Why do I garden? Let me count the reasons...

By Steve Carter, Mental Health Promoter, Mental Health Foundation

We love gardening at the Mental Health Foundation. Even those without green thumbs can comprehend the value in a hands-on connection with our own little piece of nature.  

Last year we sold Go Potty seedlings as a fundraiser and we also supported the TV show Get Growing with NZ Gardener.  We support community gardening, gardens in schools, vege growing and all the associated spin-offs including farmers’ markets and food barter systems. Gardening is fun, healthy and, let’s face it, pretty zeitgeisty in these transition times. 

Why? 

Well, I’ll tell you what it means for me and I’ll use the Five Ways to Wellbeing framework (more info here) to describe it. 

Let me put my cards on the table (or onto the garden furniture):  I love my garden.  In fact, outside of music, gardening is possibly the single thing I would rather be doing above all else. I work on organic and no-dig principles, so it’s barely an effort, it costs very little and the returns are many-fold.   

Stuff just grows. Abundantly.  Indeed, you might say my garden is flourishing. 

So, five ways to a flourishing garden? 

CONNECT

It might be true that I spend a lot of my time alone in my own garden, but gardening implies community. Exchanges of ideas and advice, working bees, harvest parties and other nature-cycle celebrations – I might have only two green thumbs myself, but I am surrounded by a community of people who love to get their hands dirty and reap the rewards of a relationship with nature, with themselves and, most importantly, with others.   

All this before you even think to venture out to the local community garden, or the farmers’ market, or the edible gardening group (yes, we have such a thing in Brighton).  

Guerrilla gardeners, urban foragers – there’s a whole network out there if you choose to connect to it.  And, hey, gardeners here in Otautahi have even been ‘Greening the Rubble’, bringing colour and life to otherwise crumbling earthquake-stricken gaps in the community. 

KEEP LEARNING

Refining your skills as a gardener is a constant and ongoing process.  New techniques, new ideas, different perspectives all contribute to better and better seasons. For example, have you ever wondered why you seem to spend so much time weeding?  It’s almost as if the weeds want to be there, again and again drawing you into a battle for supremacy.   

But grab a book on organic gardening and you might find that they offer more benefit than harm. Taproots draw nutrients from deep within the ground, so leave the dock; nettles make a fine tonic used as tea and contain more iron than spinach; chickweed is one of the best compost activators your garden will grow for you.   

There are so many things to learn, it’s a lifetime’s journey.  What is mulch and how should I use it?  How do I make compost? Could I maximise my water usage from house to garden or even from the sky?  How can I give nature a helping hand? 

BE ACTIVE

Now this one is something of a no-brainer, even for a lazy, no-dig gardener like me.  Sure, I don’t spend heaps of time breaking my back breaking ground any more – and to a lot of people that’s the essence of gardening: mammoth, boring effort and drudgery. It needn’t be.  

But I’m always moving stuff around. I can walk miles just ambling around my garden (see TAKE NOTICE below), shifting mulch and compost, building raised beds, erecting a new chicken run.  And, rather than hosepipe fresh Canterbury artesian water on the garden, I have a complex rainwater collection system, an outside bath and a watering can and buckets. Lord knows how far I walk and how much weight the train of buckets and watering cans add up to, but I can tell you an hour watering the garden is as good a workout as you can get. Not to mention heading to the beach to collect driftwood and seaweed to bolster the resources of my patch. 

It’s an active, outdoor lifestyle with a healthy eating payoff at the end of it.  The bath under the stars is a pretty cool wind-down too. 

GIVE

Like I say, stuff just grows in my garden. Right now, lemons are literally throwing themselves off the tree faster than I can make marmalade, cordial or preserve them in salt and spices. Last year I had so much parsley I thought I might suffocate under the onslaught, and this year the patch has doubled in size.  My broccolini and spinach have become triffid-like to the point where I get tired of eating them. But “waste not, want not” right? 

The answer? Give it away.  Who doesn’t love free, fresh, organic veges and fruit? 

Not just that. I now save seeds from my best crops and they are yours if you want them. You want some advice on how to plan for a thriving garden?  I’m happy to give you as many tips as you need. It feels so good to share. 

