>>857707one thing that really helped me when i was just a little cubscout, was my troop leader.
he was the coolest guy i ever met, the kind of person every kid wants to become, when they grow up. like a father 2.0, a male idol, a teacher and a trustworthy friend.
he had a way to deal with afraid children just by ignoring them and being calm and it helped.
we had trips /out/ for 5+ days without any kind of modern technology, except for our clothing.
we slept in cloth tents innawoods like pic related, showered with heated up water from a lake, cooked with a campfire and so on.
we werent allowed to use flashlights or even candles, so we were forced to adapt to the sitiuation of not having any source of light except for the campfire and campmade resin torches, but once your eyes have adapted to the dark, you will be able to see just enough to move around. your other senses will adapt to the lack of vision and you will be able to determine the size, direction and distance of anything that makes noises.
the first 2 nights at camp were hard, but then i lost my fear of the dark while playing a complicated capture the flag game with the other cubs against some older boyscouts, innawoods under a crecent moon and a cloudy sky at 10 years of age.
it was dark as shit and we were crawling through along the mud alongside our troop leader trying to be really quit to take the objective.
it was amazing, we felt as a part of nature like a pack of hunting wolves. we were to busy concentrating on our suroundings and our movement to be afraid of the noises or the dark.
since then i never felt any kind of fear of the dark innawoods.
nowadays having three dogs around, a walking stick and a knife helps keeping me calm, even if some larger animals come close.
