Day 34: WOW – What An Easy Way To Feel Better And Look Younger!

Are people telling you that you look tired, run-down, or you’re aging like a President in the White House?

Or maybe nobody has noticed yet, but you have. You’re routine is just that, routine, day-in-day-out work, responsibilities, sleep (if you’re lucky) and some days you feel like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, you’re “too old for this s*&#!”

Want to feel better and look younger? Change your routine! Get outside and get some exercise. Whether you walk, jog, play tennis, basketball, or golf, outdoor activities provide us with physical and mental exercises which can help us feel better and younger.

Here’s some reasons that opening your door and stepping outside might be the best thing you can do for yourself today.

Be a kid again. Remember when you couldn’t wait to go outside and explore the great big world? Whether you were playing hide-and-seek in your back yard or exploring local woodlands for buried pirate treasure, there was an air of excitement and mystery in the unknown. Anything was possible. Even though we’re not likely to engage in hide-and-seek as adults, being outside still holds a magic for our souls, reminding us that the world is bigger than the walls that surround us each day.

Play. Keeping with the sentiment in the paragraph above, play! Adults don’t play nearly enough. Find something you like to do outdoors and make time for it. If you can find people to do it with, all the better. Studies have shown that people who spend time with friends and have social networks, live longer than those who don’t.

We need sunlight. The sun is a great source for maintaining healthy levels of Vitamin D. A recent report from the UK suggest that one in five children suffer from Rickets from staying indoors. However, be careful not to overdo it and wear a proper sunscreen, as overexposure to the sun can age your skin prematurely (think dried prune) and cause cancer.

Connect with nature. In this fast-paced, information-overloaded world, sometimes it’s a good to get away from it all. Walk a nature trail, start a garden, or just find a quiet place where the world isn’t encroaching from all sides, and enjoy.

Being outside is a good brain reset. Whenever I’m stressed, in search of a solution for work, or trying to work out a problem in a story I’m writing, I head outside. After a brisk walk, I’m not only feeling better, but my mind is full of ideas. One study by The Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has shown that outdoor activities has helped reduce ADHD symptoms in children afflicted with the disorder.

Exercise for physical AND mental health. We all know that exercise is good for staying in physical shape. However, it also does wonders for your mental health. Exercise produces the neurotransmitter, serotonin, which helps stabilize your mood. Serotonin also affects some of the most important functions of your body such as digestion, sleep, insulin production, growth, and sexual functions. In short, you NEED to keep your serotonin levels up and one of the easiest ways to do so is exercise.

Boost your self esteem. When you feel better, you feel better about yourself. You have more confidence. Getting outside is one of the quickest changes you can make to your lifestyle which can have an immediate impact.

Got any tips to feel better and younger? Share them in the comments below, we’d love to hear what works for you.

David Wright is a professional ghostwriter and cartoonist who blogs about fatherhood at Blogger Dad.