Here's Five: Tips On Shaking Off Those Heavy Vibes

The inaugural Mind Games festival is taking place across the Whammy Bar and Backroom this evening, with a plethora of topnotch local artists lined up to perform and help raise money for The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. While community-led initiatives like Mind Games help remove the stigma around discussing mental health, we thought we'd also look at other ways we can each look after the wellbeing of ourselves, our families and our friends. The foundation has identified five actions you can build into your day-to-day lives to help keep your spirits up; connect, give, take notice, keep learning and be active. With this in mind, Liam Dargaville of Heavy (who are playing tonight in the backroom) shared with us the food-centric ways that he implements these actions...

"I’m no expert and I don’t wanna preach but it’s a fucking struggle and sometimes due to circumstances it's impossible but we all gotta eat. Just do your best to eat as well as you can and with others. Do it together." - L.D.

1: Connect / Me Whakawhanaunga
If you live in Central Auckland I’d be a little surprised if you’d never indulged in at least one Dominion Road eatery. The 'Spicy House' pork hock, a literal bucket of deliciousness from 'Hot & Spicy Pot', 'Shaolin Kung Fu Noodle’ dumplings in sour soup, 'Xi’an Food Bar’ hand-pulled noodles and the infamous tofu and cucumber salad from ‘New Flavour’. The list is endless. Use these beautiful establishments to create what we have coined the ‘Dom Road Potluck’. Everyone's favourite dish coming together to create a monstrously mouth watering buffet. You can finally have Eden Noodle AND Shefco without feeling like a cretin. Very few things bring people together like food can. It may just be once a week, but sharing food with even one other person can be vital in helping connect and build relationships.

2: Give / Tukua
It’s a no-brainer that giving back feels good, although understandably not everyone is in a situation to give back much. In saying that even the smallest of donations accumulate and make a difference. Auckland City Mission accept food donations at their Hobson Street Drop-In Centre and you can make direct donations to KidsCan through their website who feed over 25,000 hungry children every week at school.

Alternatively if you only have time to offer, Eat My Lunch (who provide a lunch to a child in need every time a lunch is purchased) are always looking for volunteers. In the last 18 months they’ve had over 2500 people come and help them make 340,000 lunches for kids in need.

3 & 4: Take Notice / Me Aro Tonu & Keep Learning / Me Ako Tonu
Mindfulness can be an infuriating goal when it seems so unattainable. The notion seemed laughable when it was first put forward to me. As you may have noticed all my points have revolved around food and this one is no different. Cooking is one of the few things that grounds me. It immerses you in it’s need for method, timing and patience. The attention it requires makes the world stop and I can finally think clearly. Take the time to; smell, taste and eat, and you’ll enjoy it so much more. Cooking for yourself is also a good step in regulating what you eat and becoming healthier mentally and physically. You’ll also start to challenge yourself more in expanding what you eat and cook which perfectly stems in to the next step which is to keep learning. Re-create your ‘Dom Road Potluck’!

5: Be Active / Me Kori Tonu
It’s pretty frightening when 30 minutes on stage can leave you breathless and gasping for air. Writing and performing my music is essential to my mental well-being but if I can’t even keep up a short performance once a week without getting light headed it’s seemingly pointless. There’s obviously more to it then just your physical health as the crushing anxiety of being in a intensely crowded and socially fuelled space like a music venue can be quite crippling. Juggling both is just a nightmare. If you need support catch me during the day in Potters Park repeatedly shooting air balls when there’s no one there to judge me. Except each other I guess.

Mind Games is taking place tonight at Whammy Bar and Backroom and features a fantastic line-up of Ghost Waves, Purple Pilgrims, SoccerPractise, Peach Milk, Couchmaster, Heavy, Hugo Jay, Siobhan Leilani, Baby Zionoff and Eyes Noe. Head over here to pick up your tickets, the proceeds of which go to The Mental Health Foundation.

And in the meantime get in the mood with this Mindgames Mixtape featuring some of the artist's playing at tonight's show...

If you are struggling with mental health, feeling depressed or suicidal, please contact Lifeline Aotearoa on 0800 543 354, or visit The NZ Music Foundation Wellbeing Service.