world peace

The Move From Inner to Outer Work

December 22, 2016 By Cara Lumen

Inner work is vital. The more self-aware we become, the more aligned are our choices. But there comes a time when we have to move from the inner work into the outer work. And you get a huge feeling of joy and expansion when you make that shift.

The inner work lays the foundation

My inner work becomes deeper and more profound. It helps me make decisions. My inner work helped me understand that I needed a new tribe. So I created one.

My inner works lets me explore a compelling concept and find new ways to apply it to my life.

Listening to my inner voice allows me to understand my gifts, my passion, my needs and my desires.

My inner voice helps me find my next direction and even discern the steps I should take.

As I continue to listen to my voice within, I understand and accept myself more.

The shift from inner to outer work

A series of choices and events helped me shift from inner focus to outer action. It took the form of two online courses. My first objective was to connect more deeply with the earth so I took a course on Universal Shamanism.

At the same time the idea of group energy work showed up in Subtle Group Energy with David Nichol.

The need to be in service

I have been in service through my posts, books and podcasts, but when I discovered the work of Subtle Activism at the Gaiafield project, my life took on more meaning and purpose. I felt as if I was moving from an ever-deepening self-exploration into an upward slope that led to meaningful world service. It was a welcome and profound shift.

We can all help

Throughout the ages, the indigenous people have used ceremony and ritual and deep inner focus to balance and align their communities. When you create a group that meets to focus its group energy on a particular project or situation, there’s an opportunity to focus your powerful inner energy on the well-being of our planet through this energy from people all over the world. Your group work could focus on the environment, it could focus on racial tension, it could focus on world tension. Right now the feminine is emerging into a 500-year dominance and the masculine energy is putting up a fuss. We women are needed to hold steady during this tumultuous transition.

Inner and Outer Activism

I’m too old to walk the streets in protest marches or do some of the more physical forms of activism, but David says there’s also a need for a group of people to hold the energy that will support those who can. That means that whatever age or physical condition you’re in, you can play an important part in changing the world.

Where do you start

Begin with Gaiafield and join in their daily meditations. Join The Shift Network and see what free webinars call to you there.

We need both inner and outer work. It feels good to find a way to be of deeper service to our world.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
Mindfulness and the Moment
Allow Life to Be a Meditation
The Power in a Ceremony of Releasing
Live Like Water
Share From Your Soul
The Creation of an Armchair Activist
How to Activate a Tree Messenger to Send Your Healing Energy Out Into The World
How to Use our Interconnection to Heal the World

How to Embrace our Differences

December 15, 2016 By Cara Lumen

It takes a lot of looking into the heart of the other person in order to understand how alike we are. Rather than be put off by how different we are, how can we learn to feel more connected because of our similarities?

We are all one

A human is a human regardless of his or her size, shape, color, beliefs, accent, personal choices, spiritual practices or beliefs. That’s really all that matters. We are all made of the same stuff. We are all expressions of the same Great Mystery. Start there.

We can learn from our diversity

There are lovely customs and ceremonies and celebrations that what each culture offers. Take what resonates and add it to your own spiritual practice and leave behind anything that does not resonate.

Accept the uniqueness of different versions of life. Each generation has their own take on what they have been taught. I’m 84 and have been influenced by the civil rights movement, the women’s liberation movement and men landing on the moon. There are ideas and beliefs I was taught as a child that no longer apply. Age alone can set you apart.

Children today have been born with a much greater capacity for technology. It’s demanding their attention. They will be affected by it in ways we have yet to uncover.

It’s not wrong to be old. It’s not wrong to be drawn to the technical. It’s just different. A different calling. A different approach. And probably a different outcome.

You way is not right for everyone

I’ve been a vegan for four years and a vegetarian for 40. We are a small part of the population. That doesn’t make us bad or stupid or undesirable. It simply means we have made a choice that resonates with us and that’s different from the majority of the population. I don’t try to talk anyone else into my lifestyle. I simply live it and exemplify it.

I’ve been intellectually curious all my life. Only a small percentage of people are. That doesn’t make us right, or smarter, it just makes us different. Each of us is honoring our own being-ness. That’s a very good thing. We get to honor and respect and appreciate our diversity.

Allow your being-ness to attract

What I can do is live my truth and let it draw to it the people who feel the same way. In my case, I have to go online to find those people and they are usually a lot younger than I am. The more deeply you become involved in a concept or idea, the fewer people there are to talk with about it. You may have to go searching for like-minded people.

