The Joys of Beetling Around Outside – by Amy, Happiness Ambassador

The Joys of Beetling Around Outside – by Amy, Happiness Ambassador

I’m revisiting a blog from the ‘old world’ in which I waxed lyrical about investing time walking in my local countryside. Bear with me while I do it again.

In May 2019, I wrote this

“Somewhat inconsistently, the word ‘sport’ makes me shudder. I’m not keen on the word ‘exercise’ either. Despite this, I walk a lot. I walk between two and six miles a day, with my 6 month old son strapped to my chest. Together we watched Spring spring. Naked branches donned verdant cloaks. Snowdrops gave way to daffodils, and suddenly, a patch of bluebells that wasn’t there the day before became a carpet of purple.”

and this

We saw the same dogs, and their people. Birds going about in pairs, horses shuffled from paddock to paddock. Raindrops on our faces, warm sun on our limbs, the breeze in our hair, the smell of blossom and grass and wet leaves and cow poo. I’m currently house hunting, and I’ve realised what an absolutely priority it is for me to be able to reach shops and amenities on foot, and to be able to walk for miles in nature without first getting in the car.

I’m delighted to tell you that a house on the fringes of the countryside was successfully hunted. I’m still walking up to 100 miles a month, but as my child is now two, he’s carried on my back, on my shoulders, or on his own little flamingo legs. In winter we’ll average around two hours a day outdoors, and in summer at least triple that.

When I last wrote, I felt exceptionally lucky that my circumstances allowed for me to spend so much time galloping about in nature. I love feeling strong, feeling connected to the Earth,  and I love owning a child that appreciates a good stick, a handsome tree and paddle in a moorland stream. I know that I’m mentally healthier than I’ve ever been, because of it. What I now realise I was doing two years ago was instinctively using nature to heal from a traumatic birth and the sleepless shock of early motherhood. Sitting quietly by the water with my face to the sun or pottering under rustling trees was the most soothing and energising resource available to me and I grasped it with keen hands. Nature is available to us all, in one form or another. We should treasure it.

But what about work? Especially for those many of us with ‘sedentary’ jobs? When are we supposed to fit raindrops on roses and cow poo up noses into our busy working week?

How could I have known, when writing those words, how the world would change less than a year later? The pandemic has made our daily routines unrecognisable for many of us, and chucked out new possibilities for exploring the nature on our doorsteps. During lockdown we were encouraged to spend an hour a day exercising outdoors and people seized this snippet of freedom,  enjoying a daily voyage of discovery less than two miles from home.

Here are some tips for incorporating more of the great outdoors into your day:

1. Working flexibility has become a way of life that we hope will stay.  Those who work a 9-5 in winter will often only see daylight at the weekends. If you can, factor a walk into the middle of your day and work a bit earlier or later to make up for it.
2. If you are working from home but your hours are pretty fixed, can you do a ‘fake commute’ and use the time you used to spend travelling to work, walking in your local area?
3. Shrug off the mindset of the car being the default mode of transport. If you can walk it, walk it.
4. When you’re walking with others you sometimes end up so deep in conversation you’ve arrived back home without appreciating your surroundings. Spend a few minutes standing still and taking notice. Look at what the clouds are doing, at what’s under your feet. Peer into trees and cracks in stone walls. Take a child or a dog with you if you’re worried about looking like a weirdo.
5. Savour your freedom – it was lost to us for a while. When you’re feeling unmotivated, remember when we were only allocated an hour of exercise a day.
6. If you really don’t enjoy walking (and not everybody does) you can benefit from nature just being outside – or at a push, near a window.

Employers need not be concerned about a negative impact on productivity, when in fact research shows the opposite to be true. Just 20 minutes of doing something vaguely energetic during the working day significantly boosts the brain for the remaining tasks ahead.

That bit still stands.

Amy