Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. H’oponopono Prayer

H’oponopono Prayer

When I was going through a period of emotional turmoil (a long-ass period, I might add, towards the end of my marriage), a colleague who had been trained in the H’oponopono healing method in Hawaii introduced me to this very simple prayer.

I have used it since when I experience conflict with another person, typically in a business environment. And I have seen miraculous results within just a few days, up to two weeks, every single time. Energy shifts almost as fast as you can scramble an egg.

I have also recommended this prayer to a handful of friends who are in serious conflict with co-workers or loved ones. One told me, “I simply cannot bring myself to say that about this person.” And that is fine. She is where she is, and was honest about where she is right now.

But what I will say to you, dear readers, is this:

1) You’re really not saying this prayer TO or ABOUT another human being. It’s a prayer in your mind and heart; you don’t need to say it outloud. You are internally speaking to the energy that exists and the conflict you feel with this person.

2) Do you want to continue feeling the conflict, or not? If you like the feeling of conflict, why not just pour some sour milk on your cereal in the morning? Remember, being resentful towards another is like drinking poison, then expecting the object of your resentment to shrivel up and die.

3) You don’t even have to mean it. I say this quite seriously – the mere act of thinking the words, directed towards the person you are in conflict with, shifts the energy – like scrambling an egg. (And you can always throw in some green pepper, onion, and hot sauce while you’re at it! And no sour milk, please.)

I love you.

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

Thank you.

Here it is in Spanish, in a different order than I remember learning it. But I don’t think it really matters.

As much as you might be gnashing your teeth and clenching your fists about any particular conflict, with any particular party, I encourage you to shut down your pride and utilize this prayer…every single time you think of that person.

Your authentic self will not be sorry. It works.

Life is something like a trumpet. If you don’t put anything into it, you don’t get anything out. –W.C. Handy

All you need is love. –The Beatles

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Happiness and Being Present

Happiness and Being Present

I am always reading something. I have been reading at least one book at a time since I was old and skilled enough to follow sentences formed into paragraphs. I remember my father reading a little children’s book (I believe it was called A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE) to me when I was so young it’s virtually the only memory I have from that time period. One of the many things I treasure about my family of origin is how I was introduced to love of the written word from the very beginning of my life.

I am reading two books right now. THE PRESENCE PROCESS: A Journey Into Present Moment Awareness by Michael Brown. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

The former called to me from the back seat of a blue jaguar when I was on a Godwalk. I saw a flash of cover from the peripheral vision of my right eye, and something told me to go back and make a mental note of the book before I continued on my Godwalk. So, I did. I checked it out on-line, read some of the reviews, and ordered it within a day or two.

As I am writing this post, I am now on week five of the ten week presence process. Brown rightly suggests in his book that you not try and describe this process to others, because there is simply no way to accurately portray it unless you’re going through, or have gone through, it. Rather, I may simply quote from the book from time to time, because there is SO MUCH therein about authenticity.

Eat, Pray, Love, however, I have read before. (You have probably seen the movie with Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem.) This book was a gift from my friend Jackie and I loved it so much I loaned it to two different people. The first gave it back covered with dog teeth marks (she loved it, too, and offered to buy me a new one; I declined) and the second – I can’t remember who that second person was – never gave it back. Hopefully she paid it forward and someone else is enjoying it.

At any rate, after re-watching the movie after it came out on DVD, I decided it was time to re-order another paperback copy, just for me, so here I am re-reading it at the same time I’m going through the presence process. I am stunned by the similarities and parallel learnings, at least for me, at this time in my life.

This is from page 260 of the impeccable writer Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love:

“I keep remembering one of my Guru’s teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you’re fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings…It is easy enough to pray when you’re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.”

I have not experienced a crushing depression like Gilbert did before she wrote this book.

I have not experienced the kind of physical pain Brown did before he wrote his book.

Yet, somehow, I know this to be true. We create our own happiness. What we think about takes form and affects our emotions. Our emotions affect our bodies. How our bodies function affect our thoughts and emotions.

The Presence Process enables us to embrace the insight that authentic growth comes from what we don’t know… Our intent isn’t to feel better, but to get better at feeling. –Michael Brown

Never again use another person’s body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings. –Elizabeth Gilbert

What happy thought can you think today, one which comes from your heart and feeling? -Laura Handke

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Confidence

Confidence

I shamelessly and admittedly pilfered this from the April 2013 issue of O Magazine, wherein the theme is confidence.

When Oprah talks about living your best life, it is the same as living a life of authenticity, bringing your truest authentic self into the world.

This page (16) included answers from contributors to the magazine’s questions, in regards to having a Can-Do Attitude.

These are the questions, and my answers:

*My quickest confidence booster is…

Taking a Godwalk while breathing and communing with nature, listening to my inner wisdom.

*The biggest risk I’ve ever taken is…

Moving to Arizona right after graduating from South Dakota State University, with no income source, few belongings, even less money, and knowing just one person in Phoenix.

My criterion, then, at the age of 21: 1) Warm climate. 2) Big city. 3) Where I knew at least one person. I didn’t think of it as a risk at the time, rather an adventure. I’ve regularly stretched myself into uncharted territory (mainly in my own mind, and spiritually and emotionally,) ever since.

*If I had no fear I’d…

Go sky-diving, jump out of an airplane. The thing is, I really don’t want to do that! One of my biggest fears (even though I am a certified voice teacher through the Transformational Voice Institute) is singing solo in public. Not singing in groups, not public speaking, but singing by myself in an environment that is anything other than karaoke.

I’m rehearsing a song to do just that as I am writing this!

Don’t be afraid to hit the ball. –Billie Jean King

Yes, we can! –Barack Obama

I’m young as morning and fresh as dew.
Everybody loves me and so do you. –Maya Angelou

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Solitude is a Gift You Give Yourself

Solitude is a Gift You Give Yourself

I hear it over and over again. Especially from married mothers who work full time, God Bless their hard-working souls.

“I simply have no time for myself.” “Even when I’m in the bathroom, someone is knocking on the door.”” I just locked myself in the spare room to talk with you, and I can still hear…(go ahead, fill in the blank)…going on in the”…(go ahead, fill in the blank)…

Oh, my.

(I tried finding images on-line for mothers shutting themselves away in a bedroom, and there were none…literally none. It was all about women shutting their kids in a closet, etc. That is quite telling, don’t you think?)

I am not married, just in a serious relationship with a man I don’t live with. I am not a mother, just lucky cat mom, lucky Auntie, and previously stepmom of three for 12 years.

And I require my solitude like being the Pope requires being Catholic. Or rather Catholicism requires of the Pope. Either way.

Pope Francis.

In other words, I can’t live without solitude and communion with inner Being to be my most authentic self. Well, of course I would live, but in a bitchy, anxious, and off-putting way. Not at all Pope-like. And I’m not even Catholic.

I know finding solitude and connecting with inner Being can be difficult at times. Maybe all the time. But how can you really connect with the ones you love when your own well of self-love is dry?

Fill it.

Solitude is a gift you give yourself.

Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. –Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Authentically Yours, Laura