Te Whare Tapa Whā

So True isn't it?!? 

Are we making sure we fill up regularly? 

Are we filling up twice as often to make up for the times we pour out? (or spill) 😜

OR...

 is it the other way around?

My cup runneth over. What comes out of the cup is for everyone else but what is in the cup is mine. It is important to keep my cup full ( or as close to full as possible).

I find my self burning the candle at both ends and still I find myself falling short. The real problem... as if falling short wasn't enough, is that I feel incredibly guilty for taking a break. Things that I LOVE to do, I don't do as much anymore but it is all in the name of being better at my job so it is all worth it ...right??? 

I was reading an article that spoke about opportunity cost. It is an idea often illustrated with the quote:  

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Opportunity cost means that everything we do, no matter what it is, costs something, even if it occurs indirectly. When someone takes you out for a free, hour-long lunch. Despite gaining the value of the lunch during that hour, you are still giving up all of the other activities you could be doing instead. So for me,  I give up that time at the gym, that time watching tv programs that give me joy, that time that I used to spend catching up with friends, spending quality time with my family, those extra hours of needed sleep - because let's face it, we are ALL a little less cranky and a LOT more alert and happy when we have had an adequate amount of rest.

Society regularly praises those who do exceptional things but often the nature of those exceptional things comes at high opportunity costs. Anything that is considered to be truly great requires some sort of sacrifice that may or may not be obvious to us at the time.

There are so many things I would like to do however,  it is becoming more and more difficult to commit all of my time and energy to any one thing without feeling some form of remorse or regret. I can't even tweet without thinking: ' Oh no, what if someone sees that I'm tweeting instead of working tirelessly to show how committed I am to my job?!?... That time I just spent trying to edit my tweet to 140 characters could have been spent on me organising my folders, making a more effective lesson plan, or becoming the 'Penelope Garcia' of the teaching digital world!'

......aaaaaand insert guilt here

Learning to have 'me time' and not feel guilty is what I need. Yep...that's right...need. My students have been learning about te whare tapa whā - the four cornerstones (or sides) of Māori health.

With its strong foundations and four equal sides, the symbol of the wharenui illustrates the four dimensions of Māori well-being.

Should one of the four dimensions be missing or in some way damaged, a person, or a collective may become ‘unbalanced’ and subsequently unwell.

Taha tinana (physical health)

The capacity for physical growth and development.

Good physical health is required for optimal development.

Our physical ‘being’ supports our essence and shelters us from the external environment. For Māori the physical dimension is just one aspect of health and well-being and cannot be separated from the aspect of mind, spirit and family.

Taha wairua (spiritual health)

The capacity for faith and wider communication.

Health is related to unseen and unspoken energies.

The spiritual essence of a person is their life force. This determines us as individuals and as a collective, who and what we are, where we have come from and where we are going.

A traditional Māori analysis of physical manifestations of illness will focus on the wairua or spirit, to determine whether damage here could be a contributing factor.

Taha whānau (family health)

The capacity to belong, to care and to share where individuals are part of wider social systems.

Whānau provides us with the strength to be who we are. This is the link to our ancestors, our ties with the past, the present and the future.

Understanding the importance of whānau and how whānau (family) can contribute to illness and assist in curing illness is fundamental to understanding Māori health issues.

Taha hinengaro (mental health)

The capacity to communicate, to think and to feel mind and body are inseparable.

Thoughts, feelings and emotions are integral components of the body and soul.

This is about how we see ourselves in this universe, our interaction with that which is uniquely Māori and the perception that others have of us.

I cannot give what I do not have. I need to learn to make time for my overall health without feeling guilty. 

This week I started to take some time for myself. Yes, I am getting up at 5am in order to do it but it is something I am doing to help me be better in other areas that are important to me. 

At the moment,  this sums up how my brain feels. If you ever saw my laptop you would see that it is not just my brain with heaps of tabs open. 

Learning to give back to ourselves as much as we give out to other people or  other things is all a part of the process.

I am still learning...