Connection to the land and roots 

Rāhina/Monday

Whenua is the place where you stand. It is your connection to the land – a source of life, nourishment and wellbeing for everyone.

Whenua includes soil, rocks, plants, animals and people – the tangata whenua. We are linked physically and spiritually to the land – it is the earth through which you are connected to your tūpuna/ancestors and all the generations that will come after you.

You can also think about whenua as your place of belonging – that means the spaces where you feel comfortable, safe and able to be yourself. It could be around your friends, at home with whānau, as part of a sports team or even at your place of study or mahi/work.

Why is whenua an important way to wellbeing?

Everything in the Māori world has a life force, the mauri, and when our natural resources are not looked after, this life force is weakened. This has a direct impact on mental health and wellbeing.

Exploring your way to wellbeing through the whenua:

• Get a group together and explore your local maunga/mountain.
• Spend time in a garden or visit a local nursery and enjoy the spring flowers in bloom.
• Gather your whānau and go fruit picking, or visit your nearest farmers market to get some fresh produce. Prepare your kai and enjoying eating it together.
• Challenge yourself to produce less waste. It’s amazing to see how much we use each day that isn’t necessary! There are plenty of tips online for how you can reduce, reuse and recycle.
• Volunteer at an organised beach or river clean-up or create your own. It’s a great way to spend quality time together outside and keep Aotearoa beautiful!
• Plant trees – there are heaps of opportunities to join tree planting days across New Zealand. A simple Google search may reveal one close to you. Trees also protect our water quality, so by planting along rivers and coastlines you’ll be improving our living environment and giving back to the whenua.
• Go outside and see how many native plants you notice. Can you spot any harakeke/flax, pūriri, tōtara, rengarenga/native lily?
• Sit in your backyard or local park and watch the world go by – see how the clouds move across the sky. Take your shoes off and feel the grass beneath your feet.
• Discover the name of the iwi, hapū, maunga and awa of the place you live.
• Learn a karakia, whakataukī/Māori proverb or waiata/song with birds, plants and nature in it. Say it each morning to start your day. For example:

Korihi te manu/ The bird sings

Tākiri mai i te ata/ The morning has dawned

Ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea/ The day has broken

Tihei mauri ora/ Behold there is life.

 Photo Credit: @the.mint.trip

Mental and emotional wellbeing

What is taha hinengaro?

Just like your physical health, your taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing needs to be taken care of. Taha hinengaro is your mind, heart, conscience, thoughts and feelings. It’s about how you feel, as well as how you communicate and think.

Why is taha hinengaro an important way to wellbeing?

Taking care of taha hinengaro is important for everyone, regardless of whether or not you’ve experienced mental illness or distress.

When your taha hinengaro is strong, you can better cope with the ups and downs of life. You can express your feelings and reach out for support from friends, whānau and hoamahi/colleagues if you need to.

Exploring your way to wellbeing through taha hinengaro

• Make some time today to talk with someone who makes you feel good. It could be an old friend, an aunty, sibling, hoamahi/colleague, or even someone from your local supermarket or café who makes you feel good. A moment of connection can make a world of difference!
• At the end of the day ask friends, whānau or hoamahi what the best thing was about their day and really listen when they tell you.
• Practise gratitude; keep a diary and write down three things you’re grateful every day or week.
• Take the time to give a special thank you to people who tautoko/support you.
• Learn useful techniques for becoming more present. Stop what you are doing and take some mindful breaths in and out, calming your body and mind, then rest where you are noticing everything that is going on around you. This practice incorporates four key aspects of mindfulness. training: Stopping – Calming – Resting – Noticing. Together, these four steps are very healing. Use an everyday cue (the phone ringing, email alert etc) as a reminder to pause and breathe and take notice of the world around you.
• Learn yoga or meditation, or have a mirimiri/massage to soothe and relax your body.
• Try something new or rediscover an old interest. Sign up for a course or take on a different responsibility at work. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food – make learning new things part of your everyday life!
• Bring activity into the everyday! Use the stairs instead of the lift or get off the bus one stop earlier than you normally would – doing what you can to be active is a great way to boost your mood and feel invigorated.
• Join a social sports team or set yourself a challenge like completing a half marathon or picking up a new hobby such as paddle boarding.
• Give a compliment – acknowledge what someone in your life has done well.
• Have your own random acts of kindness day – look for opportunities to bring a smile to friends, whānau and strangers!
• Volunteer your time by joining a local community group, or simply offering to mow your neighbours’ lawns – the opportunities are endless, and we guarantee it’ll give you a feel-good boost!

Photo Credit:@britmuminnz

Physical Wellbeing

What is taha tinana?

Taha tinana is your physical wellbeing. It is about how your body grows, feels and moves and how you care for it.
Taha tinana is just one aspect of health and wellbeing and cannot be separated from all others.

Why is taha tinana an important way to wellbeing?

Trying to nourish and strengthen your physical wellbeing will help you to cope with the ups and downs of life. Feeling physically well helps us to feel mentally well. Having strong taha tinana means we can be there for our whānau and take leadership in helping our loved ones live longer, healthier lives too.

It’s important to acknowledge that sometimes your taha tinana may not be as good as you’d like it to be, and this might be beyond your control. What’s important is that you take care of your taha tinana and do what you can to nurture it, regardless of your current physical abilities.

Exploring your way to wellbeing through taha tinana

• Make a commitment with your whānau, friends or hoamahi/colleagues to pick one thing you could each do to improve your physical wellbeing. It could be supporting one another to quit smoking, drinking more water, having regular lunch breaks or eating more fruits and veggies. Start small and encourage each other to keep working at it!

