Inspired by the Classics: The Great Outdoors

    "Here's harmony!" said she, "Here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe. Here's what may tranquilize every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene."

                                                                                                Mansfield Park ~ Jane Austen

Recently my family and I were holed up for a couple of weeks in isolation with the COVID-19 virus. Thankfully, we weren't as afflicted as many others with this virus, but our energy levels were zero and there were a lot of cold and flu symptoms in our house.  The weather was mild which means windows and doors were flung open, time was spent resting in the shade outside and for a few minutes in the morning in the sun too. We are blessed to live on a large suburban block that we have landscaped in the last ten years to have beautiful garden spaces and a lovely outlook from every window. There are flower beds, vegetable beds, trees, shrubs, natives and exotics. A true mismatch of nature that I love! I have always loved to pause throughout the day and appreciate the season outside my window, but during this time I appreciated it even more. It is amazing how beneficial looking at nature, being outdoors, resting in the sun or the shade, gazing over a coastal horizon or across a country vista of hills and paddocks can make us feel. 

This isn't a new feeling and two books that recently crossed my path reminded me of the wonderful marvels of the great outdoors. The first was Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. If you're unfamiliar with this classic, it is the story of Fanny Price, the poor and sickly cousin of the wealthy Bertrams of Mansfield Park. She comes to live with them when she is nine years old. Perhaps due to her early years spent in a poor, overcrowded house (she was the second of nine children), Fanny grew to be rather sickly as a young woman. This was remedied with long horse rides outdoors and the gentle care of her cousin Edmund. It was, however, looked upon as rather a nuisance by her aunt, Mrs Norris who exclaims at one point: "And as for Fanny's just stepping down to my house for me, it is not much above a quarter of a mile, I cannot think I was unreasonable to ask it." 

Fanny, however, was not as strong at walking as she was at riding. The being of outdoors was healing to her, but not when it was pushed past her limits. As can be seen in the quote at the top of this article, Fanny herself loved nature and being outdoors. She appreciated not only the beauty of nature, but its unfailing influence on health and wellbeing. Later on in the book, after walking extensively she exclaims:

"I shall soon be rested," said Fanny; "to sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.

I don't think any of us would deny the benefits of exercising outdoors, but there is more to the healing nature of nature than that. In her book, The Natural Health Service: What the Great Outdoors Can Do For Your Mind, English journalist Isabel Hardman outlines her road to recovery from a severe mental breakdown by relying on the Natural Health Service - "a great outdoors which made me want to keep living, and made living much more bearable."

Hardman says, "it's not just physical illness that benefits from nature. Over the past few decades, researches have found that contact with nature, whether through windows or as someone's immediate surroundings, can:

* reduce anxiety and stress

* improve mood

* raise self-esteem

* improve psychological well-being"

Well, who would have thought that Fanny Price was onto something more than two hundred years ago? Actually, we know that Jane Austen was very fond of the outdoors in gaining, maintaining and regaining health. We discussed Jane's approach to health in this article here, but in his book The Jane Austen Diet, Bryan Kozlowski has a whole chapter dedicated to the role of nature in health and diet.

    Austen practically tattoos I 💚 NATURE over all her heroines' chests. The sensual delights of nature, of fresh air, woods, gardens, sunshine, and shade: they pop up more reliably than Austen's leading men.

Kozlowski hits the nail on the head here with the word, sensual. Nature isn't simply for exercise but is a wondrous delight for all the senses. We see the view, we smell the clean air or the pungent perfumes of the roses, we hear the sounds of nature - birds tweeting, the breeze in the leaves, we feel that breeze on our skin and the warmth of the sun on our cheeks, and we can taste the delights of the garden - fruit, herbs, vegetables. It sounds like a true exercise in mindfulness, and it is! Hardman discusses her new-found enjoyment of bird-watching and how it contributed to her level of mindfulness.

    

    "And finally, in that watchful, cold silence, I have learned to sit still with my thoughts."

This isn't the first time that we have talked about sitting still, listening to our thoughts and really knowing who we are. You've probably experienced that for yourself: sitting outside in the warm sun, or the cool shade, feeling those deep breaths wash away your tension and bad attitude. Sunlight triggers the release of the hormone serotonin which is responsible for our good moods, calmness and satisfaction. Now too much sun can have the opposite effect, and we see this in Mansfield Park when Fanny was out in the strong, midday sun deadheading the roses. The time of day that we choose to "take the sun" is important too. My grandmother would always sit outside in the sun for ten or fifteen minutes first thing in the morning. She would roll up her sleeves and let the sun warm the skin on her arms. There are more scientifically proven reasons as to why being in the warm sun feels so good (both physically and mentally), such as the absorption of Vitamin D and the higher rates of melatonin that some of us need. Whatever the science behind it, both Fanny Price and Isabel Hardman could not extoll the virtues of the great outdoors enough. For me, I just love the feeling being outside brings to my sense of perspective. Taking in wide vistas of nature or the vast expanse of the ocean or the sky never fails to remind me how small I am in this world. And I think sometimes we all need to be reminded of that to help put our troubles in perspectives. It's a gentle reminder of how fleeting life is and how this wonderful world keeps on turning. 

    The earth, the air and the sun belong to all of us and these things cannot belong to anyone.

                                                                                                        Leo Tolstoy

Whether it is summer or winter where you are now, I highly encourage you to spend a little bit of time outdoors each day. It's best if you are able to do nothing during this time, a simple ten minutes of sitting works wonders, but if it is winter and you would simply freeze, consider a brisk walk that stretches not only the leg muscles but also the eye muscles. In our screen-centric culture our eyes benefit so much from being stretched to far off vistas, as do our moods. Breathe deeply and enjoy the feeling of fresh air entering your lungs. I hope that this helps "tranquillize every care and lift the heart to rapture!" 

Take care and have a wonderful, nature-filled day, friends!