Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Spiritual Expansion

The Power of Non-Action

By

hammock

Non-action is a precept of Taoism. It goes with simply being – being present – being aware – being. But non-action goes against the grain in our busy world. I wondered how I could cultivate more non-action to my life.

Non-action goes with silence

When I meditate, I do nothing – except sit in silence. And a lot happens there. My body calms, my mind goes silent. At times I feel like I’m not even here. That silence, that non-action, is very healing and balancing.

Answers come with non-action

We’ve all had times when we had a problem we couldn’t solve. When we let it simmer in the background unattended, the answer suddenly came to us. Then we took action. But non-action preceded it.

We wake up from sleep with a full-blown answer. Or someone says something, and suddenly a whole new direction opens up.

We did nothing – except observe.

Non-action is part of an unfolding life

I love letting my life unfold. It contains just the right number of surprises and all the right answers. It’s a relief not to plan and worry and work with a lot of “what-ifs.”

An unfolding life still gets all the right things done. There’s simply no stress in doing it.

The great personal peace in non-action

When I learn to trust the unfolding process, a huge calm enters my life. There are no decisions I have to make, no actions I need to take. I trust that the perfect opportunity will show up at the perfect time and that I’ll recognize it and respond.

Is response the key to non-action?

I’m a take-charge person. I’m a leader. I get things done. But I’m now learning to do that in the spirit of going with the flow. I simply push the boat off from shore and see where it takes me.

It’s important to push yourself off from shore, to be willing to go on this journey.

It’s important to make yourself available – to the opportunities, the choices, the possible actions.

It’s also important to respond when things show up.

Simply shape things as they come

There’s something so gentle about the idea of shaping things as they come. It’s like working a potter’s wheel – a little pressure changes the shape. A release expands the shape. Your hands are all it takes – together with the spinning potter’s wheels of opportunity.

We might look at life as the potter’s wheel, spinning choices by us. We gently take what we want and shape it into our life.

How will you encourage non-action in your life?

Pause before you speak. Sit quietly and let your thoughts evolve. Simple “be” with someone. Sit in the sun and absorb its warmth. Watch the clouds change shape.

Non-action is to let your life unfold. Get out of your mind and allow life to come to you.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

30 – The No Plan Plan
31-The Power of Simplicity
Unfolding an the Wu Wei of Not-Forcing
Unfolding an the Wu Wei of Not-Obstructing
Unfolding and the Wu Wei of Not-Interfering ‎
How to Walk Beside Someone in Service

Can You Control Your Own Destiny?

By

planet-3

My friend was stuck in her mind, trying to figure out how to believe something hard enough to make it happen. With my Taoist leanings, I’m learning to trust things to unfold in the perfect sequence.

Can I control my own destiny?

What I have control over is the present moment – the words I say, the thoughts I think, the actions I take. The choices I make as I shape each moment influence my destiny – my experiences and my future choices.

Allow things to happen

It’s totally freeing to stop planning and simply allow things to happen. As these things are going to happen anyway, not spending time planning or worrying or expecting frees up a lot of time and energy.

A friend of mine has chosen to follow the philosophy that our thoughts create our reality and she was really working her brain to create a certain outcome.

I do believe that our focus affects what shows up. If we expect negativity, that’s what we’ll see.

But as for actively striving to draw things to me or make things happen, I’ve mostly stopped doing that. I’ve been working on letting life unfold for several years now. It gets easier. I continue to learn to trust that the right things will show up.

Trust is a huge factor

Besides trusting that the perfect opportunities will appear, I also have to trust that I’ll have enough sense and self-awareness to make choices that are in alignment with my passion and purpose.

I’m getting better at that. It takes both practice and a few successes to make a believer out of you.

Simply shape things as they come

I love the idea of simply shaping things. I can let the whole opportunity pass me by because the time doesn’t feel right. Or I can take bits and pieces to shape, or embrace the whole circumstance. I can work with it a while, try it on to see how it feels and keep what works and let go of the rest. Shaping is gentle and it’s about choosing.

Trust you own intuition and instincts

As you practice allowing your life to unfold, you learn to listen to your own intuition and instincts. And as you begin to get positive results, you learn to trust yourself as the shaper of your own life experience.

Let the Tao speak for itself

Part of trusting is to not just trust yourself and your own instincts, but to trust the Tao, the All-That-Is, the natural flow of life to continue to offer balance and wholeness. That is sometimes subtle, but when you look for it you can see it. Trust in the natural unfolding of life and circumstances

Can you control your destiny?

