Life Lessons From Camp!
A few weeks back, I was asked to create productivity content for a Spring Professional Development session at a local community college. And the theme for the day is Summer Camp and Preparedness.
You may not know this, but I am singularly qualified to talk about Summer Camp and Preparedness! When I pondered what I wanted to talk about, I came upon “Productivity Lessons or Life Lessons from Summer Camp” because, well, I am me, and the coordinator of the professional development day knows my skill set!
Why am I singularity qualified? If you are reading or listening to this content, you know I talk about productivity, time management and life management. What you may not know is that I was the Cubmaster for our local Cub Scout Pack for many years after also being a scout mom and Pack Leader for years before that! So… I know a lot about camp, at least from the parent and leader perspective!
Let’s have a little fun today! Since June is just around the corner, let’s think about how we want our Summer to roll out! We can learn a lot about productivity and life from summer camp, even if we aren’t going to camp ourselves!
Life Lessons I Learned At Camp:
The importance of being out in nature.
There is a concept called green therapy. It’s an acknowledgement that we all feel better when we spend time in nature or have the influences of nature around us.
Per AllinTherapy.com and Carepatron.com, Green therapy, sometimes referred to as ecotherapy or nature therapy, is the therapeutic application of the natural world to promote both physical and emotional well-being.
Spending time outside and in natural environments has been clinically proven to improve our mood, boost feelings of happiness and contentment, improve brain function, and improve our physical and mental health. These benefits may be because, per the websites, of the sensory experiences that nature provides like the sounds of birds chirping, the sight of greenery, and the feel of a gentle breeze or the sun on our skin. Time in nature lowers cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate, indicating a decrease in stress (per the website, and Jimenez et al., 2021).
What does that look like for you and for me?
Get outside, at least a little every day! I was talking to a friend over the weekend and we were both talking about how wonderful we feel when we work in our gardens. I planted my herbs the other morning outside, and that hour spent outside improved my mood all day.
And we can bring the outside in, too, with pets, houseplants, nature sound scapes, etc. I use my calm app to fall asleep sometimes to the sounds of forest rains or ocean waves.
When it comes to activities, we should participate in a variety of activities and we should try new things!
At camp, we learn, for little kids and big kids alike, a good quality of life means a variety of activities. We want to make sure that we shake up our days and change up our activities to avoid burnout. Having variety in our day keeps us engaged and is fun. We can benefit from not doing the same things all day every day.
Relatedly, we benefit from trying new things and learning new skills! For example, summer camp is a created situation, and provides learning opportunities we might not usually have. Camp might be for sports or band or specific activities, but sometimes it’s just fun things to do in the summer. My sons learned things we can only learn at camp, like archery or boat safety or swimming or knot tying or woodcraft or dutch oven cooking. And they loved it and still use the skills learned today.
So how do we apply that to ourselves? Commit to changing up your activities during your day and week, to keep things interesting! And, think about something you would love to learn more about or would love to learn how to do, and check out local resources or on youtube to learn something new this summer.
Next up, Summer camp reminds us of the importance of building and maintaining your community!
Community and Connection are critical to satisfaction in life. Camp is great for making new friends or returning to our camp friends every summer. When we go to camp, the expectation is that we’re open to meeting new people and having new experiences. At least that's my memory of camp. And we also get to see friends at camp that we haven’t seen since last summer! So it’s making new friends and also rekindling friendships in life.
We’re also reminded at camp, at least on the trails and woods at camp, to travel with a buddy or two. At Scout Camp in northern MI, we always used the buddy system, no one was allowed to walk alone.
How to apply the lessons here?
We don’t all have to make new friends, if that seems a little daunting. But summer is a great time to reconnect with friends and family you haven’t had time to see over the winter. Take a few moments to consider who you miss, who you would really love to connect with or reconnect with, and reach out to set something up!
And maybe you bring them along on the green therapy outdoor walks, or the new class you want to try to learn new skills!
We also know, at camp and in life, we need structure in our days.
Think about camp, and the structure of most camps, there is structure in the day. We get up at a certain time and there might be lights out at a certain time. Now we know, as adults, a lot of the structure is about logistics, with a camp full of young people who need to sleep and eat and stay safe and do fun things. Structure is how we manage to fit in all the fun things.
So, what does that look like for us? Did you know, May is National Review Your Work Schedule Month? Consider this an opportunity to look at how we manage to make room in the day and week for the fun stuff, too.
Needs Don’t Change.
Camp reminds us that needs don’t change. Even when you're in camp, regardless of what my little Cub Scouts thought, you still have to go to bed and sleep, you still need to eat food and respect your allergies, you still have to take a shower and take care of basic hygiene.
I was at camp, too. Yep, I slept in a tent and a cabin in different years, sure did. And I know, even if we’re off at camp, Needs Don't Change. We all still must respect the needs and we need to make sure that we meet the needs.
What needs can you get better at meeting consistently? More rest, better hydration, healthier food?
Sometimes we need some downtime, and I don't just mean at bedtime.
At Scout Camp, there was something called shoes off- time, a mandatory quiet time in the afternoon. Honestly it was kind of meant to be a break for the leaders because the leaders wanted a nap. The expectation was that the campers would do something quiet for a little bit, shoes-off in their tent like a nap or a rest. Maybe they would play board games or cards in the dining fly which is the common space in each camp site.
Relatedly, we can also choose to take the occasional break from technology. A secret to success for camp for my boys was that technology was not allowed, cell phones were supposed to be off and put away. For the longest time, there was no cell signal where we were in Northern Michigan, so even if you had a phone, it didn’t do you much good. And that meant intentionally stepping away from technology. Sometimes we need to do that, and that is when the real relaxation can happen and the real connection with others can happen and the real connection with ourselves can happen.
How do we apply this to ourselves? We can plan down time in our day to take a little break, check out, etc.. Maybe that is your green therapy break outside in nature. But we can recognize the value and make it regular so we can look forward to it.
Perhaps we can agree to put away our phones at dinner with friends or family and just focus on each other. What does that look like for you?
To Recap, We learn lessons at Camp that can help us be more productive and happier and successful this summer:
The importance of being outside in nature
A variety of activities is good for us, and learning new things can be fun!
Find your friends. Build and maintain friendships and a community that supports you.
At least a little structure in our day helps us make room for the important and fun stuff!
Even when we change our routines, needs don’t change. And,
Take a break once in a while, including a break from technology.
I hope you found this helpful as you make your plans for summer!
