You pick up your phone ‘just to check’ and three hours vanish into scroll after endless scroll. You meant to pay attention during dinner, but your mind was everywhere except at the table. You promised yourself you’d move your body today—but here you are, exhausted before you even started.
These aren’t personal failings. They’re patterns of colonisation. Systems designed to extract your attention, time, energy, money, and life force—and make you blame yourself for that disconnection.
The first three steps of Te Poutama o te Ora are about waking up to what’s really happening, establishing your right to choose differently, and building the strength to resist when those systems fight back.
Let’s walk this foundational journey together.
Step 1: Te Ohorere – The Awakening
Seeing What You Haven’t Been Seeing
You cannot change what you don’t see. The most effective colonisation happens below conscious awareness—automatic patterns so normalised that they feel like personal choices.
Step 1 is simple but not easy: For seven days, you become an observer of your own life. Not to judge yourself or fix anything. Just to see.
You track your behaviours across five dimensions:
Whakapapa (Connection): How do you actually connect with people? Are you present or distracted?
Tinana (Body): How does your body feel? What’s your relationship with movement, food, rest?
Tuakiri (Identity): Where do you feel most yourself? Where are you performing?
Wairua (Spirit): When do you have stillness? When do you reach for distraction?
Hinengaro (Mind): What’s the quality of your thoughts? Calm or scattered? Focused or fragmented?
Every day, you answer these same questions. No editing or justifying; just the truth.
After seven days, patterns emerge:
You reach for your phone every time you feel uncomfortable.
You’re most distracted when you’re supposed to be most present.
Your body has been trying to tell you something for months, and you’ve been ignoring it.
You can’t remember the last time you sat in stillness without needing to do something.
This awareness isn’t comfortable. You might discover things that shame or alarm you. But here’s the truth: There is no judgment, just information. The beginning of making different choices.
Te Whāriki o te Ora – Goal Setting
After tracking your behaviours, you rank each dimension:
Which is suffering most?
Which patterns need immediate attention?
You don’t try to fix everything at once—that’s how change fails. You choose three specific goals, the ones that matter most right now:
“I want to be fully present when I’m with my family.”
“I want to move my body at least 20 minutes every day.”
“I want to stay focused when completing important tasks.”
These aren’t wishes, they are invitations to reclaim what colonisation has taken: your attention and body, your presence and life.
Step 2: Te Whakatūria tō Mana – Establishing Your Authority – Knowing to Doing
Awareness is powerful. But awareness alone doesn’t change anything. Step 2 is where you transform what you know into what you do.
Te Whakatūria tō Mana means establishing your mana—your authority, your power to choose. In te ao Māori, mana exists inherently. You already have it. But mana strengthens through action, showing up, choosing yourself consistently even when it’s difficult.
This is where your goals get specific. Not vague hopes but actual commitments:
Before: “I want to be more present with family.”
Now: “One meal every day with my family, phones in another room, focused on each other.”
Before: “I should exercise more.”
Now: “Walk for 20 minutes every morning after breakfast.”
See the difference? The first is a wish, the second is a practice.
Making It Easier to Choose Yourself
You don’t rely on willpower alone—willpower is limited, and you need it for harder things.
Instead, you design your environment to make sovereignty the path of least resistance:
Put your walking shoes by the door.
Create a phone drop zone away from the dining table.
Prepare your walking clothes the night before.
Set specific times when you check messages instead of constantly.
You also attach new practices to existing routines—’habit stacking.’ After dinner, we walk. After work, phones go in the drawer. When you wake up, journal for five minutes. The routine becomes the trigger; the decision is already made.
The Three-Tier System: Sustainable, Not Perfect
You organize your practices into three levels:
Tier 1: Daily Non-Negotiables – Do every single day, no matter what. (Example: One meal with family, fully present).
Tier 2: Regular Practices – 3-4 times per week. (Example: Walk 20 minutes on Monday, Thursday, Saturday).
Tier 3: Aspirational Rhythms – When possible, without guilt if missed. (Example: Evening reflection before bed).
This structure prevents the all-or-nothing trap. You’re not trying to be perfect. You’re building the muscle of showing up. Every time you follow through, your mana strengthens. When you begin to notice you have drifted and you return to practising without shame, your mana strengthens.
Tracking Your Practice, Not Your Perfection
You keep it simple. A checkmark for each day you showed up. Not how perfectly you walked or how enlightened the dinner conversation was—just: Did I do the thing?
This builds identity: ‘I am someone who walks.’ ‘I am someone who shows up for my family.’ ‘I am someone who protects my focus.’
When you miss a day—and you will—that’s not failure. That’s information. What got in the way? What needs adjusting? You note it, adjust, and continue. No shame stories, just learning.
Step 3: Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha – Developing Your Strength
When Systems Push Back
Here’s what you might have noticed: When you started protecting your attention in Step 2, the world didn’t just accept it. Things got harder.
Notifications became more urgent.
Social pressure increased. (‘Why aren’t you responding?’ ‘Just this once…’).
Schedules shifted making your family dinner time suddenly impossible.
The walking routine that felt easy last week now feels like climbing a mountain.
This isn’t your imagination. When you begin extracting yourself from dependency systems, they escalate. They test your boundaries to find new ways to hook you back in.
Step 3 is where you build kaha—not just the right to choose (that’s mana), but the capacity to sustain those choices when everything is designed to break your resolve.
The Nine-Day Resistance Challenge
For nine days, you intentionally strengthen your boundaries. Each day targets a specific capacity:
Day 1: Block time in your calendar. Make your practices non-negotiable appointments with yourself.
Day 2: Create physical boundaries. Devices go away during practice times—not face-down, actually away.
Day 3: Strengthen your anchor. Walk immediately after eating. Dinner happens at 6pm. The routine makes the choice.
Day 4: Shrink the requirement. Ten minutes counts. Sitting at the table counts. Something is always better than nothing.
Day 5: Name your purpose out loud. ‘I walk for my health.’ ‘We eat together to connect.’
Day 6: Get social commitment. Tell your family, ‘This is our mealtime.’ Ask for support.
Day 7: Expect resistance and plan for it. Weather will be bad. You’ll feel tired. Someone will want their phone. Have your response ready: ‘We’ll walk shorter.’ ‘Phones after dinner.’ ‘Ten minutes only.’
Day 8: Track consistency, not performance. Did we eat together? Did I walk? That’s all that matters.