Your focus, your choices and your expectations all contribute to your life experience. All of those are within your own power to direct. Learn to trust yourself and the choices you make. Let the rest go and enjoy your life.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
Take The Path to Trust
The Desire for Freedom and the Road Less Traveled
How to Invite Serenity Into Your Life
Do You Know How Much You Have Going For You?
06– Unfolding And The Art Of Wu Wei 
17 – Exploring The Village of Nothingness
18- How Your Light Illuminates Paths of Darkness
Unfolding and the Big Bouder
Are You Reading the Signs?

What Do You Expect from Your Community?

By

word commuinty
I can’t read the blogs of all the people I follow. If I did I would never do any of my own work. So why do I expect my community to follow every word I write?

You cast your pebble into the pond

I write posts. I podcast. I create ebooks. I’m learning to do videos. I’m putting my ideas out in different formats so that whatever the learning style, I’m there.

Just like everyone else.

So how do people find me?

Just like I found them. I stumble across them someplace, resonate to what was sent and subscribe. That’ll last for a while until I change direction or get so busy that I have to be very selective about where I go for insight and inspiration.

When I thought I was retiring, I unsubscribed from every business blog. Then I gradually started to subscribe to vegan blogs because that was my area of interest. Now I’m following bloggers whose thoughts resonate with mine. And with a few exceptions, it’s a whole new group. I will stay with them until I don’t.

Just like everyone else.

Keeping growing

I have to continue to explore and absorb and make new choices. I’ll continue to grow in the direction I’m inwardly called to. That’ll work for some people, and not for others. So new people will subscribe and others will find they need to go in another direction.

What I must do is stay true to myself and my calling and use my best self to share what I discover.

We are a drop in the ocean

Someone recently took a long-delayed action because my work or presence had inspired her. I have no idea how long it took for that change to happen. I have no idea what specifically was the turning point. I just keep putting my drop in the ocean and it ended up on her shore at the right time. And she put it to use in her life.

One drop, a huge ocean, and one special shore.

We are a pinpoint of light that arrives at the right moment

My job is to put out my truth, my insights, my conclusions, my revelations. That’s it. I keep putting my work out there, and stuff happens – or it doesn’t. The right people will find me, that’s for certain. And they will find me when their time is right to do so.

What do I expect from my community?

I just hope they find me when they need to find me. I plan to keep writing about what moves me in a way that I hope moves others. I’m available on a lot of platforms to make it easy for people to find me if and when they might need to. I trust that as long as I follow my inner light, use my gifts to express my insights clearly, I am in service. To whomever I need to be. Whenever I need to be.

You can’t measure transformation

I have no idea what phrase will create the “aha” moment for someone. I have no idea what concept I present will be applied in a manner that greatly changes a life. I just know my work has the potential to make a difference in the life of another.

That takes us back again to trust – trusting that as I stay true to my own calling it’ll reach those it needs to reach. And make them think. And support them in making a positive change aligned with their true self.

We walk together only for a while

I’ve followed a handful of people for a long time – Seth Godin,

Chris Brogan,  Mike Dooly, Brian Clark, James Clear ,Leo Babuto I don’t read everything they write, but I want to keep connected.Trust your instincts on when it’s time to connect and when it’s time to let go.

We grow. Our needs and wants and wishes change. We choose new paths and find new people to walk beside us.

What I expect from my community is that they take what they need from our time together and build on it.

They shine their light on another path. And the ripple moves on.

What do you expect from your community? Do you need to ease up on your expectations and allow for the natural flow? Are you in the right place for the to find you?

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

01-How The Deeper Song Community Emerged
Are you in the right room?
04–How to Redefine Yourself and the 30 Year Plan
Unleash The Power of Your Passion and Calling
07- How to Find and Express Your Distinctive Voice
20 – Why Are You in Service?
The No Plan Plan
Your Work as You
18- How Your Light Illuminates Paths of Darkness
21 – How to Share a Piece of Your Soul
5 Ways to Gain Clarity
Fitting In Is Not What You Do To Be Extraordinary

Steps to Deepen Your Spiritual Awareness

By

steps

There are steps we can take, beyond the obvious ones, that deepen our spiritual awareness. They are subtle steps, personal steps and very individual choices. But where to begin?

Create regular quiet time

You can’t do inner work unless you are quiet and listen. That can mean walking in the woods, closing your eyes and taking some deep breaths, or sitting in meditation. Do you arrange for quiet time? Do you consciously set aside time to contemplate, absorb, and listen to your inner voice? Start there. Choose your method. Set a time. Be quiet.

Get to know yourself

Learn to understand what you need. What drives you? What do you long for? What’s keeping you separate? Journaling helps you understand yourself. Mind maps sometimes uncover inner messages.

Accept yourself. Love yourself. Be patient with yourself. Shape yourself into a more open and receptive vessel. Accept that you are Tao, the All-That-Is, the Great Nothingness, as is everyone else.

