Ancient Hawaiian Practice of Self Healing (Healing Trauma in Fibromyalgia Part 1)
Introduction from Dr. Teitelbaum
This is my first in a four-part series, "Releasing Old Traumas in Fibromyalgia." In this series I discuss how traumas you've experienced in the past can cause troublesome energies to linger inside you, and I share powerful techniques to rid yourself of them.
I'm honored this week to share an article written by my dear friend, Jon Lovgren, in which he describes a method for forgiving yourself using an ancient Hawaiian practice called ho'oponopono. It's also the subject of a wonderful book he wrote called The Magic Words (available on Amazon and possibly the best $3.50 you'll ever spend!).
Jon's article is below. It's followed by a second article written by his daughter, Carissa, in which she shares her story of using those magic words to help her recover from fibromyalgia.
L&B, Dr. T
The Ancient Hawaiian Practice of Ho'oponopono Helps Heal Fibromyalgia!
— By Jon Lovgren
What is ho'oponopono? It is an ancient Hawaiian practice of forgiveness. It teaches us that we are 100 percent responsible for everything in our lives—always have been, and always will be. This does not mean that it is our fault, or that we should blame ourselves. It simply means we have the ability to change our situation. So simply, in your mind, say to yourself:
I love you
I am sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you
That is it! That is all there is to it. Just say those four statements to yourself repeatedly; the order does not matter. Repeat them until they become second nature, automatic. The more you continue to say ho'oponopono, the more you will see your life change.
"Wait! You are telling me that saying those four statements over and over can heal fibromyalgia? How is that possible?"
Yes. Practicing ho'oponopono at the deepest levels, we work through our memories to find the cause of our ailments—in this case, the cause of fibromyalgia—and once we clean and clear those memories, the ailment heals. Ho'oponopono works with the cause, not the symptom; the symptom helps guide us to the cause.
How did I create this for myself?
And why?
Ho'oponopono is always and only about and the self—never about anyone or anything else. And since we are each 100 percent responsible for everything in our lives, we had a part in creating our pain, our discomfort, and/or our disease.
When we accept that we created it for ourselves (whatever "it" is), then we can love ourselves, apologize for creating it, forgive ourselves, and find gratitude in the lessons learned. This is when we begin the healing process. Sometimes the healing is instantaneous. However, some ailments, like fibromyalgia, have so many components that it can take time to get to the cause.
Unexpressed feelings settle in the body in various places. For example, fear tends to settle in the stomach and anger tends to settle in the liver. As they accumulate, they start to spread out and create energy blocks in the body.
Often, there are numerous other ailments that accompany fibromyalgia, for example: agoraphobia (fear of places or situations that might cause panic or embarrassment), anxiety /panic/ disorder, etc. Rather than attempt to heal fibromyalgia in one fell swoop, it is better to heal each of the contributing factors. We begin with agoraphobia.
How do we heal agoraphobia using ho'oponopono? We focus on the reasons for the fears. When we do so, we realize that it is usually about the future; it is what I call "future-trippin'" and it just makes the fear worse. Ho'oponopono brings us back to the present moment. In my daughter Carissa's case, as soon as she began to think about the idea of having a panic attack, she said ho'oponopono over and over, like a mantra:
I love you
I am sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you
When we find ourselves thinking about the past or the future, we need to realize that it is just our imagination, yet we have 100 percent control over it. When we catch ourselves starting to spiral down a rabbit hole, simply say ho'oponopono and it will bring us to the present. Remember that it is only our imagination, and we can begin to think about something that brings us happiness and joy.
My experience with ho'oponopono over the past decade has shown me that physical ailments have an emotional component, usually forgotten in our conscious minds, but still alive and well in our unconscious minds. In every case, when we healed the emotional memory of the cause of the physical pain, the physical pain went away completely, usually immediately, but may take longer in cases like fibromyalgia.
When people contract fibromyalgia, it means that the unreleased or blocked energy does not accumulate in one area, but it is widespread and has elements that attach to different parts of the body. It is as if people with fibromyalgia have an emotional colander, and the unexpressed feelings are broken up into smaller parts and settle throughout the body.
So instead of all the anger going to the liver, some of it gets blocked and presents as pain in the joints and muscles, and the fascia becomes saturated and inflamed. It is the same with sadness, disappointment, and frustration. Any of the lower vibrational feelings will find the closest place to settle within the body. It is often a significant trauma in life that causes these blockages to start.
When we find ourselves suddenly in a major life change, we can be so busy figuring out what to do and how to go from there, especially if we have to do it alone, that we are pushed into circumstances that do not allow us to take the time to grieve the losses. The feelings settle in the body in various locations. Then, once we get some modicum of getting settled into our new lives, we notice the pain and the lethargy, and we chalk them up to being tired and sore.
Once we learn to practice ho'oponopono diligently and consistently, we come to a point where we no longer cringe to escape the pain, but instead, we dive into it to find out what caused it in the first place. We know that when we heal that, we will no longer feel the discomfort.
To get started on your healing now. Simply repeat ho'oponopono as often as you can, especially when you are feeling pain or discomfort. You do not have to believe it or feel it, you simply have to say it and it starts working.
I love you
I am sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you
For a deeper understanding of ho'oponopono and detailed explanations as to how and why it works, as well as case studies for various chronic ailments, please check out my book, The Magic Words, available on Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback. Please also stay tuned to my website for upcoming books, workshops and my blog.
