He aha te mea nui o tea ao? / What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. / It is people, it is people, it is people.
A very warm welcome to this, (hopefully) final newsletter during this time of family connection in our bubbles…. I am so looking forward to seeing all my colleagues at our teacher only day this Friday and seeing and being with our wonderful students albeit with physical distancing and hand washing in mind.
The power of our thoughts will shape our life, our relationships and the world around us and while we have no control of this worldwide pandemic, we have absolute control of our thinking. It is very easy to move into tunnel vision overthinking where we feel anxious and overwhelmed.
The first thing we need to remember is that our heads are attached to our shoulders. Not only that, but the brain is in charge of everything – all of our physical sensations (body), everything we do (behaviour), everything we feel (mood) and our thinking (mind) are all inextricably linked to the brain. It’s not called the “headquarters” for nothing.
Whether we think we can or whether we think we can’t either way we’re right. I’m reminded of a saying my mum often recited – Of all our troubles great or small the greatest are those that don’t happen at all. Staying in the present and being mindful is critical for our wellbeing.
I have been thinking about a wellbeing plan for transition back to school for all of us. I believe that we will all need to re -establish our connections and our relationships when we return to school and understand that our 7-8 week self isolation will have impacted on all of us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Our hauora will be out of balance for some time.
As part of a wellbeing transition, my hope is that staff, young people and families have opportunity in our Guidance whare to participate in whanau meetings, group work or circles of safety with me and Terry, with physical distancing, of course, between each of us. We will need to process this puzzling and challenging lockdown period and it is so important that we talk and share and not bottle up our thoughts and feelings and how it “was” and “is” for us. This will help each of us to understand that we are in this together and hearing others’ experiences enables us to feel connected and not alone. All of us and especially our young people need to feel safe, secure and connected to each other if we are to be open to learning and moving forward positively, productively and finding opportunities to find new learnings in this time of adversity.
Please know that you can contact me directly on my school landline and all communication will be confidential except where safety is an issue. You can text or ring me on my mobile: 021 591 673
My warmest wishes always
Kia Tamatane
Mary Castles
HOD Guidance Counselling
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