This philosophy is finally about residing a lifetime of steadiness. As people, we are inclined to sway backwards and forwards on the pendulum of life, and pono is about making strikes to course-correct when issues sway to the darkish aspect an excessive amount of. It’s each an consciousness of how issues are getting in your life, and an intention to handle issues earlier than they snowball into a bigger difficulty. In that approach, pono is definitely a verb, one which’s all about appearing and reacting to particular conditions every day as a way to finally keep as grounded and even-keeled as doable. As Uncle Clifford Nae‘ole, a Maui-based cultural practitioner we interviewed and featured within the e book, explains: “The advantage of pono is to observe on daily basis, particularly when issues are going south.”
After all, it may be troublesome to inform when, precisely, that you must act. However Hawaiians imagine that deep down, you all the time know, since you’ll really feel it; the indicators can be there in the event you let your self hear them. “We imagine that in case you are pono ‘ole—in case you are with out pono—it throws you so off steadiness that issues can go awry internally, bodily, and mentally,” Uncle Clifford continues. “It’s possible you’ll really feel like there’s something rising inside you, rising larger on daily basis, and it could burst.”
A part of residing a pono life, then, is realizing that it’s your accountability as a member of your loved ones and society at giant to handle these points after they do come up. It isn’t pono to let issues slip below the rug when you recognize, deep down, that there’s a problem that may resurface at a later level.