Energetic house-keeping: On Ho’oponopono and other cleansing practices

Over the past several months, I’ve been focusing a lot of my energy on my own personal growth work. And as we often do, I went into it thinking I could just focus my energy on stepping into my power, finding my voice, and all that good stuff. Needless to say, it’s taken me on a journey through all of the muck that prevents me from doing just that.

For those of you who’ve done some personal growth work, you probably know what I mean. But for those of you reading this thinking ‘what the heck is she talking about?,’ here’s an example: a couple of weeks ago, I arrived to a session with a shaman I’ve been working with sharing that I felt a little foggy, not very grounded or connected in that moment and that I wanted to feel more rooted. So we did some clearings and what do you know, up came a lot of shame, anger, self-judgment, and sadness. But of course, right? Otherwise, I would have feel rooted and grounded. There was a reason I didn’t and I had to work through that before moving forward.

This feels particularly relevant for this time of year as many of us are in the process of setting intentions for the coming year. But before we can bring new energy into our lives, we have to create the space. We have to attend to whatever seems to be holding us back from being our fullest selves. We are adaptive beings so if there’s a way that we’re not already living fully, there’s a reason for it. For example, if it wasn’t safe for us to be in our power or speak up, we don’t just snap our fingers and step into our power. We really have to address all of the experiences and beliefs that led to this adaptation.  This doesn’t always have to be hard and painful. In fact, it often feels relieving even if we’re accessing painful emotions or experiences. Because ultimately, by attending to these experiences, we are freeing up space for new experiences to be had. For new roads on our inner map.

Here’s a helpful metaphor if you’re still not quite sure what I’m talking about. If we don’t do this clearing work first, it’s like we’re just patching a pothole or putting a whole new blacktop over a broken road. Overtime, other issues arise due to the many layers of blacktop or the patch breaks up again and again. When you spend the extra time and energy clearing out the old road, you are free to decide what you want your new road to look like and where it goes.

So I’d like to invite you this month to spend some time reflecting and clearing out your physical, energetic, and emotional space. There are a lot of different ways you could approach this. Here are some ideas: doing a detox, de-cluttering your house or your office, daily meditation focused on clearing old patterns, using palo santo or sage to smudge yourself/physical space, or doing some emotional clearing work through body work, energy work, or therapy. If you’re aware of past trauma or generational trauma you’re clearing out, I strongly suggest working with someone who’s familiar with this work to support you in the process. In this month’s forecast from the Powerpath, Lena Stevens offers some more specific ideas and practices for ‘cleaning up’ our inner and outer space.

One of the practices that has been hugely beneficial for me in terms of clearing emotional charge that I’ve unearthed over the past few months is a practice called Ho’oponopono, also known as the Hawaiian Forgiveness prayer. It’s a form of mental and spiritual cleansing or house-keeping. The idea with this prayer is to connect to the essence or felt sense of each of the phrases. So it goes like this:

1. I love you. This can go at the beginning or at the end—or both. This might be an I love you to yourself or a certain part of yourself, I love you to your pet, I love you to your child, I love you to your younger self or protector part, I love you to someone you’re having a hard time with, I love you to the earth, I love you to a spiritual being. Whatever helps you connect to a felt sense of love.

2. I’m sorry. Anything you are sorry for. I’m sorry for holding back. I’m sorry I haven’t been listening. I’m sorry you’re feeling alone. I’m sorry I haven’t practiced for a week. I’m sorry I haven’t been conscious of my food choices. I’m sorry you’ve had to process so much sugar this week.

3. Please forgive me. Again, this can be related to the ‘I’m sorry’ or not but it often is. Please forgive me for getting caught up in old patterns. Please forgive me for defending myself. Please forgive me for judging you.

4. Thank you. This is anything you’re grateful for so it might be related or not—the point is to connect with your felt sense of gratitude. Thank you for listening. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for this delicious coffee. Thank you for this cleansing rain.

There are many ways you could do this practice. You could pause and do it anytime you notice yourself caught up in negative emotion. You could incorporate it into a daily meditation or journaling practice. You could just do it once and reflect on anything over the past year that seems to have left some energetic/emotional charge in your system. You can do it in your head, say it out loud, write it down, or share with a loved one.

Here’s to clearing out so that you can create space for sustainable change. To step more fully into the whole of your being. To have deeper, more authentic relationships with others and with yourself.  I’m practicing right there with you.

Invitation: Practice Ho’oponopono or any other form of clearing out your physical, energetic, or emotional space so that you can create room for new, more expansive experiences.

Affirmation: Your true nature is love. And so is everyone else’s.