a personal story…

Wendy, my Huna sister & I decided to book a ‘Swim with the Dolphin’ tour the day after the Huna course finished.  I had never snorkeled before, and decided I’d better learn how to before our excursion. I rented a mask & snorkel and went out in the bay next to the hotel where the course was being held. The small bay is renowned for snorkeling, filled with a bounty of fish that feed off the coral reef.

I don’t go swimming often, preferring to go to the beach over the pool…  I’m not much of a swimmer at all!  I really don’t put my head underwater because I don’t like getting water in my eyes… and I’m not really comfortable swimming in deep water.  What was I thinking?

I walked out into the water, put on my mask and proceeded to put my head under water.  My conscious mind was rather looking forward to seeing the world underneath the water without having to be bothered with any discomfort having water in my eyes.  My unconscious had something else going on!  As I leaned down to put my head under, absolute terror swelled up.

It felt like I wouldn’t be able to breathe, I was afraid to open my eyes with the mask on, I was panicking. And my face wasn’t even in the water!  I tried again, and again…  I could put my face close to the water… and then BRIEFLY underwater… we are talking only seconds…  All this terror when I went to go under but as soon as I lifted my head from the water, I was calm, cool and collected. What was this all about?  Where did this come from?  How could I have this much fear inside me and not even know it?

When I was about 7 years old, my adult cousin decided it was time for me to learn how to swim… his motto being “sink or swim.”  He picked me up, screaming all the way, and tossed me into the local ‘swimming hole’ of the Saugeen River. Seems I wasn’t swimming very well, bobbing as the current carried me away. My cousin had to jump in and pull me to safety.  Although I don’t really think about it, that past experience was buried in my memory banks, along with many others.

I had some serious work to do before my dolphin adventure!  Wendy stayed with me for a bit, trying to help, but she really wanted to be out there snorkeling, so I sent her on her way, telling her there was not much she could do anyway. This was not something I could rationalize to release the reaction, and this was something I had to work out on my own.

I kept at it and at it… and each time I put my head underwater, I could stay a little bit longer. The unconscious fear about not being able to breathe was intense. Finally I could swim for a few minutes if I put my hand on the snorkel so my lower self knew I could breathe.  The whole time, my conscious brain kept repeating, “I need a Master Prac,” which is short for a Master Practitioner of NLP. Fortunately there were many NLP Masters in the higher levels of Huna that were taking the Huna training.  I felt like I needed some help with this one, especially since I didn’t have much time to work through it.

By the end of my introduction to snorkeling, I had mastered swimming with one hand on my breathing apparatus while gliding over the reef, but not having the courage to go out into the deep water. Then it was time to change out of my swimsuit, grab something to eat and head to class.

Before class started, I headed over to Tom, one of the level 3B students who was assisting at the training. Our conversation went like this…

Linda: “Tom.  I need a Master Prac! Can you point one out to me? I need some help.”

Tom: “Why? I’m a Master Prac. What’s going on?”

Linda: “I’m going swimming with the dolphins tomorrow and I’m terrified of putting my head underwater!  All this panic comes up when I try to put my head underwater with the snorkel mask on.  Not to mention swimming in deep water.”  I proceeded to tell him a bit about what had happened earlier that morning.

Tom:  “Why don’t you use Huna?”

Linda: “I didn’t know I could.”

Tom had me close my eyes and get in touch with my fear, and worked on me using some Huna symbols. “How’s that?” he said.

Linda: “Yeah, it seems better.”   Meanwhile I’m thinking, “Yeah but I’m standing in a room with my feet on the floor. I’m not out in the ocean right now.” 

Tom suggested that should do the trick, and if I needed more work to come see him again. I wasn’t too sure when I’d have the opportunity to do that because this was the last day of the course and our excursion was early next morning.

The next day, I went out in the boat and decided a life jacket was probably in order. Without any hesitation, I jumped into the water and could put my face under without any emotion welling up. I didn’t need to hold onto the snorkel, and I could look down far below me and see the ocean floor. No fear. No panic. No intense emotions at all.  Very interesting… It was here I understood the power of Huna.

Not to say that my swim in the ocean was perfect. My mask didn’t seal well and kept filling with water. I had to constantly stop… in the middle of the ocean… to flip the water out and put my mask on again. Not being a strong swimmer and petite, I got tossed around in the waves a lot. I normally wear glasses and my mask was not quite the right strength, so sometimes I didn’t know where my group was or which tourist boat I belonged to. But our tour guides were wonderful and kept an eye out for me.

At no time did I feel any fear whatsoever. I struggled a bit with my equipment, but mostly I swam around in total amazement that I could be out in the ocean, head in water, eyes open… doing this without fear.

Did I swim with the dolphins? Not really, but I saw some from the boat. They are much better swimmers than I!

However in my perspective, I did something far more valuable. I faced a deep fear and received a deep teaching about Huna magik.

Since I’ve been back, I have worked with several people with deep seated fears. In each case, I have been able to alleviate or greatly reduce their anxiety in just one session. Huna is amazing!