“If you’re not willing to risk, you cannot grow. If you cannot grow, you cannot be your best. If you cannot be your best, you cannot be happy. If you cannot be happy, what else is there?”
— Les Brown

Most of us grow by moving through fear of one kind or another. It can be moving through the fear experienced from triggering old wounds. It can be moving through the fear of pushing perceived limits. It is often a little of both as our old wounds come up for healing in the process of expanding our limits. 

Doesn’t that make fear our friend?

Personal growth makes us feel alive. It is stimulating. It is energizing. Even when it’s uncomfortable or scary, even when it brings up fear, there is a sense of aliveness about it, a feeling of movement and growth.

We can grow through pushing our limits, stepping outside our comfort zones, the way a crawling baby will pull herself shakily to her feet, and then to take that first step. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we are injured and so we also grow through healing those wounds.

That doesn’t mean we enjoy the discomfort.

Most of us would rather grow through choosing to learn something new, pushing our limits, moving through any fear that might bring up and becoming more than we were.

A few years ago, I traveled with a group to Brazil. One of the most challenging parts of the trip was the opportunity to go hang-gliding off a mountain in Rio de Janeiro.  Let me tell you that created lots of opportunity for me to move through fear, pushing me way out of my comfort zone as I stood on the top of the mountain and waited my turn to fly. Even though I was riding tandem with an experienced hang-glider, during that run off the edge of the mountain my body was convinced that I was dying. The result of moving through all that fear was a huge adrenaline rush as we soared high over the coastline and intense exhilaration as we landed on the beach hundreds of feet below.

Would I be in a hurry to do it again? Maybe not. But I did it once. I’ve got a video to prove it!

Most of us would prefer that exhilarating kind of growth to the growth of triggering of old wounds. Both processes bring up fear and its consequences and having to deal with that. But the former is more fun. The latter less so.

Either way there is growth and development.

“Fear has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.' The choice is yours.”
— Zig Ziglar
 
You don’t always have a conscious choice about it. Old wounds surface when they are ready for healing and that may not be when you would prefer.

I encountered an old wound that brought up a cascade of fear just recently. It was pretty benign really yet the fear it brought up was as malignant as ever.

I was out at a restaurant with a family group. A chance remark, pointed my way in all innocence, triggered me back to another remark when I was younger. This one not so innocent. It felt almost like a PTSD episode. In the middle of a pleasant family chat I was drowning in memories of this incident in my past that I allowed to injure me for years. The injury was not so much from the incident itself or what was said at the time, but because I used it as evidence of my own unworthiness.

All of this came rushing back at me with that one innocent remark in the restaurant. It felt like new evidence of unworthiness.

I hadn’t heard that old story line for a long time and it was shocking. Fortunately, I’m not willing to believe that story anymore. At least not for very long. I breathed through the fear while we were at the restaurant, and was able to enjoy the rest of our visit.

The next day those same fearful thoughts came up again, telling me I wasn’t done with this yet. I cleared through them once again with breathwork and also with EFT.

Eventually, I was able to acknowledge that the experience came up because I was ready to heal that old wound and finally release the fear. I felt both grateful and excited at the prospect of clearing that painful story.  

I believe our Soul’s purpose is to grow and develop, and we grow rapidly through fear. That makes fear our ally in the process of our growth.

We’re not talking about survival fear here. That’s the kind of fear that told our forebearers to hide from a saber-toothed tiger. We’re talking about the fear of emotional pain, the fear of rejection, abandonment, failure, success, unworthiness, and any other fears life experience has taught us.

We’re talking about the kind of fear that tells us it is too scary to try new things, or maybe it's the fear that tells us we aren’t good enough to succeed, or the fear that says we have to avoid certain kinds of situations or we will feel emotional pain.

But what if this fear that we’ve been resisting all our lives is actually our friend?

Can we welcome fear when we encounter it knowing it offers us an opportunity to grow? Can we feel curious and intrigued when fear shows up? Saying to ourselves, “Thank you fear for showing up. You’re showing me a new place to grow.”

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
— Joseph Campbell

What if underneath most fear is the Soul’s excitement about an opportunity for growth? Would the fear related to pushing our comfort zones and triggering old wounds transmute into excitement? If we stop struggling against feeling fear and instead welcome it and the opportunity it presents, we might experience our Soul’s excitement.