Day 9: Protect the habit. Use clear, neutral language: ‘We eat without devices.’ ‘I walk every day.’ Not negotiable, just fact.
This isn’t about willpower. It’s about structure, repetition, lowered friction, and clear boundaries. You’re training follow-through, not motivation.
Building Boundaries That Hold
Beyond daily practices, you need ‘architectural boundaries’—systems that make resistance automatic:
Device segregation: Work device separate from a personal device. Phone versus computer. Each has specific, limited purposes.
Space segregation: Phone-free zones in your home. Sanctuary spaces where dependency cannot reach.
Time segregation: Communication windows when you check messages. Creation windows when phone is off. Rest windows with complete disconnection.
These structural boundaries protect you when you’re depleted, when willpower is gone, when resistance feels impossible. The decision is already made. The boundary holds automatically.
Standing in Your Authority
The hardest resistance often comes from people you care about. You practice authority statements—declarations without apology or explanation:
Instead of: “I’m trying to spend less time on my phone, so…”
Say: “I’m offline after 7pm.”
Instead of: “Sorry, I can’t afford that right now because…”
Say: “That doesn’t work for my budget.”
Instead of: “I’m working on being more mindful when I eat, so…”
Say: “I don’t eat with screens.”
Notice the shift? The first version seeks permission. The second claims sovereignty. You’re not asking if it’s okay to protect yourself. You’re stating what is.
Building Collective Resistance
Individual resistance is powerful. But collective resistance is transformative.
You find 2-4 others who are also reclaiming their lives. You meet weekly—even just 30 minutes—to share what you’re facing, strategize together, celebrate victories, and remind each other why this matters.
When you resist alone, systems isolate you. When you resist together, you normalize boundaries that the world calls extreme. You share strategies that work. You sustain each other when personal capacity wavers.
Your healing is resistance. Your sovereignty is rebellion and when you rebel together? That’s when real change becomes possible.
What You Carry Forward
At the end of these three foundational steps, you have:
Awareness of patterns you couldn’t see before.
Established practices integrated into daily life.
Created boundaries that hold even when systems escalate.
Found evidence of your mana—moments when you chose intention over impulse.
Built Kaha—proven capacity to resist what seeks to fragment you.
This is the foundation, not the destination, but the ground from which everything else grows.
Steps 4-9 will deepen this work—moving from resistance into sovereignty; practice into mastery; effort into ease. But none of that is possible without this foundation. Without awareness, authority and strength.
The systems that colonise your attention, time, body, and your resources—they are real. They’re designed by brilliant people who understand how human brains work and backed by billions of dollars and sophisticated algorithms.
But here’s what they can’t engineer: your decision to see clearly. Your commitment to show up for yourself. The capacity to resist when it matters. The refusal to blame yourself for systemic problems and the willingness to build something different.
The challenges you face aren’t personal failings. They’re colonisation. Your wellness work; that’s resistance, reclamation and the beginning of liberation.
Every boundary that holds under pressure strengthens your kaha. When you resist distraction, you build resistance muscle. When you return to practice after slipping, you prove your capacity.
You’re not broken. You’re waking up and that awakening is the first step toward everything.
Kia kaha. Kia māia. Kia manawanui.
Be strong. Be brave. Remain steadfast.
The foundation is real. Your mana is real. Your kaha is growing. The spiral continues.
In te Ao Māori, the Puku – the gut, the stomach – isn’t just where you digest food. It’s where your Tuakiri lives. Your identity and sense of self.
When someone says they have a ‘gut feeling’ or feel something ‘in their stomach,’ they’re acknowledging this ancient wisdom. Your Puku knows things your mind hasn’t figured out yet. It processes your world in ways logic cannot. It carries your trauma, joy, and knowing.
But here’s what colonisation did: it severed that connection. It replaced traditional kai with processed foods. It disconnected us from the land that grew our food. It taught us to ignore our gut’s signals and follow external rules about what, when, and how much to eat.
The result? A crisis in our Puku that fragments our sense of self. Digestive issues, yes – but also identity confusion, emotional dysregulation, and disconnection from our own body’s wisdom. When your Puku is out of balance, your Tuakiri cannot stand strong.
Taha Kai offers a pathway home. Through three foundational steps, you can heal your relationship with food, reconnect with your Puku’s wisdom, and ground your identity in embodied knowing. Let’s explore how.
Step 1: Te Ohorere – The Awakening (Seeing the Food Colonisation)
Before you can heal your Puku, you need to see what’s happened to it. The industrial food system didn’t just change what we eat. It changed how we relate to food, to our bodies, to ourselves.
Food colonisation happened through multiple channels. Land confiscation eliminated access to traditional food sources. Economic marginalisation made processed foods the only affordable option. Marketing convinced us that convenience mattered more than nourishment. Cultural disruption severed the intergenerational transmission of food knowledge – how to grow kai, prepare it with intention, share it with aroha.
The outcomes devastate entire communities. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, digestive disorders – these aren’t personal failings. They’re the predictable results of systematic food colonisation. Your Puku, designed for adaptation, became overwhelmed by constant feeding on foods that provide calories but not wellness.
Te Ohorere asks you to look at how this shows up across five dimensions of your life:
Whakapapa (relationships): How has food stopped connecting you? You eat alone, scrolling through your phone. Family meals are rare or rushed. You’ve lost traditional food knowledge from your Tūpuna. Food preparation became a chore to minimize, not a practice of love. You don’t know where your food comes from or who grew it.
Tinana (body): What’s your body trying to tell you? Bloating, gas, pain, constipation. Food sensitivities that never existed before. Energy crashes. Weight that won’t stabilize despite endless dieting. Skin issues, joint pain, headaches – all connected to gut inflammation. Your Tinana is screaming ‘I can’t process this anymore,’ but you’ve been taught to suppress these signals with antacids and pushing through discomfort.
Tuakiri (identity): How has your sense of self become fragmented? You don’t recognise your own hunger and fullness signals anymore. You eat what you think you should eat, not what your body needs. Your relationship with food is defined by shame, control, fear, or rebellion. You’ve lost connection to traditional foods that carry cultural identity. You define yourself by your eating patterns: ‘I’m a stress eater.’ ‘I have no willpower.’ ‘I’m always on a diet.’
