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#40 – Making sense of the world through illustration!​
Tina: Hello there. You are listening to the InKinship podcast, a podcast for makers, makers who crave a vibrant lit up life on their own terms. And I am your host, Tina Vandenberg. Today, I have the very distinct pleasure of having my friend. I like to color my friend. Um, Elina Puhanimmi, did I ever butcher that?
So any of you might be listening from Finland, I apologize, just all the way across the board. But Elina, you are here, um, and you graciously gave me very clear directions for how to pronounce your last name. And still I butchered it. Can you say for our guests today?
Elina: So, I’m Elina Puohiniemi. Oh, it’s so beautiful.
Yeah, it’s a rare name, too.
Tina: Oh, it’s beautiful. Thank you. I met Elena, I don’t know, maybe five or six years ago, we were in part the same community, online community.
And um, I remember distinctly your beautiful smile and your kindness. And I was so grateful to be able to experience that. And so, Elena. is an artist, a life coach, and the creator of Miracle Doodle series. She’s also written several different books. In fact, one book just came out last week and I’m excited to talk about that and I’m excited to talk about wooden puppets and Japanese forest bathing and all sorts of things with Alina today.
So Alina, welcome to the show.
Elina: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here and thank you for having me and. Let’s go.
Tina: All right. Give me just one moment here. I’m going to shift our visual and we’re gonna go just like this. Okay. So those of you who are listening live, if you have any questions for us, feel free to pop that into the chat.
We’re not going to monitor the chat until the very end because I’d like to stay as present as possible with the conversation. Um, but we would love to hear what your thoughts are, what you’re thinking, and feel free to pop those in anytime as we go. And at the end of the show, you have an opportunity to come on and ask questions if you would like.
Thanks for being here. All right, Elena, tell us what it means to be a creator of the Miracle Doodle series. What is that?
Elina: Ah, okay. So do you want the whole story for a decade or? Yes,
Tina: that’s exactly how I like to go. I’m like, well, first of all, if we’re going to know this, we have to go back to here and to here and to here.
So tell us, tell us the whole story. I’ve got my cup of coffee. I’m ready to hear.
Elina: Okay, so I’ve been looking back of my life with this podcast, um, Your questions are so inspiring that I was like, Oh, what were the moments in my life? And, and then I was listening to some kind of, um, voice recorder, voice recordings, and there, I was talking about this moment in 2013, when I was the suffering artist thinking that I need to only, uh, explain suffering in my art and only go to the deep, dark, murky places.
And found this, I don’t remember what it was. inspired the idea, but I was laughing at myself like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So in some time in the future, I’ll be just doodling some happy things or, you know, like just some light figures or, you know, I was just laughing like that will never happen. I just want to struggle through this art thing.
Tina: Yeah.
Elina: And then one, one year later, I started doodling and explaining happiness with my doodles. Okay. That happened. Oh, yeah. So it was, uh, with a course in miracles, do you know the book or the course? Yeah. So I started. I’ve not read it, but I am aware of it. Okay. So I started studying it and it was as hard as people said it would be.
And I, I journaled and I tried to understand. I was reading it in English. And my English was quite rusty back then. So I had to all the time translate it. I was writing almost everything out so that I could understand it better. And then in my journal notes on day nine or something, a little stick figure woman with clenched fists and a grumpy face popped up out of my pen and started, started helping me understand it.
And then it, it was like a conversation with the A Course in Miracles and a Doodle figure and me and, and she just started making it all the time, like so much more joyful. And she made me laugh when I was taking it too seriously. And I felt like it was the essence of, of the whole course that, that is leading to a lighter and happier life.
Yeah. So that’s, that’s the first, uh, like beginning of the story. And now last week my book came out, which is sharing my first 60, uh, daily lessons with illustrations. on the journey and, and I can’t wait to share the rest of the 365. I have now studied it through three times and every time Mira has been teaching me, my doodle character is called Mira, so she has been teaching me more and more about the course.
It’s fun. It’s really a lot of fun.
Tina: Yeah. So for those of you who are interested, how can you see what your doodles look like? Cause we’re talking, I wonder if people might want to take a peek at and see what you’re talking about. Mira looks like and the lizard, right? She often talks to the lizard. And yeah, that’s the ego.
The lizard is the
Elina: ego. Yeah. I have them online at the doodling miracles. com. Yeah. So that’s the place. I don’t know if I, I can show you, um, spread from my book, if, if it shows here, like this. Here is a picture of Mira holding a light thought that makes a crack in the dark cloud and her friend Sandy is basking in the light of her thought.
So that’s like the essence of when we get, um, not enlightened, of course it’s, that’s a long journey probably, or that’s a momentarily change in us if we get enlightened. But when our, um, When we are starting to feel better with our lives and connect with our inner essence and wisdom, that’s when we start shining our light and that’s when others start feeling it too.
Very
Tina: nice. Very nice. So I love that you had this transition from you had to be a starving, um, suffering artist in order to be an artist, right? That’s, that’s what I heard from the story you told. And then you shifted because you were trying to work your way through the Miracle, uh, Course in Miracles and understand it in English of all things.
Like, I had a hard time pronouncing their names. I can’t even imagine attempting to be continually translating into a different language. Something that is so esoteric and so, um, uh, so much growth involved in it.
