Nature as Medicine

Last week I attended our Upstate Master Naturalist Meeting. It was held at Table Rock State Park Lodge.

Our guest speaker was Rocky Nation with a presentation titled, "Nature as Medicine: Thinking Outside the Box when Assigning Conservation Value."

Rocky is a biology professor at Anderson University and he talked about all the stress he faced in his life and how it caused transient global amnesia. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Transient global amnesia is a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss that can't be attributed to a more common neurological condition, such as epilepsy or stroke.” Thankfully this doesn’t last too long, and he is able to go about his normal life. There is no known cause or cure, but Rocky believes it is caused by the extreme stress he has had.

One of the ways Rocky copes with stress is getting outdoors. He has found that is the medicine that helps him from having recurring bouts of this amnesia. He notices a difference in his life and how it has helped him deal with stress. Rocky talked about the “fight or flight” response that our body has when it is really stressed out and nature has a way of helping us “rest and relax.”

This helped to remind me that we need to get our students out in nature more. We need to teach them ways to cope with the stress they will face as they grow up and get out in the real world. Too many young people are dying from drugs, suicide, and violence. Maybe if the learned how to deal with stress, these numbers would decrease because they wouldn’t have the “fight or flight” response.

Do you help students get out and appreciate nature? Please share.

Knowledge is NOT Power

I’ve been listening to the Kwik Brain podcast and something I heard the other day really stuck with me. If you haven’t listened to this podcast, it has great strategies for better learning.  Jim Kwik stated, 

“Knowledge is not power. It is potential power. It only becomes power when you use it.”

I like to learn new things and get new information but if I don’t actually apply my new skills or knowledge, I tend to easily forget the information.

Just having the information about anything become useless facts if I can’t use them in any way other than a trivia game.

When I apply my new skills or knowledge, I tend to remember what I learned much better.

Suddenly my new information has become powerful when I learned to apply it to situations in my life.

Too many times I think that if I just give my students the information they need, they will have the power to make changes in their lives.

This is not true.

This is why I need to end the lessons I teach with the questions, “How can I use this information in my own life?” This is a question that students need to ask themselves and come up with an answer. In fact, this may be the most important part of the lesson.

I need to make sure they are able to answer this question. If they can’t, this is the time for a class discussion. Others can help with suggestions that a student might not have thought about. Brainstorming is always helpful when I need inspiration. The big problem is when no one is able to come up with suggestions to answer this question. Maybe I haven’t made the lesson message clear enough.

If I’m teaching a lesson where the answer to this question is not important, then maybe I need to take a harder look at my lesson. I need to ask myself why I’m teaching this lesson to begin with? Is it just busy work? Am I wasting everyone’s time? Maybe if the students struggle with the lesson and applying the information, my lesson and not the students may be the problem.

How do you help students apply knowledge? Please share.

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

Monthly Review of Goals from September 2018

I’m still working on the same 3 goals. We went on 2 cruises this month so I gained weight. On 9/24/18, we started a new 10-week online program called Naturally Slim which was free for us through our health insurance. We watch videos each week and learn better eating habits. I’m learning to eat slower and savor my meal. Hopefully, this will keep me from overeating. I’m hoping this will help me lose weight.

 .

1.     Lose 10 lbs. – I’m up 5 lbs. since January so I really need to lose 15 lbs. to reach my goal.

2.     Knit 12 squares on my national park blanket. – 13 (Completed!)

3.     Knit a sweater. – almost finished with the Havannah.

4.     Create 24 scrapbook pages. –Total: 42 (Completed!)

5.     Read 12 nonfiction books. (Without this goal, I’m not sure I would ever read any nonfiction books.)  

a.     The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

b.     The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

c.     In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary

d.     The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by David John and Lee Hyeon-seo

e.     Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir of Appalachia by Jennifer McGaha

f.      Lagom: Not Too Little, Not Too Much, Just Right: The Swedish Guide to Creating Balance in Your Life by Niki Brantmark

g.     The Joy of Hygge: How to Bring Everyday Pleasure and Danish Coziness into Your Life Kindle Edition by Jonny Jackson

h.     Idiot’s guide: Zen Doodling by David Williams

i.      Life After Darkness by Michelle Knight

j.      A Stolen Life by Jacey Dugard

k.     Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life by Rubin, Gretchen

l.      I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

m.   The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge

n.     Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

o.     Secrets of the Secret Service by Gary J. Byrne

p.     The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

6.     Bible Journaling (weekly) – Total: 28  out of 38 so far

7.     Learn something new. – Envelope Art (Completed!)

8.     Get rid of 200 things this year that I don’t need and is cluttering up my house. –Total: 365 (Completed!)

What are your goals for this year? Please share.

 Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash