gwunspoken - Beyond the Plan
gwunspoken: Beyond the Plan
Hear the person beyond the plan.
This podcast is where NDIS participants, families, and supporters reclaim their narrative. We dive into life beyond the diagnosis, beyond the reports, and beyond the plans—exploring identity, strength, and voice.
Whether you're a parent seeking connection, a support worker craving understanding, or someone walking their own NDIS journey, this space is for you.
Because labels don’t define people—stories do.
gwunspoken - Beyond the Plan
Mindfulness Works: How Arie Manages School and Life
Ever wondered how children navigate complex emotions and social challenges? In this heartwarming conversation, young Arie shares his excitement about his upcoming Melbourne adventure while demonstrating remarkable emotional intelligence that many adults would envy.
The episode opens with charming authenticity as our host admits to forgetting to press the record button initially—a moment that sets the tone for this genuine conversation. Arie's enthusiasm bubbles over as he describes his plans to ride trams through Melbourne's city streets and experience a steam train (complete with protective glasses!). His childlike wonder reminds us all of the simple joys that travel and new experiences can bring.
What truly stands out is Ari'es impressive understanding of mindfulness techniques and how he applies them in real-world situations. He articulates three specific strategies—muscle relaxation, sensory grounding, and box breathing—that help him manage challenges at school. When faced with peer pressure, Arie made the mature choice to say "no" instead of following along with inappropriate behaviour. His success with these techniques offers valuable insights for parents, educators, and anyone working with children.
The conversation weaves through lightsabers fixed by helpful brothers, remote control cars accidentally driven off verandas, and saving money—everyday aspects of childhood that reveal Arie's developing character. By the end, you'll find yourself smiling at his innocent wisdom and perhaps reflecting on how his straightforward approaches to difficult situations might benefit your own life. Subscribe now to hear more conversations that bridge the gap between childhood insights and adult challenges!
Welcome to an edition of Beyond the Plan. And I've got a very special guest here and I've got Ari. How are you Good, Mate? This is the second time I've tried to do this this morning. What happened?
Speaker 1:Um, you didn't press the button. I didn't press the record button.
Speaker 2:And I actually said to you do you want to do it or me? And you said for me to do it and I said I'm a bit rusty. I've known this for two weeks and look what happened. I made a mistake straight away. Yeah, how have you happy?
Speaker 1:That in 10 days I get to go to Melbourne.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, Are you looking forward to Melbourne? Yeah, what are you going to do at Melbourne again?
Speaker 1:There's trams.
Speaker 2:Oh, have you been on them before?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They go down the middle of the city, don't they? Middle of the street? Yeah, yeah, so you go on the tram. What else will you do at Melbourne?
Speaker 1:There's a steam train.
Speaker 2:Oh, a steam train You're going to go on that yeah. That's cool.
Speaker 1:But I need glasses.
Speaker 2:Oh, you need glasses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because of the steam oh so it doesn't burn your eyes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, okay nice, that's good, and so obviously catching a plane there or you're driving there.
Speaker 1:Plane.
Speaker 2:Have you been?
Speaker 1:in a plane before Four times.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're a seasoned traveller. Do you like going in a plane? Yep, that's nice. Do you like when it goes really fast and then lifts off? Or what's your favourite part of the plane or the landing?
Speaker 1:I like the landing because it goes like yeah, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So when we go on a plane, we often give the pilot a rating out of 10 how smooth the landing is. Like we don't go and tell them, but we'll say to each other like sometimes you hit the landing and it'll go bang, bang, bang. Oh my gosh, that was like a four. And sometimes it's really smooth. You go oh, that was like a nine. So when you go to Melbourne, when you come back, I'm going to put you on a podcast. I'm going to say what was the landing like? Was it like a nine or eight or was it like really bad?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you like school holidays?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is there parts of school you miss when you go on holidays?
Speaker 1:Only one day.
Speaker 2:You only miss like one day at school. Yeah, and you mainly miss your friends at school.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, fair enough, now. Whose place are you at at the moment?
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to Mum's, you're going to Mum's tonight.
Speaker 2:Did you go to Dad's over the weekend? I think, Did you go to Dad's over the weekend for Father's Day?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What did you do for Father's Day?
