How To Find Meaning When Life Feels Rudderless, Using These Native Hawaiian Principles

Island Wisdom is a guide to the principles and philosophies that have helped Hawaiians live meaningful lives for centuries upon centuries, ever since Ancient Hawaiians sailed to the islands from the South Pacific nearly 2,000 years ago. But it's also a call to action.

Sadly, Hawaiians have endured decades of cultural oppression and appropriation (especially in the West), and Hawai‘i is currently facing so much overtourism that both the locals and the land are suffering. We hope that reading the book will help people understand what Hawai‘i is truly about so they'll know how to respect the culture when visiting—and understand why doing so is more crucial than ever before. 

That said, you don't *need* to visit Hawai‘i to put these principles to use in your life. As you'll discover in the book, they cover universal themes that you can apply to your life wherever you are. And as it happens, many of these lessons are especially relevant right now during these confusing, rudderless, emerging-from-a-global-pandemic times, when we're all just trying to figure out where to go from here.

This philosophy is ultimately about living a life of balance. As humans, we tend to sway back and forth on the pendulum of life, and pono is about making moves to course-correct when things sway to the dark side too much. It's both an awareness of how things are going in your life and an intention to address problems before they snowball into a larger issue. In that way, pono is actually a verb, one that's all about acting and reacting to specific situations on a daily basis so that you can ultimately stay as grounded and even-keeled as possible.

As Uncle Clifford Nae‘ole, a Maui-based cultural practitioner we interviewed and featured in the book, explains, "The virtue of pono is to practice every day, especially when things are going south." 

Of course, it can be difficult to tell when, exactly, you need to act. But Hawaiians believe that deep down, you always know, because you'll feel it; the signs will be there if you let yourself hear them. "We believe that if you are pono ‘ole—if you are without pono—it throws you so off balance that things can go awry internally, physically, and mentally," Uncle Clifford continues. "You may feel like there is something growing inside you, growing bigger every day, and it may burst."

According to Uncle Clifford, the key is to be observant! Try your best to understand what's happening around you every day.

Make the time to identify your feelings—and then lean into them. Know when to smile when a smile is needed, and allow yourself to cry when you feel like you need to. Don't hold back.

Though kuleana translates to "responsibility and privilege," it's much deeper than that. It's the act of understanding your life's purpose and then, to the best of your ability, fulfilling that purpose every day. Hawaiians believe that doing so will help you find more meaning in your everyday life.

The idea of kuleana traces back thousands of years, when ancient Hawaiians had very specific roles in order to keep society functioning, and it was their kuleana to follow through on those roles so that the community would survive. Today, many Hawaiians relate the idea back to the Hawaiian phrase He wa‘a he moku; he moku he wa‘a, which translates to "The canoe is our island, and the island is our canoe." In this case, the canoe is a metaphor for how and why kuleana is so important.

Know that you have to seek it out—it's not going to come and hit you over the head. As Desiree Cruz, a trusted cultural advocate and lei maker on the island of Hawai‘i, explains, "You have to put that energy out there first—it's a reciprocal thing." 

A good way to do that: Find one ancestor who resonates with you more than others, and connect your kuleana to them. Chances are, there's something about them that you're drawn to, so take the time to figure out what that is. But don't worry if it turns out that your ancestor's kuleana is not for you. The key is to keep searching with intention until you have that feeling where you just know: This is what I'm meant to give to the world.

Though ha‘aha‘a translates to "humility," the deeper meaning is rooted in the Hawaiian belief that being humble is actually all about learning from the teachings of others. While many people may be quick to call themselves "experts" if they have some degree of proficiency in a given topic, for example, many Hawaiian elders are reluctant to ever call themselves experts in anything—because they believe they are perpetual students.

Sit and listen to everything around you. You don't have to formally meditate or anything; just do whatever you need to do to step away from the noise and get in touch with what's actually happening all around you. In the words of Uncle Clifford, "Everyone has that mind's eye, if only they would sit, look, and listen. If you want to do something Hawaiian, it is to calm down and listen to the peace. It roars." 

Be sure to find the lessons in your observations. When you listen, you'll see what's happening to yourself and those around you quite clearly. And even though you may not always like what's being said, it's important to determine what those observations can teach you—and what you can learn from them moving forward.