Get Into Your Groove with GREEN EXERCISE

Have you ever been in a slump and taken a walk through the park, a run on the trails or a hike through the mountains to calm yourself down? Or simply decided to switch things up and take your standard yoga practice or gym workout into the OUTDOORS, surprised to find this wave of serenity rush over and through you?

This sensation is a direct outcome of GREEN EXERCISE, what psychologists refer to as any physical activity that takes place outdoors. When you exercise outdoors there is something so peaceful about being with nature, the sun, the wind, and all other living things. It brings an entirely new perspective to what it means to be alive, to be connected to and a part of the greater world. Not only are you left observing more, but, in the process, you know more and feel more about who you are and what role you play.

Within just five minutes of any physical activity in nature, there is a considerable SHIFT in both mood and outlook that follows. More importantly, we don’t just feel BETTER when we exercise outside, we feel DIFFERENT; distanced from the problems of every day life and more convergent with life itself. Even simply recalling a time spent in the presence of natural beauty makes us more likely to feel united to the world around us, unburdened by daily concerns and immersed in something greater than ourselves.

The emotions that tend to materialize when we immerse ourself in the outdoors are WONDER, AWE, CURIOSITY & HOPE, all of which are natural antidotes to worry, agitation, distraction and depression. The profound feeling of tranquillity that nature affords CROWDS OUT the heaviness and the sense that something is wrong and REPLACES it with acceptance, harmony and sense of belonging.

More recently, from an evolutionary perspective, there have been rapid improvements made to technology that have brought about marked reductions in the physical work required as part of daily life, resulting in both the elimination of and the need for regular movement, coupled with increased time spent indoors. This reversal in how we spend our time and expend our energy, ultimately interacting less with the natural world, has left the body and mind CONFUSED and VULNERABLE, an environment ideal of the development of various chronic diseases.

The human genetic profile and brain, however, evolved over a long period of history, though natural selection, when individuals were made to survive and thrive in a natural environmental climate that demanded copious amounts of REGULAR physical exertion. Thanks to this ancestral predisposition, the human mind responds to nature in a way that brings out many of our innate COGNITIVE strengths. Being active outdoors can help us tap into the human capacity for MINDFULNESS, along with the transcendence of being connected to something bigger than ourselves. It has the ability to put us in touch with the intrinsic joy of life and love for all that is living, and allows us to view our own lives from a broader point of view.

When we begin to understand HOW green exercise garners these effects, mentally and physically, and WHY the combination of nature with physical activity impacts us on an emotional level, we can then better recognize the importance of the human mind; both how it can get stuck in a cycle of suffering and how we can find inner and outer peace.

Green exercise is a remarkable change of pace to life. It brings you back to reality, back to your roots and back to the present moment; a right-here, right-now frame of mind. Channel this energy and tap in to the potential that exists, that is waiting for you, BEYOND the indoors and out in the OPEN, with all that is LIVING.

Start living, and get outside.

Xx, Leah Kutsch

P.S. Keeping IIN Touch