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AucklandApril 21, 2017

Kindness in action: effecting change in youth through yoga and meditation

Contributing writer
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A new initiative to teach yoga and mindfulness to troubled youth is effecting remarkable change. Don Rowe visits with Atawhai, a new initiative from Kristina Cavit and The Kindness Institute, ahead of their inaugural end-of-programme event this Sunday. 

In a small room off the Point Chevalier Community Centre in Auckland, miracles are taking place. One by one, in a circle, rangatahi from various difficult backgrounds are expressing their gratitude for everything from a ride home to new friends. Two girls, strangers as of a couple days ago, have just performed a dance together, followed by a guided meditation led by one of their peers. The air is thick with positivity and contagious optimism. It’s day three of Atawhai, a week-long intensive programme that aims to teach youth tools for forgiveness, stress management and how to overcome challenges ‘when shit hits the fan’. The progress is remarkable.

More than a past-time for the middle class, or some exotic eastern curiosity, mindfulness meditation and yoga are special for their efficacy in creating emotional space, in which reflection, introspection and emotional healing can take place. After an hour and a half of practice every morning, the rangatahi are grouped with mentors like poet Dom Hoey (Tourettes) and rapper Todd Williams (Louie Knuxx) to explore their learnings, and to work on a way in which they can pass that knowledge along at their end of programme event this Sunday. Then, at the end of the day, they come together to reflect.

I spoke with aspiring rapper Mike and mentor Todd ahead of their afternoon gratitude session – something I personally felt incredibly grateful to have been apart of.

The Spinoff: Mike, had you heard of yoga and meditation before this course?

Mike: I’d heard of it but I’d never done it. I thought it was a bit buzzy. I’d done stretching before and that kind of thing, just through martial arts and stuff, but not yoga.

What did you think about the meditation?

M: It was good, for me it’s like I just leave my thoughts at the door and just clear my mind a bit.

Do you get into it Todd?

Todd: Yeah, I first did it with Kristina at a programme ages ago, and I was actually quite opposed to it at first. But the young people on the programme set me a good example and then I participated and really took to liking it. I used to have quite a uptight girlfriend, and the first time I meditated on my own I went straight from meditating into one of her dramas and that’s how I got sold on it. I was just like ‘this is ok, it’s alright’, and I thought ‘fuck, this meditation shit is good.’

Heaps of the young people I work with have come from really stressful environments, and they find themselves in really stressful situations and I was much like that myself. I can’t imagine what a help it would have been if I knew how to de-stress myself, and give myself that kind of time. It would have been quite an amazing tool to have and I think it’s really good for them.

Programme founder Kristina Cavit and poet Tourettes (second right) with rangatahi from the Atawhai programme. Photo: Amanda Billing.

It’s funny eh, it’s one thing for some pampered rich dude to have their five minutes to de-stress, but it’s a whole different story when it’s directly applicable to intensely stressful real life situations where there often isn’t a physical escape. So with your art, your rapping, do you find it’s easier to be creative and relaxed with these tools?

M: Yeah, having a clear head and stuff, it’s good for writing. [My raps are] kind of inspirational sort of stuff. For my presentation I’m actually doing a rap about yoga and breathing and stuff.

T: It’s pretty incredible. I’ve worked with lots of young people who want to rap, a good percentage of the young people I’ve worked with want to rap, and often it’s really hard to develop the writing with them. But Mike’s been writing heaps and has recorded a whole bunch. He did so much in the programme we just did. And then his ability to comprehend and understand things. The first day of programme was the first time he did yoga and mindfulness, and by the next morning he had a whole rap written about yoga and mindfulness. Obviously I’ve been writing raps for like 20 years or longer, and if someone asked me to rap about yoga and mindfulness, I wouldn’t have been able to do it as well as he did. It was a really good indicator of what he’d grasped in here, and how quickly he’d grasped the concept. It was really incredible.

It’s kind of like when I write a story. If you understand it and you’re passionate about it, it almost falls out of you, it’s just so easy. Did it feel like that?

M: Yeah, I just mixed it all up and stuff.

And what if you tried to write it a week ago?

M: It would have been a whole lot harder.

When do you write?

M: When I’m bored, when I’m stressed, it’s like a tool sometimes. Like meditation.

It is kind of a form of meditation right? You have to get out of your own way to make it work.

M: Yea I just get a pen and paper, play the music once, and then it’s in my head.

T: It’s an interesting style of writing eh, not many people do it that way. I’ve only met a couple people who can do it without the beat playing, and then I met Mike.

So what’s so effective about this programme compared to some of the others you’ve been involved with?

