Why Camping Is Good For Your Health
Why Camping Is Good For Your Health – An inward reflection on reconnecting with nature.
Picture this and decide if it sounds familiar to you: A person sitting at a desk, day in and day out. Week after week, year after year. Every day, this person watches the minutes fall off the clock one at a time. The days seem endless at times and yet they are gone faster than they can be processed. This person often wonders why they continue to do this every day. Is this really their purpose on this earth? Why do they spend 40+ hours a week in this office, doing something they don’t love, living a life that doesn’t fulfill them?
If this sounds like your life then you might fall into a category of many people across the world who have become too wrapped up in the daily grind for a paycheck and who have lost sight of what really matters in life: LIVING! The fact is, there is so much more to life than working for a paycheck to afford stuff we don’t need to impress people we don’t really like. When you fall into this cyclical routine, it can be difficult to escape from it. Some people will walk through their days in a fog and repeat the same daily routine over and over until, one day, they wake up to find that years of their lives have passed them by.
Far too often, we fail to take the time to mentally and physically “reset” from our mundane lives. This is truly the allure of a camping trip. Many people will often ask, “Why would a person want to leave the comfort of their home and spend days on end in the wilderness?” It’s simple really. The wilderness is the farthest thing from your typical, modern-day life. By completely extracting yourself from your daily life and inserting yourself into the wilderness you can mentally purge the pollution of social media, politics, co-workers, career and everything else that is serving as nothing more than a source of stress and, in some instances, misery.
At our core, we (humans) are not living the lives we were designed to live. We are instinctively hunters and gatherers. We are designed to walk and run, climb and jump, live, breath and be happy. Yet over many generations we have developed into sedentary beings that have become increasingly lazy. It’s not all our fault. Modern civilization has evolved to a point where you can live your life without ever leaving your house. Consider the fact that online retailers like Amazon will deliver anything you want or need to your front door. Not only that, there is even an increasing number of grocery stores that will deliver groceries to your doorstep as well. And if fresh fruits and vegetables don’t excite you, there is always Chinese food and pizza that can be ordered online and delivered to your home. As a species, we have completely extinguished our need to ever leave our dwellings.
So why are so many people miserable? This simple answer is that it’s because humans weren’t built to exist in this fashion. In fact, we were built for the exact opposite. We were built to be outside and to be one with nature. So how can we fix this perpetual life of mediocrity and depression that we have created for ourselves? Well, there is a possibility that we can’t. Realistically, there is no turning back the clock on the evolution of convenience and the role technology plays in our daily lives. However, YOU can fix your own self and the way that you can do that is to reconnect with the Earth and nature that you have distanced yourself from for so long. This is where camping comes in.
When you hear the term “camping,” you might be picturing a group of kids and some sort of “troop leader” or chaperone sitting around a fire, telling ghost stories and roasting marshmallows. This isn’t exactly what we are talking about here. We are talking about extensive stays in the wilderness, sometimes several days at a time, reconnecting with our own natural habitat, away from our manmade stresses and obligations. It’s not just about sleeping under the stars for one night (although sleeping under the stars can be a therapeutic experience). It’s about disconnecting for the reality that we have created.
What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and you were the last person on Earth? Not only that, all the electricity was cut off. There was no one to ask for food or water. Seriously. What would you do?
This might sound like a concept for a movie or a TV show, but it’s a question that people really needs to ask themselves because the answer reveals a lot about who a person is. We can tell you one thing for certain, in this situation you aren’t going to travel into your job! You aren’t going to worry about mundane tasks to do around the house and in your daily life. You wouldn’t argue with the people you don’t really like and you wouldn’t do anything that you didn’t want to do. Your existence would be simplified to the most basic need any organism on the planet has: SURVIVAL. This is the experience that you need to seek when you camp.
The sort of camping we are referring to is more of a therapy session than anything else. Once you prepared and packed and found the perfect location, you need to spend a certain amount of time disconnecting from the world you have left behind and reconnecting with the one we have all lost. Find a location that overlooks a canyon or a lake. Perhaps a campsite on the side of a large hill or even a mountain that overlooks the horizon. The choice is yours. Just be sure to take in the scenery. This doesn’t just mean that you’ll just look at it. You really need to breathe it in and absorb it. Clear your minds of everything negative in your life and meditate on the environment that you are camping in. Clarity can only be achieved by camping in the wilderness, away from civilization.
Is camping good for your health?
The short answer is, yes. But why is camping good for your health? Sure, a general detachment from the normal stresses of life can be considered a good thing. On the other hand, there are a lot of activities that can serve as an outlet from stress. So, what exactly makes camping good for your health? It starts with the air.
Many people live in heavily populated areas. This means that there are a lot of people in a condensed area that are generating condensed amounts of waste. This comes in the form of pollution and carbon dioxide and other poisonous substances that get pumped into the air we breathe and the water we drink. When you live in this type of area, there is no escaping these harmful pollutants. They seep into the very fiber of your being and cause health problems that our ancestors never had to worry about. By extracting yourself from this setting and spending some time in the wilderness (away from the pollution of humans), you have an opportunity to breathe clean air for once. This can rejuvenate your body and allow it time to heal from the damage that civilization has caused it for so many years (possibly your entire life). Just breathing fresh air for an entire weekend can be healthy for your brain, your mood, and your sleep patterns. You will be amazed at how much better you feel after doing some breathing exercises during your camping trip.
Stop Stressing!
Another health benefit of camping is the decrease in stress that a person experiences in comparison to their day-to-day life. We touched on this before but to reiterate, it is important to understand that most people have weighed themselves down with unnecessary stresses that compromise the quality of life that they so rightfully deserve. Camping offers people an opportunity to distances themselves from those unwanted stress and obligations that preoccupy them so relentlessly. This can lead to a shift in stress hormone levels which further lead to benefits with your blood pressure. We aren’t saying that camping will override genetic markers that lead to high blood pressure. However, if you are experiencing elevated blood pressure due to environmental stresses then removing those environmental factors by changing your overall environment can provide an immediate change in your wellbeing.
