Ho'oponopono

Hoʻoponopono in the Hawaiian Dictionary means "mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness." So, that means that families would meet to talk about their problems, to prevent other problems from happening, and to eliminate their anger, illness, guilt, and have more forgiveness.

Morrnah Simeona (1913-1992), is known because she created a modern version of that family tradition from the Kahuna tribe. The practice uses ONLY four sentences:

I'm sorry.

Please, forgive me.

I love you.

Thank you.

Nowadays, Dr. Hew Len and Joe Vitale are the ones spreading the tradition and teaching people how to clear their problems, ancestors, energies, feelings, thoughts, etc. We can use those words for anything and everything, even when we are not conscious of our thoughts, or feelings. We can use them as a mantra, as a prayer before we go to bed, or even as a way to do our daily meditation. We can use them with our car, house, clothes, any illness and with anything in our lives.

According to the lectures I have watched from Joe Vitale's website, we don't have to believe or to know what happens when we say the sentences from the Ho'oponopono, we just have to say them. We also need to accept that we're 100% responsible for whatever comes into our life: WHATEVER, anything and everything. We're responsible for anything even if we hadn't caused that. That "problem/energy" came/appeared because we have a shared memory or data (that's how they call it) with someone or something. Once we are conscious of the energy or memory, we just need to clean it. So, the Ho'oponopono is a cleansing tool that erases the memory or data that was inside us or programmed in us by our lives, media, ancestors, family, etc. Once we clean that memory, it makes it easier for the Divine to get to us. To me, it is easier to think about a computer. The more we use the computer, the more trash it gets, our mail has to be cleaned daily because of the amount of trash it receives, So, the Ho'oponopono does that cleaning to the data that goes into our brain. Divinity is cleaning us like we clean our computer and house.

I learned about the Ho'oponopono at first in Brazil with Ms. Orlovas. I was already doing her meditations with my children every night before they went to bed, and then one day, I started doing the Ho'oponopono with her. From that day on, I would wake up earlier, get my cup of coffee, sit down on my kitchen table, and do the Ho'oponopono while I drank my coffee. That was my morning meditation, a ritual for me, and I would feel peace after that. I believed it was cleaning me and helping my life and it did. During the first week of Ho'oponopono, a lot of "shit" started happening in my life. I contacted Ms.Orlovas and told her what had happened. She told me to keep doing the Ho'oponopono, to believe in the process and to never give up.

She explained that sometimes in life, we have taken roads that are not beneficial to us, so our "guardian angels" are trying to help us, but they cannot get to us easily and help us a lot if we keep living in that way. Once we start cleaning, then the angels would be able to come faster and show us our own path. She told me that if my life kept getting worse in the next three months, that meant that the "angels" would take me down and build me up again. The idea was that they were going to rebuild my life in a greater and better way. She told me to have hope, to pray, to believe in the process and I did.

I was torn into pieces in the next weeks. Unbelievable things happened, a lot of bad! Trust me when I say that I thought I was going to be destroyed, die, or something worse, it is true. People started yelling at me out of the blue. I was accused of things I had never done and a lot of people turned their back to me. I felt extremely alone and I hit a very deep bottom. It lasted exactly 3 months!

Amazing things started happening after that, I would feel things deeply in my heart, and I would know what to do with my life. I started having insights and everything started falling into place. My life was organizing. Almost a year after starting the Ho'oponopono I decided to do my doctorate in the United States. I had no money, I didn't believe I was smart enough to be able to have a doctorate degree, and I didn't know how that would be possible for me: with two kids, as a single mom, away from everyone I knew, in a new country, new culture and new language. But I knew I wanted it. I just trusted my gut, I knew the Universe was there with me and would help me all the way.

I sent emails to a lot of universities and I got a Skype conference with the Dean of the doctoral program in Salisbury University, Maryland. Guess what? That conversation which was supposed to be for 30 minutes lasted two and a half hours. I told the Dean I needed scholarships. She offered me a Graduate Assistantship position so I wouldn't have to pay for tuition. I was afraid that the Brazilian Government wouldn't let me go and study abroad, but they did. They even paid my rent for four years so I could study and finish my doctorate in America!

Salisbury University found me a house, a three minute walk to the University, and my friend Lori found me a car which cost $3,000. I didn't have to do anything, people did everything for me, I just did the Ho'oponopono every day. With $5,000 in my pocket (yes, that's all I had when I came to America), I started my life in America, with two kids, a Graduate Assistantship job, as a student, renting a house and with a car. The Universe never disappointed me, what they did was so much better than I could have ever thought or imagined. The angels were amazing. Their plans for me were greater than my own. I actually tell my guardian angel during my meditation every day that they are badass!

Today, it's July 2024. I have been in the U.S. for almost six years. I am a doctor, my kids are thriving and they were amazing from the beginning. We have a great relationship, we are a team! My son is going to College for Computer Science, and my daughter goes to a Technical High School and will go into the Medical Field. They have been A/B students from the beginning, have never given me a hard time, are adorable and learned English in less than a year. I am a teacher, I work with immigrants teaching them English, and I am respected and loved there. The school I work for is paying and getting our green cards. And everything is well here! I am still at peace. I have a good life! There are and there were moments that I didn't feel capable, that were challenges and that I felt alone, but I also knew that whatever I was living was a MIRACLE and it was possible because of the Ho'oponopono.

