Enaa Mari
If you want to strengthen your relationship, do not restrict yourself to expensive city restaurants, clubs, or dinners at home. Think about camping. Camping is unique because it releases all the stresses and tensions that come with sophisticated places. It provides opportunities for families to bond.
That said, camping ignites bonding and socializing in many different ways. They include temporarily disconnecting from technology, shared experiences, fostering teamwork and collaboration, nature exploration, and providing an opportunity to learn new things about each other.
Follow along with the discussion below to understand how camping is important.
1. Having a Temporal Technology Disconnect
Technology, especially social media, has become a significant part of our physical and social lives. Social media, for instance, was meant to virtually bring people together from all over the world. However, much of the opposite has occurred-it has led to isolation.
That has been shown in studies. A 2017 study, for instance, documented findings that adults with higher social media use were three times more likely to feel isolated socially than those who used social media less. Therefore, getting ways to reduce the use of social media, like camping, reduces feelings of isolation.
With the temporary disconnect from technology, depression, and anxiety are kept at bay. A 2016 systematic review found a link between mental issues like depression and excessive social media use. So, a campfire with family and friends will ensure you are mentally healthy and psychologically refreshed.
You can thus interact comfortably and confidently with your friends and family. Camping ensures that all your attention is on the people you speak with, laugh with, joke with, or play with.
2. Camping leads to Shared Experiences
There is a lot to do in camping. After all, what are social events without shared activities and experiences? Words can run out, and those who are more aggressive and love moving around may get bored. Activities like erecting tents, barbecuing, and cooking together, among others, create a strong bond.
You are more likely to remember what you did with someone than what they told you. It is thus important to have camping with friends with planned activities ahead. Those activities will boost the chemistry between individuals and groups.
In team building exercises, shared experiences will help improve the dynamics of teamwork. Individuals learn the strengths and weaknesses of each other. With all the activities, great ideas and discoveries of abilities are also born.
For instance, you can participate in cooking together and learn that you have amazing cooking skills. You could also develop unique recipes since you work in an open environment with no restrictions. That could lead to the development of more talents while sharing special abilities.
3. Fosters Collaboration and Teamwork
How often have you desired to engage or work with someone or a group but lacked that opportunity? Imagine you go on an open activity like camping and have all the time and opportunity with them. That is the essence of camping in encouraging collaboration and teamwork. That is not only restricted to corporate teams. Friends, family, or random groups could leverage teamwork to reach their potential.
Camping can assist employees in breaking the usual restrictions of the workplace routine and environment. They can get an opportunity to casually open up and discuss the areas that are bones of contentions or sensitivity. Employees of a company need to have that time.
They can debate policies freely and decide how to handle some situations best. With that, those fearful or intimidated will get a chance to let it out and feel part of the group. More ideas and productive potentials will thus spring out.
Camping has a lot of activities that require collaboration between teams. So, team spirit is cultivated when teams come together to fulfill those activities. That is good for employees, friends, groups, or family members.
4. Nature Exploration
Leading busy lives can sometimes rob you of the opportunity to connect with nature. Having camping experiences, on the other hand, will provide you with the chance to enjoy nature and all the benefits that come with it.
With activities and deadlines planned out, it is difficult to find time to swim in a river, climb trees, hunt in the woods, build fires without matches, and all the easy activities you can do in the wild. Camping will thus help you dedicate time for all those activities, undisturbed by official activities.
Dozens of benefits come along with interactions with nature. Nature exposure has been linked with reduced stress, improved attention, good moods, improved mental conditions, and improved cooperation and empathy. Experimental and correlational research has indicated that nature interaction has cognitive benefits.
One hypothesis claimed that our ancestors completely and directly relied on the environment to survive. In another one, spending time with nature lowers stress through a physiological response triggered.
5. Provide an Opportunity to Learn About Each Other
Relationships are supposed to be shared intimately. Going camping gives you a great opportunity to learn new things about your partner. It is easy to assume that you fully understand your significant other. You will get an opportunity to sit down and converse deeply.
Assume you sit outside with your partner gazing directly at the stars or the sounds of swishing trees or birds chirping, hitting you peacefully. Whatever you share with your partner becomes very strong.
Final Thoughts
As we have seen above, camping is more than an entertainment activity. It comes with a lot of benefits. Your cognitive and mental ability is largely improved. Your friendship and relationships will also become stronger and more meaningful. Therefore, camping activities are vital. With the busy schedules in the city, planning for a day or a week for camping makes a lot of difference.
