1 Dec 2021 Kotte is a yoga, meditation and mindfulness teacher as well as a public speaker and mental health coach/educator. Through her yoga studio, BEING in Christchurch, Kotte has been running yoga clean up events since 2016. “I wanted to combine the five ways to wellbeing: connecting with others, being active, learning something new, giving and being present. Creating a ‘Yoga Beach Clean Up’ was an idea born from that, wanting people to have an unique experience combining all the ways to wellbeing into mental health awareness month. After having over 150 people joining the first one, it was clear that I had to do more.” Kotte now runs between three and seven events each year, mainly during summer and spring, however this year there was an amazing turn out for an event held in winter which focused on motivating young people to be more mindful and conscious about climate change. Kotte’s yoga clean up events start with meditation and yoga for about an hour with a focus on connecting people, breaking the ice, warming people up and making sure they are mindful on how to bend to pick up rubbish, something she says may sound obvious but it’s an important aspect to understand. After that the group splits up into groups to cover as much ground as possible. Afterwards they gather to share food and have a moment of reflection and more connection. “I am very passionate about this, I want to educate people about the little things that they can do, and I want people to be more active about climate change and waste in general. People often are shocked about the things that they find. I love my job and I am so so passionate about bringing change.” Congratulations Kotte, and thanks for being a Tidy Kiwi and inspiring others to help Keep New Zealand Beautiful. This month’s Tidy Kiwi will receive $100, a Keep New Zealand Beautiful t-shirt, a Resene paint voucher and more – along with being automatically nominated for the Tidy Kiwi Award at our next Beautiful Awards! Plus, thanks to Stand Desk we have four desks to give away this year to our Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month winners – we will draw a winner for this every three months. If you know someone who does great work keeping New Zealand beautiful, you can nominate them here. Share this page