Speaker 1:I gave him a cool dad club. I'm washing things. Oh, a shirt, yeah that's cool, Do washing thing oh a shirt yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Do you like it? Yeah, and did you go? Did you go get it for lunch?
Speaker 1:I got it. I got him a frame. Oh, it's a frame.
Speaker 2:What's going to go in there?
Speaker 1:Um Thomas.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Who died?
Speaker 2:Okay, the cat. Yeah, okay To remember. That's lovely, so you can put it in his bedroom or in the land room somewhere to remember him.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whose idea was that?
Speaker 1:Mine.
Speaker 2:Very sensitive. I like that. That's very thoughtful of somebody else. Well done, that's beautiful. And did you have give him breakfast in bed or did you go out for lunch running yesterday? What did you do? Did you go anywhere?
Speaker 1:I went to whatever Dad wanted to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Where was that Gold Coast?
Speaker 2:Did you go to Gold Coast again. Oh my gosh, you might as well live there. What would you think if I said to you would you like to live at the Gold Coast?
Speaker 1:What would you say? That's cool.
Speaker 2:You'd like to go there. Well, guess what? What If you went to Gold Coast School? It'd be a long train trip here every day to go to school. You'd have to go to school down there, wouldn't you? Yeah, Because there's a train. What's a train? An hour and a half or two hours or something from here? Yeah, Imagine having to wake up in the morning and come to school on a train every day and go home Actually it's actually one hour. Is it.
Speaker 1:You have to go to Roma Street and then Helmsvale Smart. You know how to get yourself on a train, and I now have my own go-kart.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:Tap on, tap off.
Speaker 2:That charges for free. For free, I thought. Trains are only like 50 cents or something at the moment. It's really cheap, yeah, but I don't like spending a lot of money, so I Even 50 cents you like saving, do you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2:I like that about you. That's good.
Speaker 1:And I lost a lot of money on my savings Did you. You know how I used to have $165? I used to have $175. $175, yeah, I now have $145. Well, that's not too bad. You spent $30. That's not too bad $35.
Speaker 2:You spent $35. What that's not too bad you spent $30.
Speaker 1:That's not too bad $35.
Speaker 2:You spent $35. What did you buy? A light saber, oh my gosh. Well, sometimes it's worth spending some money to get something you really love. Yeah, that's cool, isn't it? What about when you get old and you get your own job and have your own money?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it wouldn't work. The light wouldn't work and it was not a light-up lightsaber.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:And Oscar fixed it to be a light-up lightsaber.
Speaker 2:Your brother fixed it. How good's that.
Speaker 1:He took off the brains.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the brains yeah.
Speaker 1:And then he put the Oscar's old Um lightsaber frame onto my stem. Yeah, and then did the thing.
Speaker 2:And then boom Put it back on. So did he use his old one to help you with yours. Yeah, that's a good brother, that's good. Is it still working now?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you use it at night time, when it's dark? Do you see it glow? Yeah, does it glow when you finish with it? I used to have one that used to glow in the dark.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Does it glow Like go green or something when you turn the lights off?
Speaker 1:It is blue, oh is it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool. I hope you don't stab anybody with it.
Speaker 1:It's not real. You don't chase people around the house with it. Good, that's good. Oscar and me go like Oscar and me fight with lightsabers.
Speaker 2:Yep, just so they touch each other, just pretend, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Like ching ching.
Speaker 2:Oh, so like they just hit each other like Star Wars? Yeah, that's pretty cool. Lightsabers are always fun, aren't they? Yeah, Well, that's worth spending your $35 on. At least you've got something good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Isn't it? I've got a question for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is your remote control car still working?
Speaker 1:You mean my white one.
Speaker 2:The one that went off the veranda that time.
Speaker 1:No, I got a new one.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, what's happened there? The old one, it broke. Did. Excuse me, what's happened there? The old one, it broke. Did it go off the veranda again? It did. It was driving. Yep, you driving this time. Didn't Oscar drive last time and it fell off? Yeah, so this time you drove and it went off? Yep, did you mean to? Or did it accident? Accident, oh no. And what hit the ground?
Speaker 1:Did it smash the bottom part?
Speaker 2:did, did it but the other parts didn't but does that mean just doesn't work anymore?
Speaker 1:it still works, just goes like.
Speaker 2:Goes sideways and sideways and sideways oh, so it's hard to the remote. Doesn't let go where you need it to go. Yeah, oh dear, so you got a new one. Yeah, is it a different type of car this time? Yep, what is it this time?
