Aroha in action hui: Kaimahi hauora

[Animated graphic: Aroha in Action Family Start Hui 2023 graphic]

[Text on screen: Kaimahi hauora, Letesha Hallett]

[Text on screen: Maraea Teepa]

Maraea Teepa:

Aro ki te hā. Nau mai, hoki mai whānau; and a big mihi and we’re going to take us back into the āio space that Tyrone just spoke about where we just take a deep breath, hā ki roto, hā ki waho; and bring us back into this space. And to do that we’ve actually got a awesome wahine. Part of our Yoga Warriors based in Ōtautahi, we’ve got Letesha Hallett. Letesha will take us on a journey to realign our hā to keep us calm for today. E te whanaunga, e te hoa, kei a koe, tuku.

[Text on screen: Letesha Hallett]

Letesha Hallet:

Kia ora koutou. Today we’re going to start by bringing our feet together, so we’re just going to bring our big toes together, we’re going to bring our hands beside us. On the next breath, taking a deep inhale in through your nose, hā ki roto, and you’re going to reach your hands up to the sky, and hā ki waho coming down.

Hā ki roto, breathing in, reaching your hands to the sky, and hā ki waho coming down.

We’re going to come all the way down to our feet, and you’re just going to take a deep inhale breath here. Breathing in through the nose, hā ki roto, hā ki waho. We’re going to slowly bring your hands to your waewae, to your turi, and just looking forward keeping our eyes gazed in front of us, taking that inhale breath, and exhale breath coming down to the ground.

We’re going to inhale breath, bringing our hands to our turi and exhale breath coming back down to the ground. Staying here, breathing in through our nose, and exhale out through our nose. Ka pai.

Slowly bringing our body up you’re going to roll the shoulders at the top, tahi, rua, toru, whā, rima. Ka pai. Bringing our hands to the side and reaching up again. Toro ki runga, stretching up tall, and exhale breath coming down. Anō. Toro ki runga, and exhale breath coming down.

Hā ki roto bringing the hands to the turi, keeping our eyes gazed forward, keeping our elbows nice and soft, and exhale breath coming back down to the ground.

Lifting our ankles, and alternating those over, and hā ki roto coming back up to the turi. Keeping our eyes forward again and slowly lifting the body up here. We’re going to roll those shoulders again. This time you might want to try rolling them the other way, tahi, rua, toru, whā, and rima coming back down. Ka pai.

We’re going to reach those hands up to the sky, inhale to lift, exhale breath, you’re going to bring your right arm down beside, just beside your knee down here. We’re going to stretch that left arm nice and tall, and we’re going to lean in over to that right side. So, bringing our hand nice and close, down our knee and stretching out that left side of our hip.

Looking up to the sky if we can, and breathing, and slowly coming back aligning to that centre. Your left hand is going to come down to your knee, your feet are going to stay grounded to the ground. Hā ki roto, breathing in, reaching up tall to our centre, and then moving over to that left side. Beautiful, staying here, keeping your right hip open. Ka pai, and exhale breath coming back down to that centre.

We’re going to reach our arms up to the sky and we’re going to step into the big toe here. So, reaching really tall, being as tall as we can be, and exhale breath down. Beautiful. Anō we’re going to take that left hand and once gain reaching into that right side of the body. Looking up to the sky, taking our gaze back to our centre. Hā ki roto, breathing in, reaching that right arm up and over. Ka pai. And exhale breath coming down.

We’re gonna reach our hands together, beautiful, exhale breath coming down. You want to bring your hands all the way down to the ground and what we’re going to do here is we’re going to take a big step, foot back with our right foot. So, we’re going to ground our right foot behind us, just like this. Heels come up off the ground, inhale breath here, both of our arms are reaching towards the sky. We’re going to keep our knee nice and bent and just a little bit of movement here. We’re going to turn that back foot around. Beautiful. And then arms are going to come open here. So, our warrior pose here. It’s a very strong pose but a very calming pose.

We’re going to relax the shoulders keeping our eyes open and our gaze forward. We’re just looking forward and breathing here. Finding some calmness in this pose, and stillness. Moving with our breath we’re going to turn the front hand up facing towards the sky, our back hand is going to come all the way back, and our hand’s going to come to the back wall. Ka pai.

We’re going to bring our hands back down to that centre, and once again taking a deep breath, keeping our eyes forward, turning that front hand facing towards the sky and coming back reverse warrior. Ka pai.

Coming back down to that centre, relaxing those shoulders, keeping our tummy nice and tight. Now we’re going to take our elbow, we’re going to come down, we’re going to bring it towards the turi here, down to the knee. Inhale lift, we’re going to reach our arm up and over. So relaxing our elbow down, and reaching our arms up over here. Beautiful.

