Getting outdoors: Tips to get motivated and get out

The Mind Key Community offers their tips for getting outdoors

Yesterday’s post talked about ways that being outdoors can benefit your psyche and your body. Even though the weather is improving as we approach spring, shaking the cobwebs of winter isn’t always easy—especially when temps still dip below zero now and again. However, getting outdoors is important in more ways than one.

New York Times best selling author, Dr. Joseph Mercola, said that getting outside can boost your creativity and focus, improve your mood and self-esteem, and increase your vitamin D levels. It can also improve your workouts and overall healing potential.

Lack of Vitamin D from lack of sunlight can be a very real and very intrusive cause of depression. Other than the occasional day where it is still too chilly to be outside, there is nothing that should stop you from getting up and getting outside. Go for a walk, jog around the neighborhood, get the dog on the leash and go to a park, sit on a bench in the sun and bask in its warmth… Whatever you do, just be outside!

How our community motivates to get out

I ride my bike — Jon Dury

I can play in my garden, or hunt for cool skies and sunsets. In the fall I go out and collect colorful leaves and make photo collages —Kerstin Zettmar

Hiking, walking on the beach, playing sports —Kaysin Enorai

watch the trees sway in the breeze…just lay in the grass & watch the clouds go by…to look up at the night sky & behold the starlight & whenever possible to walk long a sandy beach & enjoy a swim in the ocean! —Felice Sedore

I go to the park and sit on the bench and watch the ducks in the pond. —Celine Jazmin Martinez

When spring fever hits me, I get outside and clean up the mess that winter has left behind. The fresh crisp air and the warmth of the spring sun motivates me to get my butt of the chair, where it was most of the winter! —Georgia Schillaci

I get out regularly with my dog, and one of my favorite chores is bringing in wood for our wood burning stove. When I’m feeling spring feverish, I plan my garden, or go out walking and looking for signs of spring! —Kim Raimann Harnett

Walking on the beach or in a forest is so beautiful and relaxing. —Kim Schillaci

In other spring it’s as almost you can watch things grow I am always excited to see what comes up from last year. —Valerie J Milko

I like to people watch… I usually like to pack up a cooler with the family in tow and picnic at one of the state parks. Sometimes I relocate my office to my deck on a nice spring day —Natasha Monaco

When spring fever hits me, I get outside and clean up the mess that winter has left behind. The fresh crisp air and the warmth of the spring sun motivates me to get my butt of the chair, where it was most of the winter! —Georgia Schillaci

Kerstin offers the following tried-and-true reasons for getting outdoors:

1. Our bodies need vitamin D in order to stay physically, mentally and emotionally healthy,
2. Breathing fresh air, especially near the ocean or other bodies of moving water, has a calming effect on the nervous system,
3. Walking barefoot outdoors has a powerful grounding effect most of us desperately need,
4. Looking at something non-manmade and alive—a tree, a flower, a bird—gets you out of  your head and into your body, where you realize you are not a machine, not a computer, but part of nature,
5. When I draw or paint out in nature, I connect with what I am looking at. That allows me to become very present in a meditative way.

What are your favorite springtime activities? How do you motivate to get up and get out of the house, even when the weather isn’t cooperating.  Please share your tips in the comments.