You may or may not be aware of all the things you can learn from your camping experiences. There’s a lot of things you really just do not think about or notice while they are happening. Here are some things you might garner some knowledge from during your stay at a campground, such as North Texas Jellystone Park or other camping areas.
The Advantages of Unplugging
Going camping is one of the few times you can get away with going digitally silent. Tell work you are going to be unreachable for a while. This doesn’t mean you have to leave your tech behind, but don’t look at those emails, let your calls go to voicemail, don’t respond to those texts. Enjoy nature. Enjoy your time away. Enjoy some conversation face to face with friends and family. You will gain a sense of peace and well being, and learn that you don’t have to respond to every little thing the split second it happens. You will be amazed at how much stress you will relieve by doing this.
Let Nature Serenade You To Sleep
Most every one of us have unnatural sleep habits, whether we know it or not. Whirring fans, white noise machines, music playing… none of these are natural. Lying in a tent in the woods, listening to the wind, the crickets, insects, animals calling out, these are the things that will help you sleep. If it sounds crazy, your out of touch and needs to tune back into nature. A night’s sleep outside will do wonders for you.
Self Reliance
When your camping, try to keep to camp and figure things out for yourself. Resist the urge to drive somewhere to get food. Build a fire. Cook your food. Set up your camp. Do it all yourself. Don’t look it up on the internet if you’re not sure, just figure it out. Everyone’s auto-response lately is “I don’t have to know things if I can look them up”, and that is not a good thing. Reprogram yourself to deal with it yourself. Make that gray matter work!
Learn To Step Outside Your Box
For some, camping is a sort of scary, doing something they know nothing about. People get locked into the safety of their daily patterns and simply do not want out of them, to step into the unknown. This is the surest way to stagnate as a person and stop growing. Camping allows you to break those confines, do something different, try new things, take. The old adage “You never know until you try” is very true. You may be content with life as is, but you don’t know what you’re missing out there until you go see for yourself!
You Can Survive With Less
Food. Water. Air. Shelter. Clothing. You do not need more than that to survive. Camping strips down your material needs to just the essentials. You only bring what you absolutely must-have. When you have to carry that stuff in a backpack, you will find your desire for more things decrease. Take some time while your camping to let it sink in. You may get a sudden appreciation for all the things you thought you needed but really only wanted. Nothing like roughing it to help you re-evaluate your life.
An Appreciation Of Nature’s Beauty
Living in the cities, we like to think about going outside for a walk in getting fresh air or enjoying nature. The air not fresh. You can’t really see the night sky. There are some people that go there whole life without seeing actual nature. You don’t know the majesty of nature until you have seen it first hand. Forests full of trees and vegetation. Mighty rivers and huge lakes. Trails made of dirt instead of concrete. Hills and valleys and gullies instead of flat land. A night sky where you can see all the stars, all the galaxies, a beautifully painted landscape of light on darkness. These are things everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.
An Appreciation of a Meal After a Busy Day
A long day of setting up camp, creating a campfire, setting up tents, hiking, swimming, other activities, will really make you appreciate a cooked meal. There is just something about a long, hard day and being exhausted that just makes your food seem so much better. There is no pretext, no expectation, just actual hunger and a drive to eat. You fully experience every bite in a way you don’t with your standard dinner at home. You’re not eating because you want to, your eating because your body is demanding sustenance to replace the energy burned over the course of the day. It’s not just a meal, it’s a very primal survival moment you have stirred up. A moment in which you feel very alive and glad to be so.
Take these things into consideration the next time you go camping, think about the lessons you can teach your kids, or perhaps yourselves. Get something back from your camping experience. I truly appreciate what it is to be alive.