We’re going to wind our fingertips to the mat, taking a leap forward, slowly rolling our body upwards. Hā ki roto, breathing in, and hā ki waho, breathing out. You’re going to take your opposite leg back now, so just that leap back behind you. Taking a big deep inhale breath, lifting the arms up to the sky. We’re going to turn that back foot around, we’re going to open up our body and our shoulders, we’re going to lean forward into our warrior pose here. Keeping the feet grounded to the mat and aligning with our breath. Big breath here, taking an inhale, turning that back hand to the back of me. Opening that front hand and coming all the way back. Ka pai, ka nui.

Back to that centre, taking a deep breath, opening that hand towards the sky and coming back. Beautiful. Exhale breath, coming back to that centre. We’re going to keep those hands nice and high and relaxing our shoulders, bringing our elbow down. Inhale lift coming over to this opposite site.

At the same time here we’re breathing through, breathing in and breathing out as we move. Looking towards the sky, and exhale breath coming back down into our centre to the mat. We’re going to take an inhale, step the left foot forward. We’re going to slowly rise up, we mihi ki Ranginui, bringing our hands to the sky, and mihi ki Papatūānuku, bringing our hands to the earth. Slowly rising, we take a big breath to the top, nice. Our fingertips come together here.

We’re going to come into a balanced pose now. Our hands are going to stay together, really close to the manawa. We’re going to bring in our puku, so being really nice and strong through this area, staying grounded down to the ground through our heels and our feet. We’re going to take a big breath and you’re going to lift your right leg up, just like this, into what we call ‘me he rākau,’ so being a tree. So as a tree is, it is strong, it is grounded, it is calm. You can also bring your foot up here, woop, if you like as well, up to or down here if you’re finding that balance a little bit too tricky.

So, keeping our shoulders back, keeping our eyes forward, and taking five deep inhale breaths here. Ka pai, exhale breath coming down, taking a big deep inhale breath, anō, hands together, and just coming into that opposite side for our tree pose here, me he rākau. Hands are together, puku is drawn in, our shoulders are relaxed, and we’re taking that breath here. Here is fine, here is fine. Hā ki roto, hā ki waho; hā ki roto, hā ki waho. Ka pai.

Exhale breath coming down, bringing the arms up, mihi ki Ranginui, and exhale. Mihi ki Papatūānuku. Slowly rising, bringing your hands together, and here I’m going to keep those hands really nice and close into our manawa, into our heart, into our puku. We’re going to take that right foot back again, and we’re just going to reach our arms out in front of us. So, we’re in a lunge position here and our arms are directly out in front of us. Our body is nice and tight, and our feet are grounded.

We’re going to take our arms here, we’re going to bring them down to the ground and back up. One, down, two. Ka pai. Bringing that right leg in, taking that big deep inhale breath and down we come. Our left foot comes back and once again reaching those arms out, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale. Ka pai.

We’re going to bring our hands down to the mat here or to the ground or wherever you are. We’re going to place both hands down to the ground, and you’ve just got to make sure that your hands are under your shoulders and your knees are under your hips. We’re going to take a deep inhale breath in through the nose, and what I want you to do is create a cat position with your back, me he ngeru, and me he kau. So, cat and cow here, breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in, and out. Well done.

We’re going to take our left leg out, just keeping that foot on the ground I’m going to take our right arm out to the space in front of us. So being really tall here and lengthening our body, and just moving without breath, bringing that body back in and coming back out here. Reaching our hand up, our right leg out. Our foot is still placed on the ground, and back in. Ka pai.

We’ve got two more breaths here. Inhale, and exhale; inhale, and exhale. Ka pai, well done.

If you are sitting on the ground here you can just bring… you’re kumu back to your heels, and we’re just going to pop our right hand down beside us. We’re going to reach up and over, and then just winding that back around over to that opposite side. Ka pai.

We’re going to take our left hand, I’m going to get you to place that on your right knee. We’re going to keep our posture nice and open, keeping our heart open, and really just starting to calm our breath here. Our right hand is going to take to the space behind us, and you’re just going to lift your chin and then looking over to that right side. Looking as far as you can. So maybe it’s the back wall behind you, maybe it is a door right to that right side, just as far as you can here.

You’re going to take three deep inhale breaths; hā ki roto, hā ki waho, hā ki roto, hā ki waho. And change that over. Your right hand comes to your left knee, your left hand comes to the space behind you. Taking a deep inhale breath, looking over shoulder. Hā ki roto, hā ki waho, hā ki roto, hā ki waho, hā ki roto, hā ki waho. Ka pai.

