The Adventure: The Power of Outdoor Activities to Boost Wellbeing

Enjoying the great outdoors during my time in the USA

One of my favourite things is meeting people who are as passionate about wellbeing as I am, and those who are doing inspiring things to help others to be happy and healthy. By happy coincidence I had such a person host me through Airbnb on my recent tour across the United States: through her personal experience of discovering the value of a healthy lifestyle, Nashville-based fitness fanatic Nikki is on a mission to support her fellow Americans to do the same. Recognising the benefits of outdoor exercise for health and wellbeing, her organisation Always Forward Adventure Fitness (AF2) seeks to provide the information and inspiration needed to promote widespread use of one of our best (and best value) assets – The Great Outdoors – as a tool to boost our health and happiness.

Inspired by this initiative and keen to share some reflections from my own experience, I wrote a guest piece for the AF2 blog, which you can read here. I talk about my endeavours to stay healthy during three months of American travel, and introduce GoodGym, a wonderful UK example of using physical activity for wellbeing, in the hope that we might soon see a similar initiative across the pond.

The evidence base for the benefits of outdoor activity is rapidly growing, with Intelligent Health being a leading source of information, evidence and innovative interventions in the field. Founder Dr William Bird tells the story much better than I would, so I’ll leave you in his capable hands should you wish to find out more about this important and fascinating topic. 

All The Leaves Are Brown: Reasons to Love Autumn

So, it’s that time of year when the nights draw in, the days become chilly and blustery, and many of us find ourselves feeling a little down.  But as autumn sets in, I’ve found myself looking forward to the season and thinking of all the things that are awesome about autumn.  So, this post is simply about things I love about autumn, along with some tips for making the most of the season.   

Keeping fit

 

Autumn is a great time for fitness. With summer social activities dying down, we may find we have more time for getting active. Plus the cooler weather may make exercise a lot more comfortable, and bad weather days give opportunities to do all that indoor training we just can’t bring ourselves to do when it’s lovely outside.

Comfy clothes

I found myself disproportionately happy a couple of days ago when I found the temperature was just right to pop on one of my favourite cosy checked shirts.  Maybe this is just me, but getting into comfy clothes definitely feels like a bonus of the changing seasons!

 

Natural beauty

There aren’t many things prettier than a golden autumnal landscape.  I for one can’t wait to get out for some autumn walk as the colours change and leaves begin to fall.  And who can resist a nice crunchy leaf to step on?!

Comfort food

I like salad as much as the next person, but there’s something special about being able to enjoy the satisfaction of eating a hot meal on a chilly day after a hard day’s work, or as a pick-me-up at lunch time.  Autumn is a great opportunity to reconnect with our kitchens, discover a new recipe or two and experience all the joys that soups and stews have to offer.

Cosy nights

Snuggling on the sofa with a great friend and a good film is the ideal way to spend an autumn evening.  Or maybe a hot chocolate and a chat at a country pub.  Either way, the change in season offers a wonderful opportunity to spend more time enjoying the company of the people we love.

Learning something new

 

So it’s time for the start of a new academic year, but learning isn’t just for students!  Whether it be a mass learning online course, learning a language or picking up a new sport or exercise class, autumn is a great time to learn something new and discover a new lease for life. 


Foraging

Autumn is a great time to forage for things like mushrooms and berries. Enjoying a few blackberries as I stroll around my local areas is one of my favourite things, and theres somethign quite special about eating something you found and picked for yourself. 

Taking stock

If autumn makes you feel a bit down in the dumps, it can be a great time to reflect on your year so far, take stock and decide whether you might want to make any changes in your life.  What’s been your biggest achievement this year?  How happy are you with life right now?  What might you like to be different at the end of the year? Let autumn be a time of refresh and revival rather than melancholy and lethargy.

Demons

I’ve talked before about how I firmly believe that the way we behave and deal with life’s challenges has a huge impact on our wellbeing, and today felt compelled to write about a particular example that illustrates this quite poignantly, for me at least.

Over the last couple of years I’ve had some ups and downs with my health, with episodes of feeling unwell with abdominal pain and fatigue.  I’ve had various treatments and investigations, but so far haven’t got to the bottom of what’s causing the symptoms.  At times the strain of not only the physical symptoms but the psychological impact of not knowing what the problem is has really taken its toll. 

