The Great Outdoors: Part 1 - A Slow Experiment

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Let the experimenting begin! Yep, the #slowexperiments are back for 2018, kicking off this month and happening every second month hereafter. As we mentioned in last week's episode, March is all about the great outdoors, and the experiment is to prioritise spending time outside every single day.Ben and I are aiming for 60 minutes a day, but if you’d like to play along, you don't need to try for an hour if it doesn't work for your schedule. Simply find an amount of time that works (for you) and try sticking to it. The aim is to keep it simple but consistent, and to put "spend time outside" a little higher up your to-do list than normal, even on the days when it seems too hard.We all know at a deep level that spending time in nature is good for us, and in this poggie I talk about some of the symptoms of “too much inside time” I notice in our family: irritability, excess energy, feeling cabin fever-y and craving that delicious buzz of tiredness that can only come from spending a day outdoors. Sound familiar?And while we know, on that deep level, that spending time in nature is good for us, we're going in with an open mind as to what we'll get out of the experiment. In preparation for this month we've done a lot of reading on the topic of time spent in nature and its impact on our overall well-being, and it's been fascinating to dig in to the research that's been happening over the past 15 years. Increasingly it shows that spending more time outside in nature has a massive impact of many areas of our lives, from mental and physical health to emotional wellbeing, as well as performance in school and work. We talk about some of those studies in today's episode, as well as some different and creative ways you can try to incorporate outside time, from the big to the small, as well as some ways to feel the benefits even on the days when getting outside is literally impossible.Stay tuned for the experiment episodes for the rest of the month, where Ben and I will talk through our own efforts to spend time outside, as well as diving in deep to some of the benefits and research that’s been done. If you’re playing along, don’t forget to share how you’re going over on Instagram using the hashtag #slowexperiment!In the meantime, how are you going to get outdoors today? If you're stuck for inspiration, you can download a Great Outdoors Scavenger Hunt checklist here.

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