A couple years ago I was introduced to a fascinating individual, Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. I received a handout that stated he was able to cure an entire ward of criminally insane patients, WITHOUT ever seeing them! He accomplished this remarkable feat by applying the concept of “Total Responsibility.”

The course I was taking at the time was delivered at a bodywork school during our holistic health practitioner training program in 2004. The notion of taking total responsibility for my life at that time was simply inconceivable (and even today brings up resistance). I wanted to blame my parents, my friends, strangers, the United States, the world, and anything else that I could to take the pressure and the attention off me. Through this program I learned to enhance my ability to help my clients by moving beyond simple massage therapy and adding coaching support. Suddenly now, I was not just “fixing” my client’s bodies, I was actually helping them to better understand themselves. Of course, as I stepped into asking my clients to take responsibility for their health and well-being, I was confronted by the areas I was not doing the same.

Here’s a quote from the book, Zero Limits, that describes what “total responsibility” means:

“The purpose of life is to be restored back to Love, moment to moment. To fulfill this purpose, the individual must acknowledge that he is 100 percent responsible for creating his life the way it is. He must come to see that it is his thoughts that create his life the way it is moment to moment. The problems are not people, places, and situations but rather the thoughts of them. He must come to appreciate that there is no such thing as ‘out there’” (137).


At first blush this is tremendously challenging to swallow. This concept had my mind/ego go a bit nutty. My mind chatter blared: “You mean I’m responsible for the car accident that the insurance company said wasn’t my fault? My girlfriend’s PMS, taxes, my client canceling their appointment, and the refridgerator breaking … Cat poop on the carpet AND my sister hating her husband … AND the wind blowing, sun shining, sky falling… AND, AND, AND!!!!!”

To put this into perspective, ask yourself this question: Who else is there experiencing, living, and being in all areas of my life?

The answer, of course, is: only ME! The challenge is to accept all of my life, the problems and the blessings, as my responsibility, simply because I am the one constant in all of it. Thankfully, Dr Lew does not leave us hanging there with nothing to do when things are not going our way, accept to grin and bear it (although I will say smiling does help).

To take this concept a bit further down the rabbit hole, I will quote Zero Limits again:

“The only sure way [to transform yourself so the rest of the world changes too] is with ‘I love you.’ That’s the code that unlocks the healing. But you use it on you, not on others. Their problem is your problem, remember, so working on them won’t help you. They don’t need healing; you do. You have to heal yourself. You are the source of all the experiences” (47).


You may want to reread the above quote several times.

I ask you: What if by accepting responsibility for every thing and every person who comes into your life you are at the threshold of completely changing how your life appears? What if in the process of owning all of your life, you actually step into the power position and begin to create your life? What would you create from that perspective? How would you change your life, right now, knowing, trusting, and loving your own power?

I have learned the lynch-pin of the magic is to love myself more for how my life is.Zero Limits Book Cover It is a way of honoring my creative ability; in the same way religions honor their unique god’s creation of the world. In taking full responsibility, the sorcerer’s hat falls upon my head and I become divinely gifted and all my creations (whether my mind judges them as good or bad) are beautiful and perfect as they are.

By taking the position of loving yourself and all that you manifest, you are placed firmly in the driver’s seat and the world is your oyster. Test drive this concept for yourself and see how your world changes.

I highly recommend reading Zero Limits to help expand upon and clarify these concepts. I will return with another post about the next set of tools that Ho’oponopono provides to forgive and accept the results and situations in your life that were (or continue to be) not to your liking.