Outdoor Activities for Happiness

We have talked a lot about happiness and taking care of the environment. I am surprised we have no connected the two ideas. There is a lot of evidence to support the fact that leading an active lifestyle can lead to happiness. We can all use more exercise in out busy lives, why not take it outside? I think by getting outside to go jogging, biking, walk your dog or just go for a walk we can feel more connected to the environment and the world that we live in. I know that when I am exercising regularly I feel better and on the rare occasions that I get outside to just enjoy the outdoors it makes me feel happy. We all focus so much on school work and our jobs but what about the time in between those things. I am going to make more of an effort to get outside and go hiking and visiting parks because I know that it has a positive effect on not only my physical health but my mental health as well. By feeling more connected to the environment we can become more aware of it. We do not need to spend money to enjoy ourselves. When we think of things to do with friends we usually think of going out to eat or a movie or something that costs money. Next time I am going to try something like going for a walk or a local park. There is an interesting article that compares things we spend money on and things we find the most happiness from and how they overlap. The research done for the article suggests that many of the things that make us most happy are not our most expensive items. Many of the things that bring people the most happiness were experiences. The article can be found at http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/when-money-buys-happiness/