I had two minor operations last year in attempt to fix the problem, and prior to the first one I was convinced it was going to be the answer.  Afterwards, when I realised it hadn’t helped, I was in quite a bad way for a while.  I allowed it to have quite an impact on my life, cancelling catch-ups with friends and being far less active than usual when my symptoms struck.  I was taking painkillers every day, and on the rare occasions I didn’t have tummy pain I’d end up with a migraine or something.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to feel well.  Thinking back on it now I can hardly believe I was in that kind of state when now, although nothing has changed medically, I’m in a much better place.

Simply enjoying riding my bike has played a major role in feeling healthier

I can see now that I’d gotten myself into a bit of a vicious cycle – doing less because I felt unwell, feeling sluggish because I wasn’t doing enough, and so on – and had also fallen into an unhelpful mind-set of being ‘ill’.  One day I just decided I needed to start doing something differently if I was ever going to feel better, so I took myself off painkillers (saving them only for particularly severe bouts) and gradually started to get more active again.  I also discovered the world of raw food, which led me to start making some changes to my diet.  I was already a healthy eater, but think this is one of the multitude of factors that has supported me to get back to a sense of wellbeing despite the limited progress on the medical front.

I’m now in almost completely the opposite state to how I was a year and a bit ago, and although my symptoms persist in a way I feel healthier than ever.  Another factor that has played a role has been practicing mindfulness, having completed a course at the Dorset Mindfulness Centre.  This has allowed me to be more accepting of my symptoms, which in turn has meant they have less of an impact when they do occur.  Rather than ruminating on them and dosing up, I now simply notice and get on with my day. 

As has been the case over the course of two years, I still have better and worse phases.  The difference is that at low points I might reduce the intensity of my exercise, or have an extra rest day, rather than letting it stop me in my tracks.  This helps keep me from getting back into a downward spiral, and seems to have really helped me to stay feeling relatively well.  The downs seem to be less severe, and my mood has stabilised alongside this (or maybe it’s the other way round and my stable mood helps me to deal with the physical side better!).

Before all this started, I was training really hard physically; I had a cycling coach and was competing in my local track league and time trials.  The start of my period of illness – I call it that as that’s how I saw it at the time, although I currently do not consider myself to have an illness – was one of the factors that drew me away from racing, alongside needing to spend more time and mental energy on working out my next career move.  This year, as I’ve gradually become more active, simply enjoying spending time on my bike (plus the odd weights session in the gym!) seems to have made me fitter than I was when I was doing loads of specialised, structured training. 

Time trialling a couple of years back

To me, this epitomises how state of mind and generally looking after yourself can have a massive impact on not only your sense of wellbeing but also your capacity to achieve certain things.  Last year I dropped out of a 100 mile cycle event I’d booked onto before the op that I imagined would cure everything, because I hadn’t felt anywhere near well enough to train.  Almost exactly a year later, I recently rode my first century - almost on a whim – when a club run turned out to be longer than expected and I decided I might as well tag some extra miles on to complete the hundred!  It was an important moment for me as I saw how far I’d come, simply by changing the way I reacted to what was going on.  I’ve also taken part in a couple of 10-mile time trials in recent weeks, and although I won’t be winning any titles any time soon I’m riding faster than I was two years ago, which I put down to all the factors outlined above plus the fact that I’m not really putting any pressure on myself to perform well, and making sure I get plenty of rest as well as plenty of exercise!

I just wanted to share this story because it really shows that having a chronic condition, or medically unexplained symptoms, doesn’t have to control your life.  Rather, you can manage your condition and live life the best you can in the face of it.  I realise that others have more serious and perhaps real problems physically, but hope I might inspire the odd person or two to work at taking back control of their own lives in the face of adversity.  It’s a long and challenging process that never ends – I’m still learning all the time and constantly adjusting to get the balance right and keep myself feeling relatively well – but there is hope even when it feels like you’re ever going to feel healthy again.  In the words of James Morrison, who gives the title for this post, “I’ve got demons; I just need a little time to work ‘em out”.

The Trouble is, This Trouble is Ours

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the drinking culture we have in this country.  I’ve never been a massive drinker, but my current job involves, amongst other things, helping people to cut down on their alcohol, which has made me think of alcohol in a slightly different light in recent months.  I’ve become acutely aware that we have a huge drinking problem here in the UK, and I find this deeply concerning.