Speaker 1:It broke.
Speaker 2:It broke again the new one I'm going to need to get a new one, you'd have 10 just ready to go, just in case one breaks.
Speaker 1:I got a radio one and the wheels won't force it to go straight and turn. The wheels won't let it turn and the wheels won't let it move.
Speaker 2:So what happened to this one? It just wouldn't work. So did you take it back? No, dad's going take it back.
Speaker 1:No, dad's going to try and fix it.
Speaker 2:Oh cool, it wasn't because you guys smashed it again, did you?
Speaker 1:No we didn't.
Speaker 2:Are you sure Because?
Speaker 1:you started smiling when I said that I didn't, you didn't, and so what type of car. Is it this time? It's kind of like a race car.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Not like a race car, okay, not like a Lamborghini or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what colour is it? You say?
Speaker 1:White White.
Speaker 2:So you're getting that car fixed up, you've got a lightsaber at home, you've still got some money in the bank. Here's a question for you. What I know you like saving your money, but are you going to buy something when you're in Melbourne with it? A lot? Oh, you're going to spend. All right, I'm really interested now, what kind of things do you think you're going to buy in Melbourne?
Speaker 1:I'm really interested now, what kind of things do you think you're going to buy in Melbourne? This is going to be good. I haven't been to Melbourne, just let's see what they're out and next podcast, I'll tell you what I got.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait that long. Can't you put me in the car, in the plane as well, and I'll come with you and I can watch you shop. No, can I hide in your suitcase, in your bag, and I'll go underneath.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:And then when I get back, I'll just come out of the bag and say, right, let's go shopping.
Speaker 1:No, that's way too cheeky.
Speaker 2:It is really cheeky. I'd be in big trouble, wouldn't I, if I got caught. Yeah, plus, I don't think I'd like to be at the bottom of the plane with all those bags. No, I'd get a. Yeah. So who packs your bag for Melbourne? Does mum help you with that, or do you just do?
Speaker 1:it yeah, mum helps.
Speaker 2:You know what you need and how long are you going to be there for. Do you know how many days?
Speaker 1:you're going to be there One week, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of shopping and tram riding. That's so, so good. You're looking forward to that, aren't you so good? With a big smile on your face.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now I have to say something too in this podcast. I'm being very, very proud of you, about how you've been going at school. Good yeah, I heard last week was really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Made some good decisions.
Speaker 1:Except for that person who tried to make me slap them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we won't use names. But then that person tried to make them slap you and do something silly, and what did you end up doing?
Speaker 1:Just saying no.
Speaker 2:How helpful is that. A lot of people your age wouldn't be able to do that. They'd feel like they're pressured from their friends. They'd just go and do it. So you made a really smart choice, proud of you. Well done, fist bump. Well done, thank you. And then what are some of the things? Are you still using some of our strategies we talked about Yep? What's your favorite one? Can you remember the three again? Oh, the muscle relaxation.
Speaker 2:That's the one that I keep using, where you tense yourself all up and then let it all go and have a deep breath. Yep, I can see you doing that right now. That's very good. Can you remember the other ones we did? We did two more.
Speaker 1:See three things. Two more. See three things, hear two things and smell one thing.
Speaker 2:Very good and that just makes you be thinking about now, not worrying about next class or what's happening tonight. Yeah, it helps you be relaxed. Yep, good memory.
Speaker 1:Mate, you're on fire today and box breathing.
Speaker 2:Okay, can you remember how that one works? Ari's doing it here, doing a nice deep breath. So remember, you can use your finger too to draw. You, breathe in. We're drawing a box in the air. Breathe in, hold, breathe out. Breathe in, hold, breathe out. Yeah, so you can do that. But in class, if you do that and put your hand up in the air, people probably think what is Ari doing? That's a bit weird. So sometimes you just do your slow breathing. But if you're at home or in bed and you can't sleep or relax, you can do that at home. It calms you right down. So three strategies and you're doing really well. So you like the tense one, the muscle relaxation one yeah, that's cool, that's smart. All right, so you had Father's Day. Well, you didn't have Father's Day, did you? You're not a father, are you?
