Learning how to write with aloha

How do we express values through the written word?  That’s one of the things I want to explore through the pages of this blog, looking at ways we can:

• write with confidence;
• write with authenticity; and
• write with rapport

I have recently come along some amazing material on Hawaiian values on the blogs that are written and hosted by Rosa Say: Managing with Aloha, Talking Story, and Joyful, Jubilant Learning.  Rosa explains each of these values with great simplicity and clarity, and already I can identify so many ways that we can try and build these not just into the way that we live, work and manage but also the way that we write.

Although I have plenty of ideas about writing the application of these values to the written word is new to me, and I will be learning with you as we go along.  It should be a journey of discovery for all of us!

My plan is to bundle the pieces under the heading of ‘writing with aloha’.

The journey of discovery will include learning what is meant by aloha itself: a word that has multiple layers of meaning.  From wikipedia we see a range of meanings: you may be familiar with it as a greeting word in Hawaii, meaning hello and goodbye.  It also means love, peace, compassion, mercy.  The word comes from “alo” for presence, or front, and “ha” for breath.  The aloha spirit refers to a spirit of hospitality and care.

Rosa introduces the term as love and inner spirit.  She says that:

Aloha is a value, one of unconditional love. Aloha literally translates to “being in the presence of the life’s spirit,” and it is a sharing which is therefore thought of as the outpouring and receiving of a person’s inner spirit.

Rosa goes on to explain and articulate what it means to her - and what it might mean to us.  One of my favourite expressions is “living from the inside out”

Think of aloha as living from the inside out. Last 2 letters: ha, the breath of your life. You capture the very essence of who you are - no one in the world is like you! When you “catch your breath” you capture the authentic, true, real and genuine you. First 3 letters: alo, your demeanor, the stage presence you put forth for everyone to see. All 5 letters: aloha.
Does your outside match your inside? Is your demeanor a reflection of the positive good inside you, and have you captured all your born-in talents? Are you sincerely living, working, managing, and leading from the inside out?

Now I wonder if you can also think about what it would mean to write from the inside out:

• to capture the essence of yourself
• to take of the mask so other people can see, hear and feel your presence
• to share that essence, that source, that power with your readers

And I wonder what amazing difference that might make to our writing?!

I’m looking forward to finding out

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