September 1, 2022 marked five full years of Amy’s 20 minutes outside daily habit, and it has her reflecting on some of the life skills she’s gained spending that many days — 1,825 to be exact — outside experiencing all nature has to offer. What can building a daily nature habit give to you, too? Listen now to find out.

[:45] FIVE YEARS.

[1:04] My daily habit by the numbers

[2:45] Lesson one: my superpower

[3:55] Lesson two: I’m one tough cookie

[4:45] Lesson three: gratitude

[5:35] Yeah there’s other stuff too

[6:10] OK one more gift

What do you do when you encounter mud on the trail? We don’t mean a little mud — we’re talking mud pits of sucking, oozy, gooey mud for miles and miles. Do you go around? Over? Through?

And what about “mud” in life?

In this episode, Amy talks about a recent outdoor mud experience and what it reminded her about handling the tough stuff when it appears. Listen now.

[:45] In case you need a recap of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”

[1:30] About the annual Lost Lake run

[2:07] What a ton – a TON – of rain does

[2:45] Here are your mud options in real life

[3:20] The temptation and what you eventually do

[4:15] What it teaches me about tough life stuff

Read “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” (because you know you want to)

Learn about the Lost Lake trail

Join the Humans Outside Challenge

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Follow Humans Outside on Instagram

When the seasons change — both literally and figuratively — it’s easy to get stuck being sad about what was, what’s gone or what’s going. But as Amy remembered this week, sometimes a little shift towards gratitude can make the whole thing easier.

In this Outdoor Diary episode Amy remembers how to find that gratitude and why heading outside every day no matter what has given her the tools to do so. Listen now.

[:48] You know this about me

[:53] Have you met my boyfriend, Alaska summer?

[1:15] The problem with summer flings

[1:33] The status of that relationship

[2:20] Sadness is OK but then there’s this

[3:06] They’re back! My little buddies

[3:30] A changed perspective from gratitude

[4:45] What you can find on my feed right now

Ever stopped to consider when the right time to start a new habit might be? In her book Happier at Home, Gretchen Rubin has a suggestion on when that is — and Amy tends to agree. In this episode Amy talks about why now is a great time to try a new habit like going outside every day. Listen now.

[:46] I’m a junky for this

[1:08] Why I decided to try this for a year

[1:24] How that got me to The Happiness Project, which is about this

[1:38] Gretchen Rubin’s second book gives this idea

[2:20] What she suggests instead of that other thing

[2:49] Which brought me to this

[3:08] And that has inspired me to suggest this

[3;22] Let’s have a party together!

[3:30] I made this help

[4:15] No regrets — none

There’s something funny that happens when you start spending more time outside: what you want out of life changes, too. In this episode Amy reflects on how spending time outside has shifted her priorities, and why her birthday is the perfect pause point to reflect on that shift.

[:45] Have you noticed this about heading outside?

[:55] How it started for me

[1:28] How the mission creep started

[1:54] The shift from time to time, money and energy

[2:30] Why I’m thinking about this now

[3:00] What I used to do

[3:15] What I wanted to now

[4:20] And here’s what’s next

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