Elina: Yeah, but that’s also a fun thing because I, I, no English enough that I can, um, kind of like fill in the blanks with my imagination.
So that also makes the journey easier when you can just like lift yourself up when it feels hard, when you just don’t understand it. It’s like, okay, Let’s figure it out.
Tina: And I love that lightheartedness that comes in from like, I’m going to doodle this and you’ve got this little person and she delights you, obviously, like it’s very much is like a joy filled thing to be able to.
And
Elina: sometimes it was just a slap in the face, like, Hey, stop that.
Tina: Right. Yeah. I totally understand that. Cause oftentimes I’ll be like, Tatum Marie, what are you doing? Right. And I just, I don’t. Rare that I’m really hard on myself. I typically am quite lighthearted cause I just laugh and I think, um, you know, what a silly thing to do perhaps if something I have done or some way that I’m thinking or some, some path that I’ve gotten stuck in or I’m spinning on something.
Like I think it’s a beautiful thing to have that grace and that joy and the lightheartedness around it because we’re continually in and out of that space.
Elina: Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like I’m this, uh, very serious person that thinks too much and goes too deep. So I really, I really need that lightheartedness.
Yeah. Like it’s, it’s my happy place.
Tina: Very nice. So we jumped right in to what you’re working on, which is beautiful, but let’s back up just a moment. And you know, often I talk with makers, which obviously illustration is a beautiful form of making. Here on the podcast, but I wonder how you identify as a maker and if you do and what it is that you love to do and make.
Elina: So I have been this multi passionate maker and only these past few years I’ve been really focused on illustrating and books. So I’ve been Uh, making like my entrepreneurship started with, uh, soap making courses. I, I taught people to make soap from, uh, lye and fat. Yes. Yeah. Old fashioned. And also I crocheted a lot and I’ve made clothes and.
Or like bought clothes and then just fix them better for me and that kind of stuff. So that’s why I, I, I was drawn to you because you had this beautiful, uh, sewing classes and, but I didn’t. take my, um, what’s that, um, sewing machine out. I never, I never managed to do that, but I was inspired by your, your, your energy and inspiration.
So maybe one day again, but I made my children’s clothes and, and, Like as a child, I’ve been thinking like I’m coming a full circle now because in the, as a child, I, I roamed the forests with a carving knife on my belt. Like that’s, that was a thing in the eighties for little girls.
Tina: Yeah. I think I did the same
Elina: thing.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s what I was. And now I’m carving wood again. So yeah. Like, I feel like I need to handle the bird world with my hands. I need to make things to understand, to handle things.
Tina: You know, and that would really relate to you talking about how doodling and drawing an illustration to really embody and to learn deeply what you were learning in the Course of Miracles.
Like that makes total sense, right? Like you can get your hands into it.
Elina: Yeah. And that’s what I figured as when I was 10 years old, like I started doodling my studies. It was a picture. I still have it on a post it note that I figured like, this is how I learned that I, it was a hurricane or a tornado or something swirling that I needed to learn to all the facts about it.
So I was 10 years old and I threw this tornado and just. I wrote things around it and in it and everywhere. And then I started learning. And it was beautiful. I’ve drawn my schools through ever since. Yeah. So that was like very efficient.
Tina: I love that. Have you always been drawing? Do you remember drawing from a very tiny age?
Yeah. That’s who I am. Very nice. Yeah. Very nice. So I know, because I had the pleasure of seeing this before the podcast began, but I know that you are also have been making wooden puppets. Can you talk about that? Yes. So that was,
Elina: um, one summer ago. Yeah. Last year in the summer. I found this, uh, Icelandic, or.
He’s German but lives in Iceland, has his puppet, uh, puppet, um, uh, workshop there. And, and his, uh, style of wooden puppets was so great and I was inspired by it. It looked very, like, familiar with something that I could make too. Like, he’s a fascinating person and he’s also talking about filling your cup.
Uh, it’s the, um, the worlds of puppets online. Burnt or crotnik, something. His name?
Tina: The Worlds of Puppets. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah.
Elina: Yeah. Or the World of Puppets. I don’t remember. Yeah. So that’s, that’s where I started then studying in his master classes and, and then I got into his one year program and really, really going deep and, and that’s where I started studying, um, Body puppets, which are these small puppets, um, that you control with one hand.
Here’s my doodle character I can show on the video. You have the possibility, can you? Yeah. Mira. Very nice. For those of you who
Tina: are listening, um, Elena is showing us a little mirror puppet that she made and we definitely will post some pictures on the show notes if you want to see any of the things that we’re talking about.
Um, you’ll be able to see that there and also on her website. She’s got a lot of great, um, images and things. Yeah,
Elina: it’s on doodlingmiracles. com. Yeah. Yeah. So that and rod puppets and, and then it would advance towards marionettes and. It’s inspiring. Can you show us? Uh, which one do you want to see? There’s Mr.
Fist Bird, who has a fist head and a bird body with big blue legs and the head is bright yellow. I have carved this, and this is a story that was inspired by a Finnish saying that, um, Goes like, let me translate a moment. Um, don’t worry if you’re a fish or a bird. No, it’s like, no, that was my, my, my version of it.
