How Paying My Electricity Bill Opened-Up My Heart

Ho’oponopono. When I heard that a prison director changed the energy of a whole facility using this short Hawaiian prayer, I decided to run the experiment myself.

Although I usually pay my electricity bills online, the last time I changed house, I had to do it in person to close the account at my former residence. Having visited public offices before and remembering the intense energy there, I wasn't very thrilled, to say the least. Still, there was no way around it.

Equipped with a book and enough water to drink, I went. After managing

to find the right queue, I waited an entire hour to ask what the exact

procedure would be. Five minutes later I was done. Two days after changing apartments, I had to go back to the same office to follow the previously explained procedure. While trying to escape into the music on my headphones – Tibetan monks chanting, my favorite - two people

started yelling at each other, swearing and calling each other names. It felt like I had been dropped into a bad soap opera. I Should note that this seems to be the effect of public offices in a relationship-oriented culture: the accumulated frustration and anger from having to honor family members at all cost, come out readily when dealing with strangers. When I finally left two full hours later, I was drained and exhausted (and needless to say, dreading the fact that I had one more round to go to get the electricity set up for my new apartment).

Experiences like this are particularly challenging for me, as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). Being born with what you could call an overachieving nervous system, I absorb people's energy like a sponge. Futhermore, high sensitivity comes with the ability to feel sensations twice as intensely as non-HSPs.

Reflecting on my experience in the public office, I remembered the four-line Hawaiian ho'oponopono prayer. It was about time for this experiment.

With the prayer on my smart phone, I was equipped to mindfully recite it over and over again. I entered the office, sat down, and started reciting ho'oponopono, on and on, repeating line after line. And then something clicked. Looking at people around me, I felt in my entire body how each single person sitting and waiting would just want to be loved, like we all do.

This insight melted something in me. The pain I had felt previously was melting away and my heart was opening-up. When one hour later, it was my turn to talk to the public employee, I was in a very good mood, even though there had been another one of those bad-soap-opera episodes described above. When I left the place, I felt the difference. I felt how this time my heart was open and peaceful, and my energy was even joyful and at peace.

How did it work? I don't know. What I know, though, is that it did work for me. Ever since that day at the public office, I try to remember to recite ho'oponopono in public places, which I cannot always avoid anyway. And when I find myself in a sad place or feeling low in energy, I recite ho'oponopono. It feels like two loving arms hugging my body, mind and soul. Finally, I can see how the prison director changed the energy in his entire facility

Lesson learned

Ho'oponopono has become an essential daily life tool. It allows me to be around people with my heart wide open, to cope with peoples‘ energies, and even to comfort myself. Thank you Maria E. Hill for introducing me to this powerful and peaceful Hawaiian forgiveness mantra.

Edited by Robyn Penney