Have you heard of an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and healing called Ho’oponopono? Ho’oponopono is a multidimensional healing practice that can assist in healing layers of old wounds and resentments. It is a practice that teaches us to take our power back, as co-creators with the Divine.
Historically ho’oponopono was a communal healing practice, when the whole community would come together to heal arguments, disagreements or any other form of disruption. It was understood that everyone is connected to everyone (and everything) else.
In order to heal a seemingly external disruption, we need to heal the whole structure it is embedded into, including ourselves.
What it means is that an argument or abuse is a responsibility of the community as much as it is a responsibility of an individual. Slowly, we are beginning to understand this in the West, through healing modalities such as family constellations therapy.
But the person who brought Ho’oponopono to the West understood that it needed a radical revamp in order for the practice to be understood and accepted in an individualistic society of the West. Western concepts of responsibility and healing were radially different from those of the Pacific islands when Dr Hew Len healed a ward of criminally insane patients.
The basic principle of concept of Ho’oponopono is the concept of 100% responsibility. Responsibility is not blame, is not self-punishment or rationalization. It is a simple acknowledgement that as long as something exists in my world, it is a part of me.
Goodness, kindness and love exist in my world, and I am thanking them and welcoming them into my life, knowing that I would not have been able to see them and acknowledge them if they had not been a part of me.
Arguments, anger and obstacles exist in my world in a similar way. I see them because they are in me. And I welcome them and thank them for showing me a part of myself that I did not want to see, or that is ready to be healed.
In our personal practice, we can use ho’oponopono for the following:
- to adapt to the changing times and expand our energetic container;
- heal clinging, grasping and attachment to a result
- heal anxiety rooted in unresolved trauma and wounding
- work with epigenetics and ancestral trauma
- heal past lives
- and much more…
Ultimately, ho’oponopono can become a daily spiritual practice, our personal work of healing and aligning ourselves with our true Being.
If you are interested to learn this simple yet powerful practice of reconciliation and healing, check out my podcast episode in the header .