The Mr. Fishbird says, don’t worry if you’re a fish or a bird, just start, uh, just be both and just start doing and stop thinking. So he’s a figure who, uh, tells you to just stop dreaming and start doing. That’s how you get stuff done. And that was the story, uh, like finish saying that. That we wonder what kind of person someone is, that is, is he a fish or a bird, you know?
So, yeah. Yeah. So that’s like, based on a saying.
Tina: Very nice. So how do you, is that a marionette? How do you move that puppet?
Elina: Uh, that’s not a marionette. It’s a body puppet. Like you have this, uh, thing for your, um, finger and then one finger moves the head. I’m not still good at this. And then your other fingers would move the hands and then there is this, um, the legs are moving freely.
So when you move it on the table, it should walk. But I’ve been still focused more on this making thing side of it than, than telling the stories and bringing them alive. Yeah.
Tina: What do you think you’re going to, um, let me, let me back up. Do you have an end goal with the puppets? Or is it just purely joy?
Elina: I think like, uh, because always when I draw, I see my drawings animated, but I don’t have the patience to make animations because that means a lot of more drawing of little pieces of legs and fingers.
And, you know, so it’s more like. Finally seeing my drawings come alive when I finish them as a marionette, you know, like that’s my ultimate goal, probably, to tell the story so that the characters are moving. Yeah. But, but I don’t know how long that journey is to go there. First I need to make those marionettes and, and then try to manipulate them and.
Right. Yeah. It’s nice to be on a journey.
Tina: It is, isn’t it? It’s a beautiful feeling to, to be, Exploring something and taking in the new elements of it and learning. So like you were just mentioning that you’ve been working on the actual construction and not the movement of it yet. Yeah. Are you excited for that part to learn to animate your puppet?
Well, you
Elina: know, um, There’s another dopamine hit that I’m doing at the moment with the Japanese. So I just started studying Japanese a year ago, very passionately. Like I spent this summer, I spent over 200 hours studying it. And I’ve been just like, Whoa. And with Japanese, it’s the same as with the puppets.
I really don’t have a goal. I have no idea why I’m learning Japanese. I just love it. I just do it. for the passion of it and I’ll see where it takes me. And, and that’s like, I love it. Like with the marionettes, it’s a little bit more goal orientated, but it’s not the purpose to hit some goal. It’s more about enjoying the moment where I’m at, at the moment and being humble that I don’t know yet all the things, or I, I just feel really clumsy with animating them.
So yeah, good journey.
Tina: I love that. And you know, I definitely talk a lot on the podcast about exploring life in that way, like following your passion as a way to live a vibrant, joy filled life. And that the places it takes us are just so amazing. And I know that I had asked you in advance, um, What stories you might have that you could share with us when you and your life have chosen a path that makes kind of no sense, maybe at the moment, and then it has turned into the most beautiful adventure.
And I wonder if you can share anything with us.
Elina: Okay, so my pivotal moments turning point. I have kind of three stories, which cover whole my life. I was just thinking like this first story is, is the exploration of being humble and actually like, I’m going back to the same feeling. Because I was 19, I had finished high school and I had no idea what I want to be when I grow up.
Kinda. I didn’t yet figure myself to be an artist or, you know, like I really, I had had dreams of becoming a physician or no, no physicist. What’s that? Who deals with physics? Yeah. Okay. So something like that with math or physics or being an astronaut or something like that I had been thinking, but as a child, I actually have one just wanted to be a witch.
So at 19, I didn’t want to go that route, either one of those. So, so I, uh, I sat down. And I remember this moment of being in the Helsinki. Uh, the, um, the Baltic seas there, I was sitting on a cliff, it was a windy day and I was looking back at my life and thinking like, what did I always return to do?
Because it brought me so much joy.
Tina: Yeah.
Elina: Yeah. So as 19 year old, I was looking back at my 19 years and I found three things. One was nature. That was always my happy place. We had been so much in nature. Another one was my creativity. That’s where my soul thrives. And then another, the third one was little children.
I’d always been drawn to little children. Like I started being a nanny at 15 and, and it was like, I could talk little children, that was my language. They were my tribe. So that was like my most comfortable company. So, um, so these three things I found out, and then I gave myself permission. Um, To just follow my heart and like when it comes to my choosing my education and I gave myself permission to just just study for 10 years, whatever my heart wanted, like 10 years of studying.
That’s it. Quite plenty of time to become something. So I came up with that permission and I applied to art school. I got in two private ones and picked one and was there for three years. I had already at this point forgotten about my. Uh, permission and those three pillars that I figured out, but then I moved to Lapland to the Arctic Circle and studied in nature school about nature.
And then after that, I went to for one year, I went to the studies and where they taught Waldorf education with children. And then I had my own kids.
Tina: So real quick, I. I think that what I’m hearing you say is that you had this epiphany, uh, you had, you did this deeper internal work at 19 to determine what are the three things that really bring you joy.
And then you sort of forgot all about putting that out into the universe, but your path led you on all three of those just naturally. Yes, it was
Elina: interesting. And then 2010, I had, uh, two kids, four and two years old, and I was like, who am I? Like, I’ve been a mom for a couple of years now, like, My artist side started wanting to come out.
