Is Hiking Good for You?

Those of us who enjoy hiking, backpacking and other outdoor sports know that the benefits of getting outside are not limited to the physical. We know that the positive outcomes of these types of outdoor activities also include social, emotional and psychological benefits.

Well, it appears that psychology and psychologists are finally starting to catch on to this truism. So, where have they been all this time? Stuck in their stuffy urban offices?

I’m happy to say that not all psychologists have been stuck in their offices, at least not professionally and not recently. A growing group of them, according to a recent Time Magazine outdoors article, are beginning to see that we have become prisoners in our concrete jungles, guarded and regulated by our cars, the Internet, our iPhones and whatever other electronic, mechanical or industrial prison wardens control our lives.

These pro-nature therapists, known as eco-therapists, say that we are meant to be outdoors and that it is imperative for our mental health that we get out and enjoy nature.

Well, we knew that all along. It’s about time the mental health professionals started catching up with what we have already known to be reality.

A 2007 study by researchers at the University of Essex in England found that a daily dose of walking outside could be as effective as taking antidepressant drugs for treating mild to moderate depression (Outdoors Article).

Now we can feel even better. The good feelings that we get when we are outdoors, while hiking, while backpacking, while kayaking, while mountain biking, are enhanced by the knowledge that these feelings have a scientific basis. Mmmmmm. Did we really need science to buttress our firm convictions?

by Richard Davidian, Ph.D.

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