CAMP'S innovative approach
The Science Behind Camp POV's programs
We're Gamifying Mindfulness with the Preventative Medicine of Nature
The Big Picture - Human Evolution & Nature & What it Means for Kids
At Camp, we got tired of hearing and seeing kids be so stressed. So we went and tried to figure out what was going on. And we want to share it with you because it was a bit of an eye opener…
Throughout evolution we spent over 90 % of our time in nature. And our physiology is still adapted to it. Our senses are adapted to interpret information from plants and streams — traffic and high rises not as much. Our children being indoors and on electronics so much is giving them place blindness (not looking up from our screens to notice where they are living), species loneliness (minimized direct interactions with our relations), and sensory amnesia (our senses being deadened somewhat, preventing whole-body wellbeing).
While your child may not be affected yet — odds are not in their favor as more years pass with the same habits.
It turns out mental fatigue, lack of concentration, and STRESS can be improved by time spent in or looking at NATURE and resetting our senses to their physiological baselines (reconnecting with the original preventative medicine of sorts for stress). So we do Camp in an environment at the speed our kids’ brains are evolved to engage with — nature.
We’re also incorporating mindfulness activities in our programming — because it turns out mindfulness is the most powerful antidote to stress.
And we are “gamifying” our activities to make Camp FUN for kids — hoping it “sticks” better. (This is exactly the technique that is so wildly successful for the creators of one of the largest culprits of mental fatigue, lack of concentration, and STRESS – screen content.) Sometimes you gotta just fight fire with a lil campfire.😊
First, learn about Kids' Brains
(Trust Us - This Stuff is Important)
Children's Development - Types of Attention
It is important to understand how kids’ brains work before we can understand how stress affects them. Attention is fundamental to children’s emotional development and learning. And, it is fundamental to just be a person that enjoys life.
There are four main types of attention children experience:
- Sustained Attention | What we classically think of when talking about attention span. It’s our ability to focus on a single, consuming activity for a sustained period of time. Think doing a puzzle, taking a test, or movie watching.
- Selective Attention | Selective attention is our ability to concentrate on a task when there are distractions around us. When kids are working at their school desks, do they forget that they have classmates? Of course not!
- Executive Attention | Executive attention is similar to selective attention, as it involves being able to block out distractions and focus on a specific task. However, the difference is that this way of focusing also involves ruthless prioritization and only focusing on activities that will help to achieve a certain goal. Think of kids gathering the information they need to prepare for an exam.
- Divided Attention | A common name for divided attention is multitasking. More accurate names for this type of attention are continuous partial attention, attention shifting, or task shifting. When kids text while watching a family movie or trying to do homework at the same time, that doesn’t mean they’re not able to focus on either. However, this can be taxing on the brain; it turns out everyone is often less productive at both things while trying to do them simultaneously. On average, it takes us 25 minutes to fully get back to our original task when interrupted.
Attention spans increase the older we get in life. Expected sustained attention spans by age work out like this – showing the older you get, the more attention to develop:
- 4 years old: eight to 12 minutes
- 12 years old: 24 to 36 minutes
- 17+ years old: 1+ hours
Unfortunately as screen time has become more prevalent attention spans have diminished. The length of time people stay on a single computer screen before switching to another has decreased from 2.5 minutes to 47 seconds over the past two decades.
Children's Development - Types of Memory
When kids employ their attention they’re then able to utilize their memory centers to remember information and processes.
Remembering information requires both working memory (used to complete a task) and long-term memory (storing & retrieving information over the long-term). Both memory types are utilized in school.
Shorter attention spans affect working memory. Because of this, children are struggling to process and transfer information from their working memory to their long-term memory. This can lengthen the amount of time required to reach the same level of academic performance.
SECOND, learn about stress & kids' bodies
(Hang in There with Us...)
Understanding Stress & Kids' Sympathetic Nervous Systems
A child’s response to stress and anxiety is their sympathetic nervous system – which is essentially a body’s gas pedal to prepare itself to deal with danger (our “flight or fight” responses). And that is great when a car is coming at a person – creating a burst of energy and focus to avoid the real danger.
