Richard Kane Mansir is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys many activities such as hunting, fishing, and skeet shooting. As a mental health advocate, Richard Kane Mansir discusses the mental and physical health benefits getting outdoors can provide for overall daily life.
Many of us actually do not mind being outdoors, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus had much of the globe sequestered indoors. In terms of mental and physical health, however, it goes even deeper than enjoyment.
According to Healthline.com, getting outdoors can trigger many significant health benefits such as getting better sleep, breathing more easily, lowering the symptoms of depression, better immune system functioning, restoration of mental health, and even protection of decreasing vision.
5 Benefits That Prove the Power of Getting Outdoors
Richard Kane Mansir says that it can be tempting to remain indoors for most of our lives without even realizing it. After all, the indoor world is tightly controlled in terms of air conditioning, access to the world’s information at our fingertips, and of course, endless entertainment in the form of streaming.
However, some of these benefits simply can’t hold a candle to the ones listed below, which prove the power of getting outdoors for mental and physical health:
1. Better Sleep
2. Breathing Easy
3. Immunity Boost
4. Mental Health Restoration
5. Exercise Encouragement
For these reasons, many mental health treatment centers don’t stop short at medication or counseling, but instead utilize the wilderness and outdoors for therapy. Richard Kane Mansir takes a closer look at each reason to understand the wisdom in their practice and the power of getting out in nature:
Better Sleep
Richard Kane Mansir reports that many people may not be aware that the human body actually runs on a handy-dandy internal clock. This internal clock follows the movement of the sun as the Earth orbits it. This is why we become lethargic and long to sleep when it gets dark, but more wakeful when daylight comes through the windows.
However, artificial lighting and human exposure to it rather than actual daylight can be detrimental to circadian rhythms, or the urge to sleep at the proper times. Sunlight is as many as 200 times more powerful than most forms of electric light.
Getting outside and experiencing more exposure to sunlight can dose the human body with the circadian rhythm reset it needs to fall asleep faster and more deeply. Richard Kane Mansir explains that this, in turn, has positive ripple effects throughout the body, not the least of which is found in mental health concerns.
Breathing Easy
There is not much more essential and necessary to life on earth than breathing. Getting outside can actually help a human being escape the much-higher levels of air pollution in indoor environments and lower respiratory health problems.
After all, Richard Kane Mansir says that all oxygen comes from plant life, which the lungs have greater access to when exposed to unfiltered, unconditioned outdoor air. The best samples of this are found in high elevations or wide-open spaces, such as planes and meadows.
Immunity Boost
Though some coverage of COVID-19 regulations confused this issue, it is largely accepted to be scientifically true and proven that going outdoors makes a human being less likely to contract viruses outside rather than inside. Richard Kane Mansir explains that the reasoning behind this is that outdoor air circulation has a dilution effect on airborne illnesses.
Besides, microorganisms and good bacteria are what the human body comes into contact with when spending time outside, causing the immune system to get little trials and practice runs when it comes to largely harmless diseases so that it is ready to take on worse maladies later.
Even smaller problems that can affect the body after long isolation indoors can be circumvented when outside, like shortsightedness!
Mental Health Restoration
Richard Kane Mansir also reports that it has been clinically proven that exposure to sunlight, which is the basis for light therapy practices, can reduce fatigue and low mood, common symptoms of both seasonal and major depression.
Additionally, the mental faculties in the human brain can become exhausted with stimuli from screens and can even lower its own tolerance for non-controlled environments without exposure to the outdoors. Taking a break outside can do a lot to restore mental health and promote relaxation.
Exercise Encouragement
Finally, Richard Kane Mansir says that exercise is something that most people do not have natural motivation to accomplish, despite its many health benefits. However, spending time outside can make any person realize that exercise is actually enjoyable when it’s done under beautiful sunlight and in the fresh air!
In Conclusion
To conclude, the power of getting outdoors is not limited to physical benefits like increased Vitamin D or better sleep habits, but mental benefits, too. Lower symptoms of depression and replenishment of relaxation and a lack of stimuli are just some of the great effects of spending time outdoors. It is no wonder mental health facilities promote outdoor time as treatment!
