People struggling with the concept of forgiveness can often find themselves facing stress from a situation that feels out of their control. Finding comfort and healing in such trying times can become a challenge, leading to more stress and anxiety
To overcome this toxic cycle, there is a beautiful Hawaiian teaching of the Ho’oponopono meditation. This meditation works by repeating a mantra, which goes
I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you
With this, you are washed of all feelings of guilt, anger or anxiety from a relationship or situation, while gratitude and healing is supported. In this article, you can essentially answer the question what is Ho’oponopono meditation?
What Is Ho’oponopono Meditation?
The Ho’oponopono meditation is simply a method of healing, which brings reconciliation, compassion, and energy to forgive. It is an age-old, ancient Hawaiian method of healing, requiring you to exit the toxic and enter the positive.
- Brief History and Origin From Ancient Hawaiian Culture
The history of the Ho’oponopono meditation can be traced back to ancient Hawaiian culture, so it has been used for centuries in the tradition. However, the traditional use of meditation was done to resolve conflicts between family members and community members. Individuals were asked to conduct meditation for healing and ask for forgiveness, and by letting go of toxic energies, compassion and healing were cultivated
However, in the modern world, Ho’oponopono meditation is not used as a healing tool between social groups or people. Instead, it is a guided meditation meant to be conducted as a solo. Today, it uses reconciliation and forgiveness by a guided meditation and forgiveness prayer that brings inner peace.
- Focuses on Forgiveness, Letting Go of Negative Emotions/Memories
Ancient Hawaiian healing practices of Ho’oponopono meditation focus on free energy that promotes self-love, inner peace, and gratitude while enabling the process of letting go of negative energy. It can be done through beautiful Hawaiian prayer or repeating a mantra to take responsibility for self-love.
As you repeat the Hawaiian mantra, you focus on forgiving the other party who may be responsible for your pain. As you let go of their power over your well-being, you also let go of any wrong or negative thoughts that are causing anxious or depressive thoughts. This letting go of somebody else’s power over your emotions is a very powerful tool, enabling you to take control of your own life
- Involves Repeating a Simple Mantra: “I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me, Thank You, I Love You”
As discussed, the Ho’oponopono meditation requires you to repeat this mantra over and over again as a form of meditation
I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.
As you repeat this mantra in the Ho’oponopono meditation, you are allowing divine energy and thoughts to take up space, where previously negative energy and anxieties were present. This complete freedom from past trauma or any source of soreness allows you to heal. Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian meditation technique, but it still works today
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The Benefits of Practicing Ho’oponopono
In your journey to explore the Ho’oponopono meditation, platforms like Quora or Reddit only manage to offer one perspective on this technique. We have scoured the internet and research to list down all the possible benefits in which the practice of Ho’oponopono can help individuals
- Promotes Inner Peace and Harmony
When we are angry with someone else, some part of that anger is also damaging to own self. When you take responsibility to rectify that anger and show love and compassion, then part of those positive feelings are also self-directed. I first learned this a bit too late, but you can learn it sooner.
- Releases Guilt, Resentment, Anger
The healing mantra of the Ho’oponopono meditation is a meditation technique of mindfulness. It brings contentment into your life, as you are able to release any guilt, resentment, and anger. This calms the mind and helps you focus on other more important things
- Allows One To Take 100% Responsibility For Problems
A sign often found in criminally insane patients is that other people are used as a substitute to blame for their own mishaps and faults. Now, I am not calling you criminally insane for being angry at someone, but part of the problem is not understanding your own role in supporting a toxic relationship.
With Ho’oponopono prayer and meditations, Hawaiians transform their life in a powerful way by becoming responsible for the harm done to them and choosing to not be affected by it.
- Improves Relationships and Connections With Others
When you practice the Ho’oponopono mantra, responsibility for one’s own bad situation is taken into one’s own hands. This is a powerful healing tool, which forces you out of that victim mentality and helps you become the hero of your own life.
