Too few people turn to nature when they need a break. An outdoor adventure really might be the precise thing you need; people need breaks when they’ve had enough of their everyday reality, and that reality is rarely something that involves the beauty of the outdoors. It usually involves drab offices, endless computer use, uncomfortable commutes, stressful obligations. It gets suffocating, stressful, boring.

Outdoor breaks can be great for your mental and physical health; not only do many of them require more from your from a physical standpoint, but the temporary severing between you and the dry modern world of technology and business can do wonders for your stress levels and overall positivity. Here are just a few of the benefits that nature can provide to you!

It’s therapeutic

The pressures of work and unceasing exposure to technology seems to impact our stress levels in quite negative and profound ways. Retreating to greener pastures is so therapeutic precisely because it’s a healthy break from all of that stuff. The increased physical activity which is often required also helps with stress, as this article highlights. People are being deprived of big green spaces as a result of mass urban expansion. This brings a lot of benefits, but there’s no denying that human beings like green spaces. Going on an excursion into nature can be really beneficial for your mental state.

It tests your limits and teaches you

Things like camping and hiking can really test you on a physical level – and this is a good thing! The fact that it helps you maintain good physical health is the most obvious benefit, but there’s also the psychological benefits that we’ve already briefly referred to. Pushing your limits can give your confidence a great boost. Learning new skills such as the sustainable fly fishing that this website details can have much the same effect. If you’re not spending enough time with nature, then you’re depriving yourself of a sense of adventure – a lack of which is often what leads to increased dissatisfaction with life.

It takes your breath away

I’m not talking about the breathlessness that accompanies the exercise you often have to take part in when outdoors. We’re talking metaphysically, here; the sense of awe that nature can instill. Astonishing natural formations, beautiful wildlife you wouldn’t see anywhere near the city, unparalleled views of clear skies both day and night. Being in awe more often, as this page makes clear, can increase your happiness in the long term. How often do you experience awe at work and at home?

It makes you feel alive

I love the city, but sometimes spending too much time wandering urban landscapes, thick with busy crowds and commercialization, can make you feel sluggish, bored, robotic. Step away from the cement and artificial lighting and litter and mindless small talk and cigarette smoke. Spending more time in greener locations will boost your sense of being, y’know, a living, breathing, human being. Many would say that nature is fuel for the soul – and when you go on an adventure among nature, it will be hard not to see where they’re coming from.