Wairua (spirit): Where’s your sacred relationship with food? Traditional cultures knew that eating is a spiritual act. Karakia before meals weren’t quaint traditions – they were spiritual technologies for staying connected to what sustains us. But now? Meals are transactional. You eat without awareness, gratitude, or presence. Food becomes fuel or comfort, losing its spiritual dimension. You’re disconnected from seasonal eating, lunar cycles, the mauri (life force) in what you consume.
Hinengaro (mind): How occupied is your thinking? You’re constantly thinking about food – what to eat, what not to eat, what you ate, what you’ll eat later. Your mind is full of conflicting food rules and diet messages. You experience food anxiety. You use food to manage emotions rather than feeling them. You’re obsessed with body image. Marketing messages override your body’s natural signals.
For seven days, you track these dimensions daily (Te Whāriki o te Ora). Not to judge yourself. Not to fix anything yet. Just to see clearly. You answer questions about what you ate, why you ate, how your body responded, what emotions arose, whether you ate alone or with others, whether you were present or distracted.
By day seven, patterns emerge. You see which dimension is suffering most. You identify your triggers – stress eating, boredom eating, eating to avoid feeling. You recognise what your Puku is trying to tell you. And you pick three goals to work on. That’s your roadmap forward – Te Whakatakato tō Mahere.
Step 2: Te Whakatūria – Mana – Establishing Your Authority (Taking Your Puku Back)
Mana is your authority. Your sovereignty. Your power to choose what nourishes you. Right now, the food industry has your mana. Ultra-processed foods are engineered to override your natural satiety signals. Marketing is designed to manipulate your emotions. Convenience has been weaponised to keep you dependent.
Te Whakatūria – Mana is about reclaiming that power. You convert those goals from Step 1 into specific practices. Instead of ‘I want to eat better,’ you create concrete commitments: ‘I will drink water first thing every morning before anything else.’ ‘I will eat one meal per day mindfully, without screens.’ ‘I will stop eating three hours before bed.’
The framework uses a three-tier system:
Tier 1 – Daily Non-Negotiables: Your foundation. Things you do every single day. Morning water before anything else. One mindful meal with out screens. Three-hour gap before bed. Pick 1-2 practices and commit completely.
Tier 2 – Regular Practices (3-4 times per week): Intermittent fasting (eating within an 8-hour window). Preparing one meal from scratch with intention. Including gut-healing foods like bone broth or fermented vegetables. These keep momentum without overwhelming you.
Tier 3 – Aspirational Rhythms (when possible, no guilt if missed): 24-hour fasts for deep healing. Weekly traditional food preparation. Quarterly gut-cleansing protocols. These stretch you without breaking you.
Critical point: start with ONE Tier 1 practice. Master that until it becomes automatic. Then add more. Your brain can only handle so much change at once. Trying to transform everything overnight is why most people fail.
You also work with natural rhythms. Your Puku is connected to lunar cycles – the same way the moon affects tides, it affects the waters within your body. Full moon periods have high energy, perfect for starting new practices or having conversations with whānau about food. Dark moon periods are introspective, ideal for gentle cleansing and reflection. You don’t need complex protocols. Just notice how your hunger, cravings, and digestion shift through the month.
Set up your environment to support your mana. Designated eating space (not your desk, couch, or bed). Screens removed from eating areas. Clear out-processed foods that trigger overconsumption. Stock gut-healing foods. Meal prep once per week. Unsubscribe from food delivery apps that trigger impulse ordering.
After 2-3 weeks, review what’s working. Which practices feel natural? Which still feel like struggle? What unexpected benefits showed up – better digestion, clearer thinking, calmer mood? You adjust, refine, find your rhythm. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about building practices that genuinely support your Puku’s healing and strengthen your mana.
Step 3: Te Whakawhanake i – Kaha – Building Your Resistance (Developing Unbreakable Strength)
Here’s what happens once you start protecting your Puku: the food system pushes back. Cravings intensify. Marketing becomes more targeted. Social pressure escalates. Convenience becomes more seductive. Your body experiences withdrawal from processed foods that were literally engineered to be addictive.
This isn’t weakness. This is biology meeting billion-dollar food engineering. Ultra-processed foods are designed with perfect combinations of salt, sugar, and fat to override your natural satiety mechanisms. They’re created to be irresistible.
Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha is about building kaha – strength, capacity, resilience – to withstand this systematic pushback. The nine-day challenge progressively builds resistance across different domains. Maybe Day 1 is managing intense cravings without giving in. Day 2 might be eating mindfully in a social situation. Day 3 could be your first 16-hour fast. Day 4 navigates emotional triggers without using food to cope.
Each day targets different resistance muscles. Some days focus on physical healing through fasting (which activates autophagy – your cells’ self-cleaning process). Other days build social resistance – saying no to food pressure from family or colleagues. By Day 9, you’ve proven to yourself that you can protect your Puku even when everything pushes you to surrender.
Important note on fasting: It’s powerful medicine, but it’s not for everyone. Don’t fast if you have eating disorder history, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have type 1 diabetes, take medications requiring food, or have serious medical conditions. When in doubt, talk to your healthcare provider.
You also build architectural boundaries – structures protecting your Puku automatically. Time segregation means specific eating and fasting windows. Space segregation means no food in bedroom, at desk, or on the couch. Food segregation means healing foods versus occasional foods, each with specific purpose.
One of the hardest challenges? Social pressure. Whānau who express love through food. Workplaces with food-centered culture. Friends who bond over meals. You prepare authority statements:
Instead of: ‘Sorry, I’m trying to be healthy’ (justification, signals negotiability)
You say: ‘I’m focusing on gut healing right now’ (authority, signals sovereignty)
Instead of: ‘I can’t, I’m fasting’
You say: ‘Fasting today’ (no explanation needed)
You practice these out loud. The first time is hardest. The hundredth time is effortless.
The framework also encourages forming food healing circles – small groups (2-4 people) pursuing gut wellness together. You meet weekly or bi-weekly to share wins and challenges, identify system tactics trying to break your boundaries, problem-solve without shame, and celebrate sovereignty victories.
Individual resistance is powerful. Collective resistance is transformative. When others normalise your boundaries, share strategies, and provide accountability, the impossible becomes possible. You’re not fighting the food system alone.
You are building Tū Pūmau (consistency) through Whai Mua (success and productivity) giving you Tū Māia (stability).