An estimated 89% of practitioners report improved life satisfaction after 6 months of practice. This means that what you’re feeling right now can be changed into well-being through the traditional Hawaiian technique.
How to Practice Ho’oponopono Meditation
To promote forgiveness or even say you’re sorry to others, the Ho’oponopono meditation is a great tool to foster wellbeing and enable you to apologize, in case you find it hard. To do so, just follow these steps
- Find a quiet space, sit comfortably, and close your eyes
Relaxation is very important in the Hawaiian practice of Ho’oponopono meditation, so make sure your posture is correct, you are comfortable and there are no distractions
- Repeat the mantra with sincerity, feeling each phrase
Make sure to control your breathing and repeat the mantra. Focus on every single word as you say it and deeply feel the emotion related to it
- Let thoughts and feelings flow without judgment
During this mantra, you may feel anger, resentment, annoyance or even guilt. Do not suppress any emotion, but repeat the beautiful prayer of four phrases for gratitude and love.
Our recommendation is to practice for 10-20 minutes and 1-2 times per day. As you are starting, you may find it harder to conduct meditation multiple times in a day, but as you grow used to it, you will develop the habit. For medical or mental health reasons, the Ho’oponopono meditation can be practiced silently or out loud.
Transform Your Life through Forgiveness
As you choose to develop the habit of Ho’oponopono meditation, you will find that your life is being transformed. In everyday life, there are various instances that can make us feel anger and annoyance over others, or even over situations that are beyond our control.
However, if you choose to actively forgive everyone and everything, and at the same time choose to recite the mantra in four simple steps, you can heal. You let of the taint of another person’s power over you and negative thoughts of haunting memories.
Create a Better Life by Letting Go Of Past Hurts
Sometimes we overflow with emotion, it overbears our thoughts and actions, and so expressing gratitude for the good things in life becomes absent. Without ever reliving the haunting memory, the trauma from a past event can hinder any future growth and the need to create a better life. How many times have we met people who are still living in a past trauma and failing to move on?
With Ho’oponopono meditation, you choose something positive over negative thoughts and traumatic pasts. You learn to let go and live in the present. You focus on your own self and move past other’s actions towards you or opinions of you. You become the main character of your life!
3 Simple Steps to Incorporate Ho’oponopono into Your Routine
You may need to hear the Ho’oponopono meditation for self-awareness and to feel the lightness, but find it hard to make time for the meditation. If you are in this situation, then here are 3 recommendations from us:
- As you wake up in the morning, set an alarm 15 minutes before you normally wake up. While still in bed, do the sleep meditation and repeat the Ho’oponopono mantra. This will start your day on a positive note
- If you are working in from an office, right after the lunch hour, shut yourself out from the world and find peace. Thank the universe and repeat the mantra for meditation. You must first make sure to have at least 15 minutes for the meditation.
- At the end of the day, as you sit in your car or any public transport, put on headphones to cancel out the noise. You can play the Ho’oponopono meditation mantra on a mobile app and listen to it. Give yourself adequate time and take these simple steps towards self-improvement
Experience the Power of This Hawaiian Prayer for Yourself
Ho’oponopono presents a unique way to find inner peace, it allows you to pray for yourself. Spirituality in Buddhist tradition enables you to develop a powerful tool of self-improvement that works in forgiveness and apology. If you do not try it yourself, you will not be able to fully comprehend and experience the power with which it works.
- With Regular Practice, You Can Reap Tremendous Benefits
The first thing to remember in the Ho’oponopono meditation is that doing it once or twice will not reap lasting benefits. Although, you may feel a decline in anxious thoughts and anger, but for lasting benefits, you have to make it a part of your routine
The tremendous benefits of forgiveness, self-awareness and relaxation can only be attained upon routinely inculcating the Ho’oponopono meditation.
