Go Walk It Off: Reflection 4

  

  Have you ever been upset and someone tells you to go walk it off? Going for a walk can relax you and help clear you mind. I believe that walking it off is a combination of passing time and, most likely, you're going to be in the calming outdoors. Nature definitely has a calming, soothing, centering effect on most people.
  I saddens me to learn that elementary schools have cut or have considered cutting physical education and recess. I remember looking forward to recess as a time to be able to exert some of the pent up energy you are forced to keep in while in classrooms. Furthermore, I believe recess teaches students things not fully expressed in the classroom that will be beneficial in adulthood like sharing, empathy, working in groups, and imagination. Likewise, gym class stressed the importance of working it teams, sportsmanship, and helps to combat the growing obesity epidemic. With recess teachers themselves get a short break and an opportunity to collect and refocus themselves allowing them to be more prepared educators. Overall, recess and physical education are beneficial to both teachers and students.
     I am not shocked to read that the use of stimulants went up 600% from 1990-1995. Ritalin, like many pharmaceuticals, is so overly prescribed. I know a ton of kids who love their Ritalin prescriptions not because it helps them to stay focused but because they can sell it to other college students for cash. Not only do they not take their prescriptions to treat their "illness" they are willing to illegally sell it to another student for the money! Pretty sure that's not the way that it was designed to work.
      The part about 90% of ADHD patients being boys annoys me. I can't think of any other psychological conditions that affects such a percentage of only a specific gender. Which leads me to believe that ADD and ADHD are made up. What do I think causes these diseases? Not disciplining your children. Remember the 1950s where if you didn't pay attention you got smacked with a ruler? Didn't seem to be an outbreak of ADHD kids then. Have you ever hear someone say "boys will be boys," that is little more than a euphemism for "I enable my child to get away with crap because of his gender." Lets say we have a 7 year old boy with ADHD. While he has a hard time focusing on history and English, but give him a new monster truck and I bet he can stay focused for hours. So what? He can only stay focused on something that is amusing to him? I call that selective thinking, much like selective hearing, you only hear what you want to when you want to. Lets use me for an example: it could be said that I have ADHD when it comes to economics. I have a hard time listening and staying focused. Because of this the concepts are difficult for me to understand. Now, do I have ADHD or do I just hate numbers and can't stand learning something so irrelevant to my life. Hmmm...  At the bottom of page 3 it says "may have been misdiagnosed or missed completely, causing suffering for the children and their families" more like when the kid is diagnosed he gets a free pass to continue acting out inappropriately and has a fall back as to why his actions and outbursts are okay for him to do. So while I defend my opinion I can go along with the article for the sake of argument.
    Of course kids should go play outside. This is little more than common sense for me. Maybe rather than these children with ADHD being calmer outside maybe we are misinterpreting what types of behaviors are acceptable in certain locations . There's nothing wrong with a child running and yelling if they're OUTSIDE but such behavior inside is unacceptable. The setting dictates what sorts of behaviors are acceptable.The very behaviors that result in discipline inside the home could be encouraged outside the home. I remember being told "if you're going to play with that ball you're going to have to take it outside," which does little more than enforce the idea that certain more rambunctious behaviors are do be done strictly outside. No one plays tackle football  in the house. So in a roundabout way, an ADHD child SHOULD take their energy outside to expel it. So by discrediting the article did I in fact just reinforce their point?
  I am going to stop talking about children with ADHD and rather focus on the "restorative environment." I always do my homework with the blinds up. I like to let the natural light in and I enjoy looking out at the trees. On days like today with the intense storms, I practically have to stop what I am doing to watch the rain, it's just enchanting. On days when I am really fatigued there is nothing better than a nice walk outside to clear my head and to settle me down. When available, I like to camp, canoe,  hike, fish, and swim. The natural beauty puts me in a good place and I leave feeling refreshed.  However, the peaceful zen that comes from being in nature isn't permanent. It needs to be renewed continually. A fifteen minute walk may be enough nature for one day but it may not cover the stresses of the next. In contrast, after 2 weeks of camping in Colorado, Wyoming, and the Dakotas with my family I had taken in enough nature to last me several weeks. I think the amount of calm derived is proportional not only to the amount of time but also to the purity of the surrounding. While walking in my apartment complex is nice, there's trees, flowers, grass, and squirrels, it is also on side walk or black top, around buildings and cars, and through landscaped yards, kind of a synthetic nature, if you will. Or urban nature unlike the pure wild where there are no signs of people. For example, New york City's Central Park is designed to give urban dwellers a taste of nature. For many who live in the concrete jungle it probably does. Yet for me, from Wisconsin, being in a park so heavily populated would have to opposite effect on me. I would be watching all the people and wondering if any of them had the intent to mug me (in 2000 in Central Park I saw a man defecating in a raised shrub). The definition of "nature" is objective, yours may be different than mine. As for the misguided youth who were guided through Alaska, I would be surprised to learn if the effects were long lasting. While there are events in life that can change you, I don't believe that 2 weeks is enough to give them life long inner peace derived from nature. Hopefully though they learned the ways that nature can enrich their lives and bring them an internal calm and they seek to repeat the procedure throughout their lives.