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.