Ho'oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian healing practice that has been reinterpreted. It holds immense value in healing heart chakra and in detangling toxic relationships and attachments.

This is a basic article on ho’oponopono. I have basic articles on relationships and emotions, and advanced articles on cord cutting, cord anatomy, and heart chakra in kundalini,

“Applying force to an entanglement — be it a rope or relationship — appears initially to improve the problem. Yet it usually makes it worse.“
— James A. Wall, Ho'oponopono

Ho'oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian healing practice. The traditional practice is much more involved, needing mediators and usually conducted between family members. A modern interpretation is a mantra for reconciliation and forgiveness. It’s actually not that easy to truly detach from someone subconsciously — even when they have hurt you.

The biggest reason to detach from someone who has hurt you is to break the victim-perpetrator-rescuer cycle and cut emotional cords. Use this mantra:

"I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you."

It actually makes a lot of sense to me that this tradition would emerge from an island nation, because if you live on an island and can’t get along, where do you run?

I saw similar examples of emotional intelligence emerging from indigenous band-members I worked with in the North. They had a basic skillset of accepting other people and weaving their flaws into the group story in a way that was acceptable to everyone.

When to use Ho'oponopono

I’m kind of neutral on how much we need other people, in the game of spiritual evolution there comes a point where you need to go it alone for a bit. Other people and their drama is often self-sustaining and most people don’t evolve as they should in the world right now.

At the point of death, your spirit will need to let go of the physical identity, and the people in the world. So one way to think of Ho'oponopono is learning to do this early, so that death is not painful, but a happy transition. It’s all the things you might want to say after death, but you are learning to say them early, and every day. So your life with other people is more balanced, and peaceful — in the proper perspective.

But whether you live on an island, have a happy family you love spending time with, want to be a hermit and seek enlightenment, or hate your ex-girlfriend Ho'oponopono can help you.

How to use Ho'oponopono

Sometimes I use the metaphor of conditioner combing out tangled hair. But in my mind it’s more like cancer cells fibrosed down to a basement membrane with the adhesions of scar tissue. Regardless, we form tangled energetic attachments with the people in our lives and need to find ways to straighten them out so that we can move on if we need to, or sustain ourselves more flexibly if we are to stay.

Set the intent to smooth and detangle. Then use the phrase as much as you can. Particularly if it sucks. Remember you create more of what you focus on. This ancient prayer will help you let go and to realign.