Ho’oponopono; A Hawaiian shamanistic forgiveness and healing technique

Based on an ancestral Hawaiian shamanic ritual, the healing practice of Ho’oponopono teaches you to cleanse your consciousness of negative memories, unconscious fears, dysfunctional programming and grant yourself (and others) forgiveness, peace and love. Ho’oponopono means: to make (ho’o) right (pono) right (pono), and it’s practice allows people to harmoniously re-align with themselves, others and the universe.

The process is deceptively simple – first you must recognize your own responsibility in attracting and co-creating the events in your life, then you are ready to apply the Ho’oponopono mantra:

-) I’m sorry
-) Please forgive me
-) Thank you
-) I love you

This mantra will open your heart to feelings of empathy, forgiveness, gratitude and love. This can significantly shift your state of being and therefore your own frequency and perspective towards a certain relationship, occurrence etc.

How I use it is as follows. I find something in reality or in my past that I don’t feel good about. This can be a relationship, an event, a certain thought etc. Then I search for and recognize/find my own responsibility in being a co-creator of that situation. Even if I am just a witness, that is still a co-creative role for which I carry the responsibility.

By saying I’m sorry I practice remorse and empathy for the situation and my co-creative role in it. Where before I might have had a negative judgement on somebody like myself or another person or something I watched on TV, that state now shifts towards understanding that I am partly responsible for it and that I am sorry for all the parties involved in that co-creation that are not happy about it including myself. This part makes me feel acceptance and empathy.

The asking for forgiveness can be towards myself, other people involved in the co-creation and even the universe, All That Is, etc. Often I remind myself in this step that every person including myself is doing the best that they can. Even if the results are not what people might have intended, aimed for or wanted. Instead of being too hard on myself or others I ask for forgiveness so I can be open with what is. This part really helps my state of being to shift towards empathy and forgiveness.

The thank you part can be towards all co-creators as well. I thank the universe for what is without any judgement on it. I am grateful for what has come to occur in the first place so everybody can experience and learn from it. It gives all co-creators involved the opportunity to reflect upon what they do and do not prefer about it. I see it as a possibility to learn and grow from it. And that growth can hopefully result in me being able to create something more in alignment the next time. I thank all parties involved for being willing to have co-created it, even if they aren’t aware of their own co-creative role in it. This part really helps me to experience gratefulness.

In the I love you part, I send feelings of kindness, warmness, openness and understanding to all co-creative players of the situation including myself and the universe. I also try to remind myself that we are all parts of the same oneness on some level and therefore we are always connected. This part helps my state of being to shift to a state of love and connection.

Ho’oponopono is a great permission slip. It helps people to shift their state of being from feeling bad and judging the outer reality, towards understanding their own responsibility in what has occurred and feeling acceptance, empathy, forgiveness, gratefulness and love. This new state of being is much more pleasurable and it is much closer to Inner Peace. 🙂

Have some tissues close by when practicing Ho’oponopono. And remember that crying is a way of the body of letting go, of releasing and therefore crying should be seen as a positive indicator that things are shifting within you.

Here is a guided meditation to try out this process for yourself.