How We Impact
Aussie Rules Emotional Fitness Coach Initiative.
Emotional Fitness for the next generation.
This initiative tackles local mental and emotional wellbeing through a proactive, accessible, and community-centric approach. Trained Emotional Fitness coaches, skilled in Transformational Breathwork that come from within the football community itself offer targeted support within football clubs where young individuals face significant challenges. This proactive strategy equips young people aged 12-25 with stress management and emotional resilience tools for daily living.
Little Breathers
Creating a new generation of self aware, emotionally regulated children.
Our primary school program/workshops focus is on the breath, mindfulness and emotional awareness. These three skills are pivotal in laying the foundation for emotional and nervous system regulation to calm the body and quiet the mind. By instilling these skills early on, The Big AL Foundation is sowing the seeds for a generation equipped to navigate life's challenges with resilience, self awareness and empathy.
The Breath of Life for Teens
Empowering teens to create space and awareness for new choices.
The Breath of Life for Teens workshop/programme is delivered in three-sections that equip teens with practical breathing techniques for emotional self-regulation and stress relief. It begins with The How and the Science of the Breath, explaining how "optimal or functional" breathing impacts the body and mind when breathing from the correct side of the nervous system. The What Breath, When section introduces specific techniques for daily situations, helping teens manage stress, anxiety, and focus. In the final part, The Why, students experience a guided breathwork journey with music, demonstrating the versatility of breathwork for relaxation, energy, and mental clarity. This program provides teens with easy-to-use, lifelong tools to handle life’s challenges with greater calm and resilience.
Who Are We?
Why we do what we do
After losing my beautiful 21 year old son Alex, to suicide on the 15th April 2021 everything changed. From this pain was born "The Big AL Foundation" - Emotional Fitness for the next generation.
The Big AL Foundation is a charity dedicated to enhancing and normalising the mental and emotional wellbeing of youth aged 10-25. We envision a future where Emotional Fitness without question is an integral and normal part of life for every young man and woman’s individual wellbeing as much as physical fitness is. We will achieve this through training Emotional fitness coaches in Transformational Breathwork and delivering peer to peer mentorship, placing them in football clubs nationwide along with schools based wellness programs, equipping the next generation for the challenges that life will bring with self awareness and courage.
With love Trish
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Who is Big AL (Alex)
Live Wildly, Love All, Serve Others - Alex
Alex was the most extraordinary young man. He spent all of his time volunteering for camps with underprivildeged kids and making this world a more compassionate place at every moment he could. He believed in a world where emotions were not black or white, wrong or right, male or female. They were just a normal part of the human experience and we should walk together with each other through life's inevitable ups and downs.
He was an actor, writer, poet and an advocate for love, kindness and humanity. This image was taken as he gave the leaving address to his Year 1 2. chohort at Rostervor College. He literally left peers and parents alike speechless from the maturity and incredible wisdom he shared.
Together this foundation will continue the love, heart and compassion in the world that he would undoubtably be doing today if he was still here with us for the emotional wellbeing of the next generation that he cared so much for.
Our Core Values
Love is at the heart of all we do
HUMANITY
We free willingly accept the honor
it is to be human and whole heartedly respect each others intricacies with mutal respect for all.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We are accountable for self
and the organisation.
EMPATHY
Guides us to understand and resonate with the experiences and emotions of others.
COMPASSION
Drives us to act with kindness and understanding, uplifting those in need and fostering a sense of unity and support.
Our Strategic Pillars
Love is at the heart of all we do
EDUCATE
Ignite minds, unlock opportunities, and new ways of thinking to empower individuals to reach their fullest potential and contribute meaningfully to society.
REGULATE
Maiintaining a balanced state of awareness where the body's responses to stress and relaxation are appropriately managed, fostering emotional stability, resilience, and overall well-being.
EMPOWER
Equipping individuals with the tools, resources, and confidence to realize their full potential and effect positive change in their lives and communities.
SELF AWARENESS
Illluminate strengths, weaknesses, and motivations, enabling us to navigate life with clarity, authenticity, and purpose.
My Universal Creed
The last poem Alex wrote for us and what our foundation stands for.
I have come to believe
That it is an almost
Irrefutable truth, that
The same elements that
Compose your body, mind and soul
Also, exist within me.
That the Earth, Sun, and Galaxies,
And our Moon
Contain this essence too, like
A dash of salt in a body of water pure.
And although we’re different In
more ways than one; Thoughts,
appearance, religion
Heritage, culture, and many more It
is this spark that unites our paths
Outwardly dissimilar, but inwardly the same.
I do not have any obligation To
acknowledge the presence
Of the light within you, the world
Or even myself,
But I choose to do so.
I free willingly accept
The honor that it is to be human
And wholeheartedly respect you
All your intricacies included
The only payment I deem worthy
Is reciprocation.
We are one people with individual autonomy
We are one species
With idiosyncrasies that give us spirit.
We are one kind of many colors,
We are one flesh
Molded to different shapes and sizes.
So,
If we cry, weep, or fail Let it be together,
If we laugh, smile, or succeed Let it be together.
For our own peace lies not within ourselves.
But lies in the hearts of our fellow humans
Waiting to be found.
We must act toward one another
In a manner of kinship
Follow in the footsteps of love
And uphold the principles of compassion.
And above all else,
We must live each day like we mean it.
So that when we see, touch, feel, smell,
Or hear this life for the last time
We will have been doing something worthwhile.
Alex
