What Hawaiians Can Teach Us About Life

In Hawaiian culture, the Native people have often relied on specific concepts that, when followed and appreciated, lead them to lives of contentment.  The concepts include:

• Mana: is the spiritual energy of power and strength that both people and objects possess. It is a life energy that people can influence; the choices made can either strengthen mana or take it away. Living a life of meaning, being modest, building and maintaining relationships and giving back to others or your community are all examples of good mana.

• Pono: is righteousness. In Hawaiian culture, it denotes goodness and has a spiritual connotation to being in a state of harmony. Pono is the concept of leaning into moral values so as to live a life that is balanced and essentially good.

• Aloha: is the Hawaiian word for love. Often used as a simple greeting, aloha for Hawaiians is a way of life - aloha is a way of living and treating each other with love and respect.

• Ohana: means family. In Hawaiian culture, the concept of ohana refers to one’s social support system, including nuclear family, extended family, close friends and colleagues, and/or other communities or groups they are a part of. Being part of an ohana means that there is a mutual obligation to care for each other.

Hawaiians are known to live a life that is peaceful and less stressful than Westernized society. We can take a lesson from their pages of ancient wisdom by consciously thinking about how these concepts have contributed to living a simple and grounded life. Photo by little plant on Unsplash