NYAA GOLD Outdoor appreciation investigation

When thinking about what I wanted to investigate in outdoor education and how I make sure it incorporates an aspect of the sustainability concepts I went bare bones with my conceptions of nature. One of the first things to land for me was the concept that being one with nature encourages peace of mind and oneness with the world around you. My mother and physics teacher are people who devoutly believe in the practice of yoga and meditation in order to bring balance to your mental health, furthermore they also believe that when you do so you resonate with the peace of the world and achieve a grander appreciation of life. My physics teacher believes this so much so that he even organised all of the physics units around aspects of nature in Hinduism and meditation. This made me realise that their claims of nature and peace tie very well with NYAA’s outdoor appreciation initiative and the “personal health and happiness” section of the sustainability compass.

After this realisation and often being encouraged to “be one with nature” I decided that I should investigate whether practicing meditation and mindfulness while trying to be appreciative of nature would improve my personal mental health and happiness.

When deciding on how exactly I should carry out this investigation I thought I might as well take the chance to explore a part of Singapore I surprisingly never explored even in my 14 years of living here: MacRitchie Reservoir. With the location decided all I needed to do was go to MacRitchie, hike for a period of time and then meditate. I feel that although meditation has been mentioned as the main means of resonating with nature, I feel that the hike and immersing myself in the park more so than sitting with my eyes closed will also be a great help in learning to build appreciation for nature.

As surprising as it is to say being an Indian who follows hinduism, I never really liked yoga or meditation, I was neither flexible or patient. So I was somewhat uncomfortable with finding a random location and meditating for even just a small period of time. So I decided I needed to bring a friend along with me.

He was a great help in making me feel more comfortable meditating in public and I also started to enjoy the hikes a lot more. I feel small implicit enjoyment was the start of me enjoying nature and meditating in it as I had started to associate nature with fun.

Then I believe I started to really get into spending my time at MacRitchie. It started with help from the same physics teacher I mentioned before, he had made a playlist of on the connection between physics, nature and mindfulness. Playing it while I meditated made me enjoy going to MacRitchie so much more because his voice was such a calming and familiar presence, sometimes I would be bursting with anticipation for the next time I went to MacRitchie to be able to listen to the next video in the playlist. Furthermore, on my hikes I started noticing more and more of these information panels on nature below. From here on my investigation really started to take place as my immersion in nature greatly increased when I started taking in this information not only at MacRitchie but also through research at home. This new information about the beauties of nature and the MacRitchie ecosystem in particular not only made me love nature more but also my adventures through the various hiking trails of MacRitchie.

After my love for nature and meditation started to actualise I no longer needed a guided tutorial on going into my mind and finding peace, instead I would only need simple and relaxing music. As a testament to how much meditation made me comfortable with nature, I soon no longer needed the accompaniment of a friend, instead I would love going on my solo journeys and the try to resonate with nature through meditation. Besides becoming comfortable with hiking and meditation, my newfound initiative to research and better understand nature made the environment of MacRitchie like a new friend that I was becoming acquainted with with each new visit I made. This progress I made in appreciating nature and the outdoors would mean that moments like seeing monkeys on one day would make my week and be a memory that would incite joy when I  recalled on it.

In this conclusion I learnt to love nature and meditation through often experiencing a new location with a friend and acclimating with help from my physics teacher. Yet the question of the investigation still remains: How effective was meditation and new experiences in outdoor education in improving my mental well being and happiness? To put it simply, the impact on my happiness was incredibly positive. I noticed this because at the time I was conducting this investigation I was doing a summer internship, and as I built my appreciation for nature and meditation I noticed that my productivity at work and general happiness had greatly improved. Furthermore, this investigation carried on into grade 12, at moments when the curriculum started becoming really stressful, I found that going to MacRitchie was a great way to alleviate some of the stress and remain calm for the rest of the week. I was more peaceful and got less annoyed at minor inconveniences, ultimately this summer experience was something that taught me much on the value of “being one with nature” and built my appreciation for a location new to me in Singapore.

