the balance of opposites, part five: how things look and how things are

Are you showing your true self to the world, or is there a disconnect between who you are and how you express yourself to be? Side note: how the world/others see you is different to what we’ll be covering, because it’s out of your control so remember to try keep it close to home, k). Take a second, think about it. Are you living into or up to expectations of other people? Institutions? Legacies? Perceived expectations even? Is what’s on the outside reflective of what’s going on inside?

If you’ve read the book, or even followed a few blog posts of late, the original whakapapa (process/evolution) of Te Kore > Te Pō > Te Ao Mārama / potential > processes/unknown > physical manifestation/enlightenment. Any result in our lives, any action, any outcome that has manifested physically can be traced back to intangible origins of thought, dreams and the realm of potential. It’s whakapapa.

And since we’re the product of 1000s of years of whakapapa - the process is tried and true.

So then, according to whakapapa (this one in particular), if we work from the inside > out, there should be harmony and alignment in who we are, how we see ourselves and who we show to the world/how we want the world to see us. But if we build our identity, our sense of worth and value up from the outside > in, from external measures, from external opinions and expectations, from the judgements of others… there’s no solid foundation (as we should already know, other people’s opinions and minds change like Tāwhiri changes the wind’s direction), it dismisses the entire process that is whakapapa and isn’t sustainable.

It isn’t self-determining, heck no, it’s leaving you to the mercy of everyone and everything else - because your sense of value and worth remains external to you. However you roll,

that shouldn’t be how you’re heading into 2019. To next week, or even to tomorrow.

To exercise your rangatiratanga, to be self-determining, to have the ultimate authority on your life - means to understand whakapapa (processes/connection). To be able to trace your actions back to their source to produce more of it (if it’s favourable), or eliminate it so nothing remains (if it’s detrimental to your cause/life). To observe how different people or circumstances affect you and why.

For me, I’m not putting too much energy into the outside/surface level stuff. I’m just focused on getting the inner alignment on point - because according to whakapapa (as we’ve covered lol), the actions, outcomes and physical manifestation will be a direct result of the thoughts and processes going on inside - the beginnings of the whakapapa (genealogical lines).

Something to think about anyway, heading into a new day, a new week, a new year.. a new life, even..

Tēnā koutou,

Hana.