Don’t preach. Don’t enroll. Simply be.

Be an example of the idea you embrace. For instance, my enthusiasm is contagious. It helps people take a deeper look at what I’m sharing. My clarity of explanation helps people examine an idea from a different direction. What conclusions they draw and what they do with it are totally their own to do. I’m just being me.

What is your line in the sand?

I walk away from anger. I walk away form hatred. I walk away from judgmentalness. People with that energy are not people I want to interact with. And I watch in dismay as some people try to force other people to do it their way.

Take the actions you need to take in your own life and leave others to make their own decisions. You do not need to approve or believe in what others do. You can draw your own line in the sand.

You can protect yourself by walking away from a situation, by sending your healing energy into a tense situation and if appropriate and the other person is receptive, have a conversation that allows you to explore each other’s understanding, beliefs, fears, and viewpoints.

Look for the beauty in others

Take what you need and adapt it to your own beliefs. For instance, I’ve taken one course on shamanism and listened to 14 people speak on the topic. I have learned about the rituals and beliefs held by centuries of indigenous people about the earth energy. I learned, I took what resonated with me and my current life focus. My purpose was to feel more deeply my connection with nature. And now I do. I am free to take what I need and want and resonate with and be grateful that someone is preserving all that earth wisdom.

I’m grateful for the people who are using group energy to help bring peace to the planet and I’ve enthusiastically joined group meditations for peace. I can choose the methods that resonate with me and simply be grateful that so many people are looking within themselves for ways they can encourage and maintain peace.

I’m grateful for the people who create restaurants that specialize in their native food, otherwise there are eating experiences I would never have. When people bring their unique cultural viewpoint into a situation, there’s learning available for everyone.

How do I change my communication in order to work with this person from another community, from another country? What is their belief system that I need to know about in order to not unconsciously offend them? Honor each person’s cultural background and belief system. Look for our one-ness.

Eliminate your judgmentalness

I don’t like killing animals and I have relatives that hunt. It is so ingrained in them that all I can do is avoid conversations about hunting.

I don’t have the same beliefs about the aging process as anyone else in my senior community. As a metaphysician, I have chosen to look for examples of life and living in people who are much younger than I am.

I’m teaching myself not to say judgmental or critical things about others, so I carefully avoid people who do. They, of course, can do what they want; but I choose not to be around that negative and judgmental energy.

Where else do I need to eliminate my own judgmental-ness? Being judgmental can sneak up on you, so keep a look out for those moments when you move into looking at the negative instead of the positive.

What do you have in common?

You may have to look closely for what you have in common, other than being part of the same web of life. How are you alike? What are your shared attitudes and expectations? What are your common goals? Look for how the other person or people contribute to the higher good. And look at how you do.

We are all one. We are interpretations of the same humanness We are all united in the web of life.

Look for what we have in common, and build on that.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
I Am You
We Are Part of a Larger Spiritual Order
The Core Value of Inclusion
How To keep Negativity Out of Your Life
Everyone Walks the Same Path
How Labels Dehumanize Us
How to Use our Interconnection to Heal the World

The Core Value of Inclusion

December 6, 2016 By Cara Lumen

President Obama used the phrase “core value of inclusion”. He said that a core value of inclusion was necessary for the President to have. I wondered what that looked like and felt like. I had never before considered inclusion as a core value.

What is the highest god for all?

When a group of people gathers to find an “inclusive” solution, it hopefully begins to seek a unified choice that will be for the highest good for all. That’s a pretty lofty place to begin any negotiation or search for a solution.

When I add “inclusion” to the process that is looking for the highest good, that means I need to really, really listen to what people are saying and to what they’re not saying.

Very often we have fears and outdated beliefs that are not even in our consciousness. We also need to question and examine the true reason for our own responses to each solution, particularly when our response is negative.

Groups have to compromise

The broader the group diversity, the wider the compromise must be. And no one, absolutely no one, will get everything they want. The necessity to compromise can be a very difficult mindset to take into a group endeavor.

What does inclusion feel like?

Inclusion means I have to move away from my own personal needs and look for a solution that’ll meet the needs of the majority of people in the group. Now, I don’t have to stay in the group, I am certainly free to go elsewhere, but inevitably we all find ourselves in a group where the final compromised decision will impact us in some way. Be aware that the compromised solution will be as close to agreement as the involved group can become.

