52,416 Reasons to Go Outside

Michael Easter posted about 52,416 reasons to go outside a couple of weeks ago, and I loved it. Below are a few of the points from his article along with some pictures from a 15-ish mile trail run today near Mt. Rainer on the Eastside Trail with my Sunday morning running buddies.... 

1. Why 52,416 leaves matter: The average oak has about 52,416 leaves, and all that green may help lower blood pressure, prime the immune system, and reduce stress.
2. Better health: Even 15 minutes of sitting and walking in nature can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormones.
3. The hunter-gatherer sleep paradox: Hunter-gatherers sleep less than we do but report better sleep, suggesting that time outdoors—not simply time in bed—may help regulate our circadian rhythms.

4. Mindfulness without meditation: Nature creates “soft fascination”—a relaxed way of paying attention to the world around us that restores the brain without requiring us to sit still and focus on our breath.
5. Reset burnout: Time in the wilderness gives our overworked brains a break and can reduce stress and improve well-being.
6. Fractals: The repeating patterns found in trees, rivers, mountains, and clouds appear to reduce stress and resonate deeply with us.

7. Freedom, variability, and novelty: Nature gives us endless opportunities for freedom, change, exploration, and new experiences.
8. You have to find your way: Navigating unfamiliar outdoor environments exercises the brain in ways our GPS-dependent lives often don’t.
9. More attention: Uneven terrain and changing surroundings naturally require us to pay attention and engage our brains.

10. Silence—or good noise: Nature quiets the harmful noise of modern life and replaces it with calming sounds like birds, wind, and water.
11. Build resilience: Solving problems outdoors teaches us to adapt, persevere, and discover that we are more capable than we realize.
12. Improved creativity: Spending several days unplugged in nature has been shown to significantly improve creative thinking.

 

13. It’s free: You don’t have to go far—your backyard, neighborhood, or local park can provide many of the benefits of nature.
14. More fitness benefits: Trails challenge the body with changing terrain, varied intensity, and greater demands on coordination and balance.

15. We’re wired for it: Humans spent nearly all of our evolutionary history outdoors, so our bodies and brains are still deeply shaped for life in nature.

(We were cracking up that our Google Doc for planning the trail run had face glitter—because obviously I don’t leave home without it for a trail run—and a tourniquet listed under assets from the medical experts in the group which thankfully we did not need.) 

💚🌲💚🌲💚🌲💚🌲💚🌲 

heart rock from the Eastside trail 🩶