But human’s (kids included!) sympathetic nervous systems have not evolved to the speed of modern society. Often we experience manufactured, “false” dangers — like waiting for a stressful text message to arrive or for an upcoming exam. So regardless of the danger being real or not, kids’ brains signal DANGER! to their bodies from the brain’s command center (the hypothalamus).
Neural messages are then sent from their amygdalas (part of the brain) to their adrenal glands to release epinephrine and cortisol — enabling kids to stay alert and deal with the threat at hand. These fight or flight hormones literally change up what the body is capable of doing – hyperactivating some critical response systems to be ready to deal with the danger at hand while muting other non-critical organs such as cognitive thought processing, digestion, and peripheral vision.
Evidence of Kids' Stress
- Approximately 1 out of every 5 kids between 3-17 meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder. In fact, nearly 1 out of every 3 teenagers has been diagnosed.
- Kids living in poverty are 2x-3x more likely to develop mental health conditions like anxiety than those living in more economically stable households, according to a 2021 Surgeon General report.
- The time is now – approximately 50% of all lifetime mental illnesses develop by age 14 and 75% develop by age 24.
- The US spends more on mental health services than any other country per capita. Despite this investment, a third of adolescents lack access to mental health services.
The Cost of Ongoing Stress (Which is the Same Whether it is Based on a Real or Perceived Danger)
The changes that happen to kids’ bodies from ongoing stress exposure come at a cost. When the threat is under way, think of a kid’s sympathetic nervous systems’ foot is stuck on the gas pedal — keeping their body revved up to be prepared to deal with the danger. The continual exposure to these stress hormones, the activation of some of kids’ physical systems, and the dampening of other critical systems messes with children’s ability to function in daily life. This nonstop state of hyperarousal can wreak havoc on kids’ health in the short and long term.
If a child’s stress response is ongoing, the result can be damaged, weakened systems and brain architecture in their bodies.
- If stress is related to excessive dopamine release, a child is more likely to have impaired cognitive functions (including significantly decreased working memory and increased time it takes to learn at school and in life.)
- Cortisol literally stunts developing brains. As a result of unending exposure to stress, the prefrontal cortex of kids may not be as developed (the part of the brain that intelligently regulates our thoughts, actions and emotions through extensive connections with other brain regions).
- The constant stress response also increases kids’ heart rate and blood pressure to supply oxygen and glucose to muscles and the brain while shutting down “non-essential” functions like growth.
Let's explore an example of one of the major stressors for kids today - screen time.
SIDE NOTE – You may ask – “Why are we focusing on screens?” Because it’s one of the largest, unchecked stressors for kids in America today.
But really we want to just help any stressed out kid, no matter the cause.
How Kids Spend Time - Screen Time vs. Green Time
(A.K.A. Human Evolution isn't Fast Enough for Screens...)
A Generational Change in Kids' Time
- A typical kid in America spends 78x more time on screens than outdoors playing…they spend:
- About 52 hours per week using electronics and screens
- Less than 40 minutes per week outdoors
- Only 4-7 minutes per day of unstructured outdoor play (independent outdoor play has been proven to increase youth’s ability to work things out for themselves AND self-confidence, two all-important things needed for adult happiness)
- Over 90+% of their time indoors
- Lower-income teens and tweens spend 2 hours/day more screen time than their more affluent peers. This is despite higher-income kids having universally greater ownership of all matter of screens, from smartphones to computers to TVs, according to the study.
- And only a quarter of kids playing outside daily as compared to nearly three quarters a generation ago, even in rural areas.
- Families are struggling to get outside too – in 2018, only less than 20% of Americans participated in an outdoor recreational activity at least once per week, and children went on 15% fewer outings than they did even six years earlier.
- Greater than 70% of low-income communities and communities of color in the contiguous US live in nature-deprived areas, with little access to the health benefits of natural spaces.
Why excessive screens is particularly bad for youth
(The Punchline...)
Screens are Throwing Kids Off
Here is an overview of how some of the most significant ways screens are throwing kids off:
- Overreliance on Linear Thinking: When a child is engaged and actively making decisions on screens they typically use linear problem solving to follow the coding of the programs. This means they don’t have nearly as many ‘ah ha’ experiences gleaned during mind-wandering — a skill critical to complex problem solving.