Your Puku Knows the Way Home
By the end of these three steps, something profound has shifted. You’ve moved from unconscious eating to intentional nourishment. From food system dependency to embodied sovereignty. From fragmented identity to grounded selfhood.
Your Puku is calmer. The inflammation has reduced. The bloating has eased. You can feel hunger and fullness signals again. You know what foods serve you and which ones don’t. You’ve learned to fast with intention, giving your digestive system the rest it desperately needed.
More importantly, your Tuakiri stands stronger. Your sense of self is no longer fragmented by shame, external food rules, or disconnection from your body. You trust your gut – literally and metaphorically. You know who you are, and your identity is grounded in embodied wisdom rather than shifting external standards.
The poverty or scarcity that may have shaped your early relationship with food no longer controls you. The abundance of processed foods that followed no longer colonises you. You’ve found the middle way: eating with intention, fasting with purpose, nourishing with wisdom.
You’ve reconnected to ancestral practices while adapting them for modern life. You’ve decolonised your Puku and, through it, your identity. You’ve learned that a grounded, nourished gut creates a clear, powerful sense of self.
This is Te Haere Whakanoa – the journey back to your power. Your puku has led you home to yourself.
Every time you choose intention over impulse (Tū Pūmau – consistency), you strengthen your mana. Every time you honour your Puku’s signals, you rebuild trust with your body. Every time you resist the food system’s manipulation, you prove your sovereignty. Success and productivity (Whai Mua) have transformed to stability (Tū Māia).
Your puku remembers what your mind forgot. It knows the way. It’s been trying to tell you all along. Now you’re finally listening.
Nuku i – Puku. Ground yourself in your core.
Kia kaha. Kia māia. Kia Manawanui.
Be strong. Be brave. Be steadfast. Your puku knows the way.
Have you ever arrived home from work and realised you can’t remember the last five minutes of your drive? Not because you were tired, but because your mind was somewhere else entirely scrolling through imaginary social media feeds, mentally drafting replies to messages you hadn’t even received yet.
You were physically in your car but, mentally trapped in the digital world.
This is digital colonisation in action, and it’s happening to millions of us, every single day.
Taha Matihiko, a Māori wellness framework grounded in indigenous wisdom, offers a pathway out of this digital trap. The first three steps Te Ohorere (The Awakening), Te Whakatūria tō Mana (Establishing Your Authority), and Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha (Building Your Resistance) guide you from unconscious digital consumption to intentional digital sovereignty.
Let’s explore how each step works and why they might just change your life.
Step 1: Te Ohorere – The Awakening (Seeing What You’ve Been Avoiding)
The first step isn’t about changing anything. It’s about finally seeing what’s happening. Most of our digital habits operate below conscious awareness. We pick up our phones hundreds of times a day without even noticing. We scroll before bed, check notifications during conversations, and reach for screens the moment we feel bored or uncomfortable.
Te Ohorere asks you to become an observer of your own digital life.
For seven days, you’ll track how technology affects you across five dimensions of wellbeing:
Whakapapa (relationships): Are you really connecting with the people around you, or are you physically present but mentally elsewhere? When was the last time you had dinner with family without phones at the table?
Tinana (body): What’s happening to your physical body? The headaches, the eye strain, the neck pain from constantly looking down at screens. The sleep you’re not getting because you scroll before bed. The hours you sit without moving.
Tuakiri (identity): Who are you becoming online? Are you performing for an audience, curating your life for likes? Are you comparing your real life to everyone else’s highlight reel and feeling inadequate?
Wairua (spirit): Where’s your inner peace? Every notification is an interruption, every ‘ping’ a disruption. When did you last sit in genuine stillness, without the urge to check your phone?
Hinengaro (mind): What’s occupying your thoughts? Are you anxious, scattered, unable to focus? Has your attention span shortened? Do you feel more reactive, more triggered by what you see online?
For seven days, you answer simple questions about each dimension. You’re not trying to change anything yet you’re just noticing. By day seven, patterns emerge. You see which dimension is suffering most. You identify your triggers what makes you automatically reach for your phone. You recognise when you feel most present versus most disconnected.
From this disconnection we develop goals across those dimensions – Te Whāriki o te Ora. Then we convert those into a plan for change Te Whakatakato tō Mahere that sets the path for step 2.
This awareness work isn’t comfortable. You might discover things about your digital habits that alarm you. But here’s the truth: you can’t change what you can’t see. Te Ohorere gives your ‘eyes’ to see what’s really happening and that’s where transformation begins.
Step 2: Te Whakatūria tō Mana – Establishing Your Authority (Taking Back Control)
Now that you’ve seen what’s happening, it’s time to reclaim your mana your authority, your power to choose. Right now, algorithms have your mana. They decide when you get notified, what content you see, how long you stay engaged. Your brain has been trained to check constantly, to seek validation through likes, to feel anxious when disconnected.
Te Whakatūria tō Mana is about establishing practices that serve you, not the platforms and deliver your future vision. You start by converting the goals into strategy – Te Whakatakato tō Mahere into specific, achievable actions.
For example: –
“I want to use my phone less” would be more concrete as “I will switch off my phone 30 minutes before bed, so I can sleep better”.
“I want to spend time dinner time with my family” would become “I will have dinner with my family every night with all phones turned off and, in another room,”.
The framework uses a three-tier system to make this manageable:
Tier 1 – Daily Non-Negotiables: These are your foundations. Things you do every single day without exception. Maybe it’s keeping your phone on airplane mode until after breakfast. Maybe it’s no screens in your bedroom. Pick one or two practices that matter most and commit to them completely.
Tier 2 – Regular Practices: These happen 3-4 times a week. Perhaps one full evening offline with your whānau. Maybe designated creative time with notifications turned off. These practices give you flexibility while maintaining consistency.
Tier 3 – Aspirational Rhythms: These are things you do when you can, without guilt if you miss them. A monthly 24-hour digital sabbath. A quarterly tech audit where you delete apps you don’t need. These stretch you without breaking you.
Here’s the key: you don’t try to change everything at once. That’s a recipe for failure. You start with ONE anchor practice in Tier 1. You master that until it becomes automatic. Then you add more.
Te Whakatūria tō Mana also teaches you to work with natural rhythms through the Maramataka (Māori lunar calendar). High-energy full moon periods are great for starting new boundaries or having difficult conversations about tech use with your whānau. Low-energy dark moon periods are perfect for planning, reflecting, and resting from digital intensity. You don’t need to follow complex protocols just notice how your energy shifts with the moon and align your practices accordingly.
