Ōritenga Hinengaro · Emotional Regulation and Wellbeing

Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Connections

This activity addresses the following Health and Physical Education curriculum statements (Draft 2025, Phase 4 — Years 9, 10):

• Personal Growth: Developing skills such as emotional regulation, self-awareness, planning, and help-seeking, to manage change and cognitive development during adolescence.
• Personal Growth: Exploring how self-care practices vary across developmental stages and cultural contexts and developing strategies for managing stress and accessing support.
• Personal Growth: Recognising signs of pressure and developing techniques to regulate emotions and seek support from trusted people or services when facing challenges.
• Personal Growth: Examining how the brain and body respond to stress and applying strategies that support regulation, recovery, and wellbeing across different situations.
• Relationships: Recognising intense emotions in social situations and applying regulation strategies, such as reappraisal or self-talk, to build confidence over time.
• Relationships: Empathy, emotional awareness, and respectful communication are important for building positive relationships — applying them is challenging when emotions are high.
• Relationships: Reflecting on how role models and peer influences shape values and behaviours, and practising making intentional choices aligned with personal identity and wellbeing.

Wāhanga 1 · The Brain Under Pressure

When you feel threatened — socially, emotionally, or physically — your brain triggers a survival response before you have a chance to think. Understanding this helps you intervene before the response takes over.

1. Which response do you most recognise in yourself? Give an example of when it happened:

2. What physical signs (body signals) tell you that your stress response is activating?

Wāhanga 2 · Regulation Strategies

Regulation strategies work by interrupting the stress response and reactivating the thinking brain. Different strategies work for different people and contexts.

Choose one strategy above and practise it right now (or at home tonight). Describe what you did and how you felt after:

Scenario: Your teacher gives back an assessment you worked hard on and you got a much lower grade than expected. You feel a wave of embarrassment and anger. What do you do in the next 30 seconds?

Wāhanga 3 · Self-Care Across Cultures

Self-care is not just bubble baths and screen time. It is anything that intentionally restores your physical, emotional, social, or spiritual wellbeing — and it looks different across cultures, families, and stages of life.

1. Name two self-care practices from your own whānau or cultural background:

2. How has what you needed for self-care changed as you have got older (compared to primary school)?

3. What is one self-care strategy you know works for you but you don't do often enough? What gets in the way?

Wāhanga 4 · Role Models and Peer Influence

We absorb values and behaviours from the people around us — often without noticing. Peer influence is not always negative: peers can also inspire, challenge, and uplift us.

1. Name someone (real or fictional) who has shaped the person you are becoming. What specific quality or choice of theirs has influenced you?

2. Think of a time you felt pressure from peers to do something that didn't feel right. How did you respond? What would you do differently now?

Wāhanga 5 · Intense Emotions in Relationships

Strong feelings make empathy and communication harder — exactly when they are most needed. The goal is not to feel less, but to act more intentionally.

Scenario: Your close friend says something in front of others that feels like a betrayal. You feel intense hurt and anger. In the moment, you want to react sharply.

A. What does reappraisal look like here? (Reappraisal = finding a different interpretation of what happened)

B. What would you say to yourself (self-talk) to create space before you respond?

C. What is the most empathetic response you could make once you have regulated? Write it out:

Aronga Mātauranga Māori · Te Ao Māori Lens

In te ao Māori, wellbeing (hauora) is not an individual project. Taha hinengaro (mental and emotional wellbeing) is understood as being in relationship with taha whānau — if one is struggling, the relational fabric provides support and healing.

Mauri (life force / vitality) is the energy that animates wellbeing. When mauri is diminished — through stress, disconnection, or loss — Māori healing practices focus on restoration: reconnecting to land (whenua), whakapapa (genealogy and belonging), and community (hapū). These are forms of self-care that belong to the collective, not just the individual.

What is one practice — from any culture or tradition — that you believe genuinely restores mauri? Why does it work?

Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts

Reflect on today's learning. What is the most useful idea you are taking away? What one regulation strategy will you try this week?