TAKE NOTICE

It has been pointed out to me that I can spend hours in my garden doing nothing, but in truth I’m rarely doing nothing. What I enjoy most is a very conscious presence in the natural environment I have helped to flourish around me.   

I am fascinated by the life teeming just beneath the surface of my soil. I love to watch the bees buzzing around my flowers, doing their pollinating work for me. Is that a new patch of silverbeet that has established itself in a hitherto bare patch of ground? Is that little family of coriander emerging from the ground once more, ready to burst into tasty life? Is it time to feed my berries and fruit trees so that the tiny buds can explode into flower for a new season’s yield?   

The birds are singing, winter is cycling into spring and what seemed lifeless and still is flushing into the hope of life and colour. Nature is a dynamic, endless process of change and it is a wonderful thing to engage fully with a very mindful appreciation of its diversity and energy. 

So, that’s why I garden. What other activity can you think of that offers such an array of benefits to mind, body and spirit? You get to work at it, develop new skills and refine the ones you have. You get to share it with others and build a community of like-minded people around you. You even get to appreciate the days when the rain comes. And best of all, you will relish all the many returns for your (not very hard) labours. 

You don’t have to hug any trees or talk to the flowers (but you can if you want to).  

Be good to your garden and it will be good to you.  

A wonderful feeling of relaxed plenty

By Amanda Bradley, Northern Development Manager, Mental Health Promotion, Mental Health Foundation

Attending an overseas conference is a privilege that doesn’t come around too often. The Mental Health Foundation endorses the annual Happiness and Its Causes Conference each year and, in return, we receive free attendance for one person. So off I went to Brisbane for two days of discovery.

Three things struck me about the conference.

Great organisation, flow and atmosphere

The first was the organisation, flow and atmosphere of the event. Almost 3000 delegates moved seamlessly into a massive auditorium and were seated while music played and a lighting show of coloured flowers moved across the space.

When the speakers came onto the stage, they were projected onto two huge screens and were easily seen and heard no matter where you were seated.

Break times gave opportunities for rummaging through the book shop, a meet and greet with the book authors for a signature, laughing yoga, Feldenkrais, a “happy” movie viewing and a browse through the stalls. There was a wonderful feeling of "relaxed plenty".*

The conference was also supported by a large number of volunteers who were easily identifiable, friendly, helpful and smiling!

Incredible calibre of speakers

The second was the incredible calibre of speakers. The conference was delivered in a single stream, there wasn’t the usual deliberation and decision making between steams. Each session had a theme and two or three speakers would present their work, which was mostly from leading international universities. This was followed by a panel discussion.

I have to admit I’m not a fan of panels; I’d never seen them work before (except on TV sports shows). But these panels were dynamic and interesting. They were made up of the speakers plus one or two other experts and a moderator (usually a radio or TV journalist). The debate was incredibly intelligent and the discussions covered a wide range of topics including the evolution of happiness, bringing up happy confident children, being wired for empathy and music – the heart and soul of happiness.

Surprise at being so emotionally moved

The third was my own surprise at being so emotionally moved so often through the two days: Jane Goodall describing her first emotional exchange with the chimpanzee she named Greybeard; Matthieu Ricard describing true altruism re-told the story of a man leaping in front of a train in New York to save the life of a complete stranger; Robert Biswas-Diener describing his visits to families in Calcutta in his search for happiness beyond the hedonic quick hits that we in the west usually associate with feeling good; Russ Harris insisting on a close up of his sweating palms and rating his anxiety levels at 9 out of 10 while speaking on building confidence and challenging us to all head out on a daring adventure.

And, finally, the Dalai Lama, whose chuckles and sense of play amazed me.

Paul Ekman (famous for mapping our emotions into facial expressions) asked the Dalai Lama, via live video link, if “a smile is the facial expression for compassion” and his response was “yes, I think so”.

* There was lots of choice but this didn't lead to that overwhelmed feeling you often get with too much choice

Maintaining your wellbeing after the earthquake

CONNECT

Now more than ever is the time to stay in touch with the people around you: family, whanau, friends, loved ones, neighbours.  Everyone will have their own way of dealing with a crisis, and some will be experiencing grief.  Talk, and listen.  It doesn’t have to be about the disaster, although that may be all that’s on your mind.  If you don’t feel able to talk, just being around people can be enough to help you stay connected – it does make a difference.  Let the people in your life know that you’re there, even if it’s just your presence.

