Ho’OponoPono: The Language of my Heart

I’m Sorry.

Please forgive me.

Thank you.

I love you.

Like the lyrics of a song, the powerful words of this meditation resonate through my heart                                                             as a healing mantra with an energetic melody.

I’m sorry for my erroneous thoughts that brought such situations and circumstances into my awareness.

Erroneous is defined as not being in-agreement with what is true. Given that love is our true nature, erroneous thoughts are those that are not grounded in love. Such thoughts may arise from fear of the known and unknown, uncertainty of our own identity or purpose, and are fueled by our active and vivid imaginations. Some thoughts may even be karmic in origin, carried forward from a past remembered or forgotten. In any case though, our thoughts are created by our own power and carried forward as each thought manifests to become the reality of our experience. Therefore, everything that we experience in our awareness is of our own creation. By withholding judgment of the nature of our experiences, we can simply, but powerfully, accept responsibility for our own thoughts. And because we understand that we create some thoughts with intention, and others from uncertainty, we can choose to acknowledge this responsibility for all that is brought into our awareness or life experience.

Forgiveness represents a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense. It offers opportunity to release negative emotions such as vengefulness, however legally or morally justified such offenses may be, and it creates space and ability to give love to a situation or individual, even when such compassion seems unjustified and feels nearly impossible. No matter the offense or the offender, through the ho’ oponopono mediation, forgiveness is requested for the erroneous thought that manifested into awareness as a situation or circumstance. Forgiveness allows healing to occur by bringing our own energy back into balance.

Thank you is a genuine expression of gratitude. This expression, when sincere, carries incredible energy to move any situation or circumstance in a positive direction. Gratitude is grounded in love.

Love is our most readily available, unlimited resource with infinite power. It is the source of life, health and healing. As we sift through our mind’s chatter, we tune into to the language of our heart. 

I love you.

Energy Healing: Encountering Negative Energy

Q: I’m very interested in Energy Healing.  I’ve been working on trying to open my heart so I feel more connected to doing this.  The other day I interacted with a person who I felt negative energy from.  It wasn’t anything specific, just a feeling I got that made all of my defenses go up.  What can I do about this? How do I come from my heart when I feel negative energy I should protect myself from?

A: What a deeply provoking question.  This gets into a concern that many people studying Energy Healing have.  I’ll do my best to address some important aspects of this.

First, it is ok for our defenses to go up.  We have them for a reason – to help keep us safe.  The key is to notice that they are going up and not ignore them.  Then we ground ourselves to find our heart, which may be something to work on over time.  It’s not bad or a failure to not be able to find our heart in this case – it can be very difficult and that’s ok.  Just be curious about how someone like the Dalai Lama is able to do it.  If he can, well then… we can learn too if we have the desire to do so.

There are 2 scenarios that come to mind here, and they are directly dependent on how much experience and training we have, plus our personal views on life and spirituality.

In the 1^st scenario, we may be somewhat inexperienced and new to Energy Healing.  We may feel our heart is not fully open yet, or we feel fear that seems too strong to “get over”.

In this case, I recommend learning and practicing an Energy Protection Meditation.  There are many methods available in different schools of thought.  Since my training is in Medical QiGong – based in Taoist Philosophy and Oriental medicine – I prefer a specific and very old Shamanistic Meditation called “Ren Wu Zang” (Man 5 Animals).  Here’s a link to a really nice article an Acupuncturist wrote with directions for the meditation:  http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=32831

When learning and practicing Energy Protection Meditations it can be very helpful to involve space clearing techniques like burning sage, sweetgrass, or moxa.  Other options are spritzing Rose Hydrosol, diffusing essential oils from protective trees like Cedar, Birch, Fir, or Pine, and even wearing a protective essential oil or attar blend – choose from oils known for their sacred or spiritual connection like Frankincense, Champaca, Blue Lotus, or Kamala Attar.

When you have practiced the meditation on a daily basis until it becomes somewhat easy to “call up” on the spur of the moment, use it whenever you feel the need to energetically protect yourself.  As long as you have a dedicated practice of self-cultivation going on, the stronger you become inside, the less you will need this meditation.

In the 2^nd scenario, there has to be the understanding that ultimately no one has the “power” to harm our Spirit. Someone or something may have the power to create fear – doubt – confusion within us, but then it is our own emotions that harm us and we only think it is them.

