don't like where you are? do you know why?

 

In a time that advocates “if it doesn’t make you happy, don’t do it” and “if they’re not with you, they’re against you” type of whakaaro — it’s a pretty sure way to isolate ourselves from everyone and everything reeeeal quick. I’m not saying you should stay somewhere that makes you miserable, but think about why. Dissect the situation and try to

identify what’s contributing to your unease, unhappiness and/or dissatisfaction.

I’m currently on Tahiti (having the worst time) and every time I visit this place, and our others neighbouring islands in the Pacific, I think ‘whyyyyy did we leave.’ Like, I know.. we were explorers, innovators and there were political and population issues that contributed to needing to find an alternative. I know… but still… Why didn’t the other whakapapa lines leave and ours have stayed to perfect the golden tan and living off the land? Anyway…

We’ve all heard different kōrero for why they left and the whānau here have their different kōrero about why we left too — my favourite, being we’re the descendants of the aotea (old school word for aito, warrior) who as part of their challenges to court the princess, had to sail to Aotearoa and back. But they never returned. Not until a couple hundred years later on airplanes and barges anyway.

Our history has been distorted, skewed and lost throughout the years and we’re left to put pieces together to try make sense of where and who we come from

— to try and understand how and why our tupuna did what they did.

Do we apply the same kind of approach to ourselves and our own lives? Do we analyse the environments we find ourselves in and observe the impact they have on us? Do we consider the different factors that contribute to why we do what we do?

Maybe our tupuna were dissatisfied with the lifestyle here and looked out to sea and it peaked their curiosity to what else might be out there. Or maybe others were dissatisfied with them and kicked them out. Whatever stories you believe, their previous environment was no longer adequate and they had to find a new place to make their home.

So whatever unfavourable environment you might find yourself in, reflect on why. Try and pin point the one thing that’ll have the most impact on improving your situation and do that. It might be to leave to explore other opportunities like our tupuna did so many generations ago, leaving this beautiful place.. or maybe, it’s something smaller, like decorating your office with aspirational stuff that makes you feel good,

maybe it’s taking a different route home from work via the beach so you can easily stop in to reenergise yourself before going home to your whānau.

Don’t accept your initial feeling or reaction.* Wrestle with it, pull it apart and work on work on liberating yourself from the cause of the problem, not just the symptom of how it makes you think and feel.

He whakaaro, just a thought..

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.

*Different to gut instinct, spiritual stuff. Also, don’t do stuff just cos I say. If you want to stick with your initial feeling and reaction, do that. All good. This is my mindset at the moment, I’m trying to be more rigid and thorough with how I make my decisions.

 
Previous
Previous

how does your environment affect your inner peace?

Next
Next

what is your environment reinforcing about the world?