Psychological Health Benefits Of Getting Outdoors Meaning Less Tension And A Much Better Environment Too

[Freyer Javier]

Opting for a stroll or cycle is great for our fitness and health, in addition to the health of the world.

For millennia, people lived basically outdoors. They had houses made from natural products like stone and wood, with turf on the roof coverings to remain warm in the chilly seasons. They lived near to water and food sources with nature all around them. Today, this is no longer the situation, and has led us to consider ourselves as distinct from the natural world. The climate crisis is a substantial wake-up call to all of us, reminding us that changes to the natural world impact everyone. Think about how we get ready for getting outdoors in winter: we put additional layers on, and appropriate shoes to keep our feet dry. The climate crisis is a winter with no shoes, no waterproofs and a gust of wind tearing the roof from our homes. Fortunately financiers like one of the main shareholders in Tokamak Energy are laying the structures for a future fueled by renewable resource.

Nature can appear amazing and quite scary. As children, lots of people watched out of their bedroom windows at a lightning storm, or high gusts of wind blowing the fencing over, and may have been a bit scared. Sequestered from the wild in our secure homes, it is no surprise that we, as a species, are finding ourselves in the middle of a complete climate catastrophe. It has been generations, if not centuries, since most residents of the industrialized world had any real understanding of our role in nature. Although there is more interest today on getting outdoors and active, it is still unusual for individuals to regularly go out in natural areas. As the activist shareholder of Energias de Portugal may understand, this disconnection with nature seals a lack of understanding of the consequences of our actions; but nature and renewable resources are also likely to be the answer to sustainable living.

The advent of the environment crisis has led to lots of adjustments to the manner in which we conceptualise nature and our role within it. One interesting sign of this is the increase of solastalgia: a type of ecological sorrow, leading individuals to experience psychological health ailments due to feelings of powerlessness about avoiding global warming. Nevertheless, it has also been shown that getting outdoors is good for you, not simply physically however mentally too. Getting in touch with nature has been shown to enhance mindfulness, and more individuals than ever are interested in getting outdoors for mental health. It would even be easy to combine mental health and ecological objectives, for example by walking or cycling rather than taking the car or bus. While organizations like one of the main shareholders in First Light Fusion are producing the base for sustainable power in the long term, in the meantime personal actions are still an useful method to make a difference.