Pay particular attention to older people, children, people with physical impairments or disabilities and those who may be isolated; people who may have difficulty getting a clear idea of what’s happening around them – it’s incredibly important that we all stick together and feel connected.

GIVE

In the face of disaster and tragedy, a simple word like “give” might seem overwhelming.  You may have lost people, treasures, and memories that are close to you.  Focusing on the needs of others by giving your time, your words, your thoughts and your presence, may help you put your own losses to one side at least temporarily. 

Give time and your help to others around you in the same boat, as much as you are able to, but don’t forget to include yourself and your own needs.  We all have different skills and strengths – some of us are good with our hands, others are good listeners and great support people.  

TAKE NOTICE

In the face of destruction, it may feel like you want to close your eyes and hide rather than take notice of anything. 

But in the words of Skylight’s Tricia Hendry, who lost her husband to suicide, “I had to seek good moments in the middle of the horror.  Giving someone a hug, or doing something with my children that was special.  I knew that life had to be more than tragedy, and I had to do more than just survive.”

LEARN

Getting our city back on its feet again is going to mean working together, and there’s no better time than now to reach out and learn something new you can do to help that you’ve never done before.  There can never be enough volunteers, and the challenge of achieving something – no matter how small – helps to maintain hope.

 

BE ACTIVE

We’re living on shaky ground - literally.  Some areas are unsafe.  But trying to keep physically active is an important part of staying well, keeping your mind active, and staving off the blues that come naturally in the face of overwhelming events like this.  If it’s safe where you are, go for short walks or runs if that’s part of your normal exercise routine.  Even if you’re not able to move far from where you are, there are a range of on-the-spot exercises you can do to help keep your strength and fitness up.  Originally designed for use in classrooms, its application can be much wider.

Chinese New Year brings new set of challenges

Chinese New Year is upon us and it’s tradition for Chinese people to return home to celebrate the spring festival. Each family prepares a New Year’s Eve dinner where everyone gets together in order to show they will have a family reunion next year. 

But in recent years, more and more young Chinese people who work in large cities far away from their home town dread returning home for spring festival. They’re called the home-anxious clan. 

So why don’t they want to go home?

Well, many migrant workers have to spend more money on getting home than in the past. High-speed trains are being put into service this year, and the tickets cost three times as much. It’s harder to get cheaper tickets since there are fewer normal trains in service.

Young Chinese people feel very awkward when they return home without something to make their parents proud of, such as a good job. They know their parents will be much happier if they bring home a future mate – they dread their parents nagging them about getting married. They even think of renting partners just for going home only - some people really do this!

Even though Chinese New Year is one of the most family-oriented holidays of the Chinese lunar calendar, many young people are fearful of going home for it because of the huge expenses involved; the family reunion causes a lot of anxiety for them.

It is customary to give a “red envelope” – a monetary gift given on special holidays. They have to give their parents money, and there’s also a fear of owing other people favours because they will be invited out to eat.

Parents simply want to enjoy seeing their child

Since 1980, married couples in China are only allowed by law to have one child. These families have the difficulty of deciding whose hometown they are going to return to for spring festival. This causes arguments, some of which even lead to divorce.

So, many home-anxious clans decide to stay in the city and celebrate Chinese New Year without the company of their family members, wondering if they can go home next year. Although some young people might not think so, it may be China’s most important time for a family gathering.

Charlie Tang, Mental Health Promoter, Mental Health Foundaiton

Ride Out Of The Blue gains momentum

Just over three weeks to go till our Ride Out of the Blue (ROOTB), and things are getting hectic.

Our main riders are busy getting miles “into their legs” and riding consecutive days – all in the name of preparation.
We have received expressions of interest from several other riders, including a number of fitness and cycling clubs, planning on joining the ride at various stages.

Our core riders have taken delivery of their ROOTB cycling outfit. It looks great. 

Hazel reports: “I rode in my outfit today and received a lot of positive comments. I thought I looked quite smart. I took the elastic out of the legs of the shorts so they are more comfortable. The jersey is really light and comfy.”