- Short videos, social media scrolling – this attractive content causes a looping addiction pathway similar to alcohol or drug use; it takes more and more dopamine to have the same reward effect. Girls, in particular, are drawn to online social media to affirm self-worth.
- Social screens – Texting and messaging online are increasingly displacing in-person interactions, limiting youth’s exposure to learning the types of social cues witnessed in-person. Each notification also releases dopamine. Online bullying has increased exponentially (nearly half of US kids affected) as the online world dehumanizes the effort and makes it “easier” to engage in. Girls, in particular, are drawn to online social communication.
- Video games – while they’re good for developing top-down information processing (linear problem solving), too much video games downgrades children’s abilities to problem solve in more complex situations. Video games also activate the brain’s reward neurotransmitter, releasing dopamine. Boys, in particular, are drawn to video game play.
- Surfing the internet – infinite access to whatever information we seek is another way reward neurotransmitters are activated, impulse control is weakened, and the world’s problems also seem closer to home for kids (which causes yet more stress!). Internet surfing has become a substitute for many other activities such as reading, sports, games, etc. and conditions children avoidance of non-preferred tasks.
- Multimedia screen multitasking – like shopping online while watching tv – significantly decreases kids’ ability to concentrate for sustained amounts of time.
Are Screens Really that Bad?
You may be asking…”But, c’mon — are they REALLY addictive? Are screens really that bad? My kid seems fine.”
The answer is…when kids have TOO MUCH screen time — unfortunately the answer is, yes. Programs on screens ARE designed to be addictive (or at minimum, severe dependency). It literally is not kids’ fault they want more screens.
When kids have too much screen time, their bodies are unable to differentiate between “false” stressors and real dangers. Think of kids’ motors idling for too long. The constant state of hyperarousal from screens has been proven to continually release epinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol. And the resulting change in brain chemistry can literally change how they process information and physically grow up.
Here is a bit of an overview of how the odds are stacked against your child with screen time:
- Divided Attention: Big picture, screen stimuli inadvertently train kid’s brains to engage in divided attention. Since the pre-frontal cortex isn’t developed until age 25, kids have less self-control or ability to focus among distractions. And learning ands social development suffers.
- Reward System: Virtually all video games and social media work on what is called a variable reward system (think slot machines). These screens cause children to seek continually more and more instant gratification as dopamine (yep THAT happy hormone that motivates us to do things we think will bring pleasure) loses its potency. A young person’s brain lacks a fully developed self-control system to help them stop themselves from this obsessive behavior.
- Nearly Unlimited Attractive Stream of Info: When kids get so used to chasing dopamine + attractive info, attention spans decrease and they abandon info not presented quickly or attractively. And this causes them to increasingly avoid or dislike normal tasks (like schoolwork) as they do not guarantee the same dopamine boost.
- FOMO: Studies have also shown children are particularly susceptible to the fear of missing out (FOMO) And, as a consequence, they binge on screen time — reinforcing more of a bad habit.
- Notifications: Continual notifications and alerts on screens exacerbate dopamine release and FOMO.
Some forms of screen time are proving, however, to not be as damaging – especially when done in moderation. Interactive screen time with others (ie family time), educational shows, engaging movies, and interactive learning apps are all connected to positive outcomes and habits.
Bottom line – passive, game, and social screen time is particularly damaging and addictive for kids in their brain development. Children’s increasing obsession with screen-produced instant gratification means they’re constantly living in their limbic brains (which processes emotions). Historically, our physiological baselines have designed kids to live instead in their pre-frontal cortex, which deals with future planning and problem-solving and is important for personality development.
The effects of too much screen time & A lack of green time
(Mostly the Same Concepts Apply for Other Sources of Kids' Stress too)
The core result of excessive screen time and a lack of green time? Anxiety, depression, and weight gain at the surface. Underneath, kids’ brains are being fundamentally re-wired – setting them up to be less prepared for adulthood and happiness in the long-term.
The Mental Consequences of Excessive Screen Time
How excessive screen time is affecting our kids’ brains and mental health:
- There is a direct connection between the increase in anxiety and screen time. About a quarter of teens who reported 4+ hours of daily screen time (about HALF of all teens) experienced anxiety or depression symptoms.