T: I think the focus being on the mediation and yoga takes heaps of pressure off everything else. What Kristina wants, and what we want, for the young people is to get as much as they can out of that. Creating something for the event or presenting something for the event is really secondary to that, and it takes the pressure off. We’re really focussed on the young people having that group and the positive experience so that they can take something from it. Some of that might come from what they present, but most of it will come from what we’re doing here during the week.

So it’s an hour and a half every morning – that’s quite a long time. Did you find it hard at first to stay focused?

M: Yea, and then like the next day I was used to it.

T: I do it at the same time, and I think a real big part of it as a mentor is that doing the yoga and meditation forces you to be patient. I’m here and I’m trying to set an example for these fullas. I participate in everything, whereas if I had the opportunity to do this otherwise, maybe I wouldn’t.

Mike, do you reckon you’d recommend yoga or meditation to your mates?

Yea, maybe one day. They’d probably say ‘That’s weird’, probably think I’m pretty weird. Probably think it’s bullshit.

Rangatahi and mentors outside the Point Chevalier community centre, home to Atawhai. Photo: Amanda Billing.

So why didn’t you think it was bullshit?

M: My old martial arts teacher he used to do stuff that was kind of like this. He didn’t call it meditation but he did stretching and focusing on the breath and I liked that. I thought I’d give this a try. [The other day] I was angry at home with my brother, and I just used the breathing techniques and calmed down, and it got me relaxed.

T: One of the biggest messages that I get through the practice is one of being kind to yourself so you can in turn be kind to others, which I think is really, really cool. You get told things, and things are reinforced through the practice that young people need to hear that they normally don’t. Nobody tells you when you’re young to be nice to yourself, and to be kind to yourself. Isn’t that weird? It’s a concept that we’re not really introduced to. You could go your whole life without being introduced to that.

In Mike’s case, he’s had a pretty difficult time the last couple years and he needs a break. I think perhaps the first part of that is giving himself a break. And knowing that he deserves that break.

How has your self-image changed?

M: I reckon I’ve changed a bit. I used to never talk to people as much, just quiet. I’m still quiet, but yea. I reckon I’ve gotten a bit more confident.

T: For example, Mike and I just spent two and a half months together at another programme I work at. Mike didn’t really start having conversations with me until the end of the programme, right at the very end. Then the first day we’re here, at the end of the day everyone has to share something they’re grateful for. Kristina said ‘Ok, who wants to share something?’ and Mike said ‘Me’. I nearly fell out of my fucken chair. There’s like 20 new people he doesn’t know, and I did a double take to make sure that it was him that said it. I know that might seem small to other people but to me I thought it was incredible, and a huge indicator of his development. I mean right now, he’s talking to you for example. Today we met someone who’s giving him some work experience would could lead to a potential job, and there’s just all this cool stuff happening for Mike and this is a big part of it. This is the vehicle for it.

Did you think about it or did it just come out?

M: I dunno, I just wanted to give it a try. It felt pretty good, for me it was good.

T: It was such a big deal to me, pretty much immediately after the programme I was messaging people from work – Mike you don’t know this – but I was like ‘Holy shit, there was a group share and Mike volunteered to speak first!’ and they were like ‘Wow!’

M: Yeah, we all close our eyes and meditate and think about the things we’re grateful for. Now I have like a whole list of things that I was grateful for. I reckon just meeting new people, people who want to help young people like me, taking time off to help and to teach us these tools. It’s real good eh.

More Reading

    Atawhai – Kindness in Action: Sunday April 23rd, Ponsonby Community Center. Tickets available here.

    The Kindness Institute’s Kristina Cavitt is the author of The Spinoff’s new mental health series, Getting Your Shit Together; her next column will be published next week.

    The Spinoff Auckland is sponsored by Heart of the City, the business association dedicated to the growth of downtown Auckland as a vibrant centre for entertainment, retail, hospitality and business.

    Keep going!
    Wellesley St bus

    AucklandApril 21, 2017

    Surprise! Another dumb plan for Auckland buses

    Senior Writer, NZ Herald
    Wellesley St bus

    Hoping for more green space in the city centre? Auckland Transport has other plans, and there are just three days left to tell them what you think.

    Remember the City Centre Masterplan? Possible not, at least not unless you’re a policy wonk working for (or possibly against) the council. But it was a good thing, that Masterplan. Produced in 2012, not long after the creation of the Auckland super-city in late 2010, it was one of the earliest statements of the potential of this place. It was also one of the boldest.

    The CCMP, with its proposals for greening, pedestrianising and invigorating the commercial life of downtown Auckland, was a statement of hope and positive intent. Shoppers would benefit and so would the shops, because its whole focus was on making the central city a better place to spend time in, walk around in, buy things in and enjoy yourself in.

