learn to let life unfold. Stop planning. Simply allow events to happen. Then respond in the moment and trust that whatever you choose is exactly right for the here and now.

You need time to understand your work-flow preferences

As long as you have deadlines and goals, it’s a bit tricky to understand your work-flow preferences. After watching and recording my patterns and feelings as I worked organically, I realized that I like to immerse myself in one aspect of the project.

So each day I focus on a particular type of project: podcast, books, videos, and even a particular aspect: writing, editing, recording. And that’s all I focus on that day. Choosing a specific focus helps you feel less scattered and more productive.

Begin to identify your own work flow by recording what stops you, what excites you, and during what hours you do your best work. Then build your work flow around that awareness of your personal work rhythm.

You need time to listen to your body

You body will talk to you and tell you what it knows — but you have to listen and help it out. I notice that when I come off of periods of intense learning, my body wants to take short naps and is not very eager for a new project. If you are working and raising a family, you’ll have to listen more acutely and get creative when it comes to ways to heed the advice or your body.

You need time to dwell within

Plan on getting up before the rest of your household to take the time for your own introspection. Some “me” time, if you will. Whether it’s meditation or journaling or mind-mapping, be still and listen to what your inner self wants and needs. The more you understand about yourself, the more capable you are of meeting your own needs.

You are the only person who will take care of you

You can’t be in service to others if you are a basket case yourself. Give up something. Change your expectations — of yourself and others. Stop. Pause. Listen. Then slowly bring in what you need at this point in your life. Not too much. Just the right number of commitments so you can reserve space for yourself.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

26-Are You Selfish, Self-Aware or Self-Absorbed?
23 – What Are the Truths You Live By?
Lose Your Attachment to the Outcome
How to Create An Empty Day
The Power of Non-Action
The Power of Exploring the Unknown

Mindfulness and the Moment

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medietations sunset

There’s only one way to be mindful – that is to be present in the moment. Present to the feelings in your body. Present to the focus of your mind. When you are mindful, you’re filled with the power and beauty and simplicity of the present moment. It’s a powerful and impressive place to be.

Corral your wandering mind

“What if’s” get in the way. We spend time thinking about what has not even happened and may never happen. That’s not productive.

The tendency to plan needs to be modified too. It’s about control – if we do this, then that will occur. When you begin to live in the moment and allow your life to unfold, nothing is to be considered but the next step. You choose in the moment.

Be attentively curious

When you’re mindful, you hear the sounds of silence. You feel your cat breathing under your hand. You notice your own body and perhaps sit up a bit straighter, or relax your shoulders. You actually hear the sound of silence.

Be attentive and curious in whatever you’re doing. You’ll hear the subtleties of nature and feel the Qi energy moving through your body.

Bring mindfulness to your actions

The practice of Chi Walking asks us to be aware not only of our posture but also of how we place each foot. Yoga asks us to breathe into a tight place and invite the breath to release. The mere act of eating mindfully will totally change your experience of nourishing your body. Act with mindfulness.

Create a mindfulness reminder

Mindfulness takes practice. To develop the habit of mindfulness we need a trigger, a nudge, a reminder to bring our mind back from its wandering and allow our entire being to be present.

When I’m working at my computer, I have a timer that calls to me every 20 minutes. It’s a signal for me to check my body for poor posture, tight muscles and too much intensity focused on my work.

When I stand up, I take a moment to stand straight and tall, to invite all the proper muscles to do their work correctly.

There are times I simply listen – to the world around me, to my own rambling thoughts – and make a conscious choice to still my mind and simply “be” for a moment.

Cultivate Wu Wei

In his book Do Nothing and Do Everything, Quiguang Zhao says, “Wu Wei is a behavior that arises from a sense of being connected to the world. Your inner voices, the voice of nature, and your intuition are your connection to the Tao.”

Listen to your inner voices and those intuitive nudges that invite an aligned action. Listen to the rhythm of nature, the natural flow that has no calendar, or watch what simply unfolds in the perfect time.

Mindfulness trusts life to unfold.

Mindfulness is a moment-to-moment practice.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
Trust the Message of Now
Get To Know Your Inner Voice
Allow Life to Be a Meditation
Live Like Water
Mindfulness as a Path to Self-Awareness
Live in the Nowhere That You Came from
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence
06– Unfolding And The Art Of Wu Wei

Living with Expectation

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dog and treat epectation

When we live with expectation, we overlook the “now”. We are so busy looking for what “will be” that we don’t see what “is”. And that’s not a particularly good way to live.

A lot of expectation is about hope

We build our dreams around the way we would like life to be. The way we hope things will work out. And we focus on what we want, what we hope for. Some people think of that as “visioning”; but without action, it is simply “hope”.

Some of expectation is assumption

If I do this, then that will happen. If I learn this, then I’ll automatically be able to…. If I go to college, I’ll get a great job. If I spend enough time on my job, I’ll get a promotion. Those are all assumptions. Without action, none of this has any chance of happening.

Some of exception is prediction

Prediction is about making stuff up based on what you know and can see right now. It leaves no room for unexpected discovery, new opportunities or a simple change of heart. Prediction is not possible.

We must learn to live in the moment

There will never be a moment when it will not be now. This moment is all we have to work with. This moment is the only time we have to make a choice. We choose, something shifts, we choose again.

Trust life to unfold

The key to living in the moment is to trust. Trust life to unfold with the perfect opportunities and lessons you need right now in your life. And trust that you’ll make an aligned choice, one that honors your values, your beliefs and your current needs and wants.

You need do nothing in the moment but choose

Not choosing is a choice. Choose a small amount or a lot. Tweak what shows up or turn your back and let it pass by. The present moment will never return. Simply choose – or don’t.

Allow your future to simply become

If I’m not going to expect anything, if I‘m not going to hope, assume, predict or even anticipate my “next”, then what am I supposed to do?

Be patient. Allow your future to unfold, to come into being, to simply become. It will be perfect.

Whether it’s a lesson you need to master or an opportunity that pushes you forward, it will unfold in the perfect time. Accept it. Take it within yourself and choose – in the moment, in the now.

That’s all you need to do. Be present in the now.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

The Power in a Ceremony of Releasing
Live Like Water
The Length of Your Reach
Mindfulness as a Path to Self-Awareness
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence
43 – Intolerance and the Need to Be Right