The 3 Lesser-Known Benefits of Prioritizing Outdoor Activities and Outdoor Adventure in Your Life
Why do we get outside? If you love nature or hiking or other outdoor adventures, you know the pull of the outdoors. But do you know all the actual benefits of outdoor activities? This post will cover some of the lesser-known benefits of outdoor activities to help you give yourself permission to get outside when life makes you feel like you should be prioritizing something else instead.
For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Allison. I’m the founder of this website, She Dreams of Alpine, and the creator & coach behind the Become an Outdoor Backpacking Badass Program.
I am an outdoor adventure and backpacking coach for women around the world, and my mission is to help women step into their unique strength and courage by taking real ownership of their safety on the trails and becoming self-sufficient outdoors so that they feel confident and capable of turning their biggest outdoor adventure dreams into a reality.
Did you get that? I don’t want to just teach women how to just participate in outdoor adventure. I want them to feel so confident in themselves that they are capable of leading adventures and creating the life of their dreams.
It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from – how old you are, your weight, your financial background, or your prior experience in the outdoors – being confident and self-sufficient in the backcountry is available to you, and I teach you how to get there without the overwhelm and fears that have been keeping you stuck.
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This post is all about why you should prioritize outdoor adventure + the benefits of outdoor activities in your life, especially if you know deep down that you are feeling called to live a life more intertwined with the outdoors and nature.
Specifically I’ll be going into the 3 lesser-known benefits of prioritizing outdoor adventure in your life. This will help you better understand why making the time to get outside is so beneficial and essential to your self-care and personal growth, even if you’re a busy mom or have a lot on your plate with work or school.
One of the biggest things I hear from my audience and my students is that they so badly want to go on big adventures outdoors or finally learn how to go outdoor backpacking, but the thing they feel holds them back the most is...
Time.
Many of them feel selfish for wanting to go out on the weekends, especially if their family is less inclined to do so with them.
I’m here to show you today that you are not selfish for wanting to prioritize outdoor adventure in your life.
P.S. You can also find a video training I did on this topic at the bottom of this blog post, if you’re more of a “video” versus reading kind of person. :)
The 3 Lesser-Known benefits of outdoor activities
Here are a few reasons why getting outside regularly and making outdoor adventure a priority in your life is great for you in so many ways!
1. Mother Nature is the Ultimate Form of Self-Care
You can’t pour from an empty cup my friend, and one of the best ways I know to really break away from the stress of the day-to-day demands and the commitments we have to our families and work lives is to take some time for ourselves outdoors on the trails. Or in a pinch, a walk around the office.
Back when I worked as an engineer full time, I would spend most of my week pining away for the weekend, but one way I was usually able to destress and breathe from work (and slip away just for a moment) was with a 15-30 minute walk around the office outside.
It was one of my favorite breaks in the day... especially in the winter when the weather was a little crisper. I love that feeling of walking outside and feeling the cold on my face.
When you head outside, especially for just a brief break, t’s better to leave the phone in your pocket though. Give yourself some real time to yourself to get away from the noise and the chatter of everyone surrounding you.
Take 10 minutes a day to just listen to your own voice. Your own internal compass.
We so often forget to do this. But it’s so powerful.
You can take this a step further by trying to go on at least one solo hike a month. I love hiking with other people and that’s what I do most of the time, but it’s so nice to be on your own as well.
If you’re new to solo hiking and want to make sure you’re safe while solo, there are definitely some concerns to consider. I have another video that talks all about safety when solo hiking or backpacking, so be sure to check that out after this.
2. GET A Workout and Training for Your Mind
Since I first started backpacking back in 2013, I feel like I’ve been on this huge personal growth & mental strength journey along with it.
There’s a lot of failure & lessons learned when you start to push yourself outdoors to see what you are capable of.
Sometimes a lot of tears.
A ton of “I can’t breathe” moments...
And a lot of, “Can I actually do this?” self-questioning.
But there’s also an amazing sense of accomplishment when you do overcome a big challenge, and that hard work and those failures make the wins and accomplishments even sweeter.
Getting outside teaches you that you need both the failures and the wins to become the next level version of yourself.
They’re two peas in a pod.
This lesson has so much value to our lives outside of the trail. We can start to look at everything we do through the lens of... “This is hard, but I know I can endure this”, and “I know that this pain that I’m experiencing right now is part of my journey to becoming the best version of myself.”
Through tough adventures, you’ll learn what self confidence is. You’ll dig deep and find your courage, and you’ll learn how to find the good and beauty in situations that don’t turn out quite how you imagined them.
