When I was in Hawaii this summer I attended an excellent shamanic Huna workshop in Volcano Village with my friend Serge King. It was great to meet old friends again from around the world and to make new friends too. At workshops, I tend to have a habit of taking copious handwritten notes which tend to be drafted in somewhat of an increasingly illegible style as the days go on. When I get back and review them they tend to take a bit of deciphering!
After I had returned to the UK, I received an email from Paula Brown a fellow alakai of Aloha International who had also attended the workshop. I was especially delighted and surprised because the email contained a file which was a copy of a graphic journal that Paula had created based on the workshops and her experiences on the island. I did not even know that Paula was drafting this in real time throughout her time there and to share a copy of it with me and other attendees was a wonderful gift indeed.
It made me reflect on how pictures can convey so much and stimulate memories in a very different way to my usual handwritten notes. Looking through each of the pages brought back many fond memories of the event in a really rich and evocative way. The images helped to stir up some strong positive emotions which of course is in itself an aid to learning, remembering and focussing. The way that Paula captured the key concepts graphically throughout the workshop was excellent and extremely relevant. As I scrolled through the wonderful images I was reminded of many good times and interesting experiences including grokking, working with the seven elements, a trip to Pana’ewa rainforest zoo and gardens, the volcano at Kilauea, soul retrieval, experiments with time travel and much much more. The fact that I find Paula’s style particularly aesthetically pleasing and perfect for the subject matter was an extra bonus.
I am truly grateful to have received such a lovely record of the workshop. It has made me think about other uses for such a way of capturing things visually including capturing dreams, summarising vision boards and recording adventures. I think it is an excellent and powerful way of capturing your own story. Paula works with clients using these types of tools to distil ideas into easy to access graphics in a wide range of contexts for great effect. She describes herself as a ‘heartist storyteller’ and ‘an expert guide for getting stuck stories “unstuck” by finding the unique heart essence that is in everyone and everything, drawing out big ideas…to ignite, show, and tell the heart of stories’. I am very pleased that she shared the visual story of the workshop we attended with me.
Paula has kindly allowed me to share an image from the journal on my blog to which I could only respond with ‘yes please!’ and a big mahalo. The particular image shown here summarises working with the fire element and references the goddess Pele and the Halemaumau crater.
More about Paula’s work can be found at www.chilightful.com and www.picturestorming.com I am sure she would be happy to hear from you.
