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Matariki is a significant celebration in Māori culture, marking the beginning of the Māori New Year in New Zealand. 

Marking the start of a new year in the Māori Calendar.

Matariki serves as a time for reflection, connection, and renewal. It is a time to acknowledge the cycle of life and death and pay respects to those who are no longer here and who are missing.  

When was the last time you sat back and reflected on your last 6 months or 12 months? 

Who was in your life and what kind of company you were keeping? How did you feel, what was happening in your life at the time? Have you succeeded in creating and fulfilling your intentions?

As we head into the year’s second half, it’s an opportune time to pause, reflect, and realign to our intentions/goals.

The Importance of Mid-Year Reflections

Acknowledge how far you have come. 

• It’s time to check in with your goals and intentions set at the beginning of the year, assess how you’re doing, and acknowledge yourself.

Identify Patterns and Behaviours

• Be honest with yourself, recognise patterns in your behaviour, habits, and experiences, and understand how they have influenced your year so far.

Renewed Focus 

• Embracing the opportunity to adjust your goals, priorities, and strategies to align with your current aspirations.  Being flexible and compassionate with yourself if you need to make changes to your current goals.

Self-Assessment and Personal Growth

• Celebrating your wins and acknowledging the milestones you’ve reached so far.
• What have you learnt? Reflecting on the obstacles you’ve encountered, learning from them, and seeing them as opportunities for personal growth and building resilience.
• Notice areas of your life where you feel stuck, unfulfilled, or in need of change, and explore ways to address them.

Revisiting Goals and Setting Intentions

• Assess the relevance and progress of your existing goals, make adjustments if needed, and set new targets for the remainder of the year.
• What is working, what isn’t working, how can you create more time, if you are time-poor, how can you be more conscious of your self-care routine, what support do you need in order to make these intentions become part of your daily routine?

Cultivating Self-Care and Well-Being Habits

• Reflect on how well you’ve taken care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being as you work towards your intentions and goals and make adjustments as necessary.
• Continue to work towards practices that bring you joy and fulfilment, and incorporate them into your routine.
• Reconnect with your core values and if needed realign your actions and goals.

Creating an Action Plan/ What’s Next?

• If you feel overwhelmed by your to-do list, break down larger goals into smaller, actionable steps to make them more manageable and achievable.
• Who do you need support from? Reach out to those that can support and align with your intentions and help you stay focused and accountable.

How can the practice of yoga and connecting with nature hold significance in our mid-year reflections?

Connecting to nature and our bodies through yoga can greatly enhance our ability to reflect on our personal growth journey with ease and honesty. 

Presence and Awareness

• Yoga encourages us to be fully present to our bodies and the present moment. By grounding ourselves in the physical sensations of yoga postures, breathwork, and movement, we cultivate mindfulness with this awareness we can start to observe our thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations without judgment, creating a space for self-reflection with compassion.
  

Listening to the Body

• When we connect to our body, we gain access to all of the physical sensations, it is a chance to reflect on our emotional and mental states. 
• We learn to tune in and listen to our bodies, noticing areas of tension, ease, or discomfort. By paying attention to the sensations that arise, we can gain insights into our emotions, stress levels, and areas in need of healing or attention, allowing us to be more conscious when making decisions around our goals and intentions.
  

Yoga Posture Meanings

• As we reflect on our goals and personal growth journey, the asana practice supports our blind spots and invites us to acknowledge new learnings so far. For example, forward folds may represent surrender or letting go, while back bending/heart-opening poses can symbolise vulnerability or opening ourselves to love and the unknown. As we practice these poses, we experience first-hand how the mind and body relate to our own challenges and new growth.

Breath

• Our breath is a powerful tool in yoga and serves as an anchor for awareness. By consciously focusing on our breath, we can cultivate a calm and centred state, allowing us to dive deeper into self-reflection. The rhythm of the breath can also mirror the ebb and flow of life, reminding us of the importance of finding balance and surrendering to the present moment.

Gaining Perspective

• Learning to navigate difficult poses, find balance, and cultivate resilience in poses can also be a reflection on your own personal growth challenges. Similarly, observing the cycles of nature, such as the changing seasons or the ebb and flow of tides, can remind us of the impermanence of situations and the continuous nature of change. This broader perspective can help put our personal growth and the relationship we have with success into context and see we are a drop in the ocean of the universe.

Stillness/Meditation

• In a state of stillness, we can observe the effects of our practice, reflect on our personal growth, and set intentions for continued development. Sitting still or meditation offers an opportunity to connect with ourselves at a deeper level and explore insights that arise during each breath.

By connecting to nature and our bodies through yoga, we develop a profound sense of self-awareness and mindfulness. This deepened connection serves as a powerful foundation for self-reflection, allowing us to gain insights into our personal growth journey, embrace our challenges, celebrate our progress, and cultivate a deeper understanding of ourselves.