How to Spend Quality Time - Importance of Outdoor

You ever feel anxious? But you can’t pin down exactly why? Even when the evidence indicates that things aren’t so bad, you sense nothing but impending doom.

As if your entire life and everything you’ve worked for is about to come crashing down. For those of us blocked off from the light of day by an office or warehouse, experiencing nature is therapeutic all by itself.

HOW TO SPEND QUALITY TIME WITH OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

We could all use a little fresh air, and most definitely some vitamin D. Climbing is also intense exercise. And like any real workout, it causes your body to release endorphins, which relieve stress naturally. Activities like climbing are quite possibly the healthiest way to get high. And given the growing evidence that prolonged stress can send you to an early grave, the risks associated with descending from that climb are a little easier to come to terms with.

Stationary bicycle or treadmill just can’t deliver. Exhilaration is a great incentive to climb again, and when you’re smashing through a rock garden, it’s hard to focus on anything but the boulders immediately ahead of you. This tunnel vision helps you unplug, and intern leaves you feeling better afterward. Because once you’ve had your fill of nature, climbing, and rock smashing, your brain works better. Problems that seemed serious, will suddenly have simple solutions.

Stress that existed for no apparent reason, will often times have vanished. If you don’t believe me, you should try it. But despite the amazing benefits of activities like mountain biking, many of us have trouble finding time to do it. We tend to look at it as a leisure activity, reserved for the weekend, or after all our other obligations are satisfied. I would make the argument that mountain biking and other intense physical activities should be prescribed like medicine.

I’m not making the ridiculous claim that it can cure ailments like the flu, but it can absolutely contribute to better physical and mental health. In fact, many of you already do prioritize your daily ride like you would sleep or a doctor’s visit. Many bike companies have pump tracks on site. Some offer extended lunch breaks for their employees to go ride or schedules that allow for daylight in the after-work hours.

As riders, they understand that the time you spend on the trail comes back tenfold insanity and productivity. But if you’re outside the industry, your family and colleagues may not feel the same way. Your parents, your spouse, or your employer, might view mountain biking as a silly and needlessly risky activity that you spend way too much time and money on. It’s not easy to make them understand.

They only see a long string of injuries, a constant flow of damaged clothing, and lost hours that could have been spent on more important things. They also see that poison oak on your forearm. But what they don’t see is the harm that sitting around can do. For every serious injury incurred as a result of mountain biking, there are ten you can develop from sitting around the house and being inactive. For every dollar you spend on bikes and gear, someone out there is spending money on drugs, prescribed or otherwise in an attempt to treat their mental instability.

Some do so for good reason, but many are medicating their way out of problems that could be pedaled into submission. And here’s where I sort of do get into some hippie new-age benefits of mountain biking, like the fact that it lets you tune out. Meditation, in an oversimplified way, can be described as focusing on one thing. And when you’re zeroing in on the rocks ahead of you or putting one pedal in front of the other until you reach the summit, you are enjoying some of the same benefits of meditation. Like shaking an etch a sketch full of nonsense, a ride can and will leave you with a blank slate. While mountain biking is definitely great exercise, a stress reliever, and a way to tune out, many of us experience mostly trivial first-world problems on a day-to-day basis.

Mountain biking or any enjoyable physical activity can easily alleviate the stress associated with these, but what about real-life changing problems? I’ve actually received messages and heard in-person accounts from people on the tail ends of the darkest events of their lives. Many have sworn to me, that mountain biking is what got them through it. Daily rides gave them temporary relief from difficult situations, the mental stability to work through their problems, and the confidence to face them.

It’s hard to say if mountain biking itself could be singularly credited for these turnaround stories, but should I find myself hated by the entire internet and amid a terrible career-ending scandal, I’m not sure where I would turn beside the trail. But you could extend these arguments to hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, swimming, or any other activity that people perform daily to better their lives.

It’s time our schools, employers, and societies put a higher value on outdoor recreation and stop viewing it as an extra thing that’s kind of nice to have. Indeed, some of us live to ride, but we should really look at it as riding to live. So, the next time work, stress, and obligations get in the way of going for a pedal, you might consider pushing life aside and going anyway. Because if you don’t take care of your mind and body, they might not always be in a position to take care of you.

STAY SMART AND FIT