How Meditation And Hawaiian Healing Can Help Us Find Peace & Calm

There’s no doubt many of us are experiencing extremely turbulent times right now. While it’s easy to get swept up in the noise and fear, it’s important to stay grounded, find our center, and find a way to stay calm and balanced in order to reduce stress and keep our immunity up.

I interviewed Kama Hagar, a certified meditation and mental health coach, Reiki healer, and Hawaiian healing practitioner (as well as the daughter of renowned musician Sammy Hagar) to get her thoughts for healing, finding balance, and finding peace during turbulent times.

Q. What are some tips you can offer someone who is suffering from anxiety or worried about and dealing with the stresses of COVID 19?

A. Eliminate as much external noise and negativity as possible and really get in touch with what’s soothing to you. For me, this means not reading or watching the news and practicing meditation to keep me connected, centered, and calm.

“Meditation is so important because it helps keep us centered and connected to ourselves and/or source. We are living in a world where we are constantly taking in information, opinions, pressures, and beliefs of others/society. To have a practice where we are simply being is not only vastly therapeutic, but studies show it’s also a necessity for many for mental, spiritual, emotional, and even physical wellbeing.”

Q. How can a tailored meditation/healing practice help and why is it important?

A. Tailoring a meditation and healing practice, in my opinion, is vital. There is no “one-size-fits-all,” in anything in life. We all have different intentions, goals, past experiences, and ways of comprehension. In order to stick to a practice, it needs to be right for you – not someone else. Try a few different types of meditation, try different teachers, try different background sounds, try different positions, temperatures, lengths of time, etc. Your practice is yours – make it fit and make it feel good to you.

“Some take well to reiki – a more gentle, emotional type of healing, while others need deeply cerebral work like affirmations and meditation. Some need to physically move and shake and others need something that connects them straight to Spirit through chant or silence in nature. Every single person is different and will even react differently to each modality – and each time to each modality!?

“To my beginners: take nibbles. Meditate for even just one minute. Notice what you’re feeling after. Thoughts will happen – they’re inevitable. How kindly can you bring yourself back to the present moment or object of attention (breath, mantra, visualization, etc.)? That’s meditation. You’re doing it right.”

Q. How do you believe that nature heals?

A. In Hawaiian healing the philosophy is “like heals like.” Apply that to humanity and nature and you will find it makes perfect sense: like heals like. We are of nature – it’s our natural habitat. We breathe the air, we eat the plants, we drink the water and we warm by fire. We are nature.

“I used to reject the Buddhist concept that “living is suffering” says Kama, “because I don’t like to think we’re all broken and I do think that life is absolutely rich and thrilling and beautiful. However, I do know that no one makes it out of childhood without shedding a tear, feeling alone, misunderstood, or disheartened in some way shape, or form. Living is dynamic and it takes healing to grow and move forward.”

“We often hear that “time heals everything,” but I disagree. Time can certainly help, but my metaphor is to a physical wound. Would you leave a deep cut open, untreated, and unbandaged for time to heal? You could, but you might get an infection or at least a gnarly scar. The same goes for emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. Time can only do so much. Healing is an action. To heal, you first have to want to heal, and then, take care of yourself like you would a wound until it just doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Q. How does someone know when they need healing?

A. It’s never too late to heal. In the spiritual/wellness world you hear a lot about “childhood trauma.” This is because as children we are highly impressionable and sensitive beings. It’s also because we aren’t taught as children to “heal” ourselves (though that seems to be changing in some school systems and society in general).

Wherever personal triggers show up in your life, are where healing can be offered. These are indicators that something isn’t sitting right for you and they usually stem from an experience or a deep fear. You know when you know. Everyone has experienced these feelings in some way, shape, or form.

Q. What are some benefits of Hawaiian healing? How can someone use Hawaiian healing to benefit his/her life?

A. Be it through chant, dance, or plants, Hawaiian healing is all about connecting with nature. In my remote sessions, I use a lot of Hawaiian mantras to go deeper into the feeling of words, intentions, and expression. It takes away any association with our own language and allows the brain and body to really lean in. Similar to Sanskrit, the words also carry a lot of life-force energy/power (prana in Sanskrit, mana in Hawaiian).

“In-person, we use nature. We immerse ourselves in the mana of the elements and listen for messages. In my Reiki sessions, we call upon our ancestors to help guide the healing and also offer the healing to them, as we carry this lineage forward. Hawaiian healing is deeply spiritual, deeply rooted in nature with incredible reverence to those before us. Connecting in any of those ways is fundamental, Hawaiian healing.”

Q. What are some healing Hawaiian mantras?

A. “Lokahi” – “harmony/balance/unity of all opposing elements”

“Ho’omana” – empowerment or “to raise life-energy”

“Ahonui” – patience with perseverance or “many breaths”

“Aloha” – hello, goodbye, love or “spirit of the breath”

Q. Why is the ancestral connection important? How can someone connect with their ancestors/ use his/her ancestors to heal?

A. Our ancestors are our lineage. Without them, we wouldn’t be here. There’s a possibility you feel connected to a lineage that isn’t yours in this lifetime – this is completely fine. Connect to whoever feels most aligned. These are your allies. In many cultures like the Mayans, a candle is lit to symbolize eternal light or incense burns as many believe smoke is the medium through which spirits breathe. Smokey quartz crystals are said to invoke ancestral energy as well. In Hawai’i, a chant and a ho’okupu (offering) are presented. Set an intention and choose your means of connection. It’s what feels right to you.

“The senses are our connection to the physical world. Our physical world is our greatest teacher, temple, and playground. Our senses are our portals to the here and now. Tuning into them deepens us into the present moment and being present is the proven key to peace.”