Clear Your Mind…
Camping can also provide a state of mental clarity that can be hard to achieve in a person’s everyday life. In this age of technology, the rate at which we are bombarded with information is staggering. People are rarely caught with their mobile device(s) and with the prevalence of social media, we are exposed to a greater volume of information than ever before in human history. One has to wonder if humans are adequately capable to mentally process everything we are exposed to in this day and age. It wasn’t that long ago that people had to rely on the evening news and the local newspaper to stay up on current events. This meant that our time to learn about the world and the resources with which to do it were limited. That is no longer the case. Today, you can know anything about everything just by pulling out your phone or mobile device. There is almost nothing that goes on in the world that isn’t posted online. This means that there can be an information overload to humans that can be difficult to filter.
When you go camping, you remove yourself from the information overload. Most likely, you will be camping in a setting that doesn’t have WIFI. You cellular coverage will likely be limited. Consequently, you probably won’t be able to peruse the Internet the way you normally would. The thought of this might scare you at first but you need to consider that this can be a good thing. Camping will give you an opportunity to mentally “reset” from the overstimulation of the Internet. You can finally have a day (hopefully longer) where you aren’t reading articles about tragedies in the world or getting upset with the ignorant things people write in the comments of web posts. These are problems that our ancestors never had to deal with and getting to a setting where we don’t have to deal with them (even for just a few days) can be monumental for improving our general mental health. In a way, we are getting back to a more primitive state of mind in order to become a more healthy version of ourselves.
A Daily Dose of Vitamins
As we get older, it becomes increasingly challenging to make sure that we are getting enough nutrients to sustain or normal activity. One of the more common vitamin deficiencies in adult humans is vitamin D. Although this nutrient can be found in a variety of foods, one of the most prevalent sources of vitamin D is your own skin when it is exposed to sunlight. When your bare skin is exposed to sunlight, your body converts cholesterol in your skin into the nutrient, vitamin D (>>> https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-from-sun <<<<< ). Vitamin D is instrumental in overall muscle health, combating osteoporosis, and aiding against depression (>>>> https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-from-sun <<<<<). As we get older, we tend to be indoors more. Many people work inside year round and rarely get enough sunlight to produce adequate levels of vitamin D. This is where camping becomes beneficial. Just be being out in the sunlight, you are improving the nutrient content within your own body. Granted, you should take proper precautions with sunscreen to prevent sun damage but the exposure to UV light will jumpstart the production of vitamin D within your body. As these nutrient levels optimize, you begin to feel better and have an improved mood. A simple camping trip can pull you out of a funk of melancholy or depression.
Breaking a Sweat
It’s no secret that camping can be a lot of physical work. However, with the physicality of camping comes a fun source of exercise that can get your blood flowing and stimulate your brain. This is what makes camping so different from just going to your local gym or jogging around the block. The dynamic nature of camping creates an unpredictable workout for your body that keeps your muscles guessing. This confuses your body with a wide variety of movement as the days go on which results in a workout that is unlike anything you could achieve at your gym. We’re not saying that pull-ups in the gym aren’t beneficial. They are. We are just saying that they are a different sort of workout in comparison to climbing a tree to hang your food, traversing uneven terrain to reach a campsite or even pulling a rope to raise your tent. Additionally, the exercise you’ll get from camping is just as mental as it is physical. You’ll be using problem-solving skills that you may not have used in years. You’ll be in a situation that forces you to plan appropriately and be strategic. This added stimulation to your brain is essential to your mental wellbeing.
Reconnect With The People You Care About
So far, we have been referring to the benefits that camping can have on an individual’s health. However, there is something to be said for the health benefits that camping can have on a group of people. You might have noticed during past social settings that people will often dilute their interaction with one another with outward stimuli. This can be in the form of a television at the center of a room or our own inability to put our wireless devices away while we gather socially. How many times have you pulled your phone out to check your team’s score during breaks in the conversation? As a species, we are losing our ability to interact with one another effectively. It has gotten so severe that there are small populations of people that spend more of their waking hours online rather than going out into the world and interacting with other people. If people cease to interact then it is possible that the human race is doomed (literally).
Camping can be a healthy remedy for this problem. When placed in the wilderness, away from the distractions of technology, we are left with only one thing to rely upon: each other. We don’t mean this in a “kumbaya” way. Quite literally, fellow campers have to rely on one another to make it through the night. It takes teamwork to catch food and raise the tents and to survive in the wilderness for long periods of time. Granted, it is also possible to do all of these when camping solo, but if you are in a group where everyone is contributing it can be a socially enjoyable experience. Additionally, with no electronic devices to dilute the conversations, people can communicate unencumbered around the campfire just like our ancestors did. This leads human social connections that can be absent in our normal lives.
Camping Is Good For Your Health
Camping is the best way to recreate the lifestyle that we have lost as technology has taken over our lives. If you don’t believe anything you have just read, we challenge you to pick a day and just go out into the wilderness for a few hours. Preferably, somewhere with a nice view. Be it by a lake, on top of a tall hill, in the middle of a field, it doesn’t really matter. Just it out by yourself for a few hours and be alone with your thoughts. Absorb the air and the sunlight and nature as a whole. Breathe it all in. Close your eyes and absorb it. Then, once you’ve completed a few hours and you have made your way back to your car, just stop and think for a moment and assess how you feel. If you notice a positive change in your mood and general well being then maybe it’s time you pack up the car for a long camping trip.