Huna Article

Huna International

Create Your Own Path
by Astrid Mohr-Kiehn

Often, family members and friends want us to be like them and follow the values and ideas they consider to be "right." So, it is not always so easy to follow your own diverging path in the face of the opinions of others and of what friends and family want from you, or what society expects. This is even more the case if your dreams live outside of what is considered "normal" in your environment.

Depending on your situation and your self-esteem, your chosen path will fall within a range of possibilities: from deciding to give in to any explicit or implicit pressure on the one end of the spectrum to fully reaching for your dreams, no matter what, on the other end, or any compromise in between that seems feasible for you.

Since we always have the option of deciding anew every single day, regardless of what our decisions have been in the past, we can align our intention and focus to our new goals in each and every moment that is NOW.

The Huna philosophy is a rich source of ideas, concepts, tools and techniques to support us in our quest to live our lives to the fullest.

One pleasant, warm summer morning, I enjoyed a nice breakfast outside. With my mind relaxed, an inspiration landed with me for an additional approach to making more specific changes in Waena, our personal Inner Garden, to support any desired course corrections to the path we walk in life.

As you probably know, the Inner Garden is called Waena in the Kahili tradition of Huna. It is another kind of dream purposefully used as a meditation focus. The word waena in Hawaiian means, among other things, "center", and "garden", so one interpretation of Waena could be "the garden for centering", or "the garden which is your center", or even 'central garden". Within the framework of this philosophy, Waena is a place from which you can access the other worlds, and it is a powerful tool for manifesting.

You create your own Inner Garden according to your preferences by imagining it, you can place anything in it that you like with the power of your imagination, and you can change it the same way. You can go there to take a rest, to effect healing, to get an insight, or to alter your life. Whatever you do in your Garden will have an effect on your corner of what we usually call 'reality". It is ok to just hang out there, but it is also very useful to be focused, intentional and specific about what you do in your Garden. If you want to relax, be intentional about relaxing. If you want to accomplish something, be intentional about that.

Start being present in your Inner Garden by hearing, smelling and touching something in the garden in great detail for a little while. Be fully there, and enjoy what has come into being by your intention. Sometimes, you might encounter things or beings that you did not create or put in your garden, but that is ok. Your Garden is an entity of its own, but since this is your creation, you can always do, undo or modify everything. However, start with finding out what these additions you did not intentionally create may have to tell or teach you. They are usually there for a reason.

When you are fully present in your Garden and, say, you want to work on an issue in your everyday life, you can ask for a symbol in the garden that represents this issue and then modify the symbol in a way that makes it more beautiful or pleasant. Don't worry about the meaning or interpretation of the symbol that your inspiration gives you, it is just a symbol and has no meaning in any literal or direct way. The important thing is that whatever the symbol you are given may be, you change it to be more beautiful in some way. As Serge Kahili King says: 'If you change one dream, you change all related dreams."

Now back to my inspiration on that pleasant, warm summer morning regarding specific transformations for the life path. If you are in a situation where you are not so sure about the path you want to walk, or how to find the path to the goal you have in mind, go to your Inner Garden and make a point of designing the pathways in your Garden in a very solid fashion. Assemble them as robust structures with a good foundation and a sturdy surface. You might want to add some bonus creations just for the fun of it, such as flashy signs or beautiful boulevards. Manufacture them to be the stable paths that take you to your goal, and make them enjoyable to walk along. Perform some kind of small ritual of acknowledgement, and come back out of your Garden.

Of course, you still have to take appropriate steps in this other dream, the dream people like to call the "real world". But you may find that your path is easier to find, much more clearly set out for you, and that the wind might change from blowing into your face to a favorable tailwind. After all,

"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up someplace else." - Yogi Berra

Astrid Mohr-Kiehn is a translator, author and photographer and an Alaka'i of Huna International. She offers Huna and Lomi Lomi workshops in Germany and beyond. Her website is: www.huna-for-success.com