Study what calls you

Your spiritual life is totally personal. It’s up to you to explore and examine and try on concepts to see how they feel in your life. I’m learning a lot from Taoism. I love to identify with the cycles of nature. I love the idea of letting life unfold and simply shaping things as they come. I love the idea of learning to simply “be.” But it all takes practice.

Deepen your place of service

We are in service by our mere existence. Even our casual interactions have impact. When we make conscious choices to walk beside someone in service, we have a far-reaching effect. How are you in service? How far-reaching is your impact?

Dissolve all concepts of duality

Here’s the big one. We need to stop seeing ourselves as separate. A quote I’m working with is from Rumi, “Live in the nowhere that you came from even though you have an address here.” I’m working on that to see and feel and experience all as one. There’s no “you”. There’s no “I”. There’s but one all-encompassing energy. How do I experience that? How do I understand that? How do I know that?

It’s easy to feel close to someone you like. It’s a lot harder to feel oneness with someone who’s quite different. You may feel close to the cat on your lap, but less close to the lion stalking through the woods.

I can feel the nothingness when I meditate. I have moments in meditation when my whole body seems to disappear. At times I become so totally absorbed in what I’m doing that my physical surroundings cease to exist for me. Is that the “nowhere that I came from?”

Practice “being”

My conscious step toward feeling this “nowhere” is to deepen my awareness of my own presence in every circumstance. I pause to listen to the sound of silence. I consciously merge my energy with my cat as he sits on my lap. From the crystal I hold, I invite energy to enter my body. I feel the flow of energy in my Qi Gong practice. “Being” is subtle. It needs your awareness. But it’s a place to begin.

Is there a teacher?

The only physical-plane teacher I have are my personal experiences and my ingestion and absorption of the spiritual philosophies with which I resonate. The fact that I write to figure out these ideas is one way I learn. I’m deeply tuned in to the phrases and concepts that resonate. They show up at all moments of my life. My inner voice says, “write about that.” I write for my own clarity. I search to encourage my own spiritual expansion. I’m traveling my own journey.

Just as you are.

You are the only one who can deepen your spiritual awareness. How are you doing that?

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
How to Walk Beside Someone in Service
I Am You 
We Are Part of a Larger Spiritual Order 
Your Work as You 
18- How Your Light Illuminates Paths of Darkness 
21-How to Share a Piece of Your Soul 

Come Sing a Deeper Song

Is Everything You Know Still True?

By

 

milky way-5
I used to do it the way I’d always done it. But then I redid it in a new way, a way that was more relevant to today’s world. This taught me that I have to question everything.

Question what you learned

I had good coaches and teachers. They gave me a strong formula and sequence for designing a website. So when I redid my web presence a year ago, I did it the way I’d been taught. I soon realized, however, that things had changed and that I needed to change too.

Recently I re-wrote all my landing pages but this time I had access to a colleague who’s from a younger generation, a technical person who works with laptops and tablets and iPhones. He was more aware of the more sophisticated needs of people today.

My old way is no longer compatible with the new technology. It’s not about making content the right size for all the devices, because my Rainmaker platform automatically converts for that. It’s about the amount of content I offer and the narrow focus I need in order to attract the attention of today’s person on the Internet.

I had to question and rethink my approach in order to keep current.

How and what do you need to change?

As my friend pointed out, I love words, but since people skim now, I need to be brief. “Short” is in, so I would have to modify my writing.

On the navigation bar of my old site I had too many choices, mainly because I didn’t have enough distance from the original concept to narrow them down. A year later I’m far enough into the project to make just one choice.

The more you know, the more your ideas change

When I began the Deeper Song Community in 2014, I was following my intuition. It kept nudging me toward making the words “deep song” the focal point of my work.

A year later, I can see the results I’m getting because of the feedback I receive. Now, I can make more informed decisions. I have a better idea of what’s needed and appreciated. I simply know more than I did a year ago.

Go for major change

From the original eight, my website menu is now down to just two major pages! Granted, some of the former pages are under one umbrella, but the site visitor has an experience of clarity and simple choice.

Instead of giving equal value to everything I write or produce, I now focus on the one purpose I have – to make it interesting and compelling and possible for people to join the Deeper Song Community. Two landing pages seem to do it. It felt strange. It felt liberating. It felt right.

Question everything regularly

I’m going to review my site and my life every year.

I’m going to look at how I’ve changed and what I’ve learned.

I’m going to notice the changes in the people I serve and make adjustments that will make a difference to them.

We’re all changing steadily. And our world is changing rapidly.

Is everything you “know” still true?

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

How to FindYour Sweet Spot
How to Allow Your Vision to Unfold 
Take Money Out of the Equation
Your Work is You
When Is It Time To Change Your Dream?
Believe The Road Beneath You
07- How to Find and Express Your Distinctive Voice 
08- How Willing Are You to Change – And Why Not? 

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