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These Are the Happiest Outdoor Users and How You Can Be One (Hetty Key)

Hetty Key was so curious about how people experience the outdoors and what it does to their lives and attitudes, that she started her own research company to look specifically at women in sport. Her U.K-based firm, Women in Adventure, has now produced three studies on women in the outdoors. In this episode she walks us through her findings about mental health and nature, detailed in her 2019 report on her Mental Wellbeing Survey. We loved hearing her most surprising discoveries, and how we can use her findings to fuel our everyday life outdoors.

Some of the good stuff:

[1:54] Hetty Key’s favorite outdoor space

[2:59] How Hetty became someone who liked to go outside

[5:40] How she found something she likes to do outside

[9:45] All about Hetty’s research

[15:57] What Hetty’s research shows about mental health and adventure

[17:24] What is adventure?

[20:24] This many women thought adventure has a positive impact on wellbeing

[21:40] Breaking down mental wellbeing

[24:52] Why do some activities help mental health more than others?

[26:22] How does going outside impact how women see themselves?

[35:10] Why she didn’t look at “dosage”

[42:42] Hetty’s favorite and most essential outdoor gear

[45:12] Hetty’s favorite outdoor moment

Connect with this episode:

Follow Hetty Key on Facebook

Connect with Hetty Key in Twitter

Follow Hetty Key on Instagram

Learn more about Women in Adventure

Read her study on mental wellbeing in nature

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Outdoor Diary: How We Add Nature to Every Birthday Celebration

One thing you may not know about Amy is that she hates birthday parties. Like, cannot stand them. In this outdoor diary, find out what the Bushatz family does instead and how they make heading outside part of every birthday!

Some of the good stuff:

[:27] Amy and Birthday parties

[:56] A Bushatz family tradition

[2:32] Ice fishing for Huck Day

[4:30] The PANTS!

[4:42] Back to running

Connect with this episode:

Black Diamond Stance Belay Pants

Learn more about dressing for winter weather in Episode 68

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How Heading Outside Makes Your Brain More Creative (Cordele Glass)

So often when we think about heading outside, we think about what it’s doing for our body and emotions — how we feel. But time in nature and, specifically, doing things outside your comfort zone has a real impact on your brain, which then has an impact on everything else. And one of those brain things is creativity.

In this episode, positive psychologist and creativity expert Cordele Glass talks to us about how spending time in nature works with our brains to put us in what he calls an upward spiral, increasing our well-being and specifically making us more creative. He also tells us how we can harness that experience for our own lives.

Some of the good stuff:

[2:25] Cordele Glass’s favorite outdoor space

[4:27] How definitions impacted his outdoor journey

[6:55] How he got into the study of positive psychology

[18:41] What is creativity?

[21:09] Does everyone have creativity within them?

[22:51] The difference between being creative and being good at something

[26:03] The impact of mindset

[29:35] How nature impacts creativity

[33:44] All about the upward spiral

[37:51] How spending time outside impacts the upward spiral

[43:23] Two ways listeners can increase their creativity outside

[48:13] Cordele’s favorite and most essential outdoor gear

[49:32] Cordele’s favorite outdoor moment

Connect with this episode:

Learn more about Cordele and his coaching services

Follow Cordele Glass on Instagram

Listen to Cordele’s podcast, Upward Acts

Exploring New Horizons Outdoor School

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Outdoor Diary: What I Learned When I Unplugged for a Week

If you’ve been following the Unplugging Challenge, you know Amy was trying to unplug over her outdoor time each day for a week. So what did the challenge teach her? Here she shares what she learned over the seven days of unplugging that you might want to know, too.

Some of the good stuff:

[:25] Amy’s technology problem

[2:08] Amy’s most recent challenge

[2:36] What she learned

[4:15] Alaska seasons

[5:16 ] This week’s Outdoor Hero

Connect with this episode:

Follow Humans Outside on Facebook

Follow Humans Outside on Instagram

Learn about the Unplugging Challenge

Listen to Sebastian Slovin and Sonya Mohamed on Humans Outside

Brooks running store

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How to Have an Outdoor Adventure Mindset and About Challenge Grants (Tim Moss)

Tim Moss thought the key to having a life focused on outdoor challenges was to them his job. But instead the UK-based adventurer found that adventure work brought fewer adventures to his life, so he shifted his mindset to make adventure a part of regular life — and help others fund theirs through his Challenge Grants program.

Listen to Tim’s thoughts on leaving life as a professional adventurer and how to incorporate outdoor adventures into your normal, everyday life.

Some of the good stuff:

[1:28] Tim’s favorite outdoor space

[2:41] What is ‘Around the World in 80 Ways?’