Q. Why are rituals important in healing? What kind of/type of rituals can one use to aid in the process of healing?

Rituals create sacredness and sacredness creates importance. I find that rituals also feel celebratory and deep and those are my two favorite experiences to have (a spiritual party!? Yes, please). If your brain recognizes something as important, it primes itself to take in more information and submit messages to the body to store it as such. Through ritual, we create an inner flow that is much deeper than simply reading or being told about something.

Q. Why is energy work and clearing physical and emotional blockages important? How can one clear these blockages?

A. Energy work is important because we are energy. The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy is “always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed.” Energy however, can be converted from one form into another. We are made up of energy, as is everything else and therefore, it’s important to tend to it. We have seven energy centers in our bodies (the chakras) that work together to make up our energetic wellbeing. Occasionally, they get blocked up, tired, and dulled and a few energy attunements are all it takes to get them back up to the radiance and your energy flowing again.

“If you feel out of balance, insecure, heavy-hearted, clouded, anxious, or stuck, you may want to try some energy work,” says Kama. “Reiki is an extremely powerful form of energy work I am trained in, but I have also found immense relief and release in breathwork. I feel reiki is gentler and subtler, while breathwork practically rips you open (in a good, but intense way). Some like sound healing, though this style resonates less with me. I’ve also found spending time in nature, using crystals, dancing, doing yoga, practicing mantra, and meditating on specific energy centers are great ways to unblock and release as well.”

Q. Why is using skincare with healing Hawaiian botanicals important? What are some good Hawaiian healing botanicals?

A. Due to the isolation of these beautiful islands, Hawai’i has some of the purest, richest, most distinctive flora and fauna on the planet. Some of my favorite healing botanicals from Hawai’i include guava for its vitamin C potency that is five times greater than that of an orange, sandalwood, for its ability to balance out the skin’s oil production and tangerine for its antioxidants and cheerful scent.

Q. How can the right skincare help with the health of the mind, body, and spirit? How can using the wrong skincare compromise the health of the mind, body, and spirit?

A. We all now know that what you put on your skin goes into your body. Choosing pure, natural, and organic plant-based ingredients are so important in keeping us healthy inside and out.

“With my line, Mukama Botanica, we’ve covered the bases. The body is taken care of through only 100% natural and organic ingredients, the mind is at ease knowing everything is packaged in recycled packaging, is certified cruelty-free and vegan and the spirit is completely lifted in aloha and enveloped in the aromatherapy of island botanicals. Our products matter. Self-care is only as selfless as the products are. High Vibe Face Mist gives you the relaxation of rose, the cheerfulness of tangerine, and the centeredness of sandalwood.

Q. Can the right skincare aid in healing?

A. Of course skincare aids in the skin’s healing, but remember “like heals like?” A good rule of thumb for essential oils is “how it makes you feel is how it heals.” We use this mantra in our products. An example is our use of helichrysum essential oil in our Skin Superfood Serum. Aromatherapeutically and emotionally, this oil is calming. Physically and on the skin, it’s anti-inflammatory. How it makes you feel is how it heals!

Q. What are some tips you can offer someone to be happy, free, and/ or at peace?

My best advice for feeling happy, free, and at peace is to know yourself. In yoga, this is the practice of Svādhyāya (self-study). Discover what you love, what you feel, what you desire, how you think, and what inspires you. Astrology, meditation Myers Briggs, travel, Human Design, therapy, Erotic Blueprints, journaling, numerology, psychology, whatever! Explore you so you can choose what’s best for you. Only you know what’s best for you.

Q. What would you like people to know about you? Your practice?

A. I’d love people to know that I am here to help guide you, support you and show you new ways of healing, growing, and loving yourself, but I will never tell you the “right way.” You know the right way. I want to drop the spiritual dogma and show you that spirituality is whatever helps you find meaning in life. I want humanity and nature to thrive in harmony. I want to show you that this world is our playground and our sacred temple. This is why I teach selfless self-care.

Q. How has your Life experience helped guide you on your path to helping others heal? Why do you believe personally that healing is so important?

A. I grew up between the jungle of Hawai’i, the redwoods of the Bay Area, the desert of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and on the road with my dad, Sammy Hagar. My dynamic upbringing had its pros and cons. I saw the world at a young age, but the world also saw me. I shaped my relationship with myself through the eyes of others and developed a deep self-criticism and rejection. When I discovered that to fulfill inner peace, I would have to make home a place within, my life transformed. I began to see the world as my temple, my teacher, and my playground, and myself as my own best friend.

I studied with world-renowned wellness leaders like davidji, Kelsey Patel and Jeana Iwalani Naluai to become a certified meditation and mental health coach, reiki healer, and Hawaiian healing practitioner. With a core mission to help others practice selfless self-care, I believe that filling your own cup is the key to finding joy, pleasure, self-love, self-acceptance, and authenticity.

Q. What are you working on/doing now? How can someone reach you?

A. Right now I am working on my deepest work yet: How to Love Yourself. An e-course with all of my most sacred, cherished teachings – coming out this summer 2020! In this immersive, 15-day experience-centric self-love e-course, you’ll learn to reprogram your mind, release self-judgment, find more joy, and experience true fulfillment from the inside out. All in under an hour per day.

We’ll use Mindfulness Meditation, Reiki, EFT, journaling, Mantra, movement, Ayurveda, and Hawaiian Healing. Each and every tool and ritual in this course has been carefully designed to cater to each of the four dimensions of your wellbeing.

We start in the mind to sort through and reprogram thoughts. We move to our bodies, where we learn how to care for, respect, and nourish our physical selves. We take it subtler and learn to free our emotions. We go beyond and play into our spiritual wellbeing to find deep, fulfilling connection and meaning.

Come with an open heart, open mind, and the intention to heal, grow, and love yourself.