Can you send the negative person thoughts of unconditional love, that they may find their own heart and experience peace?  They are only an aspect of you in the realm of Oneness.  Or think about them briefly and then repeat something like the Ho'Oponopono mantra to the Universe for a while.  No need to spend any of your energy and effort on them beyond this.

A Note on Receiving Energy Healing:

If you ever feel that someone can read your energy or try to "heal" you and it is happening without your consent or full trust, remember that true healing comes from a place of love.  If what they are doing is not coming from this place, they are only doing something to themselves and not to you.  What I mean is that, someone may pick up and be able to empathically feel your energy, but if they don't know what to do with it, it's only their experience – positive or negative.

 Anything they try to tell you or manipulate you with is purely their own ego.  Anything they try to heal is only an expression of their own ego.  The only way it can affect you at all is if you allow it to through fear/doubt/confusion.  And in that case, it is your own fear causing any effect, not really the "power" of the other person.

A true healer will set up the circumstances for healing to happen and then allow and encourage it to come from within YOU, not force it or do anything to you.  The healer’s energy and support may be a catalyst for you, but ultimately healing comes from inside of YOU.  The circumstances happen in the energy of love, and part of life is being here to create this for ourselves and others.

~Cynthia McMullen is a Certified Medical QiGong Therapist who studied this Energy Healing art with Tao Shih Pei Wo Lun in Anchorage, Alaska, author Jerry Alan Johnson in Pacific Grove, California, and numerous Taoist priests from China.

Water and A Prayer

H'oponopono (pronounced Ho-o-pono-pono) is an ancient Hawaiian healing system about healing oneself... and the world. The translation of Ho'oponopono means "to make right", essentially to make things right with oneself. Dr Hew Len, a teacher of this healing system, points out that we need to always remember the old saying, "Peace begins with me". If there is to be peace on earth, it needs to begin individually with each one of us.

For Christmas break, our teacher gave us the ‘gift’ of applying Ho’oponopono on a daily basis and we were to record the miracles that followed. What a gift it was! I had one of those epiphanies that keep you up at night due to the amount of energy that is produced by such a realization. This is the story of my Ho’oponopono gift.

Ho’oponopono is ultimately a very easy process. You begin by becoming present (sitting, standing, wherever you may find yourself) and you say to your Higher Self “I’m sorry.” Now, it’s not just saying these words, but also feeling the emotions that go along with these words. Then you say (and feel), “I forgive you.” Next, “I love you” and then, “Thank you”. Now the important part is to realize that these four sentences are not just words. When you speak them, you are evoking the spirit of love to heal from within you, that which is creating the outer circumstances.

I noticed on the first day of doing this, at the end of the ‘session’, I definitely felt happy. Sitting around telling myself that I’m sorry for any past pains, forgiving that within me that was misunderstood, reminding myself how much I love me and thanking my Self for the opportunity to heal, was quite wonderful. But I still felt like I was missing something important. At this point, I am going to transgress for a moment. I need to fill you with a brief tour of my mind for the impact of my Ho’oponopono realization to make sense. I feel as if my whole world shifted at the end of September. Some form of ‘awakening’, I guess. Between an astounding amount of new information regarding politics, 2012, and the prospect of a consciousness evolution, I barely feel like who I was only 3 short months ago. It’s important to know that for 3 months now I’ve been consistently in a conflicted state between the possibilities of doom and gloom or a spiritual awakening and higher shift of consciousness for the world. Quite the roller coaster…

So three days into my daily Ho’oponopono practice, my husband and I watch an outstanding documentary called: Water, The Great Mystery. (This will all tie together, I promise.) To summarize this fascinating information will not do it justice, but here is a taste of the wonderful knowledge. Dr. Masaru Emoto has taken photographs of cryogenically frozen water molecules. His research shows that words, along with other things such as music, thoughts, microwaves, computers, ect, actually change the structure of water molecule. Words, spoken or taped onto a glass of water, such as ‘love’ or ‘thank you’ created harmonic hexagonal crystals. Bottles of water that were labeled with hurtful or belittling words couldn’t even form a water crystal. Water actually reacts to what it ‘experiences’ and stores the information, creating a form of memory. More research included pouring water into two separate glasses. One glass was placed in front of a television showing a violent movie with the sound turned off and the second glass of water was placed on the other side of the room where the television couldn’t been seen. Both waters instantly took on the exact same structure of chaos at the molecular level, even though only one water glass was exposed to the television. The importance of this knowledge is that water molecules can ‘share’ experiences with one another, creating new formations and memories. Now keep in mind, this is just the tip of the iceberg (pun intended) regarding this fascinating subject… but let’s take this a step further. What are humans mostly made up of? Water!

Approximately 70% of our body is water. And to take it one more step further, 75% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Also, the earth is a closed system, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same amount of water that existed on earth millions of years ago is still present today, no water added, no water lost. Hmmm, those statistics along with Mr. Emoto’s water research can get a person’s brain thinking…

And this, my friends, is where the Ho’oponopono project and the water segue flow into one another. After watching the wondrous documentary, I hopped online to find out more good stuff and came across a Facebook page for an event: Water Ceremony with Dr. Emoto on Januray 11, 2012. Location: from wherever you are. On this FB event, it showed the prayer to be spoken for the ceremony: a Ho’oponopono prayer! “Water~ I’m sorry. I forgive you. I love you. Thank you.” Now THAT really got my thoughts flowing.

So, I settled in for my Ho’oponopono session and began: Water… I’m sorry. But this time, instead of feeling my life story, I felt the pain and anguish of all the polluted water in our world. The ‘dead zones’ in the ocean at the mouths of polluted rivers, the oil spills, the toxic runoffs, amongst other atrocities. My logical (or ego) brain kicked in here and asked why I think I should be able to feel any of this and bam! The answer was right there… I am 70% water and water shares its memories instantly. It makes more sense that I would be able to feel the suffering of all the water, then not be able to. Now that right there felt like an amazing insight so I pressed on. Water… I forgive you. And once again I whooshed along to another amazing insight. It wasn’t me, as in my ego, forgiving the water. It was the water as me forgiving all the turmoil that had been bestowed upon it. I felt like all the water of my body, along with all the water of Earth’s body was feeling the essence of forgiveness. Now how powerful is that! I was excited at this point to see what insight I would get at the next step in the process. Water… I love you. Now this is when the imagery part of my brain kicked in. I could actually ‘see’ all the molecules in my body shift into the harmonious hexagonal crystals of ‘love’, which Dr. Emoto has photographed (Look it up! It’s gorgeous!). But then it continued... All of the water of the world shifted to the beautiful ‘love’ crystals; including all of the Earth’s waters, all of the other humans on the planet (all 7 billion of them), all of the animals and plants… all of the water shifting to a place of love, one water molecule at a time. Now that’s quite the image! What insight could possibly be coming next with the final step in the process? Water… Thank you. Once again, I knew that this was not me thanking water, it was water as me being thankful. Thankful for the opportunity to exist, to know pain so that it could know healing. And again, all the waters of the world seemed to be vibrating into a state of gratitude. Quite powerful. When it was all said and done and I was back to my human state of thinking, I then found me thanking Water for this essential insight into the power that we all have.

Knowing what I know now about water and what words, thoughts, and music structurally do to water molecules, knowing that the majority of this world IS water, knowing that water has memories and ‘shares’ these with other water molecules, changes my entire outlook on life. This is where the brief tour into my current state of mind comes into play. For the first time, I actually feel connected to every other person and Earth in an entirely new way. We are all united, by our water molecule memories and resonance. This is an actual way for a conscious evolution to take place on Earth. Each person changing the molecular structure of their body, affecting the molecular structure of people around them, people affecting the molecular structure of the bodies of water on Earth… resonance healing in action, at a molecular and global level!

Dr. Emoto realized he could change the molecular structure of a glass of water by speaking the words “I love you” and “Thank you” to that water. Now imagine this: We all realize that by speaking the words, “I’m sorry. I forgive you. I love you. Thank you” to water ~water in our glass, water in our bodies, water in our oceans, and the water that makes up our fellow human beings… We can change the world.

I wonder if my teacher knew when she gave us our Ho’oponopono gift that it would be the gift that keeps on giving? See… now, I am giving this gift to you. Feel free to give it to others.

I love you.

Thank you.

Dr. Emoto's crystal of water labeled "I Love You".

Recommended Reading:

An excellent book if you’d like to continue learning more about Ho’oponopono is Zero Limits by Joe Vitale.

The Healing Power of Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto

The Message from Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto

What the Bleep Do We Know (Documentary)

Water: The Great Mystery (Documentary)