On the supporters and sponsorship front, Ultimo Clothing has offered support with a riders kit,  Avanti is assisting with bike maintenance and service en route, while Bluebridge Ferries is providing inter island transport. It’s wonderful to find such interest and support for what we hope to achieve.

Media coverage and awareness grow

We are fortunate to already have received media coverage in several city and regional newspapers, magazines and online publications.  TV coverage is expected for the start of the ride on Saturday 5 March. During the ride, a national radio summary is proposed every Sunday night on RadioLIVE’s The Nutters Club.

Our aim of raising awareness of mental health issues is beginning to find success. An exciting development is a proposed community awareness event to be held at Waiheke Island with the WISH trust. More details will follow.

To date, Ride Out of the Blue (official site) has raised over $5700 for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.Donations can be made through Fundraise Online or directly to the Foundation. A special thank you to Blue Fitness Ltd for its generous donation of $1000!

It's exciting to see the challenge gathering momentum and achieving its aim to "celebrate life, raise awareness for depression, and raise money for the Mental Health Foundation." 

For us the excitement is compounded by the realisation that we are less than a month away from your beautiful country.

Read more in the latest issue of In Touch

Alison

(Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue)

Wanna swap caffeine for weight loss and increased concentration?

Can stopping caffeine intake really do this? Well it does for me!

When most people think of caffeine, they think of coffee. But not so for me! I have never liked coffee much to the initial horror of my work colleagues. When I politely refuse to take up the invite for a coffee I receive a mixture of disbelief and confusion. The face says “how could you NOT like coffee?”.

The answer is that I am a tea man. Yes, growing up with tea has been the staple of morning and afternoon teas and any other sort of family or social natter. This has continued to my adult years along with that other caffeine drink – coke – or for me Coke Zero.

A few months ago I discovered the pleasure of frozen cokes and I was away! I would often have four or five cups of tea a day and often a can of coke too.

Recently,  I had a casual conversation with someone who had worked in the field of anxiety. They said that a number of people they know had stopped having caffeine completely and their anxiety levels went down. My first thought was “probably just a coincidence.” However, after some time and consideration I decided I would give it a go.

So, a month ago, I stopped caffeine in all forms – basically tea and coke. I did initially get some little headaches (apparently perfectly natural) but then things started to happen. And I am not just talking about a sense of “feeling better” – I mean things like increased concentration at work and weight loss – in fact over the last month I have lost 3kgs!

So how does that work you may ask?

For a starter, I started to feel less anxious and that helped me concentrate more on my work – and hello! – I’m getting more work done and more effectively!

The weight loss is an interesting one: I am an emotional eater, eating when feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. So with anxiety levels decreasing I am less likely to eat through stress. I find it easier to focus on eating well and I really am listening more to my stomach to see when I am full! I am now simply eating until I feel comfortably full even if it means leaving some food on the plate.

Now you may think this is all too easy and what else is happening in my life. To be honest, nothing else that I would consider to be lessening my stress levels, in fact there have been some things that might have increased my stress levels!
I cannot categorically say the increased concentration and weight loss are 100% caused by eliminating caffeine, but I think most courts would say it is a contributing factor.

I encourage you to give it a go and see if it works for you. If so – great – if not, at least you tried. I appreciate lots of people LOVE their caffeine fix, so how about just trialling a reduction.

For me what also helps is drinking more water or herbal teas. Let me know how you get on.

Grant Cooper, Mental Health Promoter, Mental Health Foundation

Ride Out of the Blue

A first: a first Ride Out of the Blue Blog, my first blog. 

More firsts: a first bike challenge for mental health in NZ, my first event. So I beg your patience. With so many firsts I’m bound to muck this up a bit.

Ride Out of the Blue is a 2,500km journey from Bluff to Cape Reinga to raise awareness of depression and money for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand to held provide resources for depression. I’m organising it because I love riding,

I’ve suffered depression, I’ve lost relatives who’ve suffered depression to suicide, and I can’t do nothing whilst New Zealand’s brightest and best young men commit suicide. 

But! Off the soap box. Ride Out of the Blue is about celebrating life. In the words of James E. Starrs, “Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.”

