I couldn’t help but lol helplessly when I read that our local district council were advertising lessons to help folk take up a radical new, healthy, environmentally chummy way of exercising. It was called, honestly, “Exercising Outdoors”.
There are conversion courses available for “rock climbers” who have never climbed on rock; for folk who have become accomplished climbers on indoor climbing walls and would like to learn the skills necessary to climb out of doors.
For some folk being outdoors is as unfamiliar and temporary as being in an airport. It’s a place between the place they start from and the place they want to get to. I think this is a shame or worse.
Being outdoors isn’t always fun. The other day I went for a run. The next day I woke with an allergic reaction. After a weekend of ridiculous swelling and wild itchiness I took it to the doctor. You know you’re on to something when your doctor takes a sharp intake of breath when you drop your trousers. Apparently it was an allergic reaction to something, possibly a pesticide. I lived but I had to wait for several weeks while the skin on my hands and feet first dropped off and then renewed itself. This was unpleasant for the lady in the supermarket who, quite apart from being revolted by the reptilian spectacle of my shedding skin, was obviously uncertain as to where abouts on my shredded palm it was safe to place my change. In the end she chose badly and I had to spend several seconds shaking the coins from the pocket of skin they had disappeared into.
There are some aspects to being outdoors that grate, such as midges, chafed nipples, ticks, pollen (if you have hay fever), sun burn and the post-fun pile of muddy clothing. There are some things even (people, mostly) that make outdoors a dangerous place to be. Accepting all this, I reckon it’s good to be outdoors and here are just a few reasons why.
- Bottom laughter is almost invariably a problem when it happens indoors. Out of doors it’s as acceptable as birdsong and sea breeze.
- Daylight is good for us. It helps us synchronise our circadian rhythms and enables us to synthesise at least one vitamin.
- There’s lots of room out of doors. You don’t need to share the same cubic metre of air as three other pairs of armpits.
- Ray Mears talks about the importance of connecting with the source. If that sounds a bit abstract try drinking from a spring, eating berries from a hedgerow or poaching a slug you chased down and caught yourself. Connecting with the source can make an enormous difference to our physical and mental health.
- The views are usually better.
- You may want to pay for travel to a particularly pleasant patch, otherwise it’s usually cheaper to have fun outdoors than indoors.
- Someone told me that rain is good for your hair.
- It’s safer outdoors – over 95% of household accidents occur in the home.
- Recreation is going on all the time out there and it’s infectious. I was studying a turd the other day. It was a few weeks old and bristling with fruiting fungi. It gave me sort of hopeful feeling.
Being outdoors is being a part of a world enjoying recreation. How often do you have fun outdoors? What are the obstacles that are keeping you from getting out? What will you do to overcome them? When will you do it?
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