The essay discusses the relationship between adventure and/or wilderness, health and well being.
It is labourious to overcome one`s weaker self. It is quite an investment to play sports, do activities or even to participate at an adventure. Humans in our modern time like comfort, security and idleness. In times of TV, insurance for everything, cars and elevators there is no need for effort and people get used to an idle lifestyle. Nevertheless, why should we participate in adventure or outdoor activities? Is there a positive relationship between participation in adventure activities and health or wellbeing? In the following I will define adventure, wellbeing and health, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of adventure activities and their relation to wellbeing and health.
The relationship between adventure and/or wilderness, health and well being
It is labourious to overcome one`s weaker self. It is quite an investment to play sports, do activities or even to participate at an adventure. Humans in our modern time like comfort, security and idleness. In times of TV, insurance for everything, cars and elevators there is no need for effort and people get used to an idle lifestyle. Nevertheless, why should we participate in adventure or outdoor activities? Is there a positive relationship between participation in adventure activities and health or wellbeing? In the following I will define adventure, wellbeing and health, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of adventure activities and their relation to wellbeing and health.
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948).
“[...] ‘[W]ell-being’ usually relates to health” and means “[...] how well a person's life is going for that person. A person's well-being is what is ‘good for’ them. Health, then, might be said to be a constituent of my well-being, but it is not plausibly taken to be all that matters for my well-being. One correlate term worth noting here is ‘self-interest’: my self-interest is what is in the interest of myself, and not others.“ (Crisp, R, 2008).
The Oxford English Dictionary defines adventure as experiment, venture, as a hazardous enterprise or performance, a hence or a novel or exciting incident which implies danger, risk or jeopardy. Knight and Anderson (cited in Barton 2007, p. 9) mention“[O]utdoor adventure has the potential to be dangerous but is in fact very safe”.
Alison Hargreaves, Günther Messner and Steve Irwin gained notoriety through their death during dangerous adventures. They risked their lifes to participate in an adventure which reached personal boundaries, involved bad luck or too difficult circumstances and became misadventures. So every adventure implies a risk and danger for wellbeing and health but they vary with the level of jeopardy. For these three adventurers and many others their adventures were not healty, but they did it again and again.
I found four different types of benefit of adventure activities which I would like to mention here.
Stress aspect
Humans have had adventures like hunting, exploring or fishing every day for 2 million years and our body has developed strategies, like the stress response, to deal with it and physical fitness was always incorporated. These activities are not necessary in the industrialised, engineered life. For that reason we do extreme sports, fishing or climbing etc. as sports to keep in our natural, evolutionary functional compliance (cf. Heller, H 2006). We still have stress and when our body reacts with the stress response it produces hormones like adrenalin, serotonin and cortisol which cause a modification to the situation. These stress hormones enable the body for fight or flight. In our western everyday life we usually do not fight or run away from a situation and the hormones cannot decompose which leads to different diseases, which is proven in different medical studies (cf. Wagner-Link, A 2006, p. 6ff). “We live in an environment so different to that from which we evolved that natural selection has not had time to revise human bodies for coping with many aspects of modern life, including fatty diets, vehicles, drugs, artificial lights, and central heating” (Nesse, Williams 1996, cited in Pryor et al 2005, p. 3f). Having adventures allows us to react on stress and to use stress hormones in exercise, mental activity or a high attention level. We have to fight or take flight in an adventurous situation otherwise it will fail.