Riding is brilliant.  Whether getting out to turn the pedals with friends, to sip lattes and talk about lycra, or to ride hills beyond my abilities and in doing so to put back into perspective what’s dogging me. I can think of no other activity that enables a balance of healthy body, healthy mind, as simply as riding.  

On ya bike!

It’s non-exclusive, universal, empowering. Get a bike.

Planning Ride Out of the Blue and training for it has been, is, a mammoth task: gathering support, commitment, putting myself out there as an event organiser and long distance cyclist – vulnerable moments as I'm not either, bothering my family and friends with constant updates about “the Ride”.

It’s happening now – in six weeks.  We have four committed riders, we have the support of the NZ Police, and we have raised over $4k.  We’ve made a difference and have the chance to make a bigger difference. 

Seriously exciting pursuit

It’s seriously exciting to be a part of this. One of our riders, Dave, has had some great press coverage: Ride To a Better Life

Providence has opened every door for this Ride to come about, despite the rain and the floods here in tropical Queensland where three of the riders live.The torrential rain has stopped any training, the floods have destroyed our cycle paths and, in my case, inundated our rental house. Check out the photos!

Now the sun is out, the flood damage is being assessed and repaired, and riders everywhere are back on their bikes. This weekend  Chris (one of our riders) and myself are heading down to Victoria to do the Audax Alpine Classic 250km and 200km. With little riding lately it’s going to hurt some.  But with alpine scenery around us, where else would I rather hurt – where else but New Zealand of course!

Alison Blyth, Organiser, Ride Out of the Blue

Curing the Common Birthday

The New Year is here, and along with another year comes another birthday. Birthdays can bring with them a range of emotions. With all the cards screaming ‘Happy Birthday’ at us it is no wonder we put pressure on ourselves to feel good.

It is the unrealistic expectations that we set ourselves for the day that can bring our mood down. It is not realistic to think that all of our friends and family can make it to our birthday dinner or party. For many of us, birthdays also bring thoughts that we haven’t achieved as much as we would like; that our life, so far, may not be how we pictured it. I think that it is important for us to be able to acknowledge the wide range of emotions that we can experience on our birthday and learn to accept them. However, there are things that we can do to help us feel more positive about the day.

Expressing gratitude for what we already have can make us feel more positive. It may seem corny, but research indicates that we are happier if we cultivate an ‘attitude of gratitude’. Expressing gratitude helps us to savour positive experiences, bolster self-worth and cope better with stress.

I plan to sit down on my upcoming and write three things that I am grateful for, no matter how small. Writing a gratitude journal helps me to see the parts of my birthday that are good. I also do this as a weekly exercise. My recent discovery of the website 1000awesomethings.com has boosted my appreciation of the small things in life, like getting the perfect ketchup to fries ratio.

My work colleague and friend Marie Hull-Brown sums it up perfectly with her thoughts on birthdays: “I see birthdays as a time to be grateful for the many years I have already enjoyed and to welcome yet another twelve months of friendship, love and opportunities to learn. As an octogenarian, I regret that I can no longer blow out all the candles with one puff but I still love the cake.”

Angela Culpin, Mental Health Promoter, Mental Health Foundation

World Cup a win for wellbeing

While many Kiwis may feel disappointed that New Zealand’s World Cup run is over, it seems like their participation has been good for our mental health.

According to recent reports in the US media, researchers have shown that fans who feel personally invested in a team, particularly those who cheer along with like-minded fans, receive mental health benefits from the feeling of social connectedness. This sharing of a common allegiance with others creates a strong bond, can lead to new friendships and a sense of belonging.

This positive effect comes as no surprise to the Foundation as “Connect” is one of our Winning Ways to Wellbeing.

Reflected glory
Additionally, when a team performs well – after all the All Whites exited the World Cup undefeated and applauded by international media – fans feel good about themselves through a kind of reflected glory, further boosting wellbeing.

Even when a result is disappointing, many people take a kind of pride in remaining a fan through the bad or mediocre times so that they can speak of their loyalty to their team and feel an even greater sense of accomplishment when they do well.

New interest
For many New Zealanders the World Cup has also sparked a new interest, or encouraged an existing one, in football and a new pastime can also aid feeling good.

