Play outdoors in May! Take the Suzuki 30 Day Outdoor Challenge

Image description: Close up shot of a tree trunk with light green ferns growing around it

Tomorrow is May 1st!  Surely we can spend lots of time outdoors in May. David Suzuki is challenging you to get out there.

“Want to get healthier, happier and smarter? Try adding a daily dose of nature to your routine. Starting May 1st, we’re challenging people across the country to spend 30 minutes a day in nature for 30 days.

Over the last decade, researchers have realized what most of us know intuitively: nature is good for us! It is well documented that being regularly immersed in a natural setting, like a park, field or forest, can lower blood pressure, anxiety and stress levels, and boost immunity. ‘Green time’ has also been shown to reduce feelings of anger and depression, while increasing energy, creativity and even generosity.

Living in the digital age, most of us spend too much time in front of screens and little time outdoors. It’s time for us all to get outside. During the month of May, we’re asking Canadians to pledge to spend 30 minutes in nature every day for 30 days.

Last year, we inspired over 10,000 Canadians and 300 workplaces to join us in cultivating the ‘nature habit’. They took to the great outdoors, doubling their time outside. Our research showed that participants were sleeping better, felt calmer and less stressed. Impressive results for a half hour a day!”

Sign up for the 30 X 30 Challenge here: 30 X 30 Nature Challenge

For our past posts on the great outdoors and exercise see Green exercise and the health benefits of the great outdoors and Forest Bathing (Guest Post)

How you spend your 30 minutes is up to you.

I won’t be taking Jonathan Coulton’s advice on what we should start doing outside starting May 1st. This is Canada, Jonathan Coulton. This week it snowed in both Calgary and in Newfoundland.

If you’re wondering what I’m referring to, here’s Jonathan Coulton’s First of May, not safe for work or for tender sensibilities but it always makes me smile.

If you want to read about the raunchy song before deciding to click play on the  you tube video, read about it on the Jonathan Coulton wiki. Cory Doctorow has this to say about it, “CaptainValor gives Jonathan Coulton’s delightfully filthy “First of May” song an enthusiastic American sign language interpretation with two backup signers. This is the gesture-set that JoCo’s material truly demands.”

My own quibble is that it’s definitely a guy song. It cries out for a women’s version…

Oh, and as commentator notes you have got to love a song that rhymes “big toe” with “in flagrante delicto.”