Numerous studies indicate exercise as an effective treatment for people with existing depression and other mental illnesses, and exercising in nature can further improve mental well-being.
Thick snow covers tree branches as people walk along a street in Ottawa after a snowstorm.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Taking your physical activity outside comes with added benefits. Here are ways to pursue your fitness goals outdoors, even in the middle of a Canadian winter.
Experts believe that infants should get some interactive floor-based physical activity two to three times a day.
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Even babies who are not yet standing or walking get lots of benefits from active movement – but most infants aren’t getting enough physical activity.
Beyond the many known benefits of outdoor education, COVID-19 has highlighted the outdoors as an environment which mitigates the risk of spreading airborne viruses.
(Pexels/Charles Parker)
Planning outdoor early learning and child care has implications for training and recruiting educators as well as for planning, developing and funding physical spaces.
Research that measures the public mood based on Twitter posts shows that it’s currently at its lowest point in a decade. One exception: when people visit parks and green spaces.
If worshippers congregate outside amid coronavirus fears, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Early settlers used outside worship to sanctify colonized land, and slaves relied on it to meet in secret.
Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park hosted more than 2.5 million visitors in 2019.
Anqi Lu/Unsplash
A new survey finds that Americans are willing to accept limits on visitors