Developing Physical and Mental Health Through Outdoor Adventure Training The Ultimate Mind & Body Workout

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Developing Physical and Mental Health Through
Outdoor Adventure TrainingThe Ultimate Mind
Body Workout
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Glengarry Kangaroo Valley. NSW
Kangaroo Valley
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Presentation Overview

• Overview of outdoor adventure training it
  connection with physical and mental health.
• Current state of play with Generation Y.
• Influential theories that are guiding current
  practice Positive Psychology Movement.
• Sport psychology and adventure training.
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers in the
  outdoors. Building physical mental skills for
  life.

Is this presentation for you?
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Resilience In Todays Youth

• There is an ever increasing body of evidence from
  many disciplines that suggests that todays young
  people are less resilient. (Noble, 2007)
• As a result many of our youth are struggling
• Episodes of depression, suicide, self-harm,
  violence and problematic substance abuse are
  increasing.

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The Outcome Of Less Resilience

• 9 of students have had a depressive episode by
  the end of primary school.
• 15-20 of students have had depression while at
  high school. (Relivich Seligman 2003).
• 250,000 depression prescriptions were written for
  students in 2003. When included with adult rates,
  this costs our economy 3.3 billion dollars
  annually
• (Beyond Blue, 2005).
• Alarmingly mental illnesses are becoming more
  prevalent in people at younger ages. (Pryor,
  Carpenter Townsend, 2005)
• Accompanying this our suicide rates are some of
  the highest in the world.

Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater, both 16,
entered into a suicide pact in 2007 in Melbourne.
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What Has Happened To The Resilience Of Our Young
People?
Research has identified 4 key reasons for this
loss of youth resilience.

• Lack of connectedness to positive institutions.
• An Increase in blame culture.
• Back Firing Of Self-esteem.
• Not taking time to enjoy each day.

(Noble, 2003)
I believe the fitness and outdoor industry can
have a role to play!
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What The Latest Research Is Saying!

• Foundation For My Teaching
• I would like to highlight several pieces of
  literature that have helped shape my current
  thinking on outdoor adventure and future
  directions for programming.

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Positive Psychology
Outdoor Education

• Recent developments in the field of psychology,
  however, have begun to suggest the adoption of a
  new paradigm referred to as positive psychology.
  Positive psychology has as its goal the fostering
  of excellence through the understanding and
  enhancement of factors leading to growth. Some
  of these factors include positive emotions,
  positive individual traits, and pro-social
  attitudes. Rather than focus on deficits,
  positive psychology examines these positive
  traits and attributes, with an eye toward
  strengthening them or facilitating their
  development in clients. These traits are
  critically important, as they can lead to the
  development of stable personality and physical
  states like resiliency, optimism, and even
  better, physical health over time. Instead of
  focusing on decreasing negative symptoms in
  therapy, a positive psychology approach would
  focus more on enhancing client strengths.

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Outdoor Education
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Outdoor Education
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Outdoor Education
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Positive Psychology A Potential Model To
Incorporate Into Outdoor Education / Fitness
Industry
Raising children I realized, is vastly more
than fixing what is wrong with them. It is about
identifying and nurturing their strongest
qualities, what they own and are best at, and
helping them find niches in which they can best
live out these strengths. (Seligman, 2000)
www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu
Dr Martin Seligman
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Promoting Buffers Against Mental Illness

• We have discovered that there is a set of human
  strengths that are the most likely buffers
  against mental illness courage, optimism,
  interpersonal skill, work ethic, hope, honesty
  and perseverance.
• Much of the task of prevention will be to create
  a science of human strength whose mission will be
  to foster these virtues in young people.
• (Seligman, 1998).

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suggest that school and community outdoor
education programs can work towards the
enhancement of the health and wellbeing of
individuals, families, communities thereby
working to prevent the onset or establishment of
ill health or ineffective life practices.
HEALTH PROMOTION IN OUTDOOR EDUCATION
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Positive Prevention Strategies Requires A New
Direction In Programming Facilitation
Matching program type with change requirements.
(Priest, 1996, p.23)
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Helping Athletes Achieve Their Best
Outdoor Education Sport Psychology
NSW Netball Team Undergoing Outdoor Training In
Preparation For Their National Championships
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Upon Return To Camp The Pressure Continued

• No cabins, no tents
• Only a big tarp to sleep under. We thought we
  would be sleeping in cabins!
• Showers from a billy. We stank so bad!
• Then we had to cook clean.
• By the time we got to bed it was midnight.
• This was all about learning to deal with the
  unexpected situations that may occur in sport and
  being ready to deal with them!

