Saturday, July 31, 2010

How is your "Hauora" today?

Hauora is a Maori health philosophy which takes a far broader interpretation on someone’s health than western culture.  As well as taking a wider perspective on someone’s physical, mental & emotional wellbeing it also takes into account the social components of your life (family, friends and relationships) and your spirituality wellbeing. 

Hauora is taught in New Zealand schools as the "new" health curriculum and has gained some international acclaim. For more information on Haoua checkout here for overview and here for detail .

Hauora is often represented as a Whare (house) with the walls representing the four elements (physical, mental, social, and spiritual). The concept being that if one of the walls is not strong it will impact on the stability of your Whare. Conversely if three of the walls are strong, it will put you in good stead as you rebuild a damaged wall.

When you start to have an upfront and personal emersion in the hospital system you realise that it is a sickness industry not a wellness industry. They are generally fantastic at diagnosing, drugging, operating and treating certain conditions, but are lousy at putting a structure in place to assist you to restore and maintain your overall health, wellness and abilities.  Hauora provides such a structure, and if used proactively may assist you in not getting sick in the first place.
So how is your Hauora today?

2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful way to take stock of life and try to understand how these different parts of our life contribute to how we feel and live. I'm sure that many things have changed for you and that a whole new philosophy and focus will result - I look forward to hearing all about it!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comments Gaz