And just moving to that space in front of you here, we’re going to come down into what we call a child’s pose today. So, this is a resting pose before we do move into some short meditation today. We’re going to reach our hands out to the space in front of us. If you’ve got a surface where you can lie down, that’s fine. If not, if you’re sitting up that’s okay as well. But it is a resting pose so I’m just going to get you to really slow down the breath here, and just be aware of the breath, coming in through the nose and exhale breath coming out through the nose.

So, resting your forehead down to the mat, lowering your elbows down, and just really getting comfortable here for the next 30 seconds to a minute.

We’re going to slowly bring the body up, so I’m going to get you to find a space, whether it’s sitting on a chair that’s nice and quiet, or you might want to lay down on the ground, or even sitting up like this is ka pai as well. Wherever is comfortable for you for the next couple of minutes is going to be great. 

To start our meditation today we’re going to slowly start to really relax our body. So, I want you to think about bringing your hands away from you, wherever you are, making space between the ears and the shoulders. And if you can, slowly starting to dim down your eyes. So, you might want to close your eyes here, you might want to turn off the light, and just bringing yourself back to your breath.

So, hearing your breath, through the nose and out through the nose. If you are lying down or sitting up, you can bring one hand to your heart, one hand to your puku, and just focus on you breathing. Focusing on your body being still, and just as we spend the next couple of minutes here, acknowledging your presence today, acknowledging your effort, and really focusing and thinking about your breath and yourself being present.

If your eyes are closed, you can really start to relax those shoulders. And drawing them away from your ears with each breath as we move forward.

If you’re thinking about anything today, thinking about gratitude, the calmness within yourself, and how that changes your behaviour and your actions and your presence. We’re going to spend the next couple of minutes here, to yourself, by yourself and for yourself.

Giving yourself five breaths here, and just realigning with your purpose today.

If you’re lying down, or sitting up, you might want to give yourself two more breaths to slowly rise, maybe sitting back on your seat, maybe standing again, or maybe to get off the ground.

Just as we come to the end of our session today, we always say, mauri ora ki a koutou katoa, so finishing our session off today acknowledging each other and the presence that we are in for this purpose. Kia ora koutou.

[Text on screen: Noel Woods]

Noel Woods:

E te whānau, nau mai, hoki mai. Aro ki te hā, kua tau te mauri, nē. Tēnā koe Letesha and thank you for chilling us out right now, and I think it’s important for our kaimahi out there to understand when you bring that balance particularly if we want to bring the best out of the kaimahi when we’re working with mokopuna and whānau.

E hoa, Letesha, tell us a little bit about your mahi at Yoga Warriors.

[Text on screen: Letesha Hallett]

Letesha Hallet:

Kia ora, thank you so much for having me today. I am currently here based in Ōtautahi working with some rangatahi and in the Whānau Ora space as well, teaching yoga and running our mental health programmes throughout the city. We also have some resources available as well so in the resource work and, yeah, and being just on the ground doing the mahi really for me.

Noel Woods:

Kia ora. And in terms of your mahi and weaving in mātauranga Māori how have you been finding that?

Letesha Hallet:

Oh, it’s been amazing. It was actually the business started after the earthquakes here in Ōtautahi, so it was a really great programme for me to be bringing inside the kura, just to calm the children, and the kaiako as well. So, bringing mātauranga Māori in with my movements here have been awesome for reo Māori speakers and basic learners as well just picking up the reo.

Noel Woods:

I tell you what, I tried yoga once and it is tough, eh, but once you get into the swing of things and get that stretch happening no doubt it will become easier. I’m thinking about mokopuna right now and the device world and technology around us, but more focusing on how do we involve mokopuna in caring for their own well-being?

Letesha Hallet:

I think it’s just about encouraging them to take the time and the space, or giving them the time and the space to really prioritise well-being and movement, and breath as well, and making sure that those tools are being used. You know, if you’re sharing those tools with them then they’re able to use them. But if they’re not getting shown, those tools, then yeah, it’s harder for them to relax themselves and figure out ways for them to be calm.

Noel Woods:

Kia ora. E hoa, what is your number one tip for whānau supporters out there to take care of their own hauora, especially when supporting whānau through some challenging times?

Letesha Hallett:

Yeah, I think as long as you’re pouring into your cup, you have the capacity to pour into others. So just making sure that you’re strong within your hinengaro and your tinana and your mental health is really important in order for you to give back to them.

Noel Woods:

Kia ora. And just thinking of the whānau in your area, in your rohe, how can they get in contact with Yoga Warriors?

Letesha Hallet:

We’ve got a website at Yogawarriors.info, so all my information is up there and I’m just a phone call away really.

Noel Woods:

E hoa, e te māreikura, tēnā koe Letesha. We appreciate your koha for all.

Letesha Hallett:

Ka pai, tēnā tātou.

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