We have become an ‘indoor species’! Research has suggested that we spend 90% of our time indoors, and that the average child spends just 5 to 6 minutes outside daily – less than those in prison!
Convenience, comfort and ‘progress’ coaxed us indoors and for many, fears of the wild and Out There keep them firmly behind those closed doors. Yet so many of us feel a shift in how we feel, act and perceive our internal and external worlds when we spend time outdoors.
Should we be surprised? We are human animals. We have co-evolved within the natural world since the sea was our home. Our relationship to everything stems from the interactions between our biological body and that of the seas, trees, mountains, rocks and soils. Most of which we cannot see or measure. These interactions are occurring continually, subtle and miniscule, but oh so powerful!
For a long time, there was no ‘outside’. Just home – which shifted depending on the seasons, and availability of food and shelter. Then ‘inside’ was created. Our tribal nomadic ways pivoted to staying put for longer periods of time, which then morphed into an all year round home (for most of the mainstream Western world).
The slow derogation of our relationship with the rest of the natural world has had a profound impact on all our lives, in all the ways we can see and all the ways we can’t. I, and many others, believe this disconnect is foundational to the struggles we face today at individual, community and planetary level. The state of the world today is overwhelming. It’s devastating, and tragic. But it’s also beautiful and there is hope. Hope comes from every moment you spend outside with your nature kith and kin. Every time you witness the miracle of life, and death. Each relationship made, however fleeting, with all that calls Outside home.
To go outside is to remember who we are, where we came from, and our wild ways.
My work with Our Wild Edges is all about providing opportunities to gather outside and to restore that connection to ourselves and the rest of the natural world. These are the moments when those subtle but powerful interactions take place, where we breathe life into our bones and joy into our hearts.
Outside is where I instinctively want to be much of the time, when going through calm times and rough. I have a deep knowing that this is the place I can be myself in, and the answers, healing or insights I need are there.
I also have an awareness of some of the ways it supports us physiologically:
- By simply breathing outside our microbiomes are interacting with life different to that which is found indoors. By touching soil, and other elements of nature, our microbiome is nourished. A healthy microbiome is a diverse one. Mycobacterium vaccae, a bacteria found in soil, has been shown to improve mood by increasing Serotonin levels.
- The air inside our homes can be stale, stagnant and can cause infection. Air con also artificially maintains a drier environment indoors, which can dry out our respiratory system lessening our body’s ability to clear a build up of mucus and unwanted bacteria. Outside provides a more natural humidity and fresh free flowing air.
- The Phytoncides that are released by trees and plants are a defence mechanism they use against insects, disease and animals that want to eat them! These Phytoncides have been provide to have a myriad of positive benefit for us humans. Our bodies respond by dropping into the Parasympathetic state of our nervous systems, where digestion, recovery and repair takes place. Our mood improves as does sleep quality and quantity. Immunity is strengthened, our response to stress is less damaging and so much more!
- Spending time in natural daylight as well as under the moon and stars is fundamental to setting our (approximately) 24 hour clock that is our Circadian rhythm. Natural light exposure is interpreted as information and signals to our brain and body, impacting the release of Melatonin, Cortisol and other cellular functions. Energy, sleep, chronic pain, alertness, body temperature and more are positively affected.
- Perfectly controlled indoor temperatures can keep us a little too comfortable and a bit on the docile side! A satiated belly in a warm and cosy room and often all we want to do is to sleep! Beyond any real need for rest, it may be that our bodies are just too comfortable, and some positive ‘stress’ or exposure is required – which can be as simple as taking ourselves outside for a few minutes whatever the weather.
….and so many more benefits! some of which will be explored in future Blog posts.
“Never trust a thought that occurs to you indoors”
Friedrich Nietzsche
If we take ourselves outside, we are gifted with the opportunity to observe life’s lessons, reflected back to us in the rustle of the leaves, the thorny hedgerow or the gnarly tree bark. To witness the shifting seasons playing out beyond our front door is to feel them more deeply within ourselves, and return to the ebb and flow of a life well lived. Both are profound anchors in the modern world that we all need to stay afloat.
All of which is to say that much of my work is outside where possible. To offer up ways you can reconnect, and the momentum to explore this yourself. To uncover some of those wild ways and fill your life with more of it. To bond with others over that thing you can’t quite articulate, but you all feel. At times it may feel a little uncomfortable and beyond your norms, and that’s OK. I am not here to judge your discomfort, or to make you feel completely miserable! But simply to offer a different way.
It seems that to be more wild, more outside, more human is a revolutionary and subversive act.
And I am here for that!
Are you?
Each of you will experience the outside differently, and I honour those who have experienced challenging situations at the hands of the natural world, or other humans within it. I also acknowledge that physically getting outside can be a mammoth task for some. Through this work I hope to address some of these challenges, particularly in terms of access for those living with chronic health conditions and / or physical disability. Please make contact so we can start to consider these together.
