Announcing: Outdoor Humans
A monthly newsletter that's meant to help you unplug and tune into nature. No need to become a hobbit or woods witch, though I definitely support that path.
Hello friends!
The inaugural issue of Outdoor Humans is scheduled to land in your inbox in early May! With it, I’m excited to share tidbits from my own ever-growing appreciation of and fondness for the natural world. My hope is that it sows a smidgen of interest that helps you find your own happy place outdoors. Here’s where I’m coming from, and I hope you’ll join me on the adventure.
The backstory
I think I’ve always been an “outdoor human.” As a kid, my parents regularly pushed my brothers and me outdoors — three kids in a small house? I can’t blame them for this enacting pro-level parenting move that encouraged us to be simultaneously bored and curious outside. However, as a grownup, it seems the wonder-fueled exploration of nature is reserved solely for children. For the average Americans I’ve befriended throughout the U.S., it appears the door to “playing outside” is slammed shut once adulthood emerges, dooming us to spend our lives mostly indoors or at manufactured playgrounds and venues that charge a lot of money for a chance to feel the breeze on a patio (don’t get me wrong… the beers and margaritas are pretty great).
And yet, I’m certain that a childhood spent outdoors primed me to return to nature through each stage of life I’ve lived thus far. On my most difficult days, spending an hour or two outside gardening or watching the autumn leaves swirl in the wind is a balm. It’s also been the scenery of my best days — when I got engaged, when I got married, and all the wondrous talks with my husband about where our life would go. Now, it’s where I hunt for mushrooms with my sons, find a quiet place to read, and anticipate going when vacation season rolls around.
But outside hasn’t just been the catalyst propelling me towards some of life’s most important moments and decisions. Connecting with my surroundings has positively impacted my mental health and encouraged me to learn more about the planet on which we live. It even plays a role in how I parent my own children (recently, a stranger asked if my boys were “free-range kids,” which is probably the best way to describe our encouragement of their outdoor explorations).
But everyone goes outside, right? Right?
I’m not sure why I crave this deep relationship with nature. Although I have met others who experience this same feeling — the desire to be outdoors, the curiosity to hike further, the need to momentarily disconnect from the “human” world — I don’t think most Americans truly get a chance to act on it, or even know how. Few studies tackle just how much outside activity time we get here in the U.S., and the research that does exist is dated or paywalled. One 2022 report from Building H, a not-for-profit that looks to reduce chronic diseases in America, found that 58.8% of Americans spend an hour or less outdoors each day. And there’s more:
37.4% (a little more than one-third) spend 30 minutes or less outside
18.3% (nearly one in five Americans) get outside for less than 15 minutes per day
There’s a number of reasons why this isn’t great (perhaps, concerning?) but I’ll touch on one here: Nature benefits us physically and mentally. Spending time outdoors decreases the cortisol levels that fuel our stress spikes, it can help regulate sleep cycles, and even boosts our ability to think critically and creatively. It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t been affected by the weight of the past few stressful years, and if spending more time outdoors can help us on the quest to re-regulate ourselves and systems, why aren’t we doing it?
To sum it all up
I’m not here to slap hands about how much time you’re spending indoors. I’m not perfect and by no means do I spend the vast majority of my day outside every single day. Instead, I hope to just spread some simple encouragement — for you and me — to take a few more minutes outside each day.
The monthly Outdoor Humans newsletter will feature recaps of my own outdoor adventures, and probably a few shameless plugs for other things I write around the web. But more importantly, Outdoor Humans will mostly contain ideas tailored to the current season that inspire you to leave the couch, breathe in the fresh air, and look under logs. (Literally! There’s cool stuff under them!) I hope these little musings and suggestions help you find your own connection and joy with the outside world, wherever you are.
Thanks, friends! Now go get outside.
Nicole Garner Meeker