I had been cross sitting a lot and I had been creative, but I hadn’t been drawing. And, and then I was like, am I a bit depressed? I was frustrated. I have really forgotten all about this 10 year promise and everything, but that was the mark that was the 10 years. Complete. And it was, it’s like from the, from now, it’s very nice to look back and see how this big picture played out.
Yes. Yeah. So, so at that moment, this, my next pivotal moment, a story, but yeah.
Tina: Before you jump into that, I do want to say this because I have noticed in my own life and I’m reconnecting to it right now as well. That idea of. that I think what happens is when we really desire something, if we want to manifest it, or whatever that language is that you’re using, you put it out there and then forget it and just live life in a way that feels like joy, right?
That feels like as joyful as it can. And then it’s amazing how many times you look back and you’re like, wow, this thing did come into my life. This thing is here. And now you’re moving into the next section. Like that just is mind blowing to me. And I love it. And I’ve experienced that in my own life as well.
And there’s this, there’s such a beauty in letting go of the striving for it and just putting it out there and then living life. Yeah. Yeah.
Elina: And I felt like I totally listened to my heart every step of the way, those 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So 2010. Yep. I developed myself a self coaching program. I wasn’t a coach back then yet, but I did this, uh, three week, um, like experiment with journaling.
I had inspiration from my father, who is a social psychologist and had done something similar. So, but I, I really, um, looked, um, into creating it. Something, something that served me. So I had like three week program that I had a theme for every day. And my intention was to draw my answers. So I was journaling, uh, one theme every day.
Like the first week was about, um, um, like, like how to, um, send to my needs, my body, what my body needed, or how does, like, how Change the struggles I have with daily life and everyday life, you know, into something that is Easier and sustainable and, you know, something like that. And, um, and then the next week was about shadow work and emotions.
And then the third week was about opportunities and values and, like, strengths and all these beautiful things about me and possibilities. And, and I, I drew, I started drawing lizards. On that journey. And then later on I realized, oh, well, that was my ego wanting to say something, but it was really nice.
Yeah.
And, and that, that started my entrepreneurship. I embraced my artist side of me and my boys went to daycare and I, um, Yeah, and then I found myself doing the life coaching studies and educated that way, and yeah. And that started another, well, now 14 years cycle of new things. Yeah. Are you still a life coach?
I have actually never been a working life coach in that sense. Because I kind of found myself doing my master coach studies and found out that I’m an artist, which wasn’t a surprise to anyone who not knew me.
It was like big news to me, but yeah, but I’ve been telling that I’m a life coach because I’ve educated. As a master coach and I’m doing that as my doodling and also I’ve been doing, um, like coloring pictures for people’s dreams that they are telling me what their dream is and I make them, I turn them, turn it into a coloring picture.
That’s beautiful. So that kind of coaching.
Tina: Absolutely. And I think that, um, I wonder if this happened for you. I think that sometimes when we’re not ready to fully embrace or think that we can, that we can do art without being a starving, suffering artist, right? If we are not sure that we can do those things, sometimes we hang on to something that feels a little more steady to get us there.
And then it would make total sense to me that through Life Coach, um, the mastery program that you took, you discovered about yourself that, no, I’m, I’m meant to be an artist. And then when I look at the doodles that you do and the books that you’ve produced, they absolutely are art. Um, and so I can see the synchronicity of all, all the things that you’ve mentioned.
So I would say, I would argue the point that you’re not practicing as a life coach, cause it would seem to me that you are, but in a beautiful different vein.
Elina: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I’m not the traditional working life coach with the clients one on one, you know, or groups. So that’s why I was like defining it.
Yeah. But of course, uh, one of the. Big passions that, uh, started 2015 for me was to meet groups of children and draw them like I had, I made these live performances, drawing performances for them. And I asked them every, all the questions. Children in the group, what character they want me to draw in the picture.
And I had one page where I drew everyone’s character and what the character was doing in the picture. And then they, I turned it into a coloring picture that I shared with the teacher and then they could color it together. And it was such a beautiful story for the group because they could, everyone have their character in and they could see each other and it felt like everybody had their voice heard and character seen, you know?
Yeah. How old were these kids? Uh, they were, uh, second and first and second graders. Very nice. What kind of characters did they suggest
Tina: or did they ask for?
Elina: Well, I had, I wanted them to be animals or insects or birds or something like from the animal kingdom, kind of. There is only like two kids who were very strict that they wanted to draw their own.
So they drew me a model that I needed to copy. And I did that, of course, but that’s like, they were individual, individuals.
Tina: I kind of love that. That is so good. Like, no, I know. It is.
Elina: That’s beautiful. So I met about, um, over 800 kids and drew them pictures. That is so fun. It is. It is.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
So, you, how many books do you have now,
Elina: Elina? Uh, I have self published six books, five of them with Mira. The first one was about soap making in Finnish.
Tina: Which is beautiful. Is it illustrated as well, the soap making book? Yes,
Elina: of course.
Tina: Of course. Of course it is. Yeah. And then do you ever illustrate other people’s books as well?
Yeah. Yeah.
