Self and community care

I hear a resounding “PAY ATTENTION!”

Don’t switch off, don’t shut down, just pay attention. So, I listen, I observe, and I allow my breath to move through me scanning my body, my thoughts, my heart and my wairua. I simply pay attention.

Self care begins with paying attention. Paying attention to yourself, to the earth, the elements, ancestors, he tohu, he tapu. “Ko au te awa, ko awa ko au” is a well known Ātihau whakataukī meaning “I am the river and the river is me”. We are the earth, we are the elements and we are our ancestors.

So, as we pay attention to our environment, we also pay attention to ourselves and our own needs. Again, in theory, simple. Yet many of us don’t do this at all, don’t know how, or if we do, it is one of the last things in our day.

But nothing grows from neglect and nothing heals from mistreatment.