Crucially, you also set up your environment to support your mana rather than undermine it. Such as creating a charging station for all devices not in your bedroom. Designate phone-free zones in your home. Remove social media apps from your home screen or delete them entirely. Turn off all non-essential notifications. These environmental changes make it easier to stick to your intentions because you’re not constantly battling your willpower.
After 2-3 weeks of practice, you review what’s working. Which practices feel natural? Which still feel like a struggle? You adjust, refine, and find the rhythm that genuinely supports your wellbeing. This isn’t about rigid discipline or perfection it’s about building sustainable practices that strengthen your mana every single day.
Step 3: Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha – Building Your Resistance (Developing Strength)
Once you’ve established your initial practices, something interesting happens. The platforms push back. Notifications become more urgent. Algorithms get more urgent and your fear of missing out intensifies. Social pressure from friends and colleagues increases. The convenience of just checking one thing becomes more seductive.
This isn’t your imagination. When you begin extracting yourself from digital dependency, the systems fight back. They escalate. test your boundaries and find new ways to hook you back in.
Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha is about building kaha strength, capacity, resilience to resist when systems push back. This isn’t just about maintaining what you established in Step 2. It’s about developing the muscle to withstand pressure and refuse colonisation.
The nine-day challenge is your core strength-building protocol. For nine days, you progressively increase your resistance capacity.
Maybe Day 1 is managing morning overwhelm without reaching for your phone.
Day 2 might be navigating social pressure to stay constantly available.
Day 3 could be resisting convenience when it conflicts with your boundaries.
Each day targets a different challenge, building comprehensive resistance skills.
But strength building goes beyond willpower. You create architectural boundaries structures that make resistance automatic.
Device segregation means keeping work devices separate from personal ones, creating physical barriers to constant availability.
Space segregation designates sanctuaries in your home where technology cannot reach.
Time segregation establishes clear windows: communication time (when you check messages), creation time (deep work with phone off), and rest time (complete disconnection).
One of the hardest parts? Navigating social pressure.
Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha teaches you to prepare authority statements responses that assert your boundaries without apology or justification.
Instead of saying “Sorry, I’m trying to be better about checking my phone”, you say “I don’t check work messages between 6pm to 7am that is family time”.
The difference is profound: justification signals negotiability, authority signals sovereignty.
The framework also encourages forming resistance circles small groups (2-4 people) pursuing digital wellness together. You meet weekly for 30 minutes to share wins and challenges, identify dependency tactics you’re facing, problem-solve collectively, and celebrate sovereignty victories. Individual resistance is powerful, but collective resistance is transformative. When others normalise your boundaries and share strategies, your resistance strengthens exponentially.
By the end of Step 3, you’ve completed the resistance intensification challenge. You’ve built at least one architectural boundary system. You’ve developed authority statements you can use without hesitation. Most importantly, you’ve experienced your own capacity to resist when dependency systems escalate. You’ve proven to yourself that you have kaha the strength to say no and make it stick.
You are building Tū Pūmau (consistency) through Whai Mua (success and productivity) giving you Tū Māia (stability).
Your Digital Sovereignty Awaits
These first three steps of Taha Matihiko awakening, establishing authority, and building resistance form a pathway from digital colonisation to digital sovereignty. They move you from unconscious consumption to intentional presence, from platform dependency to personal authority, from reactive habits to sustained strength (Tū Māia).
This isn’t about abandoning technology. It’s about reclaiming your mana your right to decide where your attention goes, your capacity to be present for the people and moments that matter, your sovereignty over your own consciousness.
The work isn’t easy. You’ll face discomfort. You’ll discover patterns you’ve been avoiding. You’ll realise how much of your life has been lived on autopilot. But here’s what awaits on the other side: genuine presence with loved ones, mental clarity, physical wellbeing, authentic identity, and spiritual peace.
Every time you follow through on your practice (Tū Pūmau – consistency), you strengthen your mana. Every time you resist digital dependency, you build kaha. Every time you notice you’ve been pulled off course and choose to realign, you prove your capacity for transformation. Success and productivity (Whai Mua) have transformed to stability (Tū Māia).
The question isn’t whether digital colonisation is happening. It is. The question is: are you ready to reclaim your sovereignty?
We return to the Life Re=Alignment Series and to steps 2 Te Whakatūria tō Mana – Establishing your Authority and Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha – Developing Your Strength.
Turning our goals and plans into reality takes more than just good intentions. Many wellness seekers find themselves motivated at the start but struggle to maintain momentum.
The key to lasting success lies in tracking progress consistently (Te Whakawhanake i tō Kaha) and aligning daily actions (Te Whakatūria tō Mana) with broader life objectives. This approach not only keeps you accountable but also ensures your efforts contribute to meaningful life alignment.
This post explores practical strategies to track your goals daily, monthly, and quarterly. You will learn how to break down your ambitions into manageable steps, monitor your progress effectively, and adjust your plans to stay on course. Whether you want to improve your health, build new habits, or enhance your overall well-being, these methods will help you transform your goals into reality.
Daily tracking is the foundation of success. It keeps your goals fresh in your mind and helps you develop habits that support your vision.
How to Track Daily
Use a journal, digital app or Te Whakatūria tō Mana to record your actions and feelings.
Note what you accomplished, what challenges you faced, and how you felt.
Rate your progress on a simple scale (e.g., 1 to 5) to quantify your effort.
Reflect briefly on how your actions align with your life alignment goals. 3-Rs, Reflect, Release, Restore.
Benefits of Daily Tracking
Increases awareness. You become more conscious of your choices and patterns.
Boosts motivation. Seeing small wins daily encourages you to keep going.
Allows quick adjustments. If something isn’t working, you can change it immediately.
For example, if your goal is to meditate daily, tracking helps you notice if you skip days and why. You might realize mornings are too rushed and decide to meditate before bed instead.
Preparation for your work week
I have found for me that this works better to do on Sunday. It enables me to plan my week and feel prepared when Monday comes. I review my weekly schedule and mark important meetings or targets in my diary and Maramataka.
During the week I track my success over each day then the 3-Rs at night. There are times when I cannot do the nightly review, however I try to make time the next morning to complete that activity. Practice not Perfection.