Elina: Yeah. Just to have. Another book came out in October, um, it’s a finishing book for a book, a series of four books. It was, uh, for speech therapists to teach, um, um, to, to children, Finnish children to say certain sounds so that they can speak Finnish better. I might need these books! Yeah, the first one was the rolling R.
Tina: Just to pronounce your last name, I might need these books.
Elina: Well, actually, my last name doesn’t have any of those letters or the sounds. They were R, S, K, and L.
Tina: Nice. Very nice. So take us through what a day in your life looks like. Randomly. I’m guessing it might be variable, but give us a random.
Elina: Well, now I’m getting a structure in my day.
Like it has been quite a float couple of years, but, but I, I work at home. So this is like, We live quite tiny, but it’s not tiny living in that sense, maybe small living, uh, 720 square meters for four people. But that means that my husband’s and my bed is in the living room where I’m sitting in one corner.
Behind me is my husband’s office space and next to me is our couch, so it’s cramped. And so I take my dog out. Make my, um, smoothie and breakfast and, yeah, well, I have a sleepy dog, so that can take a while before we get out with her, like maybe even noon, so, but, um, what my best kind of day is, that I have this, um, um, what’s that called, routine maybe, I don’t know, a rule, which I call mornings are mine.
And that’s my lifesaver with my creativity and my daily life, like mornings are mine means that there’s no news, no social media, no messages, no emails until 1pm. And now I’ve started it so that all my, my, um, um, mobile phone goes kind of like numb or dumb. It’s not a smartphone, it’s a dumb phone at 9pm until the next day, 1pm.
I love that. Yeah. And so I have eight hour window too. Make my messages and consume. I love that. You know,
Tina: I follow a lot of, um, as an entrepreneur and as just a nerdy kind of a human who loves to study, uh, rhythms and rituals and ways to make life even more joyful. I follow a lot of folks who talk about making the very most important things to you, the thing that you do first, or the thing that you do when your energy is highest before the day starts to sort of shift out of your control, like your kids come home from school or whatever’s happening, and then all of a sudden you’re just working on the day.
Yeah. Aspects of living life, which is beautiful. But like you need that time if you’re going to accomplish any of your big dreams that you have. So I love that you do that. And I love that you’re silent, your phone too. That’s such a beautiful way to go about it because definitely, um, I’m pretty quiet on social media anyways.
It’s not my favorite place to be. And I, even more so, I just continually want to sort of just get right out of. Out of it in general, because it just sucks away my time and it sucks away my dreams. It seems like because of the things that I could be working on or doing, or even reading a book that instead I, all of a sudden I find myself reading comments on something that means really nothing to me.
And I’m like, why am I doing this with my time? So that’s brilliant.
Elina: I haven’t for years. I haven’t had social media apps on my phone anymore. And this year I haven’t been on social media posting myself at all, but I have two groups where I visit.
Tina: Yeah.
Elina: The one, one is for illustrators and one is for puppet makers, which is the academy of the, where I’m studying puppetry.
So it’s like, that’s the only place where I go. And then sometimes I get messages there. So I need to check those out. So it’s not consuming my time at all at the moment. It’s like, yeah. And I, I’m not sure, I think I’ll go back in January. I’m not quite sure if I’m. Really, like how or how much or what, what I’m going to do, but it has been a really like for three years now, this is the fourth book that I got out one a year.
Now, and it was weird to launch a book without social media, I don’t know where to shout out about it. So,
Tina: yeah, I can understand that, but I think that there are places like podcasts, right? And it obviously way to get onto them and to network with people. But I think there are other places that feel like a deeper connection that are a solid place to share.
Elina: Yeah. But it is hard to figure out what that is. Yeah, and I’m so hermiting person, introvert, that it’s really like, I love that you sent me a message like, Hey, do you want to be on my book? It’s like, Oh, of course.
Yeah. So my other thing for daily routine is that I make SOPs, which are standard operation procedures. So I make lists. And I have a list for all the journey, like all the steps in bookmaking. So I’m like, it’s like, I, I compare it to, uh, stepping in a train and just sitting on it, like I can just enjoy the views and just draw it and then enjoy the views and just edit it and, you know, like the different stations and, and it’s just a straight line.
So it’s very easy now that I know that like I have self published six books and helped um, multiple books come out for other authors that I have done the layouts and, and the illustrations and yeah. There
Tina: is a joy to knowing that you have a path that is going to get you where you want to go and just getting on that path.
I love it. The idea of it being on a train and you just get to enjoy, even if I were to look at that, I immediately, I thought about like, how sewing clothing can be that similar kind of a way, right? There are all these different steps that get you to where you want to be. And if you just are at a point, especially where you just trust that things are going to work out how you need them to take the next step and you do one thing and then you take the next step and then you do one thing and you take the next step.
And that’s sort of what you’re saying, even though you’ve already worked out what track that train is on and how it’s going to get you where you want to be. It’s still a very similar way of existing of just, um, Enjoying the journey. I love it. Yeah.
Elina: And it’s always a unique view. Even though the steps are the same, it’s always a different view.
Tina: Yeah. And there’s a piece to that I could see. Yeah. In what ways do you embrace nature in your daily life, would you say?
