Hauora: Winter Wellbeing

This morning I woke up to the pitter patter of rain on the window outside. I opened the curtains to the bright. green bush and gazed over the lush Waitakeres as it expanded all the way to the ocean.

I enjoyed the peace for a brief moment before I had to rush off to head from the quiet serenity into the CBD. My drive was dusty and a layer of water made the asphalt glisten. I was grateful for the soft humming music while I ate my toast as my car glided down the hill.

Today I was feeling that I had a lot of work to punch through and it was quite overwhelming. My to-do list carried over an entire page and I was aching for a kawakawa tonic to carry my energy.

To maintain my hauora (health) and mauri (life-force), I decided to take out some time for myself after completing a couple of my bigger ticket items.

My black waka circled the carpark at The Domain in Grafton twice before I was able to find a carpark, it seemed that a few people had the same idea as I did. The sports fields were glistening with the rain that weighed lightly on it and provided a strong contrast against a grey, gloomy sky.

I could slowly feel the air changing around me, the water on the leaves of the tree providing a light aroma that invited me into the Winter Gardens.

Hauora, is a Maori concept of wellbeing and health. It looks at health in the physical body, mind, spirit, and social relationships. These four areas are likened to a house and being the walls that keep it standing. When one wall is weakened, then the whole house is weakened as each element supports and influences the other.

Dr. Mason Durie compares this to a whare in his Te Whare Tapa Wha model which is outlined below. He touches on these four elements needing symmetry and strength for optimum functionality.

Source: http://health.tki.org.nz/Teaching-in-HPE/Health-and-PE-in-the-NZC/Health-and-PE-in-the-NZC-1999/Underlying-concepts/Well-being-hauora

Today, I was focusing on my taha hinengaro, my mental well-being. The psychology of the colour green promotes peacefulness which is why nature is often so calming and relieves mental stress. The decision to go to the Winter Gardens was to increase the clean oxygen in my tinana (body) and through seeing the greenery increased my serotonin and dopamine levels which in turn had a calming effect on my hinengaro.

Lately, I've been putting more of an active focus on how I am maintaining my hauora to push myself and my productivity. Taking just an hour out of our days to do something to recharge can increase the positivity and help us to see more of the possibility in our day to day lives. Not only this, but as these four elements have an effect on one another, to look after one is to look after them all. My maintaining your whare (house) which can be likened to ourselves, we can stand tall, proud, and be effective in all that we do.

What ways do you maintain your hauora?

Do you have certain places or areas that you like to go to recharge?

Is there an element that you feel lacks and needs strengthening?

Through the process of asking these questions, we can examine deeper into how we look after ourselves. Are we a strong house or a weak house? What small changes can we do that will have a big difference?

Leave your thoughts in the comments or hit me up on Twitter

KEEP READING:

What defines a leader?

My Productivity Hacks to Kickstart the Second half of the year

Tena Koe, Taranaki