I think it is possible. It’s worth a try.

“When a resolute, young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The same might be said of that great bully, fear. Perhaps it is not such a great bully as we thought. Perhaps it is even our friend.

Manifesting our desires into this level of existence sometimes seems a magical process about which we can only hope and wish. According to Huna teachings that is not the case. Huna teaches that the process of manifestation is a specific process which can be easily learned.

Since I learned of it, I’ve been using the Huna technique of breath energized manifesting to create funds for various specific objectives, a workshop I wanted to attend, several short trips and a longer trip I’m preparing for, as well as maintaining an emergency savings account. The money showed up in each case. For the workshop I received what I needed from an unexpected source, just in time, a day or two before the workshop. Other times the money arrived well beforehand, again unexpectedly, not a part of our regular budgeting. Exciting stuff!

So, let me share with you my version of the Huna method of breath energized manifesting. 

First, a quick recap. In the last few posts of Know Thyself we learned that the subconscious mind is in charge of the body and the emotions. It also responsible for gathering and storing energy to give to the conscious and the superconscious minds.

The conscious mind is in charge of the mental aspects of things, the will.

The superconscious mind is in charge of manifesting. It is Divine Will and so functions at a level that is beyond understanding, but for this discussion we will focus upon its role as manifestor.

 The process of manifesting according to Huna teachings is this:

1. The conscious mind determines specifically what it wants to manifest. Consciously taking the time to envision what is wanted and get the emotions and thus the subconscious involved.
2. Once the focus is clearly determined and visualized, the conscious mind directs the subconscious to gather surplus energy. The conscious mind can aid in that through consciously directed deep breathing. 
3. The conscious mind thanks the subconscious for giving the gathered energy to the superconscious for the purposes of manifesting this intention.
4. The conscious mind directs a prayer through the subconscious mind to the superconscious with the specific intention and visualizations. As the conscious mind conceptualizes and the subconscious ‘feels’ the intention to the superconscious, the subconscious allows the surplus energy to flow to the superconscious, supporting the physical manifestation of the intention.

It is important to note that only the subconscious can gather and give energy. The subconscious is positively engaged when positive emotion is experienced. The superconscious needs the energy gathered and given by the subconscious to build our design in this reality. As the conscious mind envisions the thought forms of the desired intention imbuing them with all the detail possible, the subconscious has an emotional response. It may be excitement, or joy, or contentment or some other positive emotion. If, as you envision your intention you experience any twinge of fear or negativity or disbelief, this must be cleared or the necessary energy will not be sent to the superconscious. The subconscious will dig in its heels, so to speak, and refuse to budge. The flow and manifestation of your intention will be blocked.

There are many excellent tools and healers available for reprogramming the subconscious mind. The tool I use most often with my clients is FasterEFT-V, which you can find out more about on our Resources page. 

All three selves must be in accord, all three pulling in the same direction for prayer to be manifested.
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The manifestation process is not a mysterious unknown in Huna. It is consciously directed prayer, conceptualization and feeling, supported by intentionally gathered energy. It is a simple and effective process.


Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash 

“The kahunas (Hawaiian priests) believed that by an action of mind a man can create additional energy to accumulate a surcharge of mana (life force energy) when needed. They felt that hard breathing would assist in creating this vital force. This theory is supported by our medical doctors, who have found that our food is digested and then changed to glycogen, or blood sugar. This is then oxidized with the oxygen we breathe and gives us our strength to live. Since the low self (subconscious mind) controls all our bodily functions, it can burn more blood sugar by taking in more air to create mana.”
William R. Glover, Huna: The Ancient Religion of Positive Thinking
 
Huna philosophy teaches that the subconscious mind has another essential function in addition to what we discussed in Getting to Know Your Subconscious Mind I. This is where Huna teachings deviate from traditional Psychology and things start to get exciting.

Huna teaches that the subconscious mind is responsible for energizing our systems, conscious, unconscious and superconscious. That means that the subconscious mind is responsible for gathering energy from the food we eat and the air we breathe and storing it for use by our three selves, subconscious, conscious and superconscious.

Huna teaches that the superconscious needs this lower vibrating energy from the subconscious in order to create and manifest for us in the lower vibrating energy of our 3D world. We’ll talk more about this fascinating concept in the next post on the conscious and superconscious.