- Anxiety and depression symptoms reduced significantly for teens who had less than 4 hours of daily screen time according to the National Center for Health Statistics in 2024. This means all screen time – including screens at school.
- Increasingly research points to excessive screen time causing ADHD in some children and teens (of a 2018 study of 2,500 teenagers, only 5.9% were naturally born with ADHD, while 81% developed it after 24 months of overusing technology)
The Physical Consequences of Excessive Screen Time
Some additional facts about kids’ stress levels and physical health — a direct result of how they are now typically spending their lives:
- Too much screen time is contributing to obesity – nearly 1 in 5 youth ages 6-17 had obesity (excessive weight) according to the National Survey of Children’s Health in 2023.
- Further, limiting the physical activity kids get and makes them more susceptible to gaining weight. (Cortisol dampens critical digestion systems — kids essentially get hungrier and eat more while digesting more slowly.)
- Excessive screen time is increasingly replacing unstructured play time outside — which, in turn, limits kids’ involvement in the natural environment best suited to get them to participate in a wide array of critical activities that bring about skills needed for child development
The Neural Consequences of Excessive Screen Time
Some of the neural consequences of excessive screen time in kids include:
- Desensitizing a child’s brain reward system
- Causing sensory overload
- Creating a pattern of wired & tired (that is what too much epinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol will do)
- Training kids to have shortened attention spans
- Normalizing having a lack of interest or focus in learning (including needing to take longer to transfer working memory information learned to long-term memory)
- Disrupting sleep and desynchronizes the body clock
- Exposing them to screen-based light before or during sleep, which has a greater chance at causing depression or even suicide
- Changing brain chemistry – the frontal lobe becomes damaged and gray matter goes bonkers – causing the inability to filter out relevant info and complete complex tasks, key things kids tend to need to be able to do
The Opportunity to Help Our Kids Assimilate to the New Reality of Modern Day Screens & Life
ALLLLLL this being said, screens are here to stay. They are now a part of everyday life. And as adults, we have an opportunity to help our kids have balance with screen time and outdoor time. We have an opportunity to counter-act the effects screens have on our kids by training them to self-arm and strengthen the antidote they already have inside them — their parasympathetic systems.
And LONG story short – this is what we do at Camp. Camp’s goal isn’t to banish screens — this is not realistic and screens do serve good purposes when viewed in moderation. Instead we aim to help kids figure out how to enjoy things other than screens and electronics while beefing up their skills to be more resilient and happier overall in life. The ultimate hope is our programming empowers kids to regain balance and boundaries with screens in their lives.
NEXT, Learn about kids' parasympathetic systems - Their natural antidote to stress & the effects of screens!
(Hang in There & Keep Reading - This is Where the Hero Wins!)
Activating Kids' Parasympathetic Nervous Systems -- The Remedy They Already Have
A child’s natural antidote to stress and anxiety is its parasympathetic nervous system – think of this system as the “hero” for false dangers as it serves as the body’s “brakes” for stress. This system dampens the body’s response when a perceived threat has subsided. When activated, the parasympathetic nervous system sends neural impulses from the brain to the body AND from the body to the brain, resetting a symbiosis in how the body functions, post-danger. When it is activated, the body is in a relaxed state, which is optimal for learning and cognitive processing. This includes mental rests between activities where it can wander and focus on whatever relaxing thing suits it.
Some of the effects of a child’s parasympathetic system working to overcome a stressor include releasing sleep hormones, maintaining focus and concentration (improving memory!), maintaining a resting heart and breathing rate, and making proper digestion occur. Additional benefits include increasing creativity (making it easier to solve problems and come up with innovative ideas), enhancing social skills (increasing receptiveness of social cues – making peer interactions more successful), and improving physical health (by decreasing blood pressure too).
The Vagus Nerve - The Coolest Thing You've Probably Never Heard of...
The vagus nerve wanders like a vagabond around bodies, sending sensory fibers from your brain to organs. Think of the vagus nerve as the interstate system of the mind-body connection. This nerve controls 75% of the parasympathetic nervous system and the body’s response to deactivating the sympathetic nervous system’s response to stress. But researchers are finding it is even cooler than that – it prevents inflammation, helps make memories, aids in breathing, and controls your heart rate.
