What can I do when someone I love is suffering｜Ho’oponopono

Walking through Tokyo, we asked Instructor Christine Leimakamae Chu. When someone we love is suffering, we sit down inside the worry. Ho’oponopono teaches us to clean the worry itself, and to stand on the side that sends love.

Cleaning before the day begins

“We often hear people say, I want to clean, but I also have to deal with things in the physical
world.” What the instructor suggests is the quiet time before the day begins: while the house is
still quiet and life hasn’t started, acknowledge the schedule you have, one item at a time, and
clean it first.
Then, by the time you show up to that meeting, you are already in balance, and you have sent
peace to that meeting. And at the end of the day, close the day down — “thank you, thank you,
thank you.”

When someone you love is suffering

When someone you deeply care about is suffering, what is the greatest thing you can do for them?
The instructor’s answer was quiet.
“Yes, send them love and thank them.”
But we start with ourselves. “Thank you, thank you for this thought.” “I’m worried. Okay, thank
you for the worry.” We clean what is inside us, and then we can send thank you and gratitude to
our friend.
Who knows what their experience is? Basically, we’re the ones having this experience of them in pain.

Sitting in the worry takes us nowhere

If we sit in that worry of pain, we are not healed, and we are not helping them either — we are
just going back and forth with worrying, concern, pain, and we are stuck.
So we want to be neutral. Just quiet, and empty. Because from there, we can heal, and they can
be healed.

Sit still, and thank your body

“Thank you, body. Thank you, limbs. Thank you, heart. Thank you, Unihipili, for beating my heart
so I don’t have to think about it.”
So much is happening just as we are sitting still. We don’t have to think of all the things that
run the body — Unihipili takes care of all that for us. The grace of God. So we can sit for a
minute, and say thank you.
From worry to love. That turning is set down quietly inside these eleven minutes.

Yes, send them love and thank them.
— Instructor Christine Leimakamae Chu