Dr Hinemoa Elder's new book offers 'a unique Māori way to understand the terrifying chaos of life'

Back in 2008, Dr Hinemoa Elder had the profound experience of learning about the Māori goddess of mind Hinengaro while visiting relations in the Hokianga.

Since then, she's used this wisdom about the mental experience to guide her work as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and navigate chaos in her own life. Her new book - Ara: A Māori Guidebook of the Mind.  is a "travel itinerary" through 23 domains of mind, represented as rua (caves).

"I found that this has been incredibly helpful as a unique Māori way to think about what we might focus on in order to understand the complexities and terrifying chaos of life' she tells RNZ's Saturday Morning.

People who are coming from a very, very different worldview are having enormous influence in our world at the moment, Elder says.

"It's an incredibly difficult time, and it's very difficult for people to make sense of how to navigate that."

For 17 years, as she developed her own relationship with the wisdom of Hinengaro, she has wondered how to share it with others.

"I've carried that with me since then, thinking about, wow, that's a big responsibility. How do I now think about passing that on? How do I consider the way in which I might convey that and share that knowledge with other people in a way that's helpful?"

Other iwi and hapu will have their own whakapapa (genealogy) of Hinengaro, Elder says, but according to the teachings of Te Tai Tokerau, she is descended from the supreme god Io.

As the governess of the mind, Hinengaro is understood to be the source of all ideas, creativity, language and decision-making.

"She gives us all of this vast array of experiences that we have, that interface with our world and trying to make sense of it."

Hinengaro's concept of the mind features 23 domains, which Elder presents in Ara as a series of caves we can travel through on a "transformative or imaginative journey".

For Elder, caves powerfully evoke the idea of going increasingly deeper - "right down in the molten centre of Papatūānuku of our Mother Earth" - and then back to the surface again, as Hinengaro guides us to do.

"I feel always drawn back there - to the extremes, the dangers of these big emotions. Hinengaro offers us a travel itinerary, if you will, through a series of stops along an underground train ride."

Each of the 23 rua that Elder describes in Ara offers different opportunities to reconsider our lives and different strategies to cope with problems and challenges, she says.

The very first rua is all about daily practices that might strengthen our wairua (spirit) and help us feel grounded and calm, Elder says.

Reconnecting with the creativity we're all born with is one way we can "get back to basics" within our own mental experience.

"I'm a big fan of creativity. I see that as unlocking so much potential. We know that our tamariki mokupuna are naturally creative.

"My invitation in the book is to come back to those creative energies and impulses that we had as tamariki and get back involved with those.

Elder has always been fascinated by shells, and in Ara they represent the natural creativity that is "right there in front of us every day".

"If we get a chance to go to the beach, look at a shell. Pick up a shell, hold it and look at its structure. Look at its different aspects, its colour, its design.

"Imagining as if we're a tiny creature or even a grain of sand travelling through the chambers of the shell down to the bottom and then back up again through the sort of parallel spiral pathway."

Although the modern world privileges logic and reason, Elder says, that is often in conflict with the reality of our mental lives, which is more emotional.

Rather than something to be brushed aside or locked away, being emotional is a superpower, she says.

"The more we try to do that, the more these emotions find a way to seep back or erupt even into our lives."

One of the key messages of Ara is that our mental experience - in the form of Hinengaro - lives in our bodies, Elder says. This is quite different to the message we get from science that the mind is the centre of brain activity.

All the time, our body is giving us messages about the "complex, interwoven interface" of our own minds, she says.

To help ground both our bodies and minds, Elder recommends getting outside in nature and spending time in the company of old people - for her, even being around photographs of them is "incredibly calming".

"Take deep breaths, try to have a good sleep, try to eat nutritious food, try to be connected to people that you can trust, and that you would like to get to know."

Dr Hinemoa Elder's previous books include Aroha, Wawata, Waitohu and Dear Moko.