The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual

When I first embarked on my self-healing journey, I discovered the Hawaiian forgiveness ritual called Hoʻoponopono.

I found great comfort and healing in it. Why? Because it felt so simple. If I've noticed one surprising thing throughout my inner healing journey, it's that sometimes the most effective self-healing techniques work because they're simple.

How can this healing ritual help?

Throughout our lives, we have made many experiences, and not all experiences were always so smooth. Some experiences may have left us hurt or we may carry the emotional pain years after without being aware of it. Everything may seem fine on the surface until we're faced with a challenge.

So one of many ways of how to deal with heavy emotions or old emotional pain lingering in the subconscious mind can be this powerful forgiveness ritual.

And the mantra is this:

I'm sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

I thank you.

You can address it to yourself or another person. Of course you can have your own variations of that.

Here are some variations and situations that helped me use it.

Discomfort in everyday life

Whenever you feel like someone did you wrong, or maybe you couldn't act the best you could, this little mantra can help ease any discomfort. I don't know why but speaking the words in your mind or out loud feels like lifting some burden instantly.

Healing the past

I also found it can help us heal the past. Whenever you feel you couldn't be yourself in the past or you reminisce some of your actions you can't make peace with, this little mantra can help ease the loud voice in your mind.

You can make a quiet ritual out of it.

Here's how I did it.

A self-healing ritual

Take a comortable seat, light a candle and feel into your emotions or the situation you can't let go of.

Speak the mantra.

I'm sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

I thank you.

You don't actually need to say it to someone else. It's enough to say it in your mind or visualise the person in front of you.

Or simply address it to yourself for allowing the person to hurt you and not knowing any better.

Sometimes nothing dramatic happens at first. Sometimes it's simply a feeling of softness where there was tension before. Other times, emotions may rise to the surface and ask to be felt. The practice is not about forcing forgiveness, but creating space for healing and compassion toward yourself.

The power of forgiveness

That's the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness can be quiet. Forgiveness doesn't mean to forget. But to release the pain that came with the experience. Because in the end, it was not always about the other person. Sometimes the greatest healing comes from forgiving ourselves for not knowing better at the time, for staying too long, or for carrying the pain long after the experience had passed.

And perhaps that's the gift of forgiveness: letting go of the past helps us take the next step and embrace the new.