Benefits Of Green Exercise
Green Exercise…or yellow or orange as it is Fall after all!
Well, we know that regular exercise is good. Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle your days. Exercise can help prevent excess weight accumulation, and can help maintain weight loss as physical activity burns calories. Exercise also helps you to combat health conditions and diseases, like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, cardio-vascular diseases etc. But its not only our body that benefits from exercise, its our mental and emotional health that get a boost too. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals like dopamine and endorphins flowing freely when we move our bodies. This can leave us feeling happier, more relaxed and less anxious. You may also feel better about your appearance and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem. Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster, get better sleep and deepen your sleep.
So what can be better than exercise? Well, green exercise. Research shows that exercising outside can help to reduce stress, depression and improve your mood even more than indoor activities. When outside you also get more Vitamin D. Vitamin D is needed for strong bones, muscles and overall health (though wear appropriate sun protection when outside). Oh and finally, exercising outdoors costs nothing.
As we are still mostly staying home - due to how the pandemic changed our lives, getting outdoors remains (and always will be) very important. And you don’t need to think of a long excursion spent outside to reap the benefits of outdoor activities. Being outdoors even if for a short time, allows us to reconnect with our surroundings and since we are not “visitors” of nature but part of it, we get in touch with ourselves on a deeper level as well. We feel more in our bodies and hearts when we are outside. Sensing into our bodies in the present moment activates neural networks that enhance self-regulation, it reduces stress hormones, and boosts immune system function. Our brain has a few rudimentary tools for doing this job of self maintenance even when we don't notice ourselves, like adjusting our breathing and heart rate depending on the level of exertion.
Green exercise is experienced as more restorative and because of that it is likely to increase a person’s willingness to exercise, and with time these effects can be even more enhanced with both duration and intensity of outdoor exercise.
So how do we do it? Figure our what brings you joy. You may enjoy running, biking, hiking roller skating, walking outside but here are some tips and activities that you could maybe try next time when you are outdoors.
Green thumb - try some gardening. If you have a backyard, maybe plant some herbs, vegetables or simply clean up your garden. If no garden, create a windowsill garden. The growing greenery will help you to connect to nature, even if you are not breaking sweat in the process.
Explore new paths - if you like walking and hiking, try to explore new paths (safely), new routes you have not been on before. Make a little map if you have kids and let them lead then way. Or better yet make the map as you go along, marking notable sights.
Photography walk - take out your phone but instead of scrolling for messages, use the camera. Whatever makes you smile, take the picture of it. Look up at the tree crowns, look for animals small and large around you.
5-1 sense experience - Use your senses when outside. This exercise has been circulating on social media, and we have been using this on our family walks. Name five things that you SEE, name four things that you HEAR, three things that you SMELL, two things you can TASTE, and one thing you can TOUCH. Take turns with your loved ones and mix up the 5-1 senses as well.
Collect nature - go out and collect things you can use for some creative project. We did the bracelet for example with Omi (in the photo), but can also collect stones, branches, or anything you like and make a sculpture, paint them etc.
Play hide and seek with your child or a friend. We also do races with Omi (quick bursts of sprints on our walk). Works up the heart rate and usually ends in laughter.
Walk and make some sidewalk art with chalk. Leave a kind message for someone. Some of our neighbor kids did that and they really brightened our walks! Or you can even make an exercise track for you and others to follow.
And my favorite: practice yoga outside! Come back for a simple outdoor yoga practice tutorial soon!