how important it is to feel strong, rather than be strong

Last week’s post wrapped up the four-part wānanga into optimal health and wellness based on how we engage with atua (oldest ancestors, elemental forces, gods), being able to survive for weeks without food, days without water, minutes without air and no time without light. Each of those elements have dominant atua associated to them and we embarked on a haerenga (journey) to unpack how we engage with our tupuna (ancestors) and how we could do that more effectively to improve our health.

What. A. Big. Few. CYCLES!!! The wānanga took me to places I didn’t expect and

it deepened my understanding of myself and also how I interact with my tupuna.

The spaces we enter into sometimes require us to step up, level up, adapt, rise to the occasion and sometimes that’s hard. sometimes it’s excruciating! Nevertheless, all part of the process, the whakapapa of who, where and what we are today.

Sometimes initiating that deep dive within is daunting, it's scary AF. I’ve had to enter into a couple myself recently and holy heck — the title of this post is #relatable.

I’ve felt conflicted, confronted and held accountable as I’ve got my Uepoto on and entered uncharted territory. Not just externally but within myself! I’m getting to know myself at different levels and feeling strong has pulled through a heck of a lot more than actually being strong. I don’t think I’m strong but with the people around me, the habits I practice, and the safe spaces…. that doesn’t really matter because I feel strong.

I feel courageous to step into the unknown,

I feel strong to dive deeper into myself and embrace what may come.

— Not to be confused with comfortable spaces — which are nice, but nothing ever grows there.. I like to think of safe spaces as the equaliser, as recovery. As a state of mind or even a physical place we can be in, a person even, to supplement whatever we need, without fear of judgement…

The upside of the safe space being a state of mind, is that we can take it with us wherever we go and it evolves as we do. And it means we can be the safe space we need to be ourselves all the time, every time.

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.