Nature aspect, recreation
“Never in history have humans spent so little time in physical contact with animals and plants, and the consequences are unknown” (Katcher & Beck 1987, cited in Pryor et al 2005, p 4). “Already, research has shown that too much artificial stimulation and an existence spent in purely human environments may cause exhaustion or produce a loss of vitality and health” (Stilgoe 2001, cited in Pryor et al 2005 p. 4). “It appears humans may not be fully adapted to an urban existence”(Pryor et al 2005, p. 3). “[P]lants and animals (including humans) do not exist as independent entities as was once thought, but instead are part of complex and interconnected ecosystems on which they are entirely dependent, and fundamentally a part of” (Driver et al. 1996, cited in Maller et al 2005, p. 49). Adventure activities used to be in natural environments and “[p]eople with access to nearby natural settings have been found to be healthier overall than other individuals. The longer-term, indirect impacts (of ‘nearby nature’) also include increased levels of satisfaction with one’s home, one’s job and with life in general” (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989, cited in Maller et al 2005, p. 47). “[T]he combination of nature, group and adventure activities provides a rich source of healing potential [...]” (Gilbert, Gilsdorf & Ringer 2004, cited in Pryor et al 2005, p. 1). For Maller et al “it is clear that nature and natural environments relate to human health and wellbeing” (Maller et al, 2005, p. 49).
Diversification
In our modern life everything is in order and predetermined. Life is secure, routine and every day we have nearly the same activities. But the outcome of this is also boredom, emptiness, listlessness and absence of meaning. Humans are inclined to balance it and try to alleviate these feelings by doing extreme sports, visiting unusual touristic attractions, taking drugs or breaching sexual norms, all of which are adventures. Fear becomes a worthwile emotion. Also there is a feeling of being an object which is administrated and powerless. In an adventurous situation acting autonomously is in the foreground, you have an active influence in actions. Adventures lead to alternations and to revaluation of oneself (Bette, K-H 2004). From my own experiences I can also say that having a successful adventure sustains self confidence. To reach an aim out of our own power gives the feeling of being able to do things on your own and to handle more of your life`s issues, and that delivers security, power and wellbeing. Ewert, Mitchell and Groves (Martin, P 1988, p. 30) also mention that “[r]ecent research into what motivates people to undertake risk laden adventurous activities indicates that a search for the intensity of emotion and involvement [...] are prime motivators for participation”.
Developing skills, educational aspect
The upgrading or acquisition of physical and mental skills increases the individual wellbeing and level of health. Adventure activities are mostly associated with exercise, which leads to an increase of skills and in addition to an amplification of individual freedom. Exercise allows us to test our own possibilities, to experience success and disappointment and to expand our own boundaries (cf. Senf, 2006, p. 24). Furthermore participants learn to handle risks and “to make jugdements about unknowns” (Martin, P 1988, p. 34), they develop “astuteness and [“appropriate”] judgement” (Martin, P 1988, p. 35/36) which they can transfer to their everyday life. These skills enable people to handle their own health issues, which the WHO encourages with health promotion (World Health Organization, 1986). “Through the use of adventure, programs engage participants’ bodies and emotions in the experience, and when conducted in the context of small groups, group activities, and ‘people living together’ these outdoor adventures offer a relatively holistic body-mind-emotional social-environmental experience for participants. This combination of aims constitutes the basis for a socio-ecological approach to health, where individual, community and environmental sustainability are integrated within a common approach” (Pryor et al 2005, p. 5). “Examples of health and wellbeing outcomes arising from participation in outdoor adventure interventions include: development of self efficacy, improved confidence, peer relations, self understanding, sense of wellbeing and independence” (Hattie et al., 1997; cited in pdf, p. 6), “increased self-esteem, social competence, school functioning, family functioning, and a reduction in depressive symptoms” (Crisp, Hinch 2004, cited in Pryor et al 2005, p. 6). The survey of David Badenoch, Personal Meanings and Significance of Adventure Activities, shows in many examples experiences in intrinsic satisfaction — derived from an activity which facilitated multi-sensory exploration of novel, dynamic environments, challenge, risk-taking and excitement, interaction with nature, social experiences, pursuit of excellence, psychological well-being, enhanced self-esteem and personal reflection and insights (cf. Badenoch 1984).
[...]
- Citation du texte
- Franziska Hengl (Auteur), 2009, The relationship between adventure and/or wilderness, health and well being, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/164248
