Get Out: The Benefits of Being Outdoors
If you’ve ever sipped coffee on your front porch, traveled around your neighborhood, or taken a ride around town with the windows rolled down, you probably already know instinctively that being outside feels good.
But did you know there’s science behind it? In fact, a survey in 2019 reported that spending at least two hours in nature each week can significantly boost your health and well-being — whether that two hours happens all at once or broken into small segments of time.
On our “Stay Calm, Stay Independent” page, you learned that going outside for just 10 minutes can help reduce the impacts of stress on your mental and physical health. Why is that? Keep reading to find out.
Why Nature is Good for Us
The great outdoors offers benefits us in several specific ways:
Sunshine Power
Have you ever heard the term “internal clock” or “body clock”? Well, that’s another way of referring to your body’s circadian rhythm, which is what makes you naturally want to sleep at night and be awake in the daytime. No lamp can do what the sun does all on its own. So getting outside and experiencing sunshine regularly can help to keep your body clock ticking the way it’s supposed to, energizing you in the daytime and helping you to sleep better and longer at night.
The sun also acts as a natural antidote to depression symptoms like bad moods and fatigue. Even taking a meal or snack outside, reading on a bench, or relaxing under a sun umbrella can help.
Sunlight also stimulates your body’s production of vitamin D, which supports your immune system. Just be sure to wear your sunscreen!
Fresh Air
When people say, “I need to step outside and get some fresh air,” it’s not just an expression — they mean it! Breathing is actually easier outside.
We often think of our indoor environments as clean and healthy, but that isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, indoor air pollutants can be two to five times higher indoors than outdoors! That means spending time in natural green areas can be better for your respiratory health!
Eyesight and Focus
Being outside can not only calm the mind, but it can help sharpen your focus. Even a view of the outdoors can improve productivity and concentration. Going outside bolsters your creativity and problem-solving abilities — some experts say by up to 50%! It forces you to see things from a new perspective, shaking up your environment and calling your attention to new sights, smells, sounds, and sensations. There’s even evidence that a person with ADHD who takes a 20-minute walk outside will experience an elevated attention span.
Going outside can even help counteract nearsightedness, also known as myopia. Many of us spend our days looking at computers and phones, or, if you’re in school, papers and books. We look at things close up a lot, and we need a break to keep our distance vision up to snuff. Going outside lets your eyes practice focusing on objects at various distances, giving you richer colors and amounts of light to see, and it stimulates the production of dopamine, your body’s “feel-good” chemical, in your retina, which helps to prevent your eyeball from stretching and warping your vision.
And speaking of screens, the outdoors counteracts screen time, which science says can actually stunt children’s development if used in excess. Screens foster a sedentary lifestyle and make you feel “on” for more time in the day, which can create anxiety and a feeling of being constantly under stress. Plus, screens contribute to a lowered attention span, hurt your ability to make decisions, and restrict how you deal with emotions, according to the Mayo Clinic. Going outside helps to balance your life by sharpening your focus and elevating your attention span.
Improved Mobility
Nature motivates people to participate in outdoor activities more than indoor ones. This means you’re more likely to move and exercise outdoors than indoors. One study even found that people with Parkinson’s disease saw their mobility improve more significantly when participating in activities in natural surroundings versus non-natural settings. They also saw other benefits, including better cardiorespiratory capacity and stabilization in blood pressure and heart rate.
Better Quality of Life
According to the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability, people with disabilities often enjoy a greater sense of accomplishment and personal growth from outdoor activities versus those who do those activities indoors.
Getting outside can help to make you feel more relaxed, less stressed, more creative, more focused, and healthier.
Don’t let your disability convince you you can’t take part in outdoor activities.
There’s often an emphasis on quantity — how much ground you cover or weight you lift — over quality of experiences outside. But that is a mistake.
You may have mobility challenges that cause you to move more slowly than others, but that’s okay. You can achieve all these same benefits of being outdoors, whether you’re moving quickly or slowly.
A slow walk means you can notice small mammals in trees, hear the birds singing, notice how lichen and moss grow, or get in touch with your breathing and the scents in the air. That mindfulness can get lost when you rush.
Whether you sit on a bench or in a wheelchair at the park, walk your dog around your neighborhood, dip your toes in a swimming pool, play catch with a friend, or bring a book or paintbrushes to the shore of a lake, you’re still doing your body, mind, and soul a favor by going outside.
Increase Your Time Spent Outdoors
Nevada Outdoor School in Eastern Nevada offers a Time Spent Outdoors (TSO) Club, which offers fun activities designed to get people of all ages and ability levels outside more often.
Check out these pages for more details on ways to safely spend time outdoors and exercising:
- Enjoying the Great Outdoors with a Disability
- Get Moving: Tips for Exercising with a Disability