Elina: So my daily walks, my, we live in an apartment building, which starts from a forest. So my forest starts from my window and I go there every day for at least an hour. Mm hmm.
And. Even if we hear the traffic through the trees, there’s lots of like, there’s deer and foxes and hawks and lots of little birds and squirrels and rabbits. So I can always see some animals and life in there. And it’s always different, the seasons. I follow the seasons. I like to mark in the calendar all the signs of spring that I spot on the day I see them the first time.
And also I looked at the signs of fall and, and in the winter, because sometimes we get so deep snow that I just put some, uh, I don’t have the English word for it, but it has a zipper that it prevents snow to go in your shoes. And it’s like a knee high. Okay, so I put those on and then we just go in the deep snow with my dog and make the path, the first path in the, in the cliffs and the forest.
And yeah, that’s like, yeah, I have a couple of trees that I visit regularly. Like one is a bird and one is a pine, an old pine and yeah, I have a relationship with them in the forest and I hug them and talk to them and
Tina: yeah. I once met this woman and um, she said this thing to me that I found really profound.
She said that, so we live really close to Lake Michigan, which is beautiful. almost the size of an ocean. I mean a small ocean. It’s not really a lake. It’s really much more than that. And it has its own weather and it has its own storms that come through and all of this. And she mentioned that out her window in town, she could see the pier, or maybe she walked to it.
Either way, there’s a spot that she could see every day on Lake Michigan. And she said, I want to know that one spot through every day of the year. year after year after year, like just to have this deep sense of connection to a place and to a spot in the world and to be able to watch time, the passage of time in nature and that one particular spot to know it so deeply that you know what mood she’s in and you know what’s happening and, and you can see what’s going on or you can be like, Oh my goodness, something’s different.
And I, I imagined that picture that story when you just mentioned to me about the trees that you visit and the woods that you go into. And I think there’s, um, There’s a magic to that, right? Because the larger picture can be so overwhelming, but to get to know a little place and to feel connected to that place can have so much peace to it.
Elina: Yeah, it does. That’s a beautiful story too.
Tina: Yeah. One of the things I like to explore also in the podcast are ways, and I think probably you’ve touched on it, but maybe there’s something else that you want to bring up, um, are ways that people. embrace or bring more joy into their lives with their daily practices.
Elina: Can you repeat the question? How to bring joy?
Tina: Yeah. What, what is in your tool bag? What do you have in your arsenal of tools that bring you joy? Like, what is it that, maybe you’re having a rough day or maybe, um, you just have this as part of your regular routine because it brings joy into your life and you know that it makes life better.
Elina: I think it’s probably that forest. It has such a big impact in my life and that’s the joyful place. Like, yeah. Just before this I was just walking there and I like to sing there. I have a soul song that I sing. It’s just nobody else has heard it any like ever. Just for me and my dog. So I sing to the trees.
That makes all the time like, Things are shifting when I sing that song. Oh, and it’s the, I got the idea from the story of the African tripe who have this song for a child. I think it’s the mother who goes to the, somewhere on a journey to find the, the, the song for the child when the child is in the womb and then the whole village, village gathers around the child.
It’s born and, and then every time it has some rough time or something, everybody sings the song to that child. So it was like, okay. And there was the drumming meditation where I found this song. And, and ever since it has been with me when I have a rough time and I just sing those, it’s just vowels and a very simple melody.
So it feels like mine. So I think that’s like the best. Easiest way to feel uplifted, of course, doodling, asking Mira, and it’s usually starts with I have a problem. And then the ego jumps in and starts explaining the problem with me. And it can also be journaling, not just drawing. And then at one point when I have kind of vomited everything out and there’s a pause And then love comes in and asks, what would love do?
And then there’s a shift, and my journaling starts to get lighter, and I start to get deeper wisdom out of my pen. And that’s when the answers come. So that’s uplifting too, yeah. And then sometimes it’s just listening to fun music, or reading a good book, or having a cup of tea. Right. Right. Yeah.
Tina: Yeah. I also, I don’t do it all.
Um, I’m very intrigued and I feel like I want to start now, now that I’ve talked to you, I do journal and I, I have a morning routine that I do and I try to have sort of three elements to it because I find that if I am too rigid in the exact things that I do, that I I lose interest in them, or I rebel against it, or there’s some way in which I don’t want to continue doing that.
But if I just have like these elements, so like one element is some kind of a spiritual connection, kind of an element, and that could be meditation, it could be prayer, it could be pulling an oracle card, it could be journaling, um, can be any number of those things. And then the, the second one is some kind of movement, um, And that changes.
So like, all summer I did this movement for my neck that felt really amazing, but all of a sudden I find that I’m not doing it and I’m like, okay, well, maybe it’s time to switch that up, right? Like, the container that I’m holding sacred is the space that I’m going to do these things, but I get to shift what happens inside of each one.
And then the third That’s
Elina: beautiful.
Tina: Otherwise, I, it doesn’t work for me, right? Like it became stiffed and I changed. And so then the third is, um, typically some kind of an inspiration. So that might be listening to a podcast. And so sometimes I walk and I listen to the podcast at the same time. So it’s like this little twofer, but I often will journal.