 

What’s the Problem?

It’s not unusual to enjoy a drink or two of an evening or weekend.  In fact, you’ll most likely be considered a little bit odd if you don’t.  Most of us would think nothing of having a couple of glasses of wine after work, a few pints on a Friday evening, or even getting absolutely smashed on a Saturday night.  It’s an incredibly normal way to behave, and those who decline to participate are often made to feel a little socially outcast.

Concern starts to creep in when you realise how easy it is to put your health at increased risk through drinking.  Even a few drinks a few times a week can increase the risk of problems like high blood pressure, diabetes and some cancers, not to mention weight gain.  It’s recommended that women drink no more than 2-3 units a day on a regular basis, and men 3-4 units.  Consider that a pint or a glass of wine usually contains something between 2 and 3 units, and it soon becomes clear that the majority of us are drinking more than the guideline amount on a regular basis without batting an eyelid. 

Unless you’re pregnant or driving, you’re likely to be mocked for not drinking, and often bullied into consuming more.  Drinking games are a key source of entertainment for many young people, intake of enormous amounts of alcohol is usually a rite of passage in university sports clubs, and a weekend without alcohol is considered unthinkable by many working people. 

So, as a nation, we’ve become culturally programmed to drink to levels that are almost definitely going to harm our health.  But for me, the main issue is not the mere fact that people are drinking too much.  More importantly, we need to be asking the question: why is this happening?  Yes; alcohol causes health problems, but the way I see is, the main issue is that drinking it is in itself a symptom: a symptom of living in a society where people no longer know how to keep themselves healthy and happy and lead meaningful lives.  I’ve talked before about how modern Westernsociety is not conducive to wellbeing.  Our drinking culture is one of the many manifestations of this problem.  To speak in extremes, our collective obsession with drinking alcohol is a symptom of deep-seated societal unhappiness.

What’s the solution?

This question has a very simple answer, and simultaneously a very complex one!  In simple terms, if unhappiness is the cause of the problem, the solution is to increase happiness at the population level.  If everyone had ways of maintaining their wellbeing without the use of alcohol or other substances, binge drinking would be far less common.

Of course, if the solution really were so simple, we wouldn’t have the problem on our hands in the first place!  The perceived need to drink alcohol arises from a complex range of factors.  Workplace stress, family situations, self-esteem, social pressure, hectic schedules, financial hardship, emotional trauma and lack of knowledge, to name but a few, are all things that contribute to the need to drink.  Take a moment to consider the fact that it is highly socially acceptable to use a substance to deal with everyday stress and emotions, and hopefully you can see why I find this so concerning.

What can we do about it?

There’s actually a lot of good stuff already going on to combat the problem of binge drinking.  The Sober for October campaign encourages people to stop drinking for the month, with a view to raising awareness of the harms of alcohol and helping people to realise how good they can feel for not drinking.  There’s also a wealth of smaller campaigns doing great work on helping people to cut back on their alcohol intake, for instance, My Happy Hour and the Purbeck Pledge in my local area.

Each one of us is the master of our own wellbeing if we give ourselves half a chance to be.  That means that you have the power to make a change to your own lifestyle and improve your health and wellbeing. 

As a starting point, you can learn more about the effects of alcohol and the units and calories in your favourite drinks, find out how risky your own drinking habits are and get support to make a change on the Drinkaware website.  Most importantly, you can figure out and use other pastimes and coping strategies to manage stress, enjoy your evenings and weekends, and become healthier and happier.  Try asking yourself the following questions to explore the possibility of cutting down on drinking.  Why not challenge a friend to do the same?

• Why do I drink?
•  What are the pros and cons of drinking?
• What are the pros and cons of reducing my drinking?
• What impact might drinking be having on my health and other aspects of my life?
• How might my life be better if I drank less?
• How can my friends and family support me to reduce my drinking? 
• What other things can I fill my time with instead of drinking?
• How much do I feel I should be drinking each week and how can I work towards this?

Whether you want to go sober for October, reduce your alcohol intake long-term, cut it out completely, learn more or make no changes at all, I hope you’ve found this piece interesting or helpful on some level.  I hope you’ll be joining me on the journey towards a healthier, happier nation.