Inclusion can feel like listening to others. It can feel like deep self-awareness — understanding what you need and want and prioritizing that so you know what you can release in the presence of inclusion and compromise. Inclusion will include thoughtful exploration of the possible solutions to the purpose of your group. Some for you. Some for me. Some for us.

What does inclusion look like?

If we’re lucky, inclusion looks like people listening to each other and trying hard to understand the other person’s point of view. Inclusion means we’ll need to change our mind, soften our stance and broaden our viewpoint.

I’ve never thought about having a core value of inclusion before. I’m afraid I’m the one who goes off by herself and hangs out with only like-minded people.

Community means the collective

“Community” means people who have something in common. It could be your city, your state, your neighborhood. When I’m hoping to formulate rules and regulations and support systems for my own community, I’ll have to compromise. There are many interconnected factors I may not even be aware of. Current finances, people-power, long-term impact. So many elements are impacted in any decision and must be considered.

I’ll have to look for the highest good, the best choices in the present moment and I’ll have to work to be aware of a core value of inclusion.

A national group has broader responsibilities than a city group. A residents association has a smaller set of responsibilities than the city. Each group will have a different set of problems to address but their overall purpose needs to be inclusive — taking into consideration the needs of everyone and then finding the choices that address the most needs and are focused on an over-reaching goal that will benefit the most people.

What does a core value of inclusion look like and feel like to you? Can you consciously put it to work in your life?

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
I Am You
We Are Part of a Larger Spiritual Order
You Are All-That-Is
35—How to Hold the Space for Change.
23 – What Are the Truths You Live By?

How Do You WANT to feel?

November 29, 2016 By Cara Lumen

It’s time to test my belief system. If I believe my thoughts create my reality, what have I done! If I believe all change begins within myself, how do I change? If I’m faced with more negativity than I’ve seen in my entire life, what am I going to do about it?

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all of yourself.”  - Rumi

Where do I begin?

I am now clear that I’ve been very unaware. I was moving along in my own bubble without truly understanding how a great many people in this country think and feel. And most of all, I wasn’t aware of what they need.

Like everyone, I was focused just on what was working for me. We all do that. We’re all operating from what we need. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s natural, but it would serve us to develop a broader viewpoint — to see the other person’s need and beliefs.

What do You WANT to feel?

Feeling safe is at the top of a lot of lists. Safe to live our lives in the freedom of expression that we cherish in this country. I’ve managed to quieten my own personal fears because I’m pretty clear that taking away things from seniors is not very high on the list but there are many people in this country who have good reason to fear the current change in our country.

When you rely on and deepen your spiritual connection with everyone else on the planet, you can begin to heal. The group energy of oneness has the power to connect and balance.

What do I want to feel? Not scared. Not appalled. Not unbelieving. Not judgmental about the emergence of the total opposite of what I believe at my core — that we are one.

How do I feel like I’m one with someone who holds an opposite viewpoint?

In my daily life I avoid persons who don’t share my interests and viewpoint. I don’t hang out with them. I don’t have conversations with them — because our interests and beliefs are so polarized.

But that won’t heal me, or them.

It’s all very well to talk about loving others, but when high school students are making racist signs there is only one place they learned that — from their parents. And that means there are huge pockets of hatred alive and well in this country.

I thought we had moved beyond that.

How do you counteract what you feel is evil?

How do I want to feel? I want to feel accepting of others and somehow — I can’t even write this down — I need to feel love toward those who are expressing thoughts and emotions that I’ve worked hard to remove from my life.

All I can do is work on myself

How do I want to feel? Safe. I want to keep the planet safe. I want people to be safe. I want there to be kindness and cooperation and support. How do I do that? What do I do?

I don’t know. I visualize our wholeness. I join with others in group meditations to help feel and heal our oneness. I send energy to the well-being of everyone and everything on the planet. And I go within and trust. I trust that my spiritual belief and my spiritual practice will see me through this.

Peace begins within me. It begins with my own thoughts and actions. It begins with my understanding and empathy for the wide range of self-expression that’s present in our world.

We have power

I don’t mean power over others, but power to balance and heal ourselves. We have power to not participate in harmful words and actions. We have power to deepen our spiritual commitment and expression, whatever we choose to have that look like. That power is within us. It’s ready to respond to our choices. What do you choose? How do you want to feel?

Go within and heal yourself

Change what you can change in your own life expression. And trust. Trust that healing is possible, alignment is possible, compassion is possible. And begin working on yourself. Strengthen your own spiritual practice. Begin there. And hold to the emotion of connection that you want to feel.

