Te Whare Tapa Wha - Strengthening the Pillars

I was 1st introduced to Te Whare-Tapa-Wha model of health and wellbeing whilst in an AOD Treatment Centre. The strengthening and aligning of the four pillars (Pou), for the support and stability of the Whare made sense when used as an analogy for the support and stability of my health and wellbeing given that my body is my whare.

Taha Wairua – Spiritual Wellbeing. Taha Hinengaro – Mental Wellbeing. Taha Tinana – Physical Wellbeing. Taha Whanau – Social Wellbeing

I use the four Pou o toku nei Whare to gauge my holistic health and wellbeing, identifying when one may require fortifying when weakened and impacting on the structural soundness of my Whare as a whole. When each of my 4 Pou stand in harmony and unison with each other I am balanced, healthy, and well.

I was recently introduced to a 5th element, Taha Whenua – Environmental Health. This element provides a grounding and foundation upon which my Whare may sit safe and secure in its belonging.

I did not always feel I belonged, had any virtues, or worth, any direction or purpose for being. These feelings presented from early childhood perhaps due to being adopted at birth, being part Maori and raised in a Pakeha family, or perhaps due to being born gay. Whatever the reasons, I lived a lonely life of pretence and denial under a cloud of hopelessness, with the perception the world, mankind, and even God had rejected and abandoned me. The truth is it was I who rejected the world, its people and God, and I who rejected and resented myself.

In my mid-teens I turned to Alcohol and Drugs as the solution to numb life and escape reality. Some 4 decades later I ended up Alcohol dependent and living alone with a death wish having pretended my way through a life that included marriage, raising a family and a slave to my addictions.

I embarked on a Spiritual Pathway of Recovery 3 short years ago that has given me hope and strength I can share with others through lived experience and the chance to grow spiritually by the grace of a God I neither understand or know, but who I see and hear in connecting to and being a part of the Fellowship of Mankind.

To those of you who may feel you have lost your way, lost your hope, and perhaps see no purpose for being, I would ask you believe that the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel isn’t an oncoming train to end it all. That light is you, waiting for you to keep it glowing for others to see their way into the light. And if you look carefully there are glow-worms in the dark to guide your way. They are the sparks of Aroha for you. The jigsaw puzzle of Mankind is incomplete without your precious piece, and Te Whare Tapa Wha of Humanity a little less stable without you there.

I te taha o toku Whanau-Atawhai –
Ko Mangonui Te Maunga
Ko Oruamo Te Awa
Ko Te Waitemata Te Moana
Ko Rangitoto Te Motu
Ko Te Raki Pai Whenua Te Rohe
Ko Ngati Pakeha Te Iwi

I te taha Whanau Tuturu Maori –
Ko Makeo Te Maunga
Ko Waiaua Te Awa
Ko Nukutere Te Waka
Ko Te Whakatohea Te Iwi
Ko Ngati Ruatakena Te Hapu
Ko Tutamure Te Tipuna
He Tangata Inu-Waipiro, Kai-Warawara Ahau
He Morehu Ahau.