Food, glorious edible food-related substances…
By NICK BROWNE
Back in the Dark Ages, when I was a young Leader, competitions like the Stradbroke Cup required Patrols to cook a roast dinner followed by steamed pudding. I suspect a menu like this would tax even the best Patrols these days. And, in fact, it was a bit silly even then – I don’t think any family in my Troop sat down to home-made steamed pudding in the early 80s and we had a hell of job finding the steamed-pudding-making gizmos we needed. These days, too, we’ve moved on a bit from the idea that any decent meal involves vast quantities of steaming protein.
But far too often, I think, we don’t set the bar high enough when it comes to Scout cooking. Two-minute noodles in hike packs and pasta with supermarket bottled sauce on standing camps are pretty well ubiquitous. If we’re meant to be giving our Scouts life skills and fostering their physical well-being (including their understanding of nutrition) – then we need to be doing a better job than that. And we’re almost uniquely placed to do it – school nutrition lessons and even cookery/home economics classes usually don’t involve kids having to feed themselves for days on end like the average Scout camp does.
Sooo… what should we be doing? Well, if we want the kids to cook well, we need to teach them how to do it – and get them cooking in a fun environment. See Phil’s Iron Chef article elsewhere in this feature, for an example. Cooking shows are big on TV and an Iron Chef or Top Chef theme night would be a more interesting alternative to a ‘camp cooking’ night. 1st Balwyn Troop in Boroondara District have a regular cooking camp at their district campsite where they invite various visiting ‘experts’ to demonstrate different meals which Scouts then prepare for their Patrols. If you’re not big on camp cookery (or cooking of any kind) then why not invite in parents or other Leaders?
And we’ve got to give the kids the right tools. I know most Troops are strapped for cash these days, but there’s no excuse for the lack of decent cooking kit in so many Patrol boxes. Every Patrol box needs a wok (see elsewhere in the feature) – and at least two sharp cook’s knives (you can buy cheap hygienic all-steel ones at the supermarket). Kids shouldn’t have to spend ages trying to cut up vegetables with tables knives or serrated bread knives – I can’t think of a better way to convince them that meal preparation is boring and difficult. And if billies and pots get to a condition where you wouldn’t use them in your own kitchen – then throw the damn things out!
The American writer Michael Pollan observes that you can sum up all the advice about healthy nutrition as follows: ‘eat food; not too much; mostly vegetables’. And he reckons the first rule is the hardest – he dismisses most of the highly processed meals available in our supermarket shelves as ‘edible food-related substances’. Isn’t there a weird paradox in our getting kids out camping in nature and then feeding them processed food substitutes like two minute noodles or ready made meals?
Nick Browne is Chairman, Boroondara District, and head of curriculum at Trinity Grammar School.
Source: Australian Scout, August 2009.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation is widely recommended as a healthy way to manage stress, and for good reason. It provides many health-enhancing benefits, like reducing symptoms of stress and anxiety, relieving physical complaints like headaches, and even enhancing immunity to illness. (Read this article: stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/p/profilemeditati.htm for more information on the health benefits of meditation.)
Basics of Meditation:
Meditation can be practiced in many different ways. While there are numerous different meditation techniques, a common thread runs through virtually all meditative techniques:
Meditation can be practiced in many different ways. While there are numerous different meditation techniques, a common thread runs through virtually all meditative techniques:
- Quiet Mind: With meditation, your thinking mind becomes quiet. You stop focusing on the stressors of your day or your life’s problems, as well as solving these problems. You just let that voice in your head be quiet, which is easier said than done. For example, start thinking about nothing now. (It’s OK; I’ll wait.) If you’re not practiced at quieting your mind, it probably didn’t take long before thoughts crept in.
- Being In The Now: Rather than focusing on the past or the future, virtually all meditative practices involve focusing on right now. This involves experiencing each moment and letting it go, experiencing the next. This, too, takes practice, as many of us live most of our lives thinking toward the future or relishing and rehashing the past.
- Altered State of Consciousness: With the quiet mind and focus on the present, comes an altered level of consciousness that isn’t a sleeping state but isn’t quite your average wakeful state, either. Meditation increases brain activity in an area of the brain associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions, and some evidence shows that regular practice brings prolonged positive changes in these areas.
Types of Meditative Techniques:
There are many different ways to meditate. Here I’ll mention some basic categories of meditation techniques so you can understand some of the main options and how they differ from one another. This is not an exhaustive list, but it can give you some ideas.
There are many different ways to meditate. Here I’ll mention some basic categories of meditation techniques so you can understand some of the main options and how they differ from one another. This is not an exhaustive list, but it can give you some ideas.
- Basic Meditation Techniques: This involves sitting in a comfortable position and just trying to quiet your mind by thinking of nothing. It’s not always easy to do this if you don’t have practice with it. But a good way to begin is to think of yourself as an ‘observer of your thoughts,’ just noticing what the narrative voice in your head says, but not engaging it. As thoughts materialize in your mind, just let them go. That’s the basic idea.
- Focused Meditation Techniques: With this technique, you focus on something intently, but don’t engage your thoughts about it. You can focus on something visual, like a statue; something auditory, like a metronome or tape of ocean waves; something constant, like your own breathing; or a simple concept, like ‘unconditional compassion’. Some people find it easier to do this than to focus on nothing, but the idea is the same -- staying in the present moment and circumventing the constant stream of commentary from your conscious mind, and allowing yourself to slip into an altered state of consciousness.
- Activity-Oriented Meditation Techniques: With this type of meditation, you engage in a repetitive activity, or one where you can get ‘in the zone’ and experience ‘flow.’ Again, this quiets the mind, and allows your brain to shift. Activities like gardening, creating artwork, or practicing yoga can all be effective forms of meditation.
- Mindfulness Techniques: Mindfulness can be a form of meditation that, like activity-oriented meditation, doesn’t really look like meditation. It simply involved staying in the present moment rather than thinking about the future or the past. (Again, this is more difficult than it seems!) Focusing on sensations you feel in your body is one way to stay ‘in the now;’ focusing on emotions and where you feel them in your body (not examining why you feel them, but just experiencing them as sensations) is another.
- Spiritual Meditating: Meditation can also be a spiritual practice. Many people experience meditation as a form of prayer -- the form where God 'speaks,' rather than just listening. That’s right, many people experience ‘guidance’ or inner wisdom once the mind is quiet, and meditate for this purpose. You can meditate on a singular question until an answer comes (though some would say this is engaging your thinking mind too much), or meditate to clear their mind and accept whatever comes that day.
Whichever meditative techniques you use, the potential benefits are clear and numerous, making it one of the more commonly recommended stress management practices