In 6 YEARS the Universe rebuilt my life in an amazing way! I have met people who helped me all the way and even when I have a challenge, I do the Ho'oponopono and say things like this, "to the guides that appear in my life, I'm sorry, please, forgive me, I love you and thank you" and as a miracle, the guides appear and show me the way. Some of them are lawyers, accountants, salesperson, teachers, co-workers, friends, Brazilians, Americans, Equatorians, Guatemalans, Irish, Greek, Turkish, Russian, etc - it doesn't matter, we're in this together. We're one with the Divine and I know my job is just to clean myself. I have to clean whatever is in me that is blocking my life, or blocking my perspectives of my life, making me suffer, or not allowing me to thrive, or not allowing me to have a better life. So, I keep cleaning and I hope you do too. I'm sorry. Please, forgive me. Thank you and I love you.

You will find your way, trust the process and keep cleaning every day, as much as you remember, as much as you can, all the time. You will become INVINCIBLE!

I am including my poem here for you. I hope it inspires you to become YOU. Thank you for being YOU, I LOVE YOU. #WhyMeAndWhyNotMe

The Woman I know I Am

Sinélia Peixoto

            Drummond said there was a rock on the road. There were many rocks throughout my life. Doctors telling me that I couldn’t be a mom or that I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was thirty; my mom’s cancer and me taking over her role; marriage and divorce taking everything I had away from me; and learning how to start over again and again. Those rocks did not kill me, even though the feeling was of dying. Actually, they made me stronger. They made me realize that I have no control of people’s feelings, choices or lives. The only choice I have is to accept what comes and change my mind. I have a notebook, I can write, I can throw away my anger, my pain, all the bad, all the voices telling me I can’t or won’t and I can decide to turn the page and start a new one.

            Maya Angelou said that with everything I still rise and I have. I have proven that I control my mind, my body, my life and I decide who I want to believe; and that has always been my heart. Paulo Coelho said the whole Universe is fighting for you when you want something. I have had an amazing life because I believed him. I have lived in many places, met many different people, dated guys from all over the world and I became a doctor at 45, doing it while raising two kids on my own in a foreign country. Who said I can’t? I know I can!

            I left the life I knew, stability, the job I loved and was totally in control of, the house I built after my divorce, my family, and the structure I had; just to build a new life, start over. I trust my heart. I feel this is home too. I believe the Universe is on my side, fighting for me to be better and to be happy. I look at the mirror and I see a frightened little girl, I see a rebel teenager, I see a woman who is not superwoman, but she feels sometimes like one. She is brave, she has courage to do what she wants, and she stands up for what she believes in.

            She is a survivor in many ways and her kids were the reason why she survived the hardest times of her life. So, is life worth it? Yes, it is. I am a better person because of those rocks. I am a better person because I faced my deepest fears and flaws. I am a better person because of my children and because I decided to take the road less traveled by. Robert Frost would say there are always two roads to take. Sometimes there are more than two. Which road are you taking?

If you need to start over, go on. If you need to go back, you can do that too. And as Fernando Pessoa says everything is worth it, if your soul is not small, if love has taken over you and if you want to touch people’s hearts; it is worth it. Oswaldo Montenegro’s songs are all about that and just like him, I need time. Time to write! I have no idea if the poem is beautiful or good enough, but at the same time, it doesn’t matter. I know I need to write, because if there is something I want to teach my kids is that they can always start over, write things down, turn the page. I’ll not be defeated, even if I encounter many defeats. I will not listen to the voices that don’t believe in me. I DO and I will repeat that as many times as I have to. I need to quiet those voices that bring the worst of me. Yes, I am made of good and bad, but I can decide what part of me, I want to be more.

            Vinicius de Moraes said we are not immortal, but let us or it be infinite for as long as we last or it lasts. That is what I have done up to now. I have lived fully, experienced everything and my mind has changed because of that. I am here to fulfill my own expectations, not anyone else’s. I wanted to have a Doctor Diploma before I die. I wanted to be the first person in my family to be a Doctor; I wanted to show my kids that anything is possible if you believe in yourself. What will happen next? I have no idea, but I do wish God’s plans are the same as mine. Cora Coralina said it is my decision and I choose what I want to do or be in my life. I choose to dance!

            Dance, have fun, live, enjoy the journey and if that is not enough, I am sorry. I need all of me, I need joy; I need to feel, I need the sun, I need inspiration and I need love. I need all of myself! Remember the bad, because I don’t want to repeat it; remember the good, because I need to keep that in me. I need peace to feel, peace to write and peace to do my best. Creativity works with peace, set me free and beauty comes out of me. I am trying every single day to forgive and accept myself and writing is part of that process.

            Almir Sater said we all need love to be able to have pulse. We all need peace to be able to smile. We all need rain to be able to flourish. And Oswaldo Montenegro said that half of me, is love and the other half is love too. I am who I choose to be, I can become the woman I was, build up from there and then become the woman I desire. I can say YES to the world and the opportunities that come my way and I can write what should not be forgotten as Isabel Allende said. The only thing I really know and learned what to do throughout life is to trust my heart and to be in peace with my soul. That part of me keeps saying “keep swimming, Dori”, the only thing you need to do in life is to be fully happy. And then when you realize that you are already loving yourself, you know you have become invincible.

If you want to check the programs' page, feel free to do so. I hope you find some strategies to help yourself.