• Look at how accessible your surroundings are people who may be using wheelchairs or other mobility supports to get around. Visit www.beaccessible.org.nz for more information on how you can make life easier for people living with a disability.

• Make physical activity fun and social. Get the whole whānau together for a walk after dinner, hold a whānau dance-off, play tag with your tamariki after school or kura, take a bike ride to your favourite park for a picnic with a friend or try out an online yoga or tai-chi course.

• Challenge yourself and set a goal! Ever wanted to run a half-marathon? Start slow and build up from a walk, to a jog to longer bursts of running. If running isn’t your thing there are heaps other activities you could try – swimming, waka ama, dancing – choose something that makes you feel your best!

• Try a body scan meditation. Notice where you might be holding tension and learn how to breathe deeply and release the tension from your body. This is a great practise to do at the end of the day.

• Been to the doctor lately? If not, you might like to consider visiting your local GP or hauora for a general check-up. It’s also a good time to ensure you’re up to date on things like free screening programmes.

• Take time to learn about any health issues that may run in your whānau and what steps you can take to prevent or manage it.

• Kai nourishes your body. Take some time to prepare some healthy meals for the coming week. Check out YouTube for recipe ideas and demonstrations. You could hold a MasterChef competition with friends or whānau!

Photo Credit: @fleuresqueandco

Family and social wellbeing 

What is taha whānau?

Taha whānau is about who makes you feel you belong, who you care about and who you share your life with.

 Whānau is about extended relationships – not just your immediate relatives, it’s your friends, hoamahi/colleagues, your community and the people who you care about. Everyone has a place and a role to fulfil within their own whānau and whānau contributes to your individual wellbeing and identity.

 Why is taha whānau an important way to wellbeing?

 Spending time with whānau, doing things for them and getting involved gives you a feeling of purpose, connection and wellbeing. It benefits you and builds the strength of your whole whānau. As a core source of strength, support, security and identity, whānau plays a central role in your wellbeing.

 Exploring your way to wellbeing through taha whānau

• Is there someone in your whānau you haven’t seen or talked to for awhile? Take the time to reconnect. It could be kanohi ki te kanohi/face to face, or even through text or Facebook messenger.
• Organise a whānau reunion – it doesn’t have to be a huge thing – a simple BBQ where people bring their own kai would do the trick!
• Contribute to your community Facebook page or start one up – this can be a great way to build strong connections and get to know people in your local area.
• Start a social sports team – invite people from different areas of your life to join!
• Have a whānau fun day – each whānau member can choose one thing they’d like to do with everyone else – it could be a walk, watching a favourite movie, or making a yummy meal
• Get to know your neighbours – invite people in the neighbourhood around for a cup of tea or go over and introduce yourself.
• Share kai you have grown or caught or prepare a meal for whānau.
• Offer your time to help a friend, hoamahi/colleague or whānau member in need – it could be doing a working bee at their home, looking after their tamariki while they go to an appointment, picking up some basic groceries or taking the rubbish bins out for your neighbour!
• Write cards to people in your life who have made an impact on you – let them know why you appreciate them, just because you can!
• Investigate your whakapapa and learn your pepeha off by heart. Pass this knowledge down to younger members of your whānau too.
• Be curious about your family history. Ask older whānau members to share their life stories. Think about documenting them or building a whānau tree if you haven’t got one.

Photo Credit: Toni Touche

Spiritual Wellbeing 

What is taha wairua?

Taha wairua explores your relationship with the environment, people and heritage in the past, present and future.

Your spiritual essence is your life force – your mauri. This is who and what you are, where you have come from and where you are going.

The way people view wairua can be very different. For some, wairua is the capacity for faith or religious beliefs or having a belief in a higher power. Others may describe wairua an internal connection to the universe. There is no right or wrong way to think of or experience wairua, but it is an important part of our mental wellbeing.

As part of exploring your way to wellbeing we encourage you to think about what wairua means to you and the things you can do to strengthen your wairua.

Why is taha wairua an important way to wellbeing?

Feeling comfortable in your identity, values and beliefs helps you feel secure in who you are and what you stand for. When you are content with yourself it is easier to cope with challenges, build strong whānau relationships and discover the things that uplift you.

Exploring your way to wellbeing through taha wairua

• Write down your values – the actions, attitudes and beliefs that are important to you and your whānau. You might like to get them printed and display them somewhere special to you!
• Have a reflection and goal-setting session. Think about the things you are proud of, the challenges you’ve overcome, the people who are important to you and the things you hope to achieve in the future.
• Go for a walk in nature by yourself and take notice of your surroundings – the birds singing, leaves rustling, clouds moving – notice how you feel when you’re breathing in fresh air.
• Spend time exploring your maunga, and moana. Notice how it refreshes and energises you.
• Try some tai-chi – there are plenty of videos on YouTube!
• Connect with your local marae, church or community group – anywhere you feel is a place of belonging and significance for you.
• Learn a waiata or song that uplifts you.
• Try out a mindfulness meditation.
• Learn a karakia or prayer that you can say to start or end your day or ground and centre yourself during times of stress.
• Consider finding a mentor – someone you admire who can support, guide and encourage you through challenges and triumphs. It could be a kaumatua, church leader, friend, whānau member or even someone you work with!
• Write a note of encouragement to someone in your life who may be having a tough time. Let them know you are there for them.

Photo Credit: Chaney Manuel