COMPLETE - No Worries Patch

No Worries Patch – Troop #346

Scout Name: __Paul_Meronym
Date: ____________________

Costs: ___Condom & Flour for step 2 & 7  – Less than $10____________     
Patch - $2________

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. At the end get Miss Anarcadia or Beta-Pup to mark them off. Then turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered) or order your own.

1. Guided meditation is a way of picturing a scene in your head through verbal prompts. This has been shown to lower stress levels and even alleviate some low levels of pain. Either as part of a group or on your own with a recording, participate in a session of guided meditation. Afterward, consider the effects it had on you.

- We did this exercise during the January Scout Troop meeting. It didn't work well for me, though. The image we were directed to was a beach with ocean waves. For some reason, that image created a lot of anxiety for me. And with my eyes closed in a room full of people, I got pretty panicky. Once I opened my eyes and watched our troop leader walking around I was able to control it, but I think my imagery needs to be more caves and closed comforting spaces instead of open bright spaces. Our fitbit does a 2-minute guided breathing exercise that does help sometimes when I get anxious, though.

2. Make a condom dolphin or fish! This step incorporates both laughter and physical activity to help reduce stress. Take a condom and fill it with flour. Try to pack it in there pretty hard (giggles). Once it’s filled, tie the end and then add a face and details with a sharpie.

- Boss and I both participated in this activity. I cut up first a cup, then a plastic bottle, to use as a funnel, and I think it helped with filling the condoms. Boss's condom-worm is the one with orange and yellow face. Mine is the gold fishy-looking one. The second one I made, I tied it off in two sections, and colored lips, a nose, and some facial hair on it.
 
3. Sending positive vibes can be helpful and an easy first step to help others. One look at the newspaper can show that the world can definitely use some of those positive vibes. For one week, take a few minutes out of every day to meditate on world peace.

- Okay, we've done this for one week!

4. Many cultures around the world have various ways to unwind. See if you can find a few different ways people destress in cultures other than your own.

- We talked about some of these ways in the troop meeting. We talked about zen gardens, Native America hook pulls, dance, tai chi, labyrinths, sweat lodges, siestas, yoga, sensory deprivation, foot baths, and peace pipes.

I found this article about de-stressing around the world. It talks about having a ritual to separate outside from chaos from the home, hot showers, trying not to push for 'perfect' when 'good' is enough, massage, social eating, exercise, laughter, taking walks, taking breaks with friends, foot soaks, and focusing on the positive.

5. For many people, Age Play is a calming way to get rid of stress. Share with the troop how age play helps you to unwind.

- As we talked about in the troop meeting, I'm not age-playing like the rest of them are, but being around ageplayers, like at the troop meeting, gives me an opportunity to make friends who accept me as the kid I am and support me. And doing Little Scouts gives me an opportunity to accomplish things that are specifically me that I can get some sort of recognition for, which means a lot to me.

6. Sometimes it’s not ourselves that need help with stress but those close to us. Share with the troop ways that you can help a stressed-out friend. Then later, go put your ideas into action. You’ll be surprised at how it can help you out as much as your friend.

- run them a bath
- watch their kid(s) to give them a break
- cuddle/pet them
- scene with them
- listen to them, let them vent about what's bothering them
- cook for them, feed them
- remind them to take their medicine
- do karaoke or another fun activity with them
- color a picture or make a gift for them

7. Share the gift of laughter and relaxation! Make a second condom dolphin or fish to give to someone.

- We gave our condom-fish to MM's daughter. At a restaurant. She said it was the weirdest gift she'd ever received, and that's saying quite a lot coming from her!

8. You’ve now done a lot of things to relax. Now’s the time to reflect on how you felt and why it’s important to relax every so often. Journal about the benefits of relaxation both mentally and physically.

- Reducing stress in your life will help you be calmer, be a nicer person, make better decisions, sleep better, make fewer mistakes, and keep your job and friends.

9. People relax in different ways based on their own preference. Some curl up with a good book, some play on the computer, some do martial arts. What are some ways you like to relax? Share them with the troop. Who knows, maybe someone never thought of that and can help them too. We’ll also post them to our online resources too.

- I posted a thread in our troop fetgroup for this so people can share online resources: https://fetlife.com/groups/144714/group_posts/12008608 - and my contribution to the thread:

One of our favorite ways to de-stress is to hang our hammock over our bed and play games on our phone - https://fetlife.com/users/120724/pictures/66906371. 

And of course, playing with Lego really destresses me. There's a lot of focus required to build things, and to break them down and organize for storing.

10. Remember those ideas you found about relaxation around the world? What are some ideas that you like? Journal a bit about them and try to incorporate one or two into your everyday life. 

- Some things I do to relax:
- Play with Legos - whether I'm building or breaking down and organizing, I focus intensely and it makes me stop worrying about other things.
- Hammock & Game - we have a hammock over our bed I can swing in and play games on our phone.
- Coloring - it's not as big a thing for me as for Kiara, but I do keep a coloring book in my Scout bag to give me something to focus on.

From the ideas around the world, some of the things that we try to keep in our life our hot showers, social eating, massage, and ritual. Ritual is really important for my system as it lets us all get things done regardless of who is out. Sensory deprivation is also something that helps all of us. Being in the hammock usually means with the lights off, and kind of just floating in there. I can get really overwhelmed with sensory input sometimes, and getting somewhere dark and quiet and just doing a single activity that I'm completely focused on helps a lot. We'd like to do more walking and light exercise - it's something we try to do more of when the body is up to it, and it's definitely the one we need to keep working on.

COMPLETE - Webrangers

The National Park Service has an online spot called Webrangers to do online activities. The address is https://www.nps.gov/webrangers. Here's my Ranger Station!

I went ahead and did some activities. I did all the animal activities, and earned a trophy for my shelf!

I finished all the Animal, Puzzle, and Science activities - that's over 25 activities. I got three trophies, and arrowheads indicating my total progress!

A notification came up after I finished a certain number of activities, asking me if I want a badge! It had me enter an email address, and then emailed me the link to request a badge. So now I'll have something to put on my Little Scouts sash!

You can see from the screenshot that it was at least 35 activities, and now the badge image at the bottom is all lit up - I assume that's what the badge will look like.

Well, I guess it's done - I've completed ALL the activities available for Webrangers! They have their own virtual badge-sash - and I've got all the badges! Boy, when all the badges are the same size and shape, you can make them look really neat.

But now I'm done with Webrangers, since I've finished it all. Here's what my Ranger Station looks like at the end. You can see that I've lit up the lamp on my awards shelf - you have to finish everything to do that.