Of course, there are those who may argue they are glad New Zealand is no longer in the competition as they took no interest in the first place and are finding it harder to connect with a partner, friend or family member who is swept up by World Cup fever. Some may be happier when the whole event is finished so their sleep patterns return to normal and they can be better rested.

Overall though, the World Cup scores highly in raising spirits.

Carrie Briffett, Communications Officer, Mental Health Foundation

Mindfulness – from therapy to wellbeing

Mindfulness as a therapeutic technique has grown in popularity in the past few decades and there is now a lot of evidence in support of its short and long term benefits.  This is perhaps unsurprising given that mindfulness develops beyond a technique for many people and instead becomes a complete framework for living.  Mindfulness, in other words, is a way of being in the world rather than simply another technique that we ‘add’ to our lives. 

In terms of therapy, this means that we don’t ‘take’ mindfulness as we would a pill.  Instead, being mindful means not denying or pushing away our current experience, but meeting it with an open curiosity. 

Mindfulness is cultivating the ability to be present for whatever is arising in our lives and learning to make friends with those experiences. Where before we may have reacted to painful emotional experience by (sometimes violently) pushing it away, now we have the ability to rest with those experiences and allow them to unfold their story.  We learn to ask “is it the experience itself that makes me uncomfortable or the way I respond that causes so much frustration and unease?” 

Beyond therapy, mindfulness helps us recognise and savour the wholesome moments that are already present in our lives. Often these are the quiet moments – they are so natural and smooth that they tend to slip by unnoticed. With mindfulness we touch these moments and we begin to taste the quiet joy that accompanies them.  With practise, the experience of joy and contentment grows and a way of life develops where open curiosity rather than closed-off anxiety becomes the norm. 

Helping others to appreciate these quiet moments and to rest with the rich fabric of life experience – in an open and non-judgemental way – is surely a positive and worthy goal of mental health promotion.

Grant Rix, Midlands Mental Health Promoter

Domestic violence and the relevance of wellbeing

Talking about positive wellbeing is all very nice, but people who face harsh realities every day, such as the effects of child sexual abuse or family violence, may question whether it’s possible to feel positive and flourish in such circumstances. It may seem naïve to come from the angle of ‘building a life that is worth living’ when your ex-partner is stalking you or your children see you being bashed about. How do you start promoting positive mental health promotion values in such a situation?

One thing we do know is that wellbeing values were born out of hardship and struggle. All New Zealanders come from communities where suffering occurs, but those same communities inspire and nurture the healing of its members too. Any wellbeing strategies have to first take into account the poverty, ill-health, violence or discrimination that confront people and then work towards empowering people within their communities.

One key group to develop such strategies is mental health service users. Their experiences mean that they know what it is like to feel emotionally vulnerable and therefore the importance of being connected to others, to be valued and secure. As such they have led a positive, recovery-focused approach, which is now the norm in this country.

Another sector combining realism and empowerment is those organisations representing people from refugee backgrounds. They know the reality of trying to build their own infra-structures where few resources are available and virtually no-one gets paid for the essential developmental work they do. Yet they have strong self-determination strategies and vigorous advocates. So the convergence of real-life problems and positive wellbeing strategies is happening everyday.

However domestic and sexual violence, usually aimed at women and children, are an open wound in our country and we are so good, so polished at ignoring such suffering and getting on with our lives. If the bodies of injured or dead women or children were lying in the street, propped up by rubbish bins or phone poles, would that make any real difference to our attitudes? To the attitudes of the courts, the police, the parents, or even the schools who keep socialising us in gender expectations and distinctions that make women and children sitting ducks for abuse?

Promoting mental wellbeing must be a combination of advocacy and social change as well as an individual mental health focus. Survivors of family violence would benefit from greater awareness and responsiveness to the issue, as well as ideas to support flourishing in their lives.

These two complementary approaches are translated into mental health promotion initiatives in various forms. As an example, abused women’s support and education groups in the family violence sector are magic for moving towards both individual healing and promoting social change.

This basic two-pronged methodology can be used across sectors and for all communities. We know, as mental health promoters, that strong, empowering communities are where wellbeing and healing starts.

Dale Little, Adult Mental Health Promoter