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Why did we have to come all the way up here to
sort this out?
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5.30am The bagpipe alarm clock sounded
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We are behind and were in a hole. Remember how
we worked together to get out of that cave. We
can do the same here. 1, 2, 3, out of this hole.
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Profoundly Life Changing Read!
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The 7 HabitsOverview
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Habit 1 Be Proactive Overview
Is all about taking control of your life! It
means that you choose to act deliberately and
take responsibility for your actions and your
lifes direction.

• A proactive person
• Can choose their attitude to life
• Is responsible for their own happiness.
• Controls the things in their life that they can
  control, and forgets about the uncontrollable.
• Overcomes setbacks through proactive thinking
  action.
• Strives to be a change agent through proactive
  actions.
• Makes life happen to them rather than being a
  passenger.
• Makes smarter decisions. Pushes pause before
  acting!

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Self-Awareness Am I a Positive or Negative
Thinker?

• Monitoring self-talk on a tough expedition. Every
  hour or during stops, or at places dictated by
  the terrain that could provide a teachable
  moment have students complete a self-check for a
  few minutes evaluating the following
• Self-talk
• Talk with others
• Body language
• Enthusiasm levels at different spots during the
  trip.
• At a scheduled stop have students document their
  thoughts in a rite-in-the-rain journal.
• Evaluate this around the fire at night. This
  leads to a tutorial on positive negative
  self-talk.

What do I see when I look inside myself? Do I
like what I see? All Change has to begin from
within!
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Positive or Negative Tracker

• What Kind Of Tracker are you?
• This activity links to the monitoring of
  self-talk during an expedition.
• Around the fire students complete the tracker
  questionnaire and calculate the kind of Tracker
  they are.
• Facilitation can involve partner sharing of
  results. Then a discussion on how we can be more
  positive in our daily lives.

Tracker Video
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Make Your Own Weather!

• We have the ability to see sunshine even when we
  are surrounded by storms! Its all about attitude!

I Tunes
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Habit 2 Begin With The End In Mind Overview

• Deals with developing a clear picture of who you
  want to be and what you want to accomplish in
  your life.
• What are your values?
• What is your mission?
• What are your goals?
• How to set them
• Systems to support your goals
• Identifying your talents and developing them
  through out your life.
• Making your life extraordinary!

Where do we want to go in life? We better draw a
map to get there.
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How Can A Mission Help Your Life Be Extraordinary?

• Since your destiny is yet to be determined, why
  not make it extraordinary and leave a lasting
  legacy.
• A great way to think about life is to fast track
  ahead 70 years and imagine what people would say
  about you at the end of your life.
• What would they say?
• Now during your mini solo lets write down what
  they would say about you! Write your own obituary!

Peter Weir a Scots Old Boy
Dead Poets 145
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Paint Your Own Masterpiece
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Mission Statements Single Sentence
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Setting Goals
Steps That I Need To Take To Help Me Live My
Lifes Mission

• Count The Cost
• Put It To Pen
• Just Do It
• Use Momentous Moments
• Rope Up

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Climbing Wall Traverse A Metaphor For Attitude
Persistence In Life

• Goal Setting I use a climbing wall to introduce
  goal setting and the concept of persistence to
  reach your goals.
• Attempt a traverse across the wall.
• Identify your weakness and strengths. Improve
  your weaknesses and call on your strengths to
  better your-self.
• Now they can transfer this new skill to setting
  goals for others areas of their lives.
• Link this activity to a concluding session where
  they can set some tangible goals that they can
  pursue after the program.

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Goal example
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Step 5 Roping Up

• Climbers rely on each other for safety,
  motivation support. The rope bonds them and
  keeps them together in their common quest!
• They are also there to support you if when you
  fall!
• When you set goals, rope up with someone else
  with a similar vision or motivation for life.
• In real life if you rope up with someone or a
  group your energies and enthusiasm will drive
  each other to success.
• You will also have people to support you through
  the hard times along your journey to success,
  which are naturally part of life!

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Habit 3 Put First Things First Overview

• Identifying the important things in your life.
  The BIG ROCKS.
• Prioritising your life and managing your time.
• Recognising your time /organisational style.
• Dont let fear control your life and make your
  decisions.
• Comfort zones Courage Zones.

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Teaching Teens To Prioritise Their Time

• Many of you will know that teens are classic
  procrastinators, time wasters, and poor planners.
• Often they have never been shown how to organise
  themselves effectively!

