Te Whare Tapa Whā
Te Whare Tapa Whā was developed by leading Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie in 1984. The model describes health and wellbeing as a wharenui/meeting house with four walls.
These walls represent taha wairua/spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing. Our connection with the whenua/landforms the foundation. When all these areas of our life are in balance, we thrive. When one or more of these is out of balance, our wellbeing is impacted.
The Positive Mindset Challenge encompasses all areas of Te Whare Tapa Whā and is specifically designed to equip you and your students with the knowledge and tools you need to help you thrive in every area of your life.
Taha Wairua
Taha wairua explores your relationship with the environment, people and heritage in the past, present and future. 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 as 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.
During the Positive Mindset Challenge we teach you how to tune into your intuition and use it to help you make the best decisions, and to recognise good people and good opportunities.
You will learn about many wonderful forms of meditation (including listening to music and walking in nature), and just how powerful this tool is in connecting with yourself and the universe, and in helping you to feel calmer and happier.
We show you how to let go of the hurt you are holding onto and just how important this is for our mental wellbeing. And we learn about the most important language of the universe – Love - and how to recognise, receive and give love to those closest to us.
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.
This is the very basis of our programme, and we teach many ways to improve your taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing through a positive approach to thoughts and feelings. We help you to recognise just how amazing you are and how, when you value yourself, your mind and heart are aligned and able to thrive. We will teach you how to recognise thoughts that aren’t helping you and we’ll teach you an abundance of tools you can use in any situation to help you transfer to a positive frame of mind, which in turn switches on your memory, learning, creativity and motivation.
Taha Tinana
Taha tinana is about how your body feels and how you care for it. Refuelling your body helps you to feel mentally well. Sometimes your tinana might not be where you’d like it to be, and this might be beyond your control. What’s important is what you do to nurture your physical health.
Throughout our programme you will learn the importance of refuelling your body and the positive effects this has on you as a whole. We talk about sleep, nutrition, water, exercise and how even a simple walk in nature can totally change your mental and physical wellbeing for that day.
Taha Whānau
Taha whānau is about who makes you feel that you belong, who you care about and who you share your life with. Whānau is about extended relationships – beyond your immediate relatives. It’s your hoamahi/colleagues, friends, community and the people you care about. You have a unique place and a role to fulfil within your whānau and your whānau contributes to your wellbeing and identity.
As each day of the programme passes, we teach a new set of tools which helps you to connect in so many of your different relationships. We teach the importance of kindness, how diversity in the world is essential and how through accepting diversity we can learn so much from each other and make the world an amazing place to live. We learn how to recognise good friendship qualities and how to attract caring and supportive people into our life.
Whenua
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 of whenua as your place of belonging – the spaces where you feel comfortable, safe and able to be yourself. It could be with your friends, at home with whānau, as part of a sports team or even at your place of study or mahi/work.
Within our 30-part Programme we learn about grounding ourselves with Gratitude Rocks. We talk about belonging to a family, a school, a sports team, which all make up parts of our community. We talk about the language used within our places of belonging and teach ways to use more positive language and the impact this will have on those around us. Plus we talk about the wonderful effects of spending more time in nature.