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We know, we know, we all feel so much better while we are enjoying the safety and comfort of our own homes. However, it is so incredibly important that we make time to get outside, get exercise, and expose ourselves to a world outside of the comfort of our houses, our rooms, and the indoor world. There are so many benefits that we gain from getting outside and exercising, and just exposing ourselves to the outside world helps to fulfill the many needs of us humans.
Obviously, a large portion of the list of reasons why we need to take time to get outside are related to physical health. We all know that you're going to get a lot more exercise when you are outside. From just walking around, working up a good sweat by going on a long run or bike ride, or even just doing chores around the house like raking leaves, cutting the lawn, and other related activities all are incredibly beneficial to maintaining positive physical health. Unless you just lay in the middle of the grass and stare at the sky, every single activity you can do is going to be doing things like burning calories, building muscles, increasing your heart’s ability to work hard and push itself, and really just helping you to build a better physical body. Along with that, being outside and exposed to the outside world helps our bodies in other ways. Breathing fresh, outside air can actually help us to clear out our lungs, our throats, and our nasal passages. Also, being in the sunlight for just 15 minutes per day helps us to fulfill our daily requirement for Vitamin D, which is a very important staple for keeping us healthy. Along with that, it has been proven that walking outside, or even just doing things as simple as looking at trees can actually lower your blood pressure, which lowers your risk for events like heart attacks. So, as you can hopefully infer from the previously listed compilation of information, being outside and exposing yourself to the world away from your room and your house is so very beneficial for our physical health, and even just small amounts of time spent outside can be so very helpful towards our body’s staying healthy.
To pair along with the many physical advantages, being outside and getting out of your house can play a serious role in improving your mental health. For starters, research shows that nature simply makes us happy and calms us down, and mental health issues like anxiety, depression and anger are decreased immensely after spending time outdoors. Also, especially for us kids and teens, being outside can increase our ability to focus significantly. Studies have shown that both children and teenagers who have difficulties focusing or controlling distractions/impulses are able to better concentrate after being in nature or just outside in general. According to Erica Price, a certified therapeutic recreational specialist, “The natural world allows our brains to take a break from all that mentally drains us, and even reduces symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” So, to summarize yet again, being outside is very beneficial for both our mental and physical health.
Hopefully you learned something from these few paragraphs of information. I encourage you to take what you have hopefully learned and use it as motivation to get out of your house and spend more time outside. If you still need more convincing, or are questioning what you should do in your time outside, check out the articles/blogs below for more information.