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Teaching Teens To Prioritise Their Time A
Campsite Example!
Dress in my hike gear
Empty Out The Tent
Pack My Pack
Leave On Time Learn Life Planning Skills at the
same time!
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Identify the key roles in your life. What Big
Rock issue do you need to achieve this week
under this role heading. EG Role Student Big
Rock History Test Wed Big Rock Maths 13.2
14.9 Fri Big Rock Science assn due Wed Role
Athlete Big Rock Training Tues, Thur Big Rock
Weights Mon Wed Fri Big Rock Game
Saturday Role Son Big Rock Family Dinner Sun
PM Big Rock Do chores help mum. Big Rock
Role Friend Big Rock Movie Sat PM mates Big
Rock DofE planning for silver Big Rock Role
Boy Friend of Jess Big Rock Phone her after
h/work Big Rock Beach day Sun PM Big Rock
Movie Sat night.
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Courage Zone

• As well as prioritising the Big Rocks in our
  lives, Habit 3 also teaches us about putting us
  first ahead of our fears!
• Putting first things first will often cause you
  to stretch outside your comfort zone.

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The Fear Factor Are your fears controlling your
destiny?

• It could be argued that fear is one of the worst
  emotions that people can possess because of its
  ability to hold us back in life.
• Fear can paralyse us, limiting our achievements
  and reducing enjoyment in our lives.
• Outdoor Education has the ability to help
  students recognise that fear is normal and part
  of life.
• We can then give participants opportunities to
  face these fears, learning skills to push on into
  their courage zone!

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Okay Now Lets All Experience The Fear Factor

• I need a volunteer
• Now we are going to take a look at the DVD clip.
• Can you move like an emu?
• Now I want you to monitor your self talk, your
  thoughts, your muscle tightness, your belief in
  yourself.
• How are you feeling right now?

Remember The key to overcoming our fears is to
worry less about failing, and more about the
chances we miss when we dont even try.
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What could you do to feel the fear and enter my
courage zone anyway?
Performance Plan Come up with a performance plan
(game plan) where your performance has been
written down and rehearsed many times before you
have to do it right!
Imagery See your fear how you might react and
see yourself rehearsing a more positive outcome.
Positive Self Talk Monitor the dialogue in your
mind. Monitor the volume of your negative voice.
If you hear yourself saying you CANT DO IT. Turn
down the volume on this negative tone, and turn
up the positive voice.
Centering Deep breaths with an accompanying
release of tension. Can be accompanied by
positive self-talk or cue words.
Cue Words Have a phrase that cues you into the
things you need to attentive to Relax, lift, you
can do it! Believe in yourself!
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Habit 6 Synergise Overview

• Habit 6 is about knowing that two or more people
  can work together to create better solutions than
  any one of them could alone.
• Flow activities to promote synergy.

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Entrance to B 31 Argyle Cave
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The Squeeze
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Synergy In The Cave
Synergising With My Peers Focussing on things
within our control.
Lights Out Work To Get Out Of The Cave
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Rogaining To Synergy

• Students Navigate along 4 WD trails where they
  have hiked before.
• Each group has a radio.
• The physical psychological stresses are super
  challenging.
• The only way to succeed is to work together in
  SYNERGY!

24hr Debrief
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Habit 7 Sharpen The Saw Renewing Ourselves. It
is Me Time

• I am sure all of us at one time or another have
  the feeling that our life is out of control. We
  feel
• Out of balance
• Stressed out
• Empty on the inside
• Habit 7 is designed to reacquaint us with the
  concept of renewing our lives.
• Why is it called Sharpen The Saw?

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Four Dimensions of Sharpening The Saw
Brain
Body
Heart
Soul
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Why is Balance so Important?

• To perform at your peak you need to strive for a
  balance in all four dimensions.
• Balance is important because what we do in one
  dimension will affect the other dimensions.
• When we look at the statistics from the beginning
  of this session many of our teens lives are out
  of balance.
• The outdoors can be a real healing place,
  restoring balance and perspective to our clients.
• This however can be enhanced through planning and
  facilitation of activities that target Balance
  specifically.

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Developing The Physical
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Opportunities To Grow Through Sport
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Social Endurance Events
Form teams to goal set, train together, compete
together!
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Taking Time To StopInspirational Places For
Inspirational Reflection
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Meditation
Mental Preparation For Sport or Life
Visualisation
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What Possibilities Does This Open Up For The
Fitness Industry?

• Holistic mind body training.
• Whether utilising the outdoors or not,
  practitioners have the ability to train their
  clients minds as well as their bodies through
  facilitated learning modules or when teachable
  moments arise!
• Organise your clients to try something different.
• Mountain biking relay 4-24hours.
• 24 hour walking or jogging relay.
• Multi-sport relay
• Team orienteering or rogaining.
• A day at the cliffs climbing
• Then mountaineering in NZ

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Health Promotion Marketing

• How do we stand out in the crowd?
• Value added programming.
• Marketing your business as a health and wellbeing
  ally of individuals, families, communities. This
  could open up a whole new world of clientele.
• Another possibility Creating partnerships with
  school counselors to develop programs and
  activities that promote resilience and positive
  psychology using the outdoors or fitness facility
  as the delivery mode.

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The End

• digger.boyle_at_bigpond.com
• www.maximumpotential.biz