For now, lets look at how the subconscious gathers energy. This happens without our conscious awareness. It is an automatic function of the subconscious mind to gather energy from the food we eat and the air we breathe. This energy supports the physical functions of the body as well as the functioning of the conscious mind.

Most importantly, we can ask the subconscious to gather and store surplus energy above what we need for normal functioning by verbally expressing our intent. This surplus energy may be used to support prayer, manifestation, healing, affirmations and whatever you wish to create in your life. It may also be used to support prayer and healing for others.

We support the subconscious to do this with deep breathing, giving the subconscious extra energy through our breath.
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This is where the magic of Huna happens and we’ll talk more about this as we learn about the functioning of the superconscious mind in our next two posts in Know Thyself. 


Photo by Matt Jones on Unsplash

“As you sow in your subconscious mind, so shall you reap in your body and environment.”
― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
 
This is the first of two posts about the function of the subconscious mind according to Huna philosophy.  Today we’ll focus on learning to recognize the reactive nature of our subconscious and how it shows up in our daily lives.

Becoming aware of how our subconscious functions in our lives is tremendously empowering. According to Huna philosophy the subconscious self acts as the gas in our engine, energizing all that we intend, or stalling it out, as the case may be. As we learn how to partner with our subconscious self we take charge of responses and manifestations that hitherto were unconsciously determined.

Huna philosophy teaches that the subconscious self is in charge of the autonomic functions that make the body run. It keeps the heart beating, the lungs breathing, and everything working the way it should for our healthy bodily functioning.

Huna as well as traditional psychology teach that the subconscious self is the center of our emotional responses. This function of the subconscious has been referred to as the Inner Child. These are the knee-jerk emotional responses we may feel little or no control over, programmed into our subconscious through life experiences. Most importantly, it is this aspect of the subconscious that will put the brakes on the manifesting of our goals because of past wounding and fears.

The language of the subconscious mind is emotion. If we are feeling emotion Huna teaches that we are responding from our subconscious.    
     
If you have ever known a two-year old child you have an idea of what the subconscious mind is like.  It is illogical, emotional, selfish and given to tantrums.

It is also primed for learning with absolute faith in the truth of what it is learning. As such the subconscious mind is a faithful servant or a staunch adversary depending upon what truths it adheres to.

If we experienced wounding in the past, the subconscious internalizes truths or beliefs based on that wounding and this creates feelings of fear, shame, guilt, anger, resentment, greed, jealousy and any number of negative emotional reactions preventing the larger self from moving forward.

Our task then as we partner with our subconscious mind is to release the beliefs that do not support us and teach our subconscious truths which better serve us. There are many techniques and tools that can aid  in this. We offer you a particularly easy to use technique in today's Spiritual Toolbox.

On our Resources page you'll find instructions for another effective tool, Faster EFT-V, which I've used with success, for both myself and my clients. 


Photo by Alex J. Reyes on Unsplash

"If you are not using Huna, then you are working too hard."
-Max Freedom Long

There are many different ways to understand ourselves but one of the most useful I’ve found is that taught by Max Freedom Long, best-known researcher of the psycho-religious system of Huna. Huna is based upon the ancient Hawaiian Kahuna healing and manifesting practices. The teachings and techniques available through Huna Research Inc. are surprisingly simple and practical. I have cherry-picked those parts of Huna teachings that I’ve found especially useful, and I will share the basics of what I’ve learned in these posts. For more in-depth research and technique please explore the many resources available on-line and at the Huna Research Inc. website.

Huna teaches that we are made up of three selves, the subconscious or low self, the conscious or middle self, and the superconscious or high self. The subconscious self manages the autonomic functions of the body as well as the emotional body. The conscious self is the reasoning intellect, the will. The superconscious self is our divine self, the divine will. The superconscious, being divine is that part of us which manifests and creates, supported by the subconscious and conscious selves.

Your three selves must be in alignment in order for you to successfully create in your life and maintain your creations. That means getting all three selves on board for whatever you intend to manifest. To do that we need to get to know each of our three selves intimately and how they are interdependent.

In the next few posts here in Know Thyself we’ll come to understand these parts of ourselves according to the teachings of Huna. Once we’ve become familiar with our parts we can explore putting them together. We may discover there’s magic in alignment!


Photo by Cinematic Imagery on Unsplash