You Must Go Outside

Balsamroot flowers on top of Coyote Wall, Mt Hood in the distance.

Adapted from my upcoming ebook: How to Feel Good

The best thing I do with my life every year is go spend a week living outside. Don’t get me wrong, I’m outside a lot. I love hiking. I love backpacking. I love gardening, walking through my neighborhood, smelling the flowers. I love being outside. But I rarely ever spend an entire week outside. And I mean outside. I am never in a building. I am never in a car. I sleep outside, I eat outside, I socialize outside.

But I don’t do this alone. I do it with several hundred other people. We meet up in central Oregon for a week once a year to practice “ancestral skills”. Green wood carving, basket weaving, flint knapping. Things of that sort. It’s a really beautiful week. That’s why I say it’s the best thing I do with my life. We’re in community, we’re taking care of each other, we’re learning and teaching each other. And we’re doing all of it outside.

For an entire week I hear the wind rustle through the trees and understory. I hear the birds in the distance, even if I’m not aware of it. I see all the little animals, all the little plants. I sit on the ground with my bare feet touching the earth. I get my hands in the soil. I see a thousand shades of green everywhere I look. No screens, no cars, no buildings. 

I can’t tell you how amazing that experience is, but what I can tell you is that my resting heart rate drops to its lowest levels. My heart rate variability goes up. My sleep scores get better even with less sleep. I am relaxed. I don’t feel the urge to look at a screen or seek out dopamine. I don’t care that I don’t get dessert after dinner every night. I don’t need the dopamine hit anymore. I’m happy and content and I’m present.

That is what green spaces will do for you. That is what being outside will do for you. So get outside. Leave the city if you can and if you can’t then go to the park. Do some gardening. Get your hands in the dirt. Sit on the ground. Lay on the ground. Take your shoes off! Look at the tops of trees. Now look at the fine details of the plants around you. Have you ever noticed the shape of that flower’s pistils? Look there’s a bug inside this flower! What kind of bug? Notice. Don’t rush off. Don’t pull your phone out. Better yet, leave it at home.

Until recently, we spent our entire evolutionary lives as a species in constant contact with the living world. Technology, both social and physical, have taken that away from us. Let’s try to get a little of it back. Carve out a small amount of space and time to be in contact with the living world. Notice what that does for you.