Glenn Auchinachie, however, was drawn to construction work but also to filmmaking. He created music videos for the likes of Nick Cave’s band The Birthday Party.
Being skilled in digital sound, from the mid-1990s Auchinachie spent more than a decade working in film post-production in Los Angeles. He was an associate music editor on the film Dante’s Peak, starring Pierce Brosnan, and a sound editor or sound designer on 40 films in 10 years.
At first it was exciting, but later there was pressure and long hours. He burned out. “It involved sitting at computers all day, in windowless rooms, and I got really depressed,” he recalls.
He had a breakdown and left the industry, eventually returning to Sydney where his parents and sister were battling health issues.
Struggling with his own mental health, and diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, Auchinachie made security doors in a factory for four years.
He was drawn to Victoria by the fly fishing. In California, after leaving the film industry, he had worked as a landscape gardening stonemason.
In South Gippsland, he graduated from maintenance jobs to paving, to now running a business building drystone walls and making fish ponds. “I find it really soothing,” he said. He also works as a fishing guide, traversing the local estuary by kayak.
Loading
“I think I’ve figured out how to look after myself, ” he says. “It’s a combination of looking after your sleep patterns, healthy diet and exercise.”
When he’s building sand castles, often as the sun rises, he feels “just happy, in the flow, same as when I’m building walls”.
The repetition and artistry of crafting stone or sand can be “a place of sanctuary or comfort”, he said. “I get so ‘in the zone’ that I’m not even self-aware. You’re so present, your memory isn’t recording anything. How ever stress and depression work, that’s the cure for it.”
Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.
Credit: Source link