We are one. Truly we are. It just doesn’t feel like it right now.

How do you WANT to feel?

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
The 50/50 split
How Labels Dehumanize Us
In Gratitude for the Opportunity to Grow
The Creation of an Armchair Activist
How to Use our Interconnection to Heal the World
45-How to Become a Mindful Presence
43 – Intolerance and the Need to Be Right

In Gratitude for this Opportunity to Grow

November 22, 2016 By Cara Lumen

I’ve never felt so tested in my life. Idea and beliefs have emerged that I thought no longer existed in this country because I’d been working so hard on my own spiritual path. And yet, here I am, faced with so much negativity I didn’t even know existed.

This is a huge opportunity to grow

Where do I begin? What do I work on in my own life? How can I change my energy into one of empathy and compassion and tolerance and acceptance?

I, like you, am trying to figure that out.

Don’t let it pull you down

First we have to have faith. Faith that core values such as kindness, inclusiveness, respect, and freedom of expression are still prevalent in our country. I know I can find that in many people I interact with. I can nurture and support myself by continuing to interact with those who are focused on inclusiveness. Who I hang out with matters.

Understand the opposing viewpoint with open mindedness

Judgment sneaks up on you. I got a good look at my own unconscious judgmentalness in the grocery store. There’s a man who works in produce whom I’ve had friendly exchanges with. It was the day after the election when he asked how I was doing. I answered, “Trying to recover.” He said, “I know what you mean.” And we began to talk about it. He laughingly said he wasn’t one of the white men who caused this, as the news polls were indicating.

As we talked, I mentioned that we had to stop using fossil fuels in order to stop global warming. He said he was from coal country. That immediately shifted my thinking. I had an entirely different picture of what people in that profession were like. I mentioned that one of the challenges is the need to retrain people because the technology changes so rapidly. He said he couldn’t do the technical things but his kids could. He was not drawn to it.

So here was a beautiful person who had surprised me and made me realize that I’d been holding certain beliefs and ideas about people, based on their profession. I’d had an entirely different picture of people in the mining industry. It was based on not knowing and not learning in order to know.

Try to move beyond your own needs and beliefs

I’ve mentally dismissed a huge portion of the population because they’re different than I am. I have to work on that. I realize that while I spend time searching for people who share my interests, I have thrown in some judgmentalness about those who do not.

Test your own beliefs

Look carefully at how you subconsciously judge others, particularly people who don’t share your way of life. And here comes another possible judgment. It’s probably those who are the most flexible and expansive in their spiritual practice who will be among the first to figure out how to heal our country.

People are already gathering in group meditations throughout the world. I participate in those. How do we include and feel empathy for people who are so removed from our own experience? It’s a huge opportunity for us to grow.

First you work on yourself

There’s only one thing we really have control over. That is our own feelings, beliefs, actions, and words. One of my first steps is to look at how unconsciously judgmental I am. Once I’m aware of that tendency, I have a chance to change that.

I’m shaken by the amount of anger and prejudice that’s so prevalent. And yet people are simply trying to survive. All of us. Each of us.

What do you believe?

This opportunity to grow ourselves is enormous. We have so much deep spiritual work to do. We have so much compassion and empathy to extend. We have so many of our own beliefs to question and alter.

Are you wiling to change?

Here’s the tricky part. There are some beliefs that I’m not willing to change. When I say they are my spiritual beliefs I realize that people who seem opposed to the way I think are responding to their own beliefs.

I don’t set out to change their beliefs. I just get to work examining and adjusting and questioning my own — moving my own spiritual growth towards feelings my oneness with everything. It’s not always easy to do.

We have to heal

We have to heal ourselves. Only a portion of the population is willing and even prepared to do this. And they can be on either side of these divided beliefs.

All we can do is work on ourselves. This is a huge opportunity to explore. To question your beliefs, to expand your spiritual awareness. If this country is an example of a peaceful transferring of power, an acceptance of our beautiful diversity and a strong spiritual foundation, let’s prove it. Let’s work on ourselves to heal and unite.

There’s much work to be done. Now, begin with yourself.

To Sing a Deeper Song consider:
The 50/50 split
How Labels Dehumanize Us
How To keep Negativity Out of Your Life
The Creation of an Armchair Activist
How to Activate a Tree Messenger to Send Your Healing Energy Out Into The World
How to Use our Interconnection to Heal the World