There’s this quote by Steve House that I absolutely love that really drives home how I feel about the outdoors and pushing yourself outdoors:
“Today, climbing has shown me a courageous, strong side of myself, a beautiful bravery. Other days I’ve seen pitiful weakness. I’ve watched myself crawl, belly-flat, across a mountainous landscape of fear. Climbing has shown me that I am all of these things: strong and weak, brave and cowardly, both immune to and at the mercy of the fear of death, all at the same time. Risk is the fee to learn these lessons. The cost is not negotiable. It is a price that, for now, I pay gladly.”
Isn’t that beautiful?
Push yourself to prioritize getting outside and you’ll see how it helps you grow your mental strength and resilience throughout the whole of your life.
To me this is the biggest benefit adventure has brought into my life.
3. LEARN How to Step into a Leadership Role
And lastly, the outdoors and outdoor adventure teach you how to step into a leadership role in both the outdoors and in life.
Maybe you’ve never considered yourself a leader before, maybe you’ve not felt qualified, or that feels like a huge step for you, but you might be surprised at how quickly you can learn the skills you need to take on a leadership role in the outdoors.
This is one of the core things I want my students in my Backpacking Program to walk away with: to feel like they have the skills and know-how to be a confident leader of their families and groups of friends in the outdoors.
Being a leader puts you in a position of being able to better control the outcome of your future adventures.
So often it feels hard to find people to go on adventures with, but usually that’s because no one is willing to step up and be a leader in the group because it comes with a lot of responsibility. You have to do all the trip planning, get people to join you, and ensure them that this is going to be one hell of an adventure that they don’t want to miss out on.
Once you are able to step into a leadership role, you’ll find you can tick off so many more of your dream adventures & goals outside.
I have a student named Heather who wanted to get her family into outdoor backpacking, so she took my program in the spring of 2019. Through the course, she learned all the skills she needed, and most importantly, learned how to be a leader in her family unit.
She went on her first backpacking trip with her family that same summer, and her kids are stoked on it now. They are already planning their next big adventure in Denali National Park!
This might surprise you, but I usually plan my year without knowing who will end up going with me on backpacking trips.
In California, you have to grab a lot of your permits in advance, so every January I spend time planning out my year, usually with one bigger trip or adventure a month, whether that’s a challenging hike or a backpacking trip, I just put something on my calendar once a month that I’m really stoked on or will help me grow. I also usually grab 2-3 extra permits, and then when the time got closer I see who is up for the adventure with me.
The beauty of stepping into the role of a leader in your group is that it’s much easier to convince people to go with you when you’ve literally done all the planning and prep for them.
All you have to do is let them know how awesome it’s going to be and get them to commit to going with you. Worst case scenario, you have all the plans and confidence to even go on the trip solo if you want to – which is an awesome feeling!
Alright, my friends, to summarize everything we learned today... 3 of my favorite lesser-known benefits to prioritizing outdoor adventure in your life are:
For your own personal self-care & time to reset.
To help you grow your mental strength & resilience on both the trails and in life.
To help you step into a leadership role, so you can do more of what you love and lead your friends and family on amazing experiences in the outdoors.
Today I want to challenge you, for those of you who do feel time-poor...
To prioritize outdoor adventure in your life, no matter how busy you feel.
Bring your kiddos, grab a coworker, make the time... even if it’s just for a stroll around your neighborhood.
Give yourself permission to do what you love, and it will only benefit everyone in your life when you show them that you’re the kind of person who:
Chases your dreams
Prioritizes your self-care
Teaches them what resilience, courage, and mental strength look like
You’ve got this.
GRAB MY [FREE] OUTDOOR BACKPACKER STARTER KIT
I created the Ultimate Outdoor Backpacker Starter Kit for you (and it's FREE)! This starter kit is filled with 14 pages of my best hiking and backpacking tips to help you learn what it takes to become a safe, confident, and self-sufficient outdoor backpacker!
And finally, as promised, you can watch this training in video form here:
Looking for even more outdoor inspiration and backpacking related tips?
Check out some of our other blog posts!
The Ultimate 3-5 Day Backpacking Packing List for 2019 (PLUS Backpacking Checklist PDF)
7 Reasons Why Women Make Great Backpacking Leaders on the Trail
Essential Backpacking Hygiene Tips & Feminine Care in the Outdoors
7 Tips to Hiking and Summiting Your First Fourteener Mountain
10 Awesome Hiking Groups and Challenges to Encourage You on Your Hiking Adventures
Cheers,
Allison - She Dreams of Alpine
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The 3 Lesser-Known Benefits of Prioritizing Outdoor Activities and Outdoor Adventure in Your Life | Let’s talk about the 3 lesser-known benefits of outdoor activities and outdoor adventure in your life! This post will help you better understand why making the time to get outside is so beneficial and essential to your self-care and personal growth – even if you’re a busy mom or have a lot on your plate with work or school. | shedreamsofalpine.com