When you were a kid, did you find joy in spending time outdoors? For me, embracing activities outside was as natural as breathing.
Today, my out-of-doors pursuits are more intentional but nonetheless enjoyable. And necessary. One positive outcome of the pandemic has had me looking at ways to weave more outdoor activities and meetings into my schedule.
The same is true when it comes to the holidays. It’s too easy to become comfortable and sedentary; I tend to overeat and over-sit. As a result, I plan for and encourage al fresco time as part of holiday gatherings.
Benefits to Time Outdoors
The benefits and value of access to nature in improving quality of life are well-documented. Natural environments promote physical, mental, and spiritual health and healing, as well as opportunities for social, creative, and multigenerational engagement.
Health care professionals at the Mayo Clinic recognize that time in nature is a key factor in staying healthy. The concept is called biophilia. In fact, some health care professionals are writing “park prescriptions” to encourage patients to get outdoors.1
In a University of Minnesota study, the researchers looked at the benefits of access to “green” and “blue” spaces for adults ages 65 to 86. Through this study they discovered how even seemingly mundane experiences, such as hearing bees buzzing or the sound of water lapping on a beach, had positive impacts on overall health.
Additionally, exposure to the outdoors serves as a motivator to being more physically, socially, and spiritually active. These activities “can offset chronic illness, disability and isolation.”2
Other benefits to spending time outdoors include lower stress levels, decreased mortality rates, and improved mental health, including some possible easing of depression and anxiety.3
Tips from the study for healthier aging:
- Focus on your overall wellbeing: mental and social health are just as important as physical health when aging
- Get out the door regularly, even if it’s just to the end of the block and back
- Prioritize everyday contact with nature – whether it’s sitting in a park, listening to a water fountain, or looking at potted plants on a windowsill
Outdoor Activities Enrich Creative Engagement Opportunities
Our team of Creative Engagement Specialists are especially adept at planning and creating experiences and opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. So many of our clients have been active walkers, hikers, skiers, gardeners, fishermen and women, kayakers, bicyclists, campers, sailors. Some grew up on farms. Others in rural areas where mountains were their playground. Being outside and engaging all the senses is a welcome retreat and refreshment.
As Creative Engagement Specialists develop relationships and learn about each client’s life story, it opens the door to opportunities to tailor experiences and outings based on clients’ abilities and interests.
Examples of outdoor adventures planned by Creative Engagement Specialists with clients:
- Joseph, who had worked for a local municipality’s parks and recreation department, had a hand in park development and expansion. Though his dementia was in the moderate stages and mobility was a challenge, the Creative Engagement Specialist who worked most closely with him regularly planned scenic drives to visit the wide variety of parks in the city. Each visit came with amazing stories of how different parks came to fruition. An amazing legacy.
- Another client, Mary, had been an avid sailor and loved to spend time near and in the water. Health concerns made those pursuits challenging, but the joy of putting her feet in the sand and dipping her toes in the water at Golden Gardens while warming her face in the sun was still possible. This was an outing our client, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and lived in an assisting living community, looked forward to each week, rain or shine. Occasionally our client and her Creative Engagement Specialist would ride a ferry, visit marinas, and the Center for Wooden Boats in South Lake Union for a change of pace.
- Susan had grown up on a farm in Idaho and loved to visit a local orchard multiple times each fall so she could pet animals, press cider, and bring home a pumpkin and apples. Those orchard visits always engaged the senses, brought back comforting memories, the sharing of a rich tapestry of stories, and a deeply satisfying day outdoors in the country. Other times of year, visiting the Bellevue Botanical Garden always brought joy.
Plan Some Time Outside: Check out some of our favorite places
We are fortunate to have such an abundance of parks, beaches, gardens, walking and biking paths, and other accessible outdoor spaces throughout King County. CLICK HERE for a list of some of our favorite outdoor places.
These suggestions are all FREE, accessible, and reachable by public transportation. Many of the parks have public art, benches for breaks and taking in the surroundings, playgrounds, and memorable views. An added benefit: they work for all ages.
Do you have a favorite park or beach?
Discover Your Own Outdoor Outlets
- Lifelong Recreation for Adults 50+ through Seattle Parks and Recreation
- Sound Steps offers walking groups, including dog walking
- Boating (rowing and sailing) classes at different parks.
- Check your community or senior center for walking groups, field trips. The PNA Village, for example, has two walking groups: one walks through Phinneywood, the other through Ballard.
- Washington Trails Association. WTA does a great job of providing maps, directions, trail distances, levels of difficulty, and any associated costs.
- The Mountaineers offer courses, activities, and opportunities to build community in the great outdoors.
ENDNOTES
- Mayo Clinic Minute: Prescribing nature for mental, physical health
- Therapeutic landscapes and wellbeing in later life: Impacts of blue and green spaces for older adults
- Exposure to Greenness and Mortality in a Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study of Women
The original version of this article was published in AgeWise King County, the monthly Ezine of Seattle – King County Aging & Disability Services.