So right now I’m in a journaling phase and it, I’m typically connecting to, um, a spirit guide or an ancestor or love. I don’t know how you want to say it, but I’ll ask like, what do I need to know today? And then I just let the pen go. And I’m always amazed at what comes out because like, I didn’t exactly write that.
I mean, I did. I mean, my pen is moving the pen. But when I can let go and just allow whatever is going to come out of my pen to come out, like, I’m always delighted. It’s always good.
Elina: Yeah. And that’s how I feel like my doodle character is, like, I, and that’s why I still call them doodles even though they look like very good illustrations for maybe someone, but they’re doodles because I don’t think about them.
I don’t plan them. I just draw them. As they come out, you know, so when they have a message that’s just, it’s just unfold in front of me. Yeah. So that’s the same, same experience as you have.
Tina: That’s beautiful. But I do find, I do, I sing sometimes as well, um, typically to myself, but I find that sometimes the vibration of what I’m craving, like.
I guess I need change in my life. I can’t keep it the same all the time. So I wonder, do you ever sing something different or does the pitch change or the tone change, or is it always your same soul song?
Elina: I think,
Tina: yeah,
Elina: I don’t think my singing is that advanced that there will be a change in that. But I can see a change in my doodling sometimes because I haven’t fixed Midas appearance into one.
appearance. So sometimes she has longer legs, bigger head, you know, like her appearance changes and shifts. And that brings me personal messages like, Oh, she has that big head. Am I too much in my head now? Or how are her?
Tina: Yeah.
Elina: So that’s, it’s very, it’s a lot of fun to, to see all these hidden messages. And figure those out.
And also I, I follow the signs that are in the nature, like, uh, on a weekend when, well, now I don’t remember the ravens, no, that was about transformation, but there has never been ravens in our forest. And then there were two, and that was just a weekend when I had this decided di decided that I need to change something about in my life.
And then there are two Ravens broken being like, Hey, transformation’s coming. I love it. There’s magic. Yeah. So that’s my Oracle card. So, mm-Hmm. . I do those two, but, but not like, I like the oracle of the forest more.
Tina: I hear that. I hear that. In fact, my favorite Oracle though, that I do, uh, love to connect to, and I’m not a tarot reader.
Like I think I find that too structured, too rigid for me, but I do love this Woodland Wardens. Um, okay. That is really beautiful and it’s really simple and it’s, um, now I’m going to show you one because I,
Elina: yeah, I need to get that. I should. Woodland. Woodland. What was it? Wardens.
Tina: Wardens. It’s a beautiful illustration.
Jessica Rowe, I think is how you say her last name.
Elina: I can’t read this part.
Tina: I’ll put it in the show notes as well. That would be great. That is one of my favorites, but I love it because it does have that connection to nature. We definitely, we, we share a lot of commonality. You and I do, but I
Elina: know
Tina: in that way as well. And also the, um, you know, just wanted to be a witch when you grew up.
I understand that too.
Elina: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t never met another one. Oh, a witch or a fortune teller. Oh,
Tina: I didn’t want to be a fortune teller. It was more like, and I, even in my, you know, my mid forties, I’m like, I have this tiny little house and I envision it just being full of like hanging herbs that are drying.
And so definitely I would be, um, Uh, some kind of like little cottage witch, you know, not, not the big bad witch to the West, who’s coming over to like, take over the world. Just someone who’s like, watching with the animals and
Elina: doing this and that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That one. That’s me too. And I actually, when I was in Lapland and studying nature, I also was studying herbs.
Yeah. Very nice. Medicine.
Tina: Yeah. Alina, it’s so nice to have you here today. Yeah. I love it. I do wonder if anyone here listening would like to jump in and chat with us, we would love to talk with you. We’d love to have your questions or even just your, your own insights into say a morning routine or the ways that you bring joy into your life.
It’d be great to hear from you. So no pressure to do so, but if you’d like to, that would be a lot of fun.
Guest: This is Janice. Hi. Hi Janice. Hi. Can you explain what you’re talking about, oracle cards? I’m not familiar with them.
Tina: Yeah, so this is a deck of oracle cards. When you open it up, there are however many cards inside of it.
And they have some kind of an insight, some kind of a, um, information on them. So like, the skunk one here is called the skunk and magnolia, so protection. And then inside of the deck, and all oracle cards are different, but Inside there’s a booklet that you can look up that card and it will tell you say more information about what the author intended for that card to mean.
So I will sometimes, um, for practical ways of using it and Elena I would love to hear what your thoughts are this too, but like I will sort of just check them out and look them over and in the morning I might draw a card and ask the universe or God or whatever your definition or name is for a higher power.
I might ask for, um, What do I need to know today? It’s kind of like the journaling thing. What do I need to know today? Or, typically what I ask, but you can ask all different things. And so then I would draw a card and I would look it over and read it, and I might read what the book, the little booklet would say and see how that hits what it is that I am thinking about that day or struggling with that day or, or,
hoping for, I guess, in that day. And I, I’m always amazed at sort of the magic of it, that, um, there’s always a connection and I, the argument could be made that we are connection making humans and that we can make connection with anything, but either way, I find that this taps into some inner knowledge that I have, or some inner wisdom or some collective wisdom.