At Camp we work in activities and exercises that stimulate the vagus nerve by doing things like yoga, meditation, and deep breathing exercises – mindfulness activities literally proven to decrease cortisol and activating and strengthening kids’ parasympathetic systems.
LEARN How MINDFULNESS PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN HELPING Stressed out kids
Because Psychology Today can explain how mindfulness improves neuroplasticity and increases stress resiliency better than we can...
1. Mindfulness improves our brain chemistry. Research suggests that regular mindfulness practices helps us stay calm; being mindful naturally releases dopamine, the pleasure and reward neurotransmitter; if associated with healthy habits dopamine release can be a good thing! Mindfulness also releases serotonin, which helps us experience positive emotions.
2. Mindfulness changes our fear and stress response. When we take in sensory information about a possible threat, the amygdala is the first brain structure to process that information. The amygdala evaluates images and sounds; if it detects a threat, it passes on the information to the hippocampus, which activates the body to prepare for a threat. With regular mindfulness practice, the size of the amygdala shrinks. A smaller amygdala is correlated with a reduced fear response, increased calmness, better management of anxiety, and a feeling of well-being.
3. Mindfulness helps us stay connected to the present moment. During the day, our busy minds distract us from being present with the people we love and the work we need to accomplish. Because of changes in the insula and cingulate cortex, mindfulness practices help harness our ability to shift and focus our attention on our bodily sensations and regulate the emotional responses associated with those physical sensations.
4. Mindfulness facilitates learning and memory. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to increase the size of the hippocampus, which leads to improved learning, memory, and stress management.
5. Mindfulness helps with brain healing and pain management. Mindfulness practices greatly enhance neuroplasticity. Mindfulness can improve emotional regulation and mental fatigue and help regulate pain.
Also LEARN How nature PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN HELPING Stressed out kids
NATURE Does Help Combat Stress & Build Resiliency in Youth
Learning how to cope with adversity (and stress) is an extremely important part of healthy youth development. It is now well proven that nature combats stress in the here and now, actively builds resiliency to combat stressors experienced in the future, and helps avoid the longitudinal negative outcomes outlined above. Some notable findings outlining how unstructured, outdoor play include:
- Children’s stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces – even just VIEWING nature can reduce stress and regulate heart rates according to a 2013 study published in the Environmental Sciences and Technology; and even viewing nature can notably reduce pain levels according to a 2025 neurological study published in the Journal of Nature Communications
- 87.8% of youth indicated they wanted to spend more time in nature but noted that various barriers in their lives impacted their time and access according to the National Institutes of Health
- A large percentage of youth found nature to impact their mental health positively and that being in nature relieves or reduces stress or anxiety and helps them feel at peace
- The prevalence of overweight children drops by 14% with each increase in hours outdoors
- When kids play outside, they get dirty – tending a garden, digging holes, or making good-old mudpies all expose children to healthy bacteria, parasites, and viruses that help build their immune systems
- Outdoor play increases fitness levels and builds active, healthy bodies, an important strategy in helping the 1 in 3 American kids who are obese get fit
- Spending time outside raises levels of vitamin D, helping protect children from future bone problems, heart disease, diabetes, and other health issues
- Being outside improves distance vision and lowers the chance of nearsightedness
- Exposure to natural settings may be widely effective in reducing ADHD symptoms
- Outdoor unstructured play improves creativity – regularly with outdoor play kids come up with scenarios or games that draw on their imagination and require decision making as well as devise rules and resolve disputes helps them develop an agency that will serve them in life
- Executive attention is improved with outdoor play – a critical skill needed for learning and being successful in life
Finally, explore How WE INCORPORATE ALL OF THIS AT CAMP
Here's How We're Gamifying Kids' Parasympathetic Nervous Systems for GOOD
Camp uses the same approach screen content creators use by employing the gamification of mindfulness. While their efforts at times work against our own best interests, our efforts use gamification for our own GOOD. This approach can help any child working to overcome the effects stress is having on their life – regardless of whether their stress comes from too much screen time or something else.
