Go outside

As our technology continues to advance, many studies point to rates of anxiety and depression increasing for individuals and society. Why is that?

Actually, hold on a minute. Lemme step outside.

Okay, thanks for waiting, I’m back. I realized I was feeling anxious and having a hard time focusing. 2pm on a Saturday and I had been inside my Brooklyn apartment all day. So I took a walk to Prospect Park. Now, my palms are no longer sweating and ideas are coming up with more clarity. A big reason my wife and I chose this apartment is because it’s so close to the park. If I’m going to live in a city, I need access to nature.

According to the EPA, Americans spend 93% of their life indoors. I’ll be honest, when I went to find that stat, I thought it would be around 70%. I thought if it was any higher, that would make a really good case for publishing this article. But when I saw that we spend 93% of our lives indoors, I didn’t feel more excited to publish this article. I felt sad.

But I believe it. There are days when I’m working from home and eventually I look up from my computer to see the sun setting. It’s then when I finally say to myself, “Okay Brian, you need to get outside.”

Given the conveniences of our modern world, we’ve effectively created a world where we could never step foot outside, and still have our basic needs met. I could feasibly spend days, weeks, or months if I really wanted to working remotely, ordering in food, working out, and communicating with friends, all from the comfort of my home. Now, we all recognize that me spending months cooped up in my apartment would be ridiculous. But 10 years ago, most people left their homes every morning to go to work or school. Now it’s fairly normal to not go outside all day.

I wonder — in another 10 years, as our lives become even more immersed in the digital world, will spending months on end indoors be the norm?

Now you may be asking yourself — what’s the big deal about spending all this time indoors?

Usually I don’t need stats to drive this point home because people tend to get it: spending so much time indoors isn’t good for our mental or physical health. Maybe you’ve felt the way I’ve felt towards the end of a busy workday, kicking myself for not getting outside earlier because of how unsettled I feel. Or maybe you’ve felt the way I’ve felt after a few months without getting out of the city, just generally more on edge and irritable. But if you haven’t — or if you have and want your feelings validated — here’s some of the science:

• Living in a city has been shown to increase risk of anxiety by 21%, depression by 20%, and psychosis by 77%. But if you live in an urban environment, living near trees has been shown to improve both self-perception of and real physical and mental health.
• A multi-study analysis showed that “activity in the presence of nature” consistently improved mood and self esteem. For what it’s worth, the presence of water generated even greater effects.
• Nature walks have been shown to decrease our tendency towards rumination and risk of depression, both in self-reporting and brain scans.
• Field experiments in Japan exploring the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (aka forest bathing) found that “forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments.”

It seems this is the case with our dogs too. As I was walking home from the park earlier, I found myself behind a dog with its owner — let’s call this dog Lloyd. 30 yards ahead of us was another dog with its owner, walking towards us — let’s call this dog Ari.

Ari started barking his head off at Lloyd. This captured the attention of everyone on Carroll Place. Lloyd and his owner walked to the other side of the street to get away from Ari. As I walked past little Ari, I noticed he had on a sweater and doggy slippers. He probably takes a CBD supplement too.

It was then that I remembered — even the dogs in NYC are anxious. Which makes sense. We coop them up inside, only taking them out when it’s time to use the bathroom. It’s no wonder why city dogs, just like city humans, need all these band aids to deal with their anxiety.

But dog owners — it’s not your fault! We treat our dogs like we treat ourselves. I just think all of us animals — dogs and humans alike — need more time outside. Because all of this time inside is making us bark our heads off at each other.

The truth is, I’m not a survivalist. I don’t even like camping. Sleeping on the ground? Not for me. A once-a-year-tops kind of activity.

I like hot showers. I like sitting on a couch in comfy clothes. And as long as we’re in the trust tree, I take a CBD supplement every night!

I’m just saying — especially for those of you who, like me, live in a city and get anxious sometimes — spend more time outside.