[4:13] Psychological vs. physical adventure

[8:16] Why he left adventuring for a regular job

[11:45] Why adventuring doesn’t need to be full time

[16:04] How adventuring changes once you add kids

[20:31] All about Challenge Grants

[26:11] How to build an adventure during a pandemic

[27:52] Why our definition of “adventure” is too narrow

[33:00] Tim’s favorite and most essential outdoor gear

[36:07] Tim’s favorite outdoor moment

Connect with this episode:

Learn about Challenge Grants on TheNextChallenge.org

Follow Tim Moss on Instagram

Follow Tim Moss on Facebook

Follow Tim Moss on Twitter

Tim’s favorite outdoor gear: Helly Hanson base layers (affiliate link)

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Outdoor Diary: Fixing a Lost or Broken Outdoor Habit

Did you know that the vast majority of New Year resolutions fail by mid-February? If your outdoor habit is feeling wishy-washy, it’s never too late to get it back on track. In this week’s Outdoor Diary episode, Amy talks about re-energizing a lost or slightly broken habit.

Some of the good stuff:

[:28] How is your outdoor habit going?

[1:35] Amy’s newest challenge

[3:08] Amy’s week full of snow

[4:03] How to see all our cold weather Outdoor Heroes

[4:15] Where to find Humans Outside

Connect with this episode:

Sign-up for the newsletter to download a unplugging tracker (or watch for your latest newsletter)

Episode 95: How to Make Yourself Unplug and Head Outside

What to wear in cold weather

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How to Make Yourself Unplug and Head Outside (Sonya Mohamed and Sebastian Slovin)

If you’re anything like me, you have trouble unplugging inside or outside. Even when I head outside I am typically toting my phone, snapping photos and getting sucked into various social media platforms. One time I was so busy texting that I almost walked into a moose.

My struggle is pretty normal, according to today’s guests. Unplugging is really, really hard. But Sebastian Slovin and Sonya Mohamed are unplugging experts, and on this episode they share not just the intel on why unplugging is so hard, but their best tips and tricks for making it happen inside and outside.

Some of the good stuff:

[2:24] Sebastian and Sonya’s favorite outdoor space

[3:29] How they became people who like to go outside

[6:31] Why they focus on unplugging

[8:53] Why screens have so much power over us

[13:18] Is all screen time terrible?

[16:58] What screen time balance looks like

[19:08] What’s the secret to learning to unplug?

[22:31] About their book

[24:36] How to unplug at home

[28:40] About our Unplugging Challenge

[32:46] Is unplugging outside better than unplugging inside?

[35:27] How to be plugged in outside and still not really plugged in.

[38:28] Sonya and Sebastian’s favorite and most essential outdoor gear

[42:34] Their favorite outdoor moment (seriously — it’s adorable)

Connect with this episode:

Join our Unplugging Challenge and unplug outside for seven days

Enter to win a copy of Sonya Mohamed and Sebastian Slovin’s book

Register for the Humans Outside newsletter to download a copy of the Unplugging Challenge tracker (if you’re already a newsletter subscriber watch for our latest newsletter)

Buy Sonya Mohamed’s and Sebastian Slovin’s book, Nature Unplugged: A Guide to Wellness in the Digital Age

Follow Nature Unplugged on Instagram

Follow Nature Unplugged on Facebook

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Outdoor Diary: Don’t Let Your Outdoor Habit Become Just a Habit

When your outdoor time becomes such a habit that it’s just something you naturally do every day, you might find a new problem. Instead of experiencing the wonder of heading into nature, now you just do it as something to get done. In this episode Amy talks about the problems that brings, what causes it for her and what she noticed when she took the time to be present.

Some of the good stuff:

[1:20] Amy’s new outdoor problem

[3:54] What happens when you head outside with intention

[4:44] Unplug with Humans Outside

[5:04] Another giveaway and a challenge!

[6:00] This week’s Outdoor Hero

Connect with this episode:

Subscribe to the newsletter to get the free unplugging challenge downloadable

Follow Humans Outside on Instagram

Follow Humans Outside on Facebook

Check out these cool Buffs (affiliate link)

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Here’s the Scoop on Dog Racing and the Iditarod from Identical Twin Mushers (Kristy and Anna Berington)

Nothing about Alaska captures the imagination quite like sled dog racing and mushing. Imagine bundling against sub-zero temperatures and then forward standing on a sled pulled by a team of dogs — and, for the long distance events, doing it for days on end. And while the races are only in the winter, keeping and caring for the dogs is a year-round thing. Dog racing is truly a lifestyle.

In this special episode of Humans Outside, two world-famous mushers and identical twin sisters, Kristy and Anna Berington, share with us not just everything you’ve ever wanted to know about mushing, but also a window into the special connection the sport creates with the outdoors.