    And then along came Auckland Transport.

    The good folk at AT have been struggling with a few problems. Like, so many people want to use the buses and trains, they can hardly keep up. Like, all those buses coming into town in the morning, where are they all going to go? And also like, the University of Auckland isn’t entirely happy with the plan, for reasons that are a little difficult to determine.

    All of which means the Masterplan is under threat.

    Visualisation showing Wellesley St at Bledisloe Lane, looking east toward the Art Gallery.

    The issue at stake right now is the future of Victoria St, which is supposed to become a “linear park”. That translates as a green swathe (with limited traffic access) running right across the city centre from Albert Park to Victoria Park. Their royal excellencies would have been more than amused, they’d have been positively delighted, and so, I reckon, would we. (There’s more about this and related matters here.)

    Right now, though, Victoria St is the route out of town for buses headed from Victoria Park, across Queen St, past the universities and onto Symonds St, from where they head to either New North Rd or Sandringham Rd, or down Khyber Pass and up Remuera Rd. The Masterplan says right, let’s shift those outbound buses onto Wellesley St, which is the route they already take coming into the city.

    Under the Masterplan, therefore, Wellesley St would become the major east-west midtown traffic route across Queen St, while Victoria St becomes that tree-studded linear park. Service vehicles would have access; other vehicles not so much.

    But if AT gets its way, this part of the Masterplan will be abandoned.

    AT is currently asking for public feedback on three options for those buses. The first is its “preferred option”. The second is the route as per the Masterplan, but they don’t tell you that. It’s already been extensively consulted on, but they don’t tell you that either. The third is a variation on the second.

    Option 1, says AT, has two key benefits. One: it’s already in use so upgrading it will involve minimal disruption. But that’s no biggie: long-term betterments shouldn’t be avoided for fear of a bit of short-term disruption. And two: access to most of the city centre and both the universities is “excellent”. That’s true.

    AT also says there are two disadvantages, although it actually identifies three. One: the route is longer than the others. But hardly longer: it’s a very minor point. Two, the Bowen St part of the route, running up the hill from Victoria St at the north end of Albert Park, will be hard to install a dedicated bus lane on. Ain’t that the truth: they’ll be cutting away existing parkland to do it.

    And three: “This route will make it difficult to reduce the number of lanes on Victoria St, as part of a planned future upgrade of Victoria St.” Bingo. That “planned future upgrade” is the linear park and this route will stop it in its tracks.

    So, Option 2, which has the buses running both ways the length of Wellesley St? The listed benefits are that it’s the simplest and has good access to the city centre and the universities.

    Incredibly, the enormous benefit that it would allow the planned, consulted and approved linear park to proceed, is not mentioned.

    But several supposed disadvantages are. There would be more buses using the intersection of Wellesley St and Symonds St, which is already busy with traffic and pedestrians. AT says they’d need more lights, but the intersection is already controlled by lights. They’d need a new sequence, which is a different matter. What they would really need is a rethink of that whole intersection, perhaps with underpass or overhead walkways.

    AT claims the route is a bit far from the north end of the University of Auckland campus, but that’s silly. If it’s not hard for people to get off the bus and walk from Wellesley St, why would it be hard for them to get on it in the same place?

    AT also says they don’t know how the buses would turn round at Victoria St. In fact, that’s also part of a larger problem: the whole roadway/intersection area at the west end of Wellesley St, including the junctions of Sale St, Drake St, Victoria St and Halsey St, is now busy with pedestrians and needs a complete rethink even more than Symonds St does. A pedestrian overbridge and a new bus lay-up/turning bay would both help.

    What about Option 3? It’s the same as Option 2 but has the outbound buses taking a dogleg from Wellesley St onto Mayoral Drive and then left up Wakefield St to Symonds St. The intersection at the corner with the library, AUT and art gallery would become much busier. And those students and staff at the north end of the UoA campus: they’d have further to walk.

    We’re right near the end of the consultation period on all this. Auckland Transport has the details online here  and there’s an easy-to-use questionnaire here. If you want to have your say, be quick. The deadline is Monday April 24.

    After that, AT and Auckland Council itself could be headed for a showdown. The governing body of council has not resiled from the Masterplan and, in theory, it controls AT. When the governing body discussed this last month, it seemed most councillors were not happy about AT’s preference.

    Central Auckland’s ability to realise its own vision for itself is at stake here. Do we want to make the inner city a thriving and enriching oasis of civil life, or do what Auckland used to do and still does far too often: think of the issue only as a traffic problem and to hell with everything else?

    The Spinoff Auckland is sponsored by Heart of the City, the business association dedicated to the growth of downtown Auckland as a vibrant centre for entertainment, retail, hospitality and business.