A few weeks ago I saw this photo on Facebook with a title ‘The Weight of Grief’,

My eyes widened with my immediate thought of “Wow, what a powerful image of the crippling, debilitating impact of holding on to ‘old mental/emotional stuff’, and the Stones analogy of The Bowl of Light”.

Whilst I didn’t read the article, the image was the prompt for this blog.

(The sculpture is actually titled  “Rising Cairn” and is a 4,000 lb stone sculpture by artist Celeste Roberge.)

Traditionally, Hawaiians, as all ‘indigenous’ cultures view all aspects of the body as one and believe that the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual are all interconnected and part of the ‘whole’ self . When there is dis-harmony on one level it impacts on all levels. Thankfully this is now understood and accepted in the Western mindset within most Wellness professions. I often use the analogy with clients and haumana in regard to the physical manifestation of dis-harmony. Simply treating the physical is like putting a BandAid on a shark bite. It ain’t gonna hold. You can seek all the physical support, whether it me through massage, chiropractic, change of diet, medication, fitness plan and a plethora of other undertakings, however if the underlying mental/emotional/spiritual root cause is not addressed none of these will be effective or sustaining long term.

As shared in Tales From the Night Rainbow (Koko Willis & Pali Jae Lee 1987) and in Ho’opono (Pali Jae Lee 2006),   one of the earliest concepts taught to them was :                                                                                                                 “Each child born has at birth, a Bowl of perfect Light. If he tends his Light it will grow in strength and he can do all things – swim with the shark, fly with the birds, know and understand all things. If, however he becomes envious or jealous he drops a stone into his Bowl of Light and some of the Light goes out. Light and the stone cannot hold the same space. If he continues to put stones in the Bowl of Light, the Light will go out and he will become a stone. A stone does not grow, nor does it move. If at any time he tires of being a stone, all he needs to do is turn the bowl upside down and the stones will fall away and the Light will grow once more”

A traditional greeting in Hawaii was Pehea Ko Piko?                                                                                                         This translates to: How are your relationships to these parts of your body and the relationships they represent?        Piko refers to crown of the head, the navel as well as the genitals. What’s that got to do with relationships you ask? In this context, the crown refers to the ancestors, the navel to currant relationships (including yourself), and the genitals refers to descendants.                                                                                  
In other words, are these relationships pono (right, good, harmonious)🌹
or is there any pilikia (trauma, drama, dis-harmonious)💨  ie Are You Carrying Any Stones?

Which Side of the Line are You On?

Is it timely to Ho’oponopono (make right more right) and             Ho’opono pono ke ala (make right more right the path)? 

As a practitioner and teacher of over 25 years, I have witnessed countless times, what detrimental, damaging, unhealthy hindrance to a happy, productive journey of life these ’stones’ are.

Over the years I have had numerous clients and haumana who choose to stay stuck in their continual sharing of their very detailed pilikia (trauma, drama, blame, victim) filled story. When I don’t enable the pilikia, their anger is often then directed at me.  It’s that human tendency of projecting outward rather than having the willingness to look within.

I have become very adept over the decades of ducking people’s stones as they endeavour to hurl them outwards 😉

I had a recent instance of that with a client, whom I hadn’t seen for a few years, who had come for a lomilomi. When I asked her how she was, she replied with 45 minutes of all the intricacies, finger-pointing, blame and victim-ness, drama-filled pilikia nui ( Big  trauma, drama, victim) story. I let her keep speaking, without interruption til her story was told, as it was important to ‘get it out’. I then asked her again, ‘And how are YOU in all this’.  It wasn’t overt, however when you work with energy and have been a practitioner for 25+ years, you know what’s going on. That was when the shift came and she snapped “that’s what I’ve been telling you!”. My reply: “That was the story, that wasn’t what I asked. I’m asking how YOU are”.

She returned for her next appointment the following week and had the grace to pono-up and share about that anger she’d had at me, for a couple of days. It lasted until she wrote it all down and then rang a friend who has also been a client. When she was raging to the friend about me and the stuff that had come up in the session, her friend stated simply “Tracey gave you what you went there for. She gave you what you needed’.

I had simply been the one to support in opening a crack in the shell to allow the stones to begin to stream out.                 The BandAids came well and truly off the shark bite!                                                                                                            ( I gotta tell you, sometimes being ‘the messenger’ requires many deep HA breaths!!)

The reason I share this, is by the time she came for her second appointment a week later, she had taken ownership of her stuff, had done much self-reflection, had numerous epiphanies, had numerous ‘shifts’ and was making changes. We even joked about the previous week as she shared her insights.

She had released bucket loads of metaphorical stones.The SHIFTS and TRANSFORMATION in her physical body as well as her energy when I was lomi-ing her was PROFOUND .

The analogy I used in regard to the difference from the previous week to this week was a shift from                                ʻaʻā lava (spiky and sharp) to pāhoehoe lava (smooth).

She had released many, many stones, smoothed out many of the sharp edges, and is in the process of continuing to cull more.

What are you energising? What stories are you telling repeatedly? Are your Thoughts, Words And Actions ALOHA and PONO or PILIKIA ?

Remember, Thoughts Have Wings, Words Have Wings💫They will fly off to manifest, to create that which has been energised. Are you creating joyful aloha rainbows filled journey or are you filling your Bowl and Being with Stones ?

A helpful practice is doing an Aloha Pono Check daily. Ask yourself such questions as:                                                 🌟Are my relationships in harmony? 🌟Am I living a motivated, stimulated, inspired and purposeful life?  🌟Am I being the best ….. fill in the many blanks…., that I could be? Whether that be parent, partner, practitoner, teacher, role model of health….. the whole array of all apsects of your life. 🌟 Am I living my purpose and am I using my skills, abilities, gifts and talents to serve the planet? 🌟Am I allowing myself to be the Shining Being of Light that I truly am? Am I allowing my Aloha Shininess to Radiate Fully 🌟 🌈⭐️🌞🐥

ANYTIME is appropriate and valuable to ho’oponopono  and ho’opono pono ke ala right and to release those old stones. Often this can be enhanced by particular ritual, with the moon cycles also being symbolic.                          There is a New Moon appearing soon. A New Moon represents the end of one cycle and the beginning of another new cycle. This is an excellent time for making a fresh start, questioning and releasing old habits, behaviours, beliefs and ways of thinking, turning over a new leaf, or starting a new project.. ie a MANA-FULL AND PONO NUI time to  re-write the story, clear out those stones and be the full shininess of YOUR BOWL of LIGHT.