Review meeting schedule (Hinengaro)
Capture important deadlines projects (Hinengaro)
Note important activities for the family (Whakapapa)
Schedule Me-time (Tuakiri, Tinana, Wairua)
Whakapapa – Relationships and Connection
Our overarching goal – “Strengthen whānau bonds through regular meaningful contact, shared meals, and honouring family stories and traditions.”
The Actions/Plan we set:
Small actions: I will make one connection each day with a family member or friend I haven’t talked to in a while.
Big actions: I will share at least one meal every day with my family, with phones away to create space for real connection.
Identify milestones. Reaching out to distant friends and relatives at least 3 times a week. Having dinner with my family no phones at least 4 times a week.
Tinana – Health, Nutrition, Weight, Exercise, and Food Timing
Our overarching goal – “Establish consistent daily movement (30+ minutes) that energises you.”
Actions / Plan we set:
Small actions: I will track how often I take the stairs versus the lift or get up from my desk to take movement.
Big actions: I will block out my lunch break so I can focus on my wellness (eating mindfully) and take a 10-minute walk, building up to 30 minutes a day.
Identify Milestones: Taking the stairs without running out of breadth at least 3 times a week. Taking regular breaks from my desk at least 1 per hour. Use 25/5 or 50/10 work rule. Uninterrupted lunch break at least 3 times a week, 10-minute walk during lunch break at least 3 times a week.
Tuakiri – Identity, Self-Concept, Where You Fit In or Strive to Become, Mana
Our overarching goal:“Define purpose beyond roles and titles.”
Actions / Plan we set:
Small actions: I will observe daily what things anger or move me deeply, both good and bad.
Big actions: I will brainstorm what I want to be remembered for or the change I want to create in the world, using sentences that start with “My purpose is to…”.
Identify Milestones: I realised when I don’t review and prepare on Sunday that I become anxious on Mondays then can’t flex my schedule if a new priority comes along. Planning helps me stay in control. My purpose is to take the right time out to plan so that I can meet the objectives I have set for myself. Without this I become overwhelmed.
Wairua – Inner Spirituality
Our overarching goal:“Develop consistent spiritual practice that feeds your soul.”
Actions / Plan we set:
Small actions: I will observe karakia before meals.
Big actions: I will identify when I feel most connected to something greater than myself, what practices leave me feeling restored or aligned, and continue to grow my inner spirituality.
Identify Milestones: I find I can say karakia before every meal even though I am saying it in my head before I eat. Planning helps me feel aligned…when I am aligned…the days are aways better.
Hinengaro – Work, Family Activities, Emotions, Intentions, Money, and Material Assets
Our overarching goal:“Cultivate positive self-talk and challenge inner critics that diminish your worth or capabilities.”
Actions / Plan we set:
Small actions: I will recite my takutaku every morning to lift and renew my spirit and inner strength.
Big actions: I will observe when I am negatively triggered by events or happenings, “what about this situation triggers me?”, “Is this event within my control?”. “Do I need to sit in this discomfort to understand further, or can I let it go without it leaving a hook?”
Identify Milestones: I can only recite my takutaku when I am not in a rush…those are on mornings when I am at working from home. That is 4 days a week. Feeling guilty that I couldn’t recite takutaku every day….realised that setting 4 days a week goal/action I achieved that and felt more connected. Quality not Quantity.
Reviewing Progress
Monthly Reviews: Measuring Progress and Adjusting Plans
Monthly tracking offers a broader view of your journey. It helps you measure progress toward milestones and adjust your action plans.
What to Include in Monthly Reviews
Summarize your daily tracking notes.
Compare your achievements against your milestones.
Identify patterns or obstacles that slowed you down.
Celebrate successes, no matter how small.
Adjust your goals or daily tasks if needed to improve alignment.
Alter the activity if achievement has proven to be too difficult or other priorities have ‘derailed’ achievement. (I have covered derailment in a previous blog). Use Me Heke ki Mua to bring back controlled flow. Remember A-Achievable and R-Realistic in goal setting (Te Whakatakato tō Mana). Pull things back a little to re-establish a comfortable rhythm. Practice not Perfection.
Accept when the activity meets the goals you set, and you are comfortable a consistent rhythm is in place (Tū Pūmau). This is success and means Productivity (Whai Hua) has brought Stability (Tū Maia). This leaves you open to tackle the next challenge.
Example of a Monthly Review
Suppose your goal is to improve sleep quality. After a month of daily tracking, you notice you sleep better on days you avoid screens before bed. Your monthly review might lead you to set a new daily task: no screens after 9 p.m.
Monthly reviews reinforce life alignment by ensuring your goals remain relevant and connected to your overall well-being.
Important note: the monthly review time slot is a minimum however if you feel that it fits your flow to review your actions and successes at a higher frequency then that is perfect for you.
A caution – if you decide to review your progress weekly or fortnightly, for some people this can create anxiety. If this is you, then drop the frequency back to monthly. The purpose of these practices is to encourage long-term change through consistency and productivity. If you find you are always anxious to the point of wanting to avoid the review process, then use the “Alter” practice above as it could be that the actions/plan is not realistic or achievable. ‘Alter’ then keep going.
Quarterly Assessments: Reflecting on the Big Picture
Quarterly assessments provide a chance to reflect deeply on your progress and life alignment. This is when you evaluate whether your goals still serve your long-term vision.
Steps for Quarterly Assessment
Review your monthly summaries and daily logs.
Reflect on how your goals have influenced your life alignment.
Ask yourself if your goals still feel meaningful and motivating.
Set new goals or refine existing ones based on your reflections.
Plan the next quarter with clear priorities and strategies.
Why Quarterly Assessments Matter
They prevent stagnation by encouraging growth and change.
They help you stay connected to your values and purpose.
They provide motivation by highlighting how far you’ve come.
For example, after three months of focusing on fitness, you might realize you want to add mindfulness practices to your routine. This insight helps you expand your goals in a way that supports your whole self.
Tools and Techniques for Effective Tracking
Using the right tools can make tracking easier and more enjoyable. Here are some options:
Journals or planners designed for goal tracking.
Mobile apps like habit trackers or wellness journals.
Spreadsheets for those who prefer data and charts.
Accountability partners who check in regularly.
Te Whakatakato tō Mahere worksheets creating plans and activities from goals.
