2024 has begun. It’s a new year with new hope — for better. Better health, relationships, personal habits, more opportunity, greater peace and well-being for ourselves and others.
This desire for “better” is helpful and motivating when it comes from a balanced place in us. But our Western culture, that is constantly pressuring us toward perfection, is drowning us in messages about the need for big resolutions, great goals, and doing everything we can to achieve them. All this pressure too often becomes the abyss that swallows hope’s heartfelt inspiration and upliftment.
It is our hope that leads us forward to do hard and uncomfortable things, to make meaningful change in our lives. And it is our compassion and love for ourselves that helps us to get back up when we have fallen off our path to better.
I read a moving post from a friend on Facebook this morning that said, “Note 2 Self: The version of u that carried u thru ‘til now — thank it before u tell it what & how it can do better in 2024.”
I so appreciated my friend’s reminder to thank myself for all I am and have been; thank myself for all the resilience and learning, perseverance and inner strength, kindness and grace, doing my best in each moment. Feeling this gratitude for myself, for all my humanness, is the foundation for the better I desire in 2024. This is what will support me and allow me to grow, not all the pressure of big resolutions and great goals.
My friend’s post reminded me to step back into a Pacific Islander practice that has helped me to thank, love and forgive myself often over the years — Ho’oponopono. It is most powerful when I write or speak it to myself using its four key phrases to lead me: I love you; I’m sorry; please forgive me; thank you.
I allow the words and expression to come honestly from my heart into myself. My practice of Ho’oponopono sounds something like this: “I love you Piper, body, heart and being. I am sorry for the ways I have struggled and caused harm to you and others — I don’t want to cause harm. Please do forgive me for my mistaken, often unconscious, habits, words, beliefs and actions that hurt. Thank you, beloved being, for all you have been and done for me over the years — your strength, care, compassion, wisdom, creativity and continued hope through all the hard things. You really are a bright and loving soul. Thank you for hearing my prayer of forgiveness.”
With gratitude and forgiveness, I know that I am leaning into the hope of my heart and inner wisdom that supports me in every way. May 2024 bring blessings of love, hope, forgiveness and well-being for all.
Piper Lauri Salogga is a transformational coach, writer and teacher supporting her clients in co-creating love within themselves and with each other. Find her work at beautyofbeinghuman.com.
Read more of the Jan. 10-16, 2024 issue.