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8 Reasons to Step Outside

Going outdoors helps your health. It has been linked to numerous positive benefits for our health, most especially obesity. Hiking, a simple walk in the woods or spending time in the forest can promote mental health, decrease your risk of cancer, and help improve blood pressure.

One of the best ways to take a break from the everyday craziness and stresses of life is to spend some time with nature with friends new and old. Getting back to nature, breathing fresh air, and simplifying life has many health benefits. For most of us, unplugging and recharging outdoors is necessary amidst the technology surrounding us.

Find time on your busy schedule to go outdoors and take advantage of the many benefits you can get out of it. Let your friends join in the journey or meet locals and neighbors in your surrounding area that may be interested in outdoor activities with the help of Outist app. You have so much to gain from getting outside and exploring the natural world. Reconnect with nature and connect with your friends or other people nearby for an adventure to help your body, mind, and soul.

Here are some ways going outdoors helps your health:

1. Stress Reliever

School and work can provide us with so much stress. Your healthy immune system and mind can be affected by this, which can sometimes lead to high blood pressure, depression, and obesity. Not handling your stress the right way is unhealthy.

Escaping outdoors is a natural stress buster for both teens and adults. It’s also an open and low-cost experience for everyone. Go on a hiking trip with a friend or family member during a long weekend break. Not only will you reduce the levels of your stress, but you will also feel reinvigorated.

2. Stay Fit and Healthy

When you spend more time outside, you’ll spend less time watching TV and using your computer. You’ll be walking more and get to meet new people that share the same interest as you along the way. Also with sunlight kissing your skin, it will begin creating and activating vitamin D, and as a result, you will be healthier and happier.

3. Calmer Mind

Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety are challenging and crippling. Exercise is one of the most recommended therapies by most physicians. You can get the exercise required by doing outdoor activities. Not only will it improve your mood, but it will also aid in healing your mental and emotional pain.

Our bodies respond to nature in a lot of positive ways. It can reduce cortisol levels, lower your heart rate, and blood pressure. As our body slows down when we’re one with nature, we feel calm and peaceful.

4. Helps Our Focus and Concentration

Just like with our bodies, our minds work the same way. Your feeling of anxiety will be reduced, and your mood will improve when you spend time outdoors. With your concentration improved, you will be able to address your feelings of anxiety and stress. Hiking can also help boost your self-esteem. One of the most important things the outdoors offers is mental clarity and peace of mind.

5. Eliminate Fatigue

Mental fatigue is that feeling when everything seems to sputter into a halt. Get your mind back into gear by going outdoors. Get your energy to bounce back by enjoying what nature has to offer. Physical activities that you can do with your friends can also cheer you up and help you relax. Getting outside means you’ll be happier as well.

6. Breathe in Fresh Air

You may not be aware of it, but indoor pollution is worse than what you can inhale when you’re outside. Our homes are jam-packed with air pollution also, from household product chemicals to paint and poor ventilation. Go outdoors, spend a little time with nature, meet new people, and breathe in some fresh air that your body needs.

7. Improvement of Cognitive Abilities

Walking with nature can improve your attention and memory span. It may just be the answer you’re looking for – to remember names, take notes in class better, and to never forget your keys. Natural sceneries calm minds, and therefore, help improve your focus. That peaceful setting may also aid in enhancing your memory.

8. Boost your Performance on Creative Tasks

Going outdoors and sharing the experience with like-minded individuals is a kind of therapy with only positive side effects that are readily available for you to take advantage of. Your cognitive functions will improve at no cost. Immersing yourself in nature for a weekend can help improve your creative performance by at least 50%.

How to Bring People Together For Your Outdoor Adventure

If you don’t have a lot of friends that will embark with you on an outdoor adventure, you can find an adventure community with the help of Outist. With this app, you will be able to meet your neighbors based on mutual activities. You can even meet travelers along the way.

Joining a group has more advantages than going solo. Not only will you be exposed to a wealth of knowledge, but you will also have a team to cheer you up when a trail is challenging, or you’re too tired to go on. And the best thing about it is that if anything happens to you, there will always be someone there to help you out.

Here are some tips on how you can bring people together for an outdoor adventure:

Tap into a network

Let your friends join if you want to go somewhere by sharing with them the benefits they can get from going outside. Not everyone is up for an outdoor adventure, but you can find a buddy or buddies to partner up with nearby with the help of mobile apps designed to match people with events or places that they have always been interested in trying out that maybe their friends weren’t interested in.

Search for people with the same interest as you

Social networking apps are a powerful way to connect with individuals who share your passion and who want to try different places Go ahead and reach out to people by planning your event and adding your friends. You can also bring various groups together by looking at an active feed of popular events relating to outdoor activities in your surrounding area.

Arrange a meetup group

You can arrange a meetup group with like-minded people. Spending time outdoors is one of the best ways to meet new people as well. Outist matches people nearby based on similar interests, so there are actual connection and references from previous events, and you don’t have to worry about being someone being dangerous or creepy. Events are pre-set with locations and times in order to simplify scheduling and to avoid the confusion of setting up a date.

Planning Your Outdoor Adventure

Throwing all the things you need in a backpack, piling it into your vehicle, and heading out to the closest national park. Embarking on an adventure with friends, old and new, is another whole story.

Carefully planning things will result in an epic outdoor adventure. To ensure you will not run out of food and other supplies or to avoid any group member to butt heads, here are a few tips you may consider:

Avoid sending too many messages on your group chat

With your trip just a matter of weeks away, you can’t help but get excited and be tempted to throw in several ideas in your group chat. Resist the impulse of sharing too many videos and article links. Be casual about how you communicate with your group and be clear on the things you want to share. Use an app like Outist where you and your friends can organize and view event details so you can get there on time and never miss anything important.

The destination should be suitable for everyone

As much as people want to put out a tough facade, it is essential to choose an outdoor destination that will fit everyone in your group’s mobility limitations and physical capabilities. Make sure everyone agrees and take into consideration how much hiking, roughing it, and walking they want to do. An outdoor adventure does not have to be too rough, a weekend chilling with great people over beers is also fun way to enjoy nature.

Preparing your essentials

Everyone knows what they need to bring when embarking on a trip with Mother Nature. But you need to be a boy scout and be prepared for the unexpected. Aside from the usual essentials such as food and water supplies, tent, sleeping bag, first aid kit and more, there are times when you forget about other things like biodegradable toilet paper, coffee, and cooking set. To avoid this, make sure to create a list of things you need to bring a week before your trip. Double check with everyone to see if they will be willing to bring some of the items on your list that will be used by everybody. You and your group can also brainstorm on any unexpected things that you may need and add them to your list of things to bring.

Match with people nearby and discover local events based on similar interests. Make friends and keep meetups near you safe by leaving references.

Download our app from Google Play or Apple Store. Today is a good day to make friends and expand your circle.