It may not be a stretch to say that we live in an era of convenience. Technologies pour in to our society one after the other, and they all seem to make things easier than they were before. This might have led us to a point where we now expect things to be as easy and efficient as possible, regardless of what it is that we're engaging in. The days where we expect to spend lots of time and effort working at a task may be forever gone.

The search for the easiest and most direct path often carries over to more personal issues, such as self-improvement or an improved quality of life. On the other hand, beliefs remain in place that for certain things shortcuts don't exist, and only committed effort over the long haul will show results. In fact, there's a tendency even to criticize methods or a mindset that looks for a quick or easy solution to resolving situations.

One particular problem solving technique however not only embraces the notion of easy solutions, but is quite proud of it. The ho'oponopono problem solving method is often described by its enthusiasts as the simplest and least resistant way to change one's life for the better. This way of describing ho'oponopono is appealing to some, but raises suspicion among others because it claims to bypass something many people think is inevitable: hard work.

The practice of the ho'oponopono form is generations old. The traditional form of ho'oponopono was a process whereby entire families would come together to resolve disputes. Traditional ho'oponopono required every individual connected to the dispute in some way or other to be present during dispute resolution, and for someone to take a leadership role and guide the entire process. An updated form of ho'oponopono claims to have altered the ho'oponopono process to involve only an individual and the source of all creation, or God, or however one prefers to refer to such an entity. It's worth noting that though ho'oponopono involves connecting to some form of source power, it is not an organized religious practice.

Practitioners of ho'oponopono state that ho'oponopono does demonstrate positive results without the need for great effort, though the results don't necessarily occur in a timely fashion. When the positive results from practicing ho'oponopono happen isn't predictable, but according to ho'oponopono's dedicated following, the positive results are assured to occur. While ho'oponopono is certainly not absolutely accepted, it does have a core of dedicated followers and its notoriety is growing. The claims for ho'oponopono's successes may not be documented under controlled experiment conditions, but the claims do exist, with various people testifying to their authenticity.