Speaker 1:No, oh good.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, that'd be a bit strange, wouldn't it? So you celebrated your dad's Father's Day on the weekend. I heard you've got a new car, which doesn't work at the moment. Yep, you smashed the last car because you drove it over the edge this time.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You've got a lightsaber that was fixed up by your brother, because he helped use his old one to fix up yours. Yep, you're going to Melbourne, which you're really happy about, because you're going on the trams and you're going to go, maybe, shopping for some things, which is good, and you're going to go on the steam train Yep, you need glasses for that Very good, yep, and you've had a really good week at school Yep Last week and you've smashed out the podcast again.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Now, who set up the podcast today?
Speaker 1:Me.
Speaker 2:How come I don't do it anymore?
Speaker 1:Because you.
Speaker 2:Why didn't I set up the podcast this morning?
Speaker 1:Why didn't I set up the podcast this morning?
Speaker 2:Because you can't remember we had a chat about me forgetting things, yeah. And then we said, yeah, old people often start forgetting things as you get older, don't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you start laughing. What did I forget this morning? Something else I forgot, oh, the stand, didn't I? Yeah, I put the thing on the stand so the microphones could sit on the stand. Yeah, to put the thing on the stand so the microphones could sit on the stand, yeah. And you started laughing at me again and you said, let me just do it. And then I forgot to push the record button. Oh, my gosh, maybe I need some more sleep. Maybe I need to go back and be eight, nine and ten again. What do you think? Yeah, oh, now, before we go off the podcast we better talk about. We didn't do a podcast last week. So people who are listening to our podcast are probably thinking where did Ari go? Why isn't he talking about it on the podcast? What did we do last week? Can you remember?
Speaker 1:P.
Speaker 2:Hmm, so we went out into the oval, and what did we do out there?
Speaker 1:Um, we, we, um, did some what is those called? Yeah, like little scoops, weren't they yeah?
Speaker 2:Like a little ping pong, coloured ping pong ball, and you had to catch it. Yeah, yeah, and you were very accurate. You were very straight with that one, weren't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then what did we do?
Speaker 1:Then we played soccer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we started kicking soccer goals.
Speaker 1:But I got more.
Speaker 2:I don't want to talk about that, so people can hear that, please. I got more. Who was? The best goalie, me Easily, easily, the best goalie. Who was the fastest?
Speaker 1:Me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you again. You again, who had the most straight kicks Me. Maybe I'm getting too old, you're too good for me. Yeah, what are we going to do next time?
Speaker 1:I don't know like PE again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or maybe we're going to take turns about and then we can talk about it on the podcast. Yeah, because remember, last week you weren't feeling that good, remember? And then we went outside and afterwards you got hot and sweaty and you started feeling good again. And sometimes you know how. We did three different mindfulness things. You told me about you like the muscle relaxation one. Well, sometimes when you go outside and run around, like with the soccer ball or the scoops, it actually helps your brain calm down as well. Yep, so that's why, well done. Oh, we played something else before that too, that I did beat you in Before we went out to the oval. What are you smiling for, don't you want to talk about the podcast?
Speaker 1:Fellowships.
Speaker 2:Well done, your memory is amazing. Your memory is amazing and you go uh-oh, hit. We only played for a little while, didn't we? Yeah, your concentration was really good. All right, so we've got 10 days left. How many more days of school do we say Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, maybe not. Friday on the second week Might be leaving early for Melbourne, aren't we? We might be going to Friday on the last week.
Speaker 1:Eight.
Speaker 2:Eight school days left after today. Are you going to make it? Yep, I think you are too Very proud of you. Well, going to make it? Yep, I think you are too Very proud of you. Well done, all right Now, anything else on the podcast?
Speaker 2:I haven't spoken about that you want to speak about. No, there's one more thing I want to talk about, really quickly. Yeah, when you go to Melbourne, can you please take a spare suitcase and buy me lots of things with all your money? No, what Pardon? No, yeah, you can just bring a spare one, an empty one, and then put lots of things in it. What do you think? No, you like saving your money, don't you? Yeah, I love it. Thanks for being such a champion on the podcast. Proud of you using your strategies. Eight days to go and holidays Yep, looking forward to it. All right, we'll talk to you when you come back, because next week we're going to do something different, and then the following week, when you get back after holidays, I can hear about all the things you bought and all the things you did Sound good. Well done, ari. Proud of you.
Speaker 1:Thank you.