Stories from Youth Organisations Around the Rohe
From a Youth Council member's experience at a Wellbeing for Young People Session:
On 10 August Tasman District Council hosted the annual Top of the South Youth Council Hui. This was attended by approximately 30 young people from Golden Bay, Murchison, Tasman area, Nelson and Marlborough. This is a day of shared experiences and opportunities for these young leaders. One of the highlights from the day was a session focused on Wellbeing for Young People, led by inspiring holistic health and wellbeing coach, Astiana Trouland.
The session covered several areas, including breath work and the breath’s influence over the nervous system and response to stress. Another concept was response to fear. Trouland challenged participants to reframe their mindsets surrounding fear. Could fear be thought of as F.E.A.R or “False Evidence Appearing Real”? Meaning that sometimes fear is anxiety that seems like a real threat, but is actually an illusion we made ourselves believe in. Trouland encouraged members of the Youth Council to consider how much of the fear response can be caused by external factors such as texts, emails, social media etc., and offered practices to mitigate their F.E.A.R response.
Feedback from a member of the Youth Council:
1. What does wellbeing mean to you?
To me, wellbeing means taking care of others while taking care of yourself. It means to keep track of the four aspects of hauora in your life; Spiritual, Emotional, Mental and Physical, and keeping a nice even balance between them.
2. What did you learn from the session?
I learnt that taking a break from everything is really important for your wellbeing, being able to step back for a while is incredibly rewarding.
3. What is one suggestion you would pass on to a friend if they were feeling stressed?
I would suggest to them to let yourself relax for a while, allow yourself to feel what you need to and take a break. Decide for yourself whether you should fight, or flight, because sometimes leaving a situation is what you need to do, and sometimes staying and fighting is what you need to do.
From Reuben Molnar, Health Promoter | Hauora Rangatahi
Queen Charlotte Planter Box Project:
At the start of this year Queen Charlotte College wood work/technology teacher, Richard Mahoney, reached out to community groups looking for projects his class could contribute to. Last year I was involved in a project with Marlborough Youth Trust, Marlborough Woodworkers Guild & Top of the South Neighbourhood Support which saw planter boxes built from reusable products, such as pallet wood, mussel floats & vineyard posts to grow vegetables, herbs & flowers. Six of the boxes were given to elderly people living in council flats and six went to the Myspace youth centre. So when Richard reached out I instantly I had in mind an awesome project. Richard and his class were keen to take part in the planter box project. The Picton Lions put out the request for elderly who were keen to receive one and the community planter box project was underway. The class have an amazing facility at QCC to build and they have the expertise to put these together. So far they have made and delivered thirteen boxes to elderly in Picton. Compost has been donated so these can be filled, Mitre10 mega have donated pallets, Kaituna Sawmill supplied funds to purchase timber.
Bohally Recreation Leadership Group:
I am involved in supporting the Maunga, To Moana, To Whenua recreation series – a collaboration between Sport Tasman & Bohally Intermediate in Blenheim. Maunga, To Moana, To Whenua is a leadership programme for year 7 & 8 developed to increase outdoor education opportunities, leadership and connection to the whenua/ areas of cultural significance in the area. The activities are co-designed with Rangatahi and what they want to do - so far we have practised boxing, and coming up we have skiing and rafting trips planned.