Dr Hinemoa Elder Photo: Supplied by Penguin
Writing a journal helps psychiatrist and author Dr Hinemoa Elder work with her own high and low points across the monthly lunar cycle.
"[Journalling] has helped to expose the high points of the month for me and some of the days, or series of days, which are a bit more of a challenge, where we tend to experience lower energy, where life feels a bit more like wading through treacle," she tells Susie Ferguson.
Elder's best-selling 2020 book Aroha guided readers through a year of whakataukī. The follow-up book Wawata offered daily wisdom inspired by maramataka.
Her new book Waitohu: A Journal for Making Meaning invites people to reflect on their own monthly mood patterns so they can plan and problem-solve accordingly.
Unlike a "linear" annual diary, Waitohu enables people to reflect on and work with their own monthly energy patterns throughout maramataka (the Māori calendar), Dr Elder says.
This process of cycling back to gain self-knowledge is embodied by the whakataukī (Māori proverb): "Ka mua, ka muri", which means "walking backwards into the future".
"What happens when you use this book, is that you keep coming back and writing your reflections, maybe your deepest fears, or the things that you need for comfort, and you list them."
Regularly writing down your thoughts can also boost mental health by helping people reclaim a healthy sense of control within their own lives, she says.
"People can begin to experience a sense of control over what actually goes on the page, what they're looking at, what they're paying attention to, what they're making time to describe, what the focus is about."
The habit of writing helps people learn to tolerate difficult emotions, Dr Elder says.
"So that they don't feel so overwhelmed, perhaps by big, terrifying emotions, they don't feel so out of control, and then to develop a sense of mastery and ease with which to live life."
Dr Elder plans her work schedule around maramataka and the knowledge of how the monthly lunar cycle affects her mood and energy.
On days when she is working at a hospital, it's a "really useful touchstone" for therapeutic interactions, she says. When possible, she will schedule public talks for the days she feels more able to be her "best self".
"There's a repetitive nature here. There's a predictability here. I know that next month my high points will be on these days … and then there will be quieter days when I won't feel quite so bubbly."