Te Whakatūria Tō Mana worksheet to track daily activities; also incorporates the Maramataka and the Power of Iwa.
Choose tools that fit your lifestyle and preferences. The goal is to create a system that supports your commitment without adding stress.
Staying Motivated Through Life Alignment
Tracking success is not just about numbers or tasks. It’s about connecting your actions to your deeper purpose. When your goals reflect your true values, motivation comes naturally.
Remind yourself why your goals matter.
Visualize the life you want to create.
Celebrate progress in ways that feel meaningful.
Be kind to yourself during setbacks.
This mindset helps you maintain life alignment and keeps your journey fulfilling.
From Plastic Windows to Wellness Framework: How Lived Experience Shapes Indigenous Health
I am breaking from my usual weekly post to introduce you to where Te Poutama o te Ora originated. A kaupapa that must be shared.
When you hear about health frameworks and wellness models, they often arrive wrapped in academic language—clean, theoretical, and somehow removed from the messy reality of actual lives. But what if I told you that one of the most comprehensive Māori wellness frameworks emerging today has its roots in something as humble and heartbreaking as plastic windows?
Matapihi Kirihou—Plastic Windows. These two words carry the weight of lived experience, intergenerational trauma, and the kind of poverty that seeps into your bones along with the cold air that no amount of plastic sheeting can keep out.
This is the story behind Te Poutama o te Ora, and it’s a story that needs to be told.
Beyond the Theory: Where Wellness Frameworks Really Come From
In the 1980s, Mason Durie gave us Te Whare Tapa Whā—the four-sided house that revolutionised how we think about Māori health. It was brilliant, and it changed everything. But here’s what often gets lost in academic discussions: theories don’t emerge from thin air. They come from real homes, real bodies, real lives shaped by forces beyond individual control.
Matapihi Kirihou pulls back the curtain on this reality. It shows us the actual homes with plastic windows, the bodies carrying trauma in the Puku (gut), the children denied te Reo Māori, the cycles of poverty and violence that don’t just affect us socially—they literally change our biology through what scientists now call epigenetic inheritance.
This isn’t just a backstory. It’s methodological testimony. It’s saying: “This framework exists because of this pain, and through this pain, and it’s designed to heal this specific kind of harm.”
The Plastic Windows: Literal and Metaphorical
Picture this: A child, eight years old, responsible for siblings, living in a house where the windows aren’t glass but plastic sheeting—makeshift barriers against the world that nevertheless let the cold, the shame, and the violence seep through. Fast forward years later: H. pylori infection, multiple infectious diseases, breast cancer. These aren’t random afflictions. They’re predictable outcomes of what scholars call “structural violence”—the systematic denial of resources, culture, language, and dignity that manifests physically in Māori bodies across generations.
The plastic windows are both real and symbolic. They represent the resourcefulness required to survive when you’re given inadequate tools. They show the shame of visible poverty. But they also reveal something powerful: even makeshift barriers provide some protection. Even imperfect solutions demonstrate our refusal to accept what colonisation determined for us.
From Matapihi Kirihou to Te Ao Mārama
The journey from plastic windows to te Ao Mārama (enlightenment, the world of light) isn’t about transcending your past or pretending trauma didn’t happen. It’s about what Leonie Pihama calls “transformative praxis”—the deliberate, conscious work of breaking cycles while honouring the resilience that enabled survival in the first place.
This is where Te Poutama o te Ora becomes radically different from wellness frameworks that ignore their origins. It doesn’t ask you to forget where you came from. It doesn’t position wellness as something separate from your history of struggle. Instead, it takes that difficult ground—the poverty, the violence, the loss of language and culture—and transforms it into the very foundation for healing.
One of the most powerful elements of Matapihi Kirihou is the inclusion of the author’s daughter’s poem. This transforms shame into whakapapa, recasting poverty and struggle not as failures to overcome, but as the honest ground from which cultural reclamation grows. It says: “This is where we came from and look what we’re building now.”
Grounded in the Body, Rooted in Lived Experience
What makes this approach methodologically sound is its adherence to the principles of Kaupapa Māori research. It centres Māori experience as legitimate knowledge production. The author becomes both researcher and research subject. Individual wellness is explicitly linked to collective liberation.
This refuses the Western academic demand that Indigenous knowledge present itself as universal or objective to be valid. Instead, Matapihi Kirihou offers beautiful, powerful particularity: one Māori woman’s journey from childhood poverty to breaking intergenerational cycles. And paradoxically, this specificity makes it universally applicable. We see ourselves in the details, not despite them.
The Science Meets the Spirit
Here’s where it gets even more interesting. Te Poutama o te Ora, emerging from this foundation, integrates contemporary scientific understanding of trauma, epigenetics, gut health, and metabolic wellness—while remaining firmly grounded in Mātauranga Māori concepts of mauri (life force), wairua (spirit), and whakapapa (genealogy, connections).
This isn’t about abandoning traditional knowledge for Western science or stubbornly rejecting helpful scientific insights out of principle. It’s what Graham Hingangaroa Smith calls “conscientization”—developing the critical consciousness that enables Indigenous peoples to use Western knowledge without being consumed by Western worldviews.
The plastic windows taught lessons that modern science confirms chronic stress from poverty and violence literally changes our bodies. Trauma gets encoded not just in our memories but in our cells. The gut—te Puku—holds our emotional and physical health in ways that connect directly to brain function, immune response, and overall wellbeing.
But Mātauranga Māori already knew this. Our Tūpuna understood the connections between physical, spiritual, emotional, and collective health long before Western science had terminology for it. Te Poutama o te Ora simply creates bridges between these knowledge systems, allowing them to reinforce rather than contradict each other.
Not Aspirational Theory—Practical Necessity
This is crucial to understand: Te Poutama o te Ora isn’t an aspirational theory from a university. It is a practical necessity born from the bodies, homes, and lives of Māori people navigating the ongoing reality of colonisation.
When you’re eight years old and responsible for younger siblings, you develop systems. When you’re living with plastic windows, you learn resourcefulness. When your body carries the weight of intergenerational trauma, you either develop comprehensive wellness practices or you don’t survive.
The nine-element framework that emerges from this foundation isn’t about achieving some perfect state of wellness depicted in glossy magazines. It’s about the daily practice of healing what colonisation broke, while building different futures for the generations coming after us.