What does this mean? Well it really means making mindfulness fun and usable in an everyday way kids actually want to make a habit and stick with. And we’re doing this gamification of mindfulness with the backdrop of nature — the original preventative medicine. And to maybe teach kids a little biological science along with it so they understand what is happening and how they can become a leader in their own body’s wellbeing. Read below to see some of the concepts we’re weaving into our programming to make these ideas become a reality…
Key Techniques We Incorporate at Camp
Learning Mindfulness with Nature as Kids' Curriculum
Mindfulness is a BIG deal in what we teach at Camp POV. Mindfulness is being fully aware of what is going on now and what we’re doing in the moment — and not thinking about the future or the past while we’re doing it.
We teach kids mindfulness as as a tool to help buffer daily challenges, lower stress, and improve moods. Yep – gamifying mindfulness works. When children know how to be mindful, they are able to choose healthy strategies in the moment to avoid FURTHER stress. They are able to better self-regulate their responses to their emotions. So it helps them twofold: to regain calmness and to decide what they want to do with upset feelings.
We teach this tool through exercises they can do in their everyday lives like fun mindfulness games, walking through nature, and learning to be mindful while eating and brushing teeth.
Genevieve is becoming certified with the Creative Mindfulness Level 5 Teachers Certification, an internationally-accredited meditation program.
Exploring Nature with Meditation
Meditation can bolster kid’s feelings of security, empathy and inner stability and teaches them that right now is enough. This, in turn, builds compassion, joy and self-esteem. And it helps kids gain self-awareness and become more confident. Other benefits of meditation for kids include improving sleep, managing thoughts and feelings, building self-esteem, learning to relax, having more balanced energy, and improved focus and concentration.
We use nature as a backdrop to have kids meet an array of meditation exercises that they relate to for that session. Genevieve is becoming certified with the Connected Kids Meditation internationally-accredited yoga program.
Nature Can Make Yoga Relatable to Kids
Yoga is becoming more and more popular, even being taught at school. It is both an exercise and another big tool at Camp POV we teach to help kids deal with stress. Yoga provides children training of mind and body to bring emotional balance. It can alleviate chronic pain, build core strength, and improve self esteem and confidence.
Kids need such tools to listen inward to their bodies, feelings, and ideas. But at Camp POV we make it fun – using storytelling about the Northwoods and camping with yoga poses and nature-based games with yoga routines. Genevieve is becoming certified with the Cosmic Kids Yoga internationally-recognized meditation program.
The Importance of Finding Awe in Nature - Nature's Ultimate Stress-Reliever
Feeling AWE during a nature experience has a great singular ability to lower stress and improve kids’ overall wellbeing. When you feel this feeling you release dopamine and oxytocin, so we do love some good healthy awe at Camp 😀 For example, did you know there is now research proving trees TALK to each other?!
We help kids find awe in the tiny and the enormous. And, perhaps most importantly, we teach kids to discover it themselves when they go home in the “everyday” — like watching clouds gliding by and being humbled by the sky, observing an ant colony at work and the remarkable abilities of an ant to move something bigger than itself, or listening to a great thunderstorm and contemplating how lightening works. Think of finding awe as the frosting on the cupcake in activating and strengthening kids’ parasympathetic nervous systems 😀
The 5 Senses - How to Target Engaging and Strengthening the Parasympathetic System in Nature Through Mindfulness Activities
SIGHT
Studies have shown the green [light] wavelength is where our perception is at its best. Because of its position in the center of the spectrum, our eyes experience less strain. With less strain to perceive the colors our nervous system can relax when perceiving the tone. And it seems this stress reduction effect occurs because of a certain physiological resonance within the eye. Further, it appears that people have hard wiring that responds to certain forms of fractals in nature — looking at them can reduce people’s levels of stress up to 60%.
At camp we utilize green colors in nature and in our games and activities as much as we can. We teach them about the lush nature that surrounds them. And we help kids engage with fractals in plants and other activities they do.
SMELL
When we’re stressed, we have less of a type of white blood cell called natural killer cells — these cells destroy pathogens. While we breathe in the fresh air, we breathe in phytoncides, airborne chemicals that plants give off to protect themselves from insects. When people breathe in these chemicals, our bodies respond by lowering blood pressure and increasing the number and activity of natural killer cells. In laymen’s terms, the forest is nature’s health-boosting aromatherapy.
At camp we help incorporate relaxing smells and help kids SMELL nature in the activities and exercises they do.
