The Great Outdoors
After doing a lot of riding this week, I decided to catch the bus in today. It’s a cool and overcast day in Adelaide, but beautiful nonetheless. Even just the short walk along the river to the bus interchange put a smile on my face to start the day.
Doing some research on the net this morning I have found that I’m not the only one that believes spending time outside makes you happy. It’s always been something that puts a smile on my face. Doesn’t matter if it’s the rain drops falling, looking at the clouds on a summers day, or bush walking and coming across interesting cliff faces or plants. There’s always something out there that makes me happy, as obscure as those things may be.
It’s well documented that in order to live a healthy life, you should try and get a good dose of sunlight and fresh air each day. Many believe that when you are outdoors, you get an endorphin high, which makes you instantly happier. When you spend a good deal of time outside, it is more likely that you will sleep better that night too, and better sleep means that the next day you will feel more refreshed.
In nature, most people realise their purpose. It’s hard to clear your mind in an urban environment surrounded by darkness, pollution, electronics, and all sorts of other stress. When you are closer to nature, you can clear your mind and feel connected to the world surrounding you. Like any other species, we are “just living our lives” too.
I don’t believe in any higher meaning, I believe that we are on this earth to eat, sleep and procreate. This is very hard to see sometimes, especially when you are planning for a 3 o’clock meeting, need to reply to a stack of emails, and then pick the kids up from school afterwards. Escape to nature and it becomes so much more obvious that the “something more to life” is actually less. Less stress, less frantic living, and so on. This is hard to escape at times, but the simplest escape is to spend a small amount of time outside.
Plants flourish outdoors, put them indoors where they can’t get any light and they will die. We eat these plants, and we are meant to live in the same environment as them. It’s no wonder we are so negative sometimes, we need our dose of outdoors too.
If you do one thing today, go outside and find something interesting. Look up at the clouds, look at the green grass, close your eyes and breathe in the fresh air or listen to the birds.