Wellness – Implementation Stage 1 – Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, Auckland

Vedanta Wellness for New Zealand – Phase 1

Empowering You to Serve Others
to Manage Their Mental Wellbeing

Training of Wellness Guides

We will teach Vedanta knowledge and meditation practices which can be taught as mind-management techniques to students, children, staff, community members etc to self-manage their mental health. The program is simple, practical, relevant, and yields quick benefit to the final beneficiaries.

The program will be delivers through online courses, workshops, retreats etc.Trainees will go through the basic, Intermediate and Advanced courses and recognised as certified Wellness Instructors.

Teachers

Calmness of mind, focus of attention and interest in subject matter are essential for learning. Our program offers to train the teachers with Vedanta-meditation based knowledge and skills to empower students with calmness and concentration of mind, will-power, better decision-making, resilience and mastery of emotions.

Parents

Education starts at home from parents. We offer online classes and courses to share Vedanta-meditation based knowledge and skills to nurture their children at home so that they develop intellectually, emotionally, ethically and spiritually - as well-balanced, strong, responsible and resilient citizens.

Corporate Wellness Officers

Poor mental wellbeing of employees due to work pressure, anxiety, etc. greatly affects productivity and efficiency. We offer to train wellness officers with Vedanta Knowledge and meditation techniques and effective training skills which can be used to empower employees to better manage their wellbeing.

Community Leaders

Maraes, Clubs, Temples and Churches, etc are important places of social gatherings where the mental wellbeing of its members can be supported. Our programs offer to train the community leaders such as Kaumatuas etc. with Vedanta knowledge and meditation practices will empower them to better serve their members.

Correction Services

Prisoners undergo immense stress which greatly affects their mental and emotional wellbeing. They need support to manage their thinking and feelings and to be calm and train themselves to return as good members of the society. Our program offers to train the wellness officers of correction services to support them in their services.

Youth Power

Young people (10-24 years) form about 20% of the population and are the future. This is a huge pool of untapped creative, vibrant and fearless energy that needs to be included in the design and delivery of wellbeing solution for young people. They must be included as co-designers and partners in any program for them.

Salient features of the Vedanta Wellness Program

Align Program with NZ Government's Strategic Response to Mental Wellbeing

Our strategic approach is to partner and collaborate with teachers, parents, counsellors, wellness officers, kaumatuas etc to support them with meditation-based mind management tools so that they may use these to empower their students, children, staff, community members to better manage their mental wellbeing.

We have identified alignment our program with two focus areas of New Zealand Government’s Long Term Response to Mental Wellbeing (Kia Manawanui Aotearora – viz.

(1) Equipping communities, whānau and individuals to look after their own mental wellbeing and

(2) Fostering community-led solutions.

The solution to our wellbeing is WITHIN us; not outside!

There is much focus by the Ministry of Health on addressing already acute mental health of cases in the community. Vedanta Wellness will focus on a holistic proactive and preventative approach to mental wellbeing – an equivalent to building fences up the slope to prevent people slipping down rather than operating the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

The Vedanta teachings proclaim that each soul is potentially divine. We all are spiritual beings having a human experience. The spiritual dimension is absolutely pure, perfect, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, blissful and ever free. Due to ignorance of our spiritual nature, we all are trapped in the limited human personality and identified with the body-mind-ego complex. Vedanta is the ‘Science of Human Excellences” and meditation techniques are methods to connect our minds to our inner source of all power, strength, beauty, knowledge and bliss. It does not depend on any external religion, faith etc. All we need is to believe in our own higher Self with us.

Our strategic approach is to empower the key stakeholders with Vedanta knowledge and meditation skills to take care and ownership of the wellbeing of the people under their care.

Utilise the Cultural and Spiritual Pathways for the communities

We will collaborate with community leaders and elders to identify suitable existing cultural and spiritual practices (similar to as “Dadirri during yarning circles” for the Aboriginal people in Australia) which will be conducive for the target beneficiaries to engage in the program.

For example, the program for Maoris should fit their framework of holistic wellbeing (Hauora) viz. spiritual (Taha wairua), mental and emotional (Taha hinengaro), family & social (Taha Whaanau), physical (Taha tinana) and land roots (Whenua). Similarly, the meditation program would need to be adapted to the culture and spirituality of other groups such as Pacifica and Pakeha.

The wellness program is similarly flexible to be adapted to different audiences such as employees in an organisation, schools with different ethos and culture, families from different backgrounds, etc

Inviting involvement and partnership with Young People

Young people (10-24 years) form about 20% of the population. They are the future of humanity – creative, innovative, full of optimism and enthusiasm. This is the most formative period of their lives during which they receive education and training to become productive members of the society.

However, young people generally have very little, if any, say in how, what, why they are taught. There is very little participation, consultation etc in the design of solutions to their challenges. It is little wonder that may young people feel that they are not well understood by their parents, teachers and elders.

Swami Vivekananda had immense hope in young people. He said, “My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions.”

We believe that young people need to be involved and consulted in the design and delivery of any wellbeing solution for them. We wish listen to your perspectives of the wellbeing challenges and suggestions on possible solutions. We wish to share with you the Vedanta knowledge and meditation practices and invite you to experiment and test any solutions we co-design before offering it to the larger community.

If you are a young person concerned about the wellbeing challenges in your age group and wish to be involved in our project, then we invite you to join us by filling this expression of interest form. Together we can be the solution. EXPRESSION OF INTEREST.

Empowering You to Serve Others to Manage Their Mental Wellbeing