SOUND
Sounds of nature increases the activation and activity of our parasympathetic system — the system that neutralizes and resets our body’s stress-response. Certain tones and frequencies (by studying their vibration rate) also are known to have particularly grounding and calming effects.
The sounds of nature and other relaxing sounds are paramount to camp’s environments and exercises. We also play listening games to help children connect with nature’s sounds.
TOUCH
Grounding (connecting to sand, water, soil, etc.) also increases the activation of our parasympathetic nervous system (body’s response to calm its response to stress). It also aids with ION exchange – when the Earth’s electrons are transferred from the ground into your body. The benefits of getting more of these ions include better sleep and reduced pain — all of which also helps reduce stress and anxiety.
At camp we help kids connect to nature by feeling it in targeted activities and games and activities played IN nature throughout their time with us.
TASTE
A habitually poor diet (e.g., increased consumption of Western processed foods) is also independently associated with a greater likelihood of or risk for depression and anxiety. Natural foods thereby are better!
We help kids at camp eat yummy foods that are healthy through snacks and meals in our classes and camp sessions. And at our daytime and overnight camps we are incorporating helping them learn how to make these foods for themselves.
Learning Nature + Mindfulness Activities that Release Happy Hormones, A Key Way in Activating Kids' Parasympathetic Systems
Research has show “happy hormones” combat stress. At Camp POV we have done our own research to figure out how to use nature-based learning and stress-management techniques that release these hormones in our programming. In doing so we lead with FUN but also teach kids a bit of the science behind it so they understand there is a real reason for the FUN. We also teach kids how to build these activities into good habits and make them stick.
Bottom line, we are looking to help children develop age-appropriate habits that overtly are enjoyable and covertly help their own bodies work for them, not against them.
Some of the techniques we incorporate to activate these hormones are subtle, some not so much. The happy hormones we work on releasing with our programming and experiences are:
DOPAMINE
Known as the “feel-good” hormone, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that’s an important part of kids’ brain’s reward system. It’s associated with learning, memory, and more. Yep – dopamine can be a hormone force for greater good when administered in conjunction with healthy habits!
We engage kids bodies to release dopamine by doing fun sitting mediations, games, activities like walking meditation and mindful listening, yoga, getting enough sleep and sunlight, eating good food, and completing tasks outdoors.
SEROTONIN
The serotonin hormone and neurotransmitter helps boost kids’ mood as well as improves their sleep, appetite, digestion, learning ability, and memory.
We look to incorporate the release of this at camp by being in the sun and kids naturally getting exercise by being outside doing activities like hiking, fishing, or going on mindfulness scavenger hunts in the forest.
OXYTOCIN
Often called the “love hormone,” oxytocin promotes trust, empathy, and bonding in relationships.
Camp’s activities look to activate this hormone with group activities such as singing together, playing with animals, activities like giving compliments…and being around certain nature-based smells, colors, and sounds throughout their time at camp (see above).
ENDORPHINS
Endorphin hormones are kids’ body’s natural pain relievers, which their bodies produce in response to stress or discomfort.
We look to connect with this hormone with meditation, again being in the sun and exercise, yoga, watching a funny movie and laughing, music, and random acts of kindness activities.
Referenced research
Works Cited (It's not just us saying this stuff is true...)
Initial Research Provided by Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan, PhD -- Key Mentor and Consultant for Camp
Additional Research Provided by Genevieve Coady, PhD -- Executive Director, Camp POV
“5 Ways Mindfulness Rewires Your Brain and Improves Your Life.” Psychology Today, 2024, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pain-rehabilitation/202401/5-ways-mindfulness-rewires-your-brain-and-improves-your-life.
Allain, Rhett. “Everything You Need to Know about Energy.” Wired, 10 Nov. 2020, www.wired.com/story/everything-you-need-to-know-about-energy/.
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“Attention Spans Are Shrinking. Or Are They? | AOR.” AOR, 8 Dec. 2022, www.thinkaor.com/insights/is-your-attention-span-actually-shrinking/. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.
Betteridge, Biba, et al. “How Does Technology Affect the Attention Spans of Different Age Groups?” OxJournal, 5 Sept. 2023, www.oxjournal.org/how-does-technology-affect-the-attention-spans-of-different-age-groups/.
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