Huna Healing and Empowerment Part 2

Last time we talked about the relationship between healing, forgiveness, and empowerment. Now I would like to explore a little deeper what empowerment means in the context of healing for ourselves and in our relationships.

The late John Kaimikaua taught at our Huna Workshop for over 15 years and talked about some of the greatest healers in Hawaii. He told one story of a young boy who was quite ill. The healer brought in to help required three things before she could work with the boy. She needed his permission; she needed him to acknowledge that she was simply a person who could facilitate his healing; and she needed him to know that the change came from within. In other words, she was not going to heal him. She was there to assist him in healing himself.

We also talk about this in my family’s lineage of Huna. In Huna, the individual is responsible for creating change. You need to have permission if you are going to work with someone because any type of change work is a process that requires the individual's buy-in. You work with someone to facilitate the shift they desire, remembering that the power to create this shift lies within them.

The power of individuals to affect their own health is becoming more accepted in Western thinking. Several studies have shown that a patient needs to be involved for treatment to be effective. Furthermore, even in situations where it seems that the doctor or the medicine is doing all the work, it has been found that the patient needs to make a commitment to getting better.

For instance, studies have shown the difference between an "empowered" person who seeks to quit smoking versus one who does not feel empowered. Recent studies have shown that the success rate of any program doubles when the person wants to quit (as opposed to quitting for someone else). In fact, smoking cessation programs have single digit success percentages when there is no incentive or focus on the individual wanting to quit.

My father told me a story about Daddy Bray, a Kahuna within my family's lineage. According to the story, Daddy Bray was asked by someone to make her "feel the energy." His response was simple and to the point. He told her that it is not his job to make anyone do or feel anything. He explained that, when she was ready, she would feel the energy, and then he could help her work with it.

This same idea, that a healer is a facilitator and that the change comes from within, is taking hold in many practices in Western medicine. When a person has a desire to change, they create the focus and the direction for the change. They are also opening themselves up to receiving the energy for the change.

Realizing that we each are the agent of change in our life is one thing. Owning this and taking responsibility for the change is an entirely different matter. I believe that, at the deepest level, we each know that the “buck stops with us.” However, how many of us own this and utilize it as a means to create change in our lives?

A few years back, I realized that, if I was going to talk about health, I should be a model of excellence with my own health. At the time, I was 85 pounds heavier than I am today. When I sat down to create my health goals, I realized that I had a lot of negative emotions and baggage in the area of my health. I could have stopped at that point and blamed the things that had happened in the past for my current condition. But that would not have changed the situation; it would have only given me reasons for staying unhealthy.

Using the techniques of Huna, such as Ho`oku`u (clearing work to release negative emotions) and Ho`oponopono (a process to become right with others and right with yourself), I was able to rapidly release the baggage from the past. Once that was done, though my body was still the same, I had cleared the obstacles to taking action. The quick, easy fix that released the negative emotions and limiting decisions cleared the path for me to become healthy. But to achieve my health goal, I had to get off the couch and begin to change my habits.

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Change takes dedication, patience, and knowledge of how to maintain your focus. Yet it still begins with you. Without taking that first step, without making a commitment or learning how to change what is inside, you are still in the same place and the same situation.

Huna has taught me that knowing you are empowered and the agent of change is great – but only if you do something with that knowledge. True empowerment is reflected in living a life that expresses all that you are, moving toward all you can be.