I didn’t grow up in a family that “hugged.” Well, maybe Grandma and the Aunts hugged, but well, at best that felt weird.

Hugging was something I picked up when I went to college in the ‘70s — hugging was “big” then.

I moved about 150 miles away from home to go to the UW-Madison (Go Badgers!). I loved living in Madison. I lived there until I moved to Honolulu 20 years ago. By the time I moved to Hawaii, my family had gotten used to giving and receiving hugs.

SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) introduced me to Self-hugs when I studied with her in 2016.

For the most part, my moods during the pandemic have been pretty good — fluctuating between “pookie” and feeling really happy several times throughout each day.

This is what “Pookie” looks like.

One day, I felt so happy that I felt guilty. Fortunately, when a friend said my happiness was like a gift for her, my guilt vanished.

Sometimes, especially when feeling isolated, giving yourself a great big hug and pretending that you’re hugging someone too far away can be a substitute until the next time you meet.

What if it’s possible to send virtual hugs to those you love just by projecting love to them while hugging yourself — truly hugging yourself.

Who’s to say it’s not?

Are you ready for a hug?

Open your arms wide and wrap them around yourself. Stretch to put your hands all the way around your body, with one arm on top of the other. Try to touch your back, that’s how far you want to reach your arms.

Now squeeze — HUG! Kiss your shoulders for extra sweetness.

Then rewrap your hands around your body with the opposite arm on top of the other.

You’ve just given yourself a double hug and received the benefits of a hug.

Do hugs have benefits? You bet!

Hugs can soothe you if you’re feeling stressed. Your blood pressure can go down, and you can momentarily forget your woes.

Hugs allow your body to release oxytocin into your bloodstream. That’s the natural hormone also known as the “happy hormone.”

Hugs can help strengthen your immune system by creating white blood cells.

One day we might be able to freely hug again. Until then, Hug Yourself!

I hope you’ll let Hugging Yourself become a regular part of your self-love.

(To watch me draw these illustrations, go to https://www.facebook.com/PatriceArtOfAloha/ and scroll to the video. Then give yourself another HUG!)

In the last 18 years, I’ve learned a lot about these wonderful islands and all that grows here. My painting style continues to evolve along with my vision of what I want to paint.

Along the way, I’ve developed a passion for writing and have begun to nurture this skill.

My creative writing began with an idea for a children’s story that popped into my head a few years ago.

I’ve never had kids, so where did this come from? I’m not sure and who cares!

Whenever we start something new, we face a new learning curve. It starts out pretty steep. It takes perseverance and trust to keep us facing that uphill slope.

It doesn’t matter how often we’ve faced a similar slope, each new incline brings a fresh set of inner and outer challenges and opportunities to be met.

Have you heard of Inner Critics? I learned about them from SARK last year.

Inner Critics are the voices in our head trying to keep us safe.

Unfortunately, they do so by telling us that we don’t know what the heck we’re doing, or that we don’t have time to learn what we want to do or myriad other problems that are sure to get in our way.

Inner Critics flourish in times of growth. Fortunately, I learned methods to handle them.

In addition to a diverse band of inner critics, I've got an insatiable drive to learn, to grow, and to expand out of my creative comfort zone.

I bore easily.

My race to mastery of anything is futile. Once within touching distance of reaching a goal, I start to look for a new creative mountain to climb, or a new way to paint something or a new subject matter to tackle.

I’m currently facing challenges on several fronts: subject matter, creative skill sets, and internal “upper limit issues”.

AND my desire to have FUN is more important than being consumed with my ingrained Midwestern work ethic.

How can I have fun doing all that I want to do?

Be on the lookout for something “new-ish” in the months to come.

Telling you something new is "afoot" is my way of ensuring that I stick to my new adventures and continue this current uphill climb on my life-long rollercoaster ride of living life creatively, from the inside out.

Last year I met a new “character” in my dreams. She’s pretty remarkable and unforgettable; she has six eyes. I never gave her a name; she's an image of me.

She populates two three-dimensional watercolor pyramids and a few small paintings, most notably, “Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling”.

Postcards of this image are available, send SASE: PO Box 61707, Honolulu, HI 96839-1707

A few months later I saw another image in a dream, this time of an onion with six eyes. Onions are a ubiquitous food in the world, so this image leads me to believe that we all have six eyes.

This is the first of many more onions in the book I'm creating.

Peeling an onion reveals more of the onion, sort of an internal archeological evolutionary “dig” into our psyche.

Shortly after the six-eyed onion appeared to me, I received an email, seemingly out of the blue, from SARK. She invited me to attend a webinar about a Succulent Wild Business Incubator Program she was starting.

My energy was on high-alert after the webinar so I signed up for the nine-month program.

The weeks leading up to the first in-person retreat filled me with anxiety. I knew I was about to begin a new important leg of my journey through life.

I was scared.

What if I couldn’t do it? What if I couldn’t live up to my potential? What if I failed?

I took all of my anxieties to watercolor paper and created “Eyes of Awareness”.

The painting calmed me down and gave me hope. My anxieties were no match for what was to come.

All of my energies would be joyfully, gleefully released when I allowed myself to move forward rather than stay stuck in fear.

At the first SARK retreat in Key West, we were introduced to SARK’s tool, “Inner Wise Self Love Letters”. Essentially we all have an Inner Wise Self and she/he is always with us.

Many of us have known about this inner wisdom and call it by different names. No matter what you call it, feeling its loving presence is a gift.

I credit my Inner Wise Self with giving me all of the imagery in this post.

I’m delighted to have a new, more direct way of dialoguing with her as a result of working with the SARK team (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, Dr. Scott Mills, and Suzanne Evans). Mahalo nui loa!

But Wait! There’s more to come.

I’ll share it with you soon. Stay tuned for “My Inner Wise Self and Me, Part 2”.