- Try This Ancient Hawaiian Wisdom And Create More Joy In Your Life
Without ever trying the Ho’oponopono meditation, you will not understand the joy that it can bring. As a New Year resolution, try the meditative technique this year and analyze its effects. You will be surprised, at how well it works for all kinds of issues of anger, forgiveness, and overall well-being.
Read Also: Zen Breathing Techniques for Deep Relaxation in Just 5 Minutes
The Four Phrases of Ho’oponopono Meditation
The Ho’oponopono mantra, as we have seen, consists of 4 main phrases that are repeated to bring about healing and gratitude. However, to know more about these phrases, here is a deep dive into what to think of and focus on when repeating a phrase
- I’m sorry
This first step is to take responsibility. Whether you are saying sorry to another person or yourself, this phrase helps you become responsible. You are accepting a traumatic memory of the past and holding responsibility. However, this responsibility is not for the wrong done to you, rather it is the fact that you allowed a wrong to happen to you
- Forgive me
As you take responsibility, the next step is to move on from that suppressive memory. To move one, the most effective step taken is forgiveness. As you ask for forgiveness or give forgiveness, you can close the book on that chapter of your life. It stops affecting you as much as it would have done in the past, and you are freed from carrying the burden of that memory
- Thank you
Now that sorry and forgiveness has done the work of letting go of the negative emotions, the next phrase of the mantra is to bring in positive emotions for healing. The way to do so is through gratitude. Gratitude helps you feel fresh and clear about your future, while living in the present and not being chained by your past. You are grateful towards yourself, your circumstances and for all the changes that you have brought
- I love you
Another powerful emotion that brings in positive energy into yourself is love. Love is a healer, it brings warmth and a sense of security. As you repeat I love you over and over again, you love yourself and your surroundings. You can say I love you to your body, your house, the food you eat, the water your drink and so much more.
Power of Ho’oponopono
As you repeat the Ho’oponopono mantra over and over, you will understand the power of this phrase. It allows for deeper concentration into complex emotions, allowing you to delve into the source of pain and remove it from your heart. The focus on positive healing also allows you to finally move on and live your life on your own terms
FAQ’s:
Q. What Are The 4 Phrases Of Ho’oponopono?
The four simple phrases are
- I’m sorry
- Forgive me
- Thank you
- I love you
Q. What Is Ho’oponopono Used For?
Ho’oponopono meditation is used for forgiveness and gratitude. The feelings of forgiveness are brought forth by working on removing energies of anger and resentment and letting divine thought into the inner self. It can be self-directed or directed to a memory that is traumatic or a person who is causing pain
Q. How Effective Is Ho’oponopono?
Ho’oponopono meditation can be very effective in bringing out feelings of love and gratitude towards what we have. Of course, you have to be mindful to include it in your daily routine
Q. What Is The Power Of Ho’oponopono Prayer?
It helps to cleanse the stream of thoughts that can be causing pain. Memories, past experiences or even present interactions can leave you annoyed and angry with yourself. To overcome these intrusive thoughts that can further impact your mental health, the power of the Ho’oponopono prayer is to help you negate negative thoughts
Q. What Is The Ho’oponopono Phrase?
The mantra used in the Ho’oponopono meditation is called as a mantra or a phrase. It works to help you meditate on the single thought of forgiveness and gratitude. The phrase is
I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.
Q. How Does Ho’oponopono Prayer Work?
It works by focusing your energies on forgiveness. In normal routine, your brain is wired to overthink and only view an event from a single perspective. But, Ho’oponopono meditation can help you realign your views on a traumatic event, focus on how to overcome that trauma, and work towards being grateful with what you have
Q. How Do You Chant Ho’oponopono
To conduct the Ho’oponopono meditation, follow these steps
- Sit yourself in a comfortable position
- Ground yourself
- Start chanting the Ho’oponopono prayer ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you. I love you
- It can be aloud or silently in your head
- Repeat it numerous times and focus on each word as you say it
