When I first heard the term ‘Ho’oponopono’ a few years ago I couldn’t pronounce it let alone accept that a process, as simple as it is, could really help as much as proponents of this system said it could, so I set about finding out more.
Ho’oponopono is a Hawaiian healing process, to heal emotionally charged memories that are still sitting in our subconscious, without us often being aware. It is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as “mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance and mutual restitution and forgiveness.”
However, although this process was a practice for the whole family in Ancient Hawaii, it was more recently modernised by the late Morrnah Simeona, who practiced it successfully with many clients, including Jackie Kennedy, Arnold Palmer and Lyndon B. Johnson.
More recently, this practice has been led by Hawaiian psychologist, Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len, who has alleged to have helped cure a complete ward of criminally insane patients, without even seeing them, just by using this process.
Ho’oponopono is based around a simple principle that is not easy for our western, conditioned minds to accept; that is, that everything that happens in our lives to us is 100% our responsibility. Let me clarify: it is not that we have created what happens to us, but it is our responsibility what we do with what happens to us.
There are four simple sentences. “I’m sorry, please forgive me, I love you, thank you”, and that is all that needs to be said, on our own, over and over again until a state of peace is reached.
Sounds too simple, right? So, how, exactly, does this work? The theory is that when someone triggers you in some way emotionally, it means you both have a shared emotional memory stored in the subconscious. By repeating this process every time you are triggered until you reach a state of peace, you are clearing that emotional memory from the subconscious. Sometimes during the process, buried emotion can come to the surface. However, if you continue with it, you will eventually come to a place of peace. It’s very empowering to do this for yourself.
Now, admittedly, I was sceptical at first, as we humans like to make things infinitely more complex than they often are. However, over several years I have used this process both personally and professionally and seen profound changes so I know it works. The benefit with this process is that you don’t need to delve into any painful memory and relive it. You just say those four sentences repeatedly until you feel at peace and the amazing part is that the trigger then falls away and the relationship with that person, or event, changes completely – often tangibly. Whether you believe in this or not, in today’s turbulent world, anything that can bring a sense of peace, has got to be worth trying.
Printed in the Lymington Times and New Milton Advertiser, January 2019