The Transparent Markers of Structural Inequality
The plastic windows remain in the narrative as transparent markers of structural inequality. The story doesn’t hide them or gloss over them. Instead, it follows their transformation: removing them, replacing them, eventually moving beyond them into homes with proper glass windows.
This physical journey mirrors what Te Poutama o te Ora offers: not the erasure of difficult history, but its transformation into a foundation for different futures. The plastic windows taught resourcefulness, resilience, and the understanding that what is broken can be mended—even if imperfectly, even if it takes time, even if the scars remain visible.
These lessons become bedrock. They inform every element of the framework because they come from lived necessity rather than theoretical possibility.
Why This Matters Now
In a time when Indigenous wellness is increasingly commercialised and commodified, when everyone wants to sell you a decolonised version of something without doing the hard work of confronting colonial harm, Matapihi Kirihou stands as essential truth-telling.
It says: genuine decolonisation in health must begin with honesty about how colonisation lives in our bodies, our relationships, and our daily practices of eating, moving, and being in the world.
It refuses the separation of theory from lived experience. It stands with Audre Lorde’s insistence that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” and with bell hooks’ assertion that theory emerges from pain and must serve healing.
The plastic windows are not footnotes to the framework—they are its foundation. Visible, acknowledged, and transformed into the very structure that enables others to find shelter, warmth, and ultimately, wellness.
A Different Kind of Framework
What emerges from Matapihi Kirihou is a wellness framework that understands you might be starting from plastic windows. It doesn’t judge that. It doesn’t ask you to have it all figured out before you begin. It meets you where you are, with all your trauma and resilience, all your broken pieces and incredible strength.
Te Poutama o te Ora says: “Your story matters. Your pain is real. The violence done to your Tūpuna lives in your body, and healing requires acknowledging that reality, not pretending it away.”
But it also says: “You are more than your trauma. The same resilience that got you here can carry you forward. The plastic windows taught you lessons that glass never could. And from this foundation—honest, difficult, real—we build something new.”
Moving Forward
The beauty of positioning Matapihi Kirihou as essential reading alongside Te Poutama o te Ora’s theoretical and practical materials is that it keeps the framework honest. It prevents the wellness work from floating off into abstract theory disconnected from the realities of Māori lives.
Every time someone engages with the nine elements of wellness, they’re reminded: this comes from somewhere. This emerged from necessity. This is built on the foundation of real homes, real bodies, real experiences of colonisation and survival.
The plastic windows remain visible in the story—not as shame, but as a testament. They show where we’ve been. They honour what it took to survive. And they point toward where we’re going: homes with solid walls and clear glass, bodies healing from intergenerational trauma, communities reclaiming language and culture, futures where our mokopuna won’t need to be resourceful about plastic windows because they’ll have what they need to thrive.
This is the power of Matapihi Kirihou. This is why it matters. This is the foundation upon which genuine, lasting wellness can be built—not despite our difficult histories, but through them, transforming pain into purpose and plastic windows into pathways toward healing.
Matapihi Kirihou is the origin story of Te Poutama o te Ora, a comprehensive nine-element Māori wellness framework. To learn more about the framework and its practical applications, explore the full Te Poutama o te Ora materials.
TPO, the backstory is available here, and a narrated flipbook version is here; both are free.
We look again at why some patterns—like stress, health issues, or even resilience—seem to run in families? Modern science has an answer, and it’s something Indigenous communities have known for centuries: experiences can leave marks that echo across generations.
What Is Epigenetics—and Why Does It Matter?
Epigenetics is the science of how life experiences—like trauma or nurturing—can change how our genes work without changing the genes themselves. These changes can be passed down to children and even grandchildren (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018).
Here’s what research tells us:
Holocaust survivors’ trauma affected their children’s stress-response genes (Yehuda et al., 2014).
Syrian refugee families show trauma-related changes in DNA activity across three generations (Mulligan et al., 2025).
Colonisation trauma in Indigenous communities contributes to health issues like diabetes and mental illness in descendants who never experienced the original harm (Skinner et al., 2023).
This means health isn’t just about personal choices—it’s about inherited patterns shaped by history.
Te Whare Tapa Whā: The Four Walls of Wellbeing
In 1984, Sir Mason Durie introduced Te Whare Tapa Whā, a model that uses the image of a wharenui (meeting house) to explain health (Durie, 1998). It has four walls:
Taha Tinana (physical health) – Your body’s strength and function.
Taha Wairua (spiritual health) – Your connection to heritage and life force.
Taha Hinengaro (mental health) – Thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Taha Whānau (family health) – Belonging and social support.
Durie’s model was revolutionary because it said spiritual and family health matter just as much as physical health. Today, epigenetics backs this up: trauma affects stress systems, immunity, metabolism, and brain development all at once (Bhattacharya et al., 2019).
Te Poutama o te Ora: Going Deeper
While Te Whare Tapa Whā laid the foundation, modern challenges need more detail. That’s where Te Poutama o te Ora comes in—a nine-part framework designed for today’s world.
Five Core Pillars
Whakapapa (ancestry): Recognises inherited patterns science now confirms.
Tinana (body): Includes modern insights like gut health and how stress affects babies (Szyf & Bick, 2013).
Tuakiri (identity): Separate from family because colonisation fractured identity, creating unique stress markers (Raffington et al., 2021).
Wairua (spirit): Spiritual health influences bonding and stress hormones.
Hinengaro (mind): Thoughts and emotions shape gene activity.
Three Transformation Stages
Healing takes time and repeated effort—science agrees (Clark & Rager, 2020).
The Ninth Element: Stability
This is full balance—where wellness becomes the new inherited pattern. Research shows resilience can also be passed down, not just trauma (Kellerman, 2025).
Why This Matters
Start Early: Support parents before conception (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018).
Think Holistically: Health isn’t just physical—it’s spiritual, mental, and cultural.
Culture as Medicine: Language and cultural practices reduce stress and improve health (Comtois-Cabana et al., 2021).
Generational Approach: Healing isn’t just for individuals—it’s for families and communities.
The Big Picture
Epigenetics confirms what Māori frameworks have said for decades: health is interconnected and passed through generations. Te Poutama o te Ora builds on Te Whare Tapa Whā by adding detail and processes that match what science now knows.
Both show that wellness is cultural, systemic, and heritable.
The question isn’t whether these approaches work—science says they do. The question is: will health systems adopt frameworks that are as sophisticated as the problems they aim to solve?