 

Post-expedition post

Firstly I would like to say that I really enjoyed my outdoor expedition, it was challenging yet redeeming and fun in so many ways. I loved crashing through the towering rapids. I truly was a great experience that I enjoyed. But easy it was not, it was filled with so many challenges that tested my limits, such as living in an environment different to the comforts of home. Navigating the rapids was a great task, that taught me about hydrology. Yet I enjoyed these challenges.

If you weren’t aware, my investigation was focused on the impact the environment of Nepal has on it’s economic opportunity. My question specifically being: How has Nepal’s huge attraction for tourism created jobs and work?

As for my investigation. I talked to someone who knows the way of the nepalese people very well. This person was an employee who frequented the cities of Nepal and has firsthand experience in the occupations and experiences of Nepal’s lifestyle. He informed of their lifestyles and how the tourism brought from the beauties of Nepal has highly benefited them. I believe that in my investigation I discovered that Nepal has specialised in the industry of tourism. He told me that many nepalese people live lives of agriculture that is due to the towering mountains that provide lots of land for mountain side villages to thrive. But he also said that the rivers and mountains bring many nepalese people to become guides.

Tourism has made a very large impact on the people of Nepal, the new found business has allowed many new occupations such sherpas, paragliding instructors and river guides. My source told me that the large market has made many children want to become outdoor experts. Besides me getting primary info, I can see this first hand. I saw many businesses that profited from tourism and the company we went with; “Paddle Nepal” had many employees. This is further consolidated as the kayaking guides that were on our expedition said that they had known they were going to become kayak guides from a young age. They stated they knew each other from a young age, and their other friends who didn’t go into kayaking, went into other recreational activities such as paragliding. When asked to elaborate they stated that many villages and houses are built close if not directly next to these abundant rivers, as they provide water for agriculture and consumption. This close proximity acclimated them to the rapids at a young age, and in not too long they knew the entire river system like the back of their hand.

On our expedition we even got a chance to visit one of our guides village of origin. In it I not only noticed how they reside next to a stream. But the village has made empty huts, and they had a bar and other more western forms of entertainment. Although it was confusing at first this brings up the second industry of tourism; housing. The village and the city of Pokhara accommodated foreigners and tourists perfectly. The Nepalese people marketed their authenticity, as we got to see how they process lentils and how they feed the fish and the goats. The rustic mannerisms of their tasks  had all of us infatuated and eager to attempt our hand.

The people there have truly capitalised on the large input of tourists. I witnessed areas packed with hotels, just where we were staying was surrounded by hotels, and not too far from there were many stores. It was difficult to see any building beside housing or hotels. But some streets were filled with the final industry of tourism; souvenirs and comforting. They ran along a lengthy street, specialising in everything from clothing to hand crafted wooden ornaments. All of the signs were in english, meaning they understood who their demographic was. But if not item shops, there were local restaurants  claiming to serve western food and other food pandering to foreigners.

Overall I believe that the tourism brought about by the beauties of Nepal has been a great source of income for the nepalese people. Yet it is worrying, as the over saturation of the market has them competing at such low prices. This would make it hard as many people are obliged to enter on industry, even if they find it boring. Also, having such a large portion of the people invested in one industry leaves many people vulnerable to losing their jobs. EG: If there was to be an earthquake and many tourists would be afraid to travel to Nepal, many people will suffer. This means that although the massive tourism industry that Nepal boasts, it maybe extremely vulnerable.

 

Pre expedition post

For my NYAA, I have to create an investigation on my upcoming expedition. Instead of viewing this as a burden, I tried to look upon as an enriching and educative challenge that I gladly would take up. From this investigation I have to choose a category from the sustainable compass and investigate the relationship between country of my expedition and said category.

I have chosen “Environmental Impacts & Jobs” I chose this topic because I believe that Nepal (my expedition country) has a vast and lush ecosystem and I would like to learn how it’s ecosystem impacts religion and its economy. Understanding that Nepal attracts tourists form all over the world for it’s marvellous mountain range and cascading rivers. I would like to know about how the country has acclimated it’s culture to it’s tourism. So my specific question for investigation shall be:                 How has Nepal’s huge attraction for tourism created jobs and work?

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