Many thanks to this powerful and profound community, and especially to Adrian Warnock, for allowing me to be a member and share my thoughts. Adrian reached out to me earlier today and asked me to share some thoughts today. So this is what came up for me today.

The Hawaiian Prayer for Forgiveness is Ho’oponopono
The beautiful Hawaiian prayer for forgiveness is titled Ho’oponopono (pronounced HO-oh-Po-no-Po-no)The prayer, (which acts as a sort of mantra of self love) has shown some amazing benefits for myself this week.I was lucky enough to have my business mentor share this with both my wife and I on our weekly call. As a frame of reference, he resides just about an hour or so outside of London. Both Jana and I live in Boston. So, we seem to be getting heavily influenced by the United Kingdom more and more as each week passes! 

The practice of saying this prayer out loud is designed to clear your mind and space of self doubt, blame, guilt, anger or frustration for others or any troubling circumstance in your life. I did a little more research on this prayer and the significance of the title. The word Ho’oponopono is roughly translated as “to cause things to move back into balance” In the native Hawaiian language, pono means balance.So, in a sense, it has a buddhist like quality to it. The prayer goes likes this:

Stating up front that some wrongdoing exists or has occurred or that there is some obstacle in the way is acknowledged with the phrase “I’m sorry” This kind of dialogue is powerful in distinguishing between you and your self or another person.

Next, asking forgiveness is a way of acknowledging the first statement as well as creating a safe space to allow for a resolution.

Saying “Thank you” is a way of acknowledging that the resolution has occurred and it shows gratitude for the resolution.

And finally the last statement “I love you.” is a clear simple act of intimacy and understanding and allowing for our true essence of connectivity to one another.

SO, the practice is to speak these statements in this order over and over again and again until one feels an empty open space, free of guilt, bad feelings, doubt, trouble, or moral judgments.

I’ve read where the truly rigorous repeat these statements 108 times over a span of 8- 10 minutes in the morning and again in the evening before bedtime.

My personal sense is to take on the practice for yourself and notice any relief or release or letting go- without having to count 108 times. Some of you may find a guided meditation online on youtube if need be.

I’ve noticed, just in the last couple days, a peace and calmness pass over me while taking this on. As well as connections and results showing up that were wonderful surprises.

For example, last night, both Jana and I were invited on to a powerful podcast that came out of the blue. I also experienced a wonderful ease this week that was unexpected in the small day to day things that are normally done unconsciously.

I also had a much greater awareness of my irritations and impatience over the tiniest and littlest things and just was able to let go. 

I recommend a quiet place and time in the morning to sit quietly and repeat these phrases.

And, why an I bringing this up? Well, if we turn on the news, it doesn’t take long to notice the tension our bodies go through in absorbing the issues of covid, the restrictions being lifted, Russia, the environment…it’s endless.

My commitment is not that we bury our heads in the sand… but, my intention is to give ourselves some space to calm our minds. And, when we can calm our minds, our bodies can follow. We can control how we react to the circumstances around us.

And, that is the focus of my discussion today and bringing up the importance of quietude, and this Hawaiian prayer called Ho’oponopono can be one practice to take on for peace of mind and/or body (out of a multitude of different practices from different traditions, belief systems, spiritual practices or relifgions).