And allows me to, um, have a little magic in my day and also just like connect to what I’m thinking or feeling on a deeper level.
Guest: There you go. So you mentioned that there’s different decks, different purposes. So if someone was totally new to this, what kind of a deck would they start with?
Elina: I would probably go to a store where they sell them.
In Finland they are called new age stores and then you can just feel into what kind of illustrations are calling you or resonating with you. Some are ugly and some are more beautiful, some are gorgeous and some you just can not buy and, and, and yeah, go from there. And think of, uh, like, if you love nature, then that’s maybe something to, like, consider.
Yeah. Something to do with nature. Yeah. Usually the deck finds you, so you can trust that. Mm hmm. That’s very true.
Guest: Thanks for sharing that. Also, I’m more of a fiber artist at this point in my life, and I stopped drawing years ago. So, I’m just wondering how to get back to drawing.
Elina: Pick figures and just keep your pen moving, just like with journaling, you can, that’s one way of journal, just not stopping the pen.
So you could just start doodling also, or just looking at something like a coffee pot or something and just try to, try to, uh, do it and not care about, uh, what it looks like. Like that’s not the goal. The goal is to have fun and to keep your pen moving.
Guest: Okay, because with my fiber art, there’s, there’s not too much of a reason to, to draw at this point.
I’m more of a weaver, so there’s not a lot of drawing. It’s kind of picking the colors and the fibers.
Elina: Thank you. Yeah. You could also do coloring. There are lots of coloring books. That could be a good start too.
I love coloring.
Tina: That’s so fun. Janice, thank you so much for popping in and asking. That was beautiful. It
Elina: was. Yeah. And I, I like to use the Oracle cards the same way. And usually there’s one that pops out or falls on the floor or, and I also liked at the, uh, like the new, new year, uh, energies. I usually pick.
One card for each month, and then I come back to those during the year and see what what kind came up and yeah, and yeah,
Tina: it’s sort of like what we’re talking about at the very beginning, and the idea of putting out there what you want or like I draw I’ll draw I do the same thing I’ll draw a card for each month.
Sometimes just for the year. It depends on how ambitious I’m feeling, but sometimes I’ll do it for each month. And then I usually don’t really even think about it again until I might be looking back over my journal or looking back over things. And I’m like, Oh, look at how much this connected. Like I can, I’m always amazed at the ways and delighted in the ways that it, it connects.
Um, and I, I just find a lot of joy in that process. Have you
Elina: been doing the 13 holy nights? I have not. You don’t, you haven’t heard about them? No, I have not. Okay. I’ve done that like over 10 years now. It starts from, I think Christmas Eve, was it? And from there, every night for 13 nights, you get messages in your dreams.
And also like, uh, from the day, like during the day, you can spot something like the first night is for the whole year and then the next night is January. Then it’s. February. And is it January 6th when it’s the last night, which is December the next year. And I have got these streams. I record, record them.
Yeah. And yeah, it’s from the 5th to 6th. That’s the last night. That’s December. I record the dreams during the night and they are spot on. They’re just telling me the future. That’s crazy.
Tina: Yeah. So you remember your dreams and you just shut them, shut them down when you wake up? Yeah.
Elina: And you, yeah, no, no, no. I, I shut them down during the night and I’m so tired during those two weeks.
I’m like, because I can’t sleep. I dream so much. It’s like, it’s very, very vivid, like during that time of the year. Just during that time? Or do you have vivid dreams all the time? I think in July is the next one. Like, like, because I’m bored in, um, end of June. So I think these are like the two passages of time that are more, Like something there, like a portal, something happening and like the half mid year and the start of year.
And hey, I, I hate podcasts where someone refers to something and then don’t talk about it. I said, I have three pivotal stories. So I want to mention my third one was something that I’m on right now. I don’t yet know the results. I have no idea where this is leading me, but I have done the same three week journaling this fall.
I And I have called it my rebirth. So I’m feeling like something really big is changing in my life at the moment when my children are reaching their adulthood. So it’s the next point in my life starting and yeah, that’s big.
Tina: That is big. Did you do the same three week journal or something similar journal process that you did back in 2010?
Elina: Yes, but I, um, tweaked it to match this, the needs I have now. Yeah, it’s interesting.
Tina: I love that. Alina, it has been so wonderful to have you on. I, want to thank you again and thank those who came live and those who are listening after the fact. How can they find out more about you? Where can they find out about, I know that you have a Patreon, right, for Mira?
Yep. And, um, you have your books.
Elina: So I have two websites. One is doodlingmiracles. com and the other one is elinap. me. E L I N A P dot M E. And that’s like my illustrations portfolio. And my books are there too. And my Patreon link is found from both websites. From the links on the menu and, and that’s like where you can find me.
I’m not on social media this year, but I’ll be back there with, with my handles. That is doodlingmiracles and ellinup. me over there too. And of course there’s the treasure trove of stuff I have shared over the years that I’ve been there on Instagram and Facebook. Very nice.
Tina: Yeah. All right. So, thanks again for being here.
Thank you for having me. Yes. And have a most wonderful day.
Elina: It’s evening now. You have a wonderful day. Right. I forget. You’re in Finland. What am I thinking? I thank you. Thank you so much. It was so much fun. Thank you.