Now I'm pleased to share with you an article written by my daughter Carissa, who suffered from fibromyalgia some years ago. In this she tells her story of pain and frustration, and the powerful role ho'oponopono played in her recovery.
Making the Incurable – Curable: How I Healed My Fibromyalgia using Ho'oponopono
— By Carissa Lovgren
There is no relief in sight. I am always going to feel like this. Oh great! Another medication that will do nothing but leave me with unwanted side effects! This was my line of thinking, my reality.
In the spring and summer of 2006 I had been falling asleep in the middle of the day. I struggled to stand long enough to cook my family a dinner and the pain…the pain continued to get worse and worse. After every standard test was done and came back negative, the conclusion for fibromyalgia. I was given a prescription for Lyrica and sent home.
Weeks went by and no relief. After several visits to the doctor over the following months I ended up on narcotic pain medication. First, we started out with Tylenol/codeine which gave me headaches, then we tried Vicodin, Darvocet and eventually landed on 5mg oxycodone (Percocet). There I stayed for several years. After two years, Lyrica made me sick as if I had a bad case of the flu and was discontinued. So other than a daily multiple vitamin, oxycodone was my only treatment against the terrible pain and fatigue.
I was taking six pills per day and dealt with the side effects, like drowsiness, lightheadedness, constipation, and weight gain, among others. In nearly ten years, I had gone from around 140 pounds ballooning up to 228 pounds at my heaviest and had taken to practically living on the couch. I applied for and was granted Social Security Disability, so the opportunity to move from the bed to the couch and back to bed became my norm. Between the "fibro" and the oxycodone I had little to no energy. I was in pain every day, cried often and watched my kids pull away, and my husband leave me. I hit an all-time low.
That's when my father, Jon Lovgren, stepped in and introduced me to ho'oponopono. He outlined it as a lifestyle choice to heal all that afflicted me through forgiveness. It's a simple phrase: "I love you, I'm sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you," and has powerful, life altering affects. My father urged me to say it every time I thought about it or had an "uh-oh" or "what if" moment. Even if I didn't understand it at first — I just had to say it.
By now, I had anxiety so bad that it developed into agoraphobia. My father and I started with two sessions a week, and at times, even had daily phone calls to address my severe anxiety before healing anything else, knowing that ho'oponopono was going to heal me in ways that I may not have been fully aware of at the time.
At first I didn't think that it would work. How could forgiving myself for something that I did twenty years ago heal my agoraphobia if that only started a few years ago? Would saying a phrase repeatedly get me off the couch? I have always trusted my father but I had my doubts.
Still, I did as encouraged, and said the phrase all day, every day and cut the aka cords. Slowly changes began happening. I was able to pick up my daughter from school. I was able to go the store and buy milk. Then, I was able to walk into a Walmart — alone. Through the practice of ho'oponopono, I regained my confidence and a better understanding of where my anxiety came from. After some time and astounding healing, I decided that it was time to start work on my fibromyalgia. With newly regained freedom, I felt the desire to get out more and more.
We started with identifying when my fibromyalgia started and were able to go back to a 2001 car accident five years before my diagnosis. My father guided me in clearing that. As soon as I had, I broke down into sobs but I went to bed that night feeling hopeful and lighter.
Working with ho'oponopono continued, as did the healing. In complete honesty, it probably would have taken less time if I had been able to remember to say it more often, but I am human. The point was, I was making progress and feeling really good. Integrating such a practice in my daily life became easy when results were staring me in the face.
Over a year had passed since I started using ho'oponopono and one day I was out running errands and becoming increasingly frustrated at how difficult it was to get in and out of the vehicle and my struggle to lift items like dog food or cat litter. I decided right there that I was going to join a gym and lose the weight.
Today, four months later, I have a set workout schedule four times a week, I work out at home on the days that I don't go to the gym, and I have lost thirty pounds! I feel incredible, I have energy that I did not know that I was capable of and I say ho'oponopono every day all day. In a recent conversation with my father he caught me saying, "…when I used to have fibromyalgia." I hadn't even realized that I said it! When he, ever the careful, attentive listener, repeated it back to me, I shrugged and said, "Yep, sounds about right!"
Ho'oponopono, when used, can be very powerful and absolutely life changing. I healed years and years of pain both physical and spiritual, recovered relationships, recovered my freedom and have taken strides toward living a happy, healthy, anxiety and pain-free life. I am so grateful for what ho'oponopono is doing in my life and for curing the "incurable."
Healing Trauma in Fibromyalgia (3-Part Series)
You are reading part 1 of this series. See below to read the other two parts:
About the Author: Jon Lovgren has been studying religious texts, Kabbalah, metaphysics, quantum physics, psychology, and philosophy for over 40 years culminating in the ancient Hawaiian practice of ho'oponopono as the answer to 40 years of questions. His website is The Magic Words.
Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. is one of the world's leading integrative medical authorities on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He is the lead author of eight research studies on their effective treatments, and has published numerous health & wellness books, including the bestseller on fibromyalgia From Fatigued to Fantastic! and The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution. His newest book (June 10, 2024) is You Can Heal From Long COVID. Dr. Teitelbaum is one of the most frequently quoted fibromyalgia experts in the world and appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide including Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah & Friends, CNN, and Fox News Health.
