Embrace the Outdoors on World Mental Health

My dogs are all a twitter this morning enjoying the crisp air.  Pretty sure Gigi has found a burrowing vermin as she is overly interested in the yard and digging.  Generally, she is fully focused on the wood pile and finding the chipmunks that live there.  Husker is more chill and has laid himself out on the step to the house from which he can see the entire yard and watch Gigi with general disinterest.  My instant pot is whistling a bit as it finally pressurizes, making the steel cuts oats for the week.  And my coffee is steaming against the cool air.

I am enjoying these beautiful fall days—my favorite season.  If you live or walk out in the country, have you ever noticed how the corn rustles in such a way that it sounds like you’re overhearing thousands of conversations at once, but you cannot quite make any of them out?  I hear this sound while walking the dogs.  It’s amazing, peaceful and, at times, eerie.  Another reminder that whatever we humans do, nature wins.

I believe I’ve mentioned before that I grew up a feral child.  Played outside from morning to night and my life was ruled by the noon and six o’clock factory whistles in my small Nebraska town.  Time was irrelevant as I immersed myself in exploration and play every day.  My dad was also a man with a great appreciation for nature.  He started his career as a forester and although he left that career to better support his family, he continued to love plants, animals, and the earth for a lifetime. 

He and I spent countless hours searching for and trapping insects for my bug collection.  We pressed leaves and flowers between heavy books then labeled them with their species names as well as commonly known names.  We fished together—lots of catch and release.  He taught me to care for the animals that the cat had spent a little too much time with as well as those baby animals that had lost their mothers to automobiles or forest fires.  Most importantly, he taught me to enjoy and be at peace in nature. 

As we approach World Mental Health Day (October 10^th) this week, I cannot imagine maintaining my own mental wellbeing without the outdoors.  My body craves the connection to the outside world, whatever the weather.  When my kids were tiny, I used to say, “When the kids are acting up, just change venues.”  Taking the kids outside to explore, get dirty, and solve problems provided them and me with the perfect reset.  Nature wins.

Even now, when I’m feeling blue or one of my adult kids calls me and are struggling with something, the answer is the same—get outside for a bit.  I go for a hike; clean out a garden bed; sit peacefully and just listen without the distraction of my phone or other media.  I reconnect with nature.  Nature wins.

My hope for each and every one of you, is that you find inner joy, contentment and peace with nature.  Add a plant to your space to help clean the air; take a break and walk outside; set aside some intentional time each day to be outdoors; start feeding and watching birds; play outside with your pets.  Find opportunities to go exploring, even if that means going to the garden center to pick up a mum, as a symbol of fall, and placing it somewhere that it greets you when you come home each day.  I think, you too will find, when it comes to mental health, nature wins.

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