This article first appeared in The House of Wellness magazine.
Just in time for spring, Jase Te Patu is going through a period of renewal.
The 49-year-old wellbeing advocate just taught his last class at Awhi Yoga, the Wellington studio he co-founded in 2014 and recently sold, and is now ready to pour all of his energy into the mindfulness programme he developed five years ago. Recently rebranded from M3 to Hauora Aotearoa, it teaches students wellbeing tools, using the power of movement and Māori pūrākau (legends) and whakataukī (proverbs). Originally just for students, the workshops have evolved to include kaiako (teachers) and the wider whānau.
“There’s such a wellbeing crisis,” says Jase, who is Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāti Tūwharetoa. “Our teachers are really suffering. If they’re not good, then the students are going to be a reflection of that.”
In the last five weeks of the 15-week programme, the rangatahi pass the skills they have learned onto children at primary schools, kindergartens and kōhanga reo. “Our whole kaupapa is about creating generational change,” Jase says.
Hauora, the Māori concept of health and wellbeing, was developed by professor and leading Māori health advocate Tā (Sir) Mason Durie, and Jase has been given his blessing to use the name and framework Sir Mason devised. The framework, te whare tapa whā, envisions health and wellbeing as a wharenui with four walls, each representing a facet of wellness: wairua (spiritual), hinengaro (mental and emotional), tinana (physical) and whānau (family and social).
This evolution away from the physical practice of yoga is the latest step in Jase’s dynamic career. Formerly a Les Mills trainer, a dancer and a performer in musicals such as The Lion King, Jase discovered yoga after an injury left him unable to dance. He’s also a well-regarded speaker, who has shared his mental health journey with the likes of director James Cameron, the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns.
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Each morning, Jase journals in te reo, as part of his commitment to his ongoing education at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
Now, after a couple of episodes of burnout, he’s making sure to put his own wellbeing first. He’s learning to say no – “if the kaupapa doesn’t align with my values, then it’s a hard no for me” – and prioritising rest and his morning routine of karakia, journalling, gratitude and meditation.”If I can have my cup full – and not just full but overflowing – then the mahi that I do will come from that place and it will be authentic and it’ll be real.”
Each morning, Jase journals in te reo, as part of his commitment to his ongoing education at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. He’s also passionate about bringing Māori language into his speaking engagements and his work at Hauora Aotearoa, and he was one of the faces of Mental Health Awareness Week in September.
“Like anyone who lived not close to their marae – urban Māori – I didn’t have te reo growing up, so I’ve spent my whole adulthood reclaiming it,” he explains.
He credits reclaiming his heritage with helping his recovery – he’s been sober for six and a half years – and with rediscovering himself. “A lot of my life was about living up to people’s expectations and not really being comfortable in my skin, because I didn’t know where I was from or to whom I belonged. But through my journey of te reo, I’m more comfortable in my skin, more settled in who I am, proud of my culture.”
Jase has recently navigated the grief of losing his parents. “I know that they’re always with me in wairua. I feel them with me when I have big things.” Having also lost his younger brother in 2018, he’s even more passionate now about prioritising mental and physical health. “I want to be a walking, talking example of wellness for people.”
In August, he married his partner, chef Ali Bahmad, in Honolulu. “He’s my wellbeing,” Jase says. “He’s the person who grounds me. He’s the person who keeps me accountable.” In the next five years, the couple hope to move from their Wellington city-fringe property to a lifestyle block, where their chickens and cats can be joined by sheep and cows, and Bahmad’s gardening skills can be put to greater use.
For now, Jase is focusing on the little things: weekly dates with his new husband, regular walks up Wellington’s Mt Kaukau, and chasing the sun – and his cats – around the house.
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“Nature gives us connection back to ourselves. It gives you an instant rush of dopamine, that feel-good hormone. It recalibrates you, it centres you, it literally grounds you,” says Jase.
Jase’s top-three free mindset refreshers
The sun
I feel an instant recharge when I stand or lie or sit in the sun; it’s like I’m being filled with immediate energy.
Te taiao
Nature gives us connection back to ourselves. It gives you an instant rush of dopamine, that feel-good hormone. It recalibrates you, it centres you, it literally grounds you.
Breaks
If I’m sitting in front of a screen all day, I get up, close my eyes and take three breaths, and then breathe all the way out until all of that air expels. I do that three times. I close my eyes, I feel my feet on the ground. That renews me.
