Did you watch our webinar with Jase Te Patu? Jase is an award-winning yoga and mindfulness teacher, the founder and CEO of M3 Mindfulness, and an influential mental wellbeing advocate in Aotearoa.
In this candid webinar, Jase joins Sir John Kirwan and Dr Fiona Crichton for a soulful conversation about winter wellbeing. He shares how he looks after his hauora (wellbeing) over winter, the significance of Matariki (Māori New Year), and the role of Te Whare Tapa Whā (a Māori model for health), plus so much more.
Watch the recording or enjoy our top three takeaways:
Why winter is a special time in te ao Māori
How to embrace Te Whare Tapa Whā – a Māori model for understanding health
Tips for creating your own winter wellbeing plan
Winter is the season of Matariki (Māori New Year). It’s a time to reflect, rejuvenate, and reconnect.
“In te reo Māori, we refer to winter as the hibernation time – a time to hunker down. A time to reflect, plan, and also celebrate. To look at the lessons we can take from the past so we can plan for the future,” says Jase.
Jase also sees winter as an opportunity to do a lot of inner work. Or, as he likes to put it, activities “to warm me from the inside out”.
“My work, my daily practices of meditation, my journaling, these all become even more important to me in winter,” says Jase.
Mindful moment: What wellbeing practices warm you from the inside out? Think of a few things you could do to honour your wellbeing in winter.
Te Whare Tapa Whā is a Māori model for understanding health developed by Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie. It describes health as being like the four walls of a wharenui (meeting house). The four walls of Te Whare Tapa Whā are Taha whānau (the connection between us and the people we love), Taha tinana (our physical health), Taha hinengaro (our emotions, thoughts, and feelings) and Taha wairua (our faith or spirituality).
Jase aspires to do something from all four walls of Te Whare Tapa Whā every day.
“In the morning, I draw a circle and divide it into quadrants and I write down the things I did the day before that filled my cup in each of the four walls of Te Whare Tapa Whā,” says Jase.
“My daily practices are the things that get me in the right frame of mind and the right heart space and physical place so that I can connect and align with my purpose.”
At Groov, we use a similar model called the 6 Pillars of Wellbeing.
Mindful moment: Draw a quadrant and write down all the things you do to support each of the four walls of Te Whare Tapa Whā.
Once you have an understanding of Te Whare Tapa Whā or Groov’s 6 Pillars, you can begin to create your own winter wellbeing plan. Jase says the most important thing to do is make it personal to you.
“What might be good for my tinana (physical health) might be the worst thing for you. So it’s important we really listen to ourselves and choose things that resonate with us,” says Jase.
He also encourages taking a “little by little approach”, believing that small, daily actions make the biggest difference.
“I talk about practices to do daily, because they’re all incremental, and when they all add up they lift you,” says Jase.
Mindful moment: What’s one small thing you can do right now to care for your wellbeing? Self-care is often as simple as drinking a glass of water or pausing to breathe.
Watch the webinar recording to enjoy all of Jase’s conversation with Sir JK and Dr Fiona. You might also enjoy his beautiful bilingual meditation practices, including Tū hā rongo haera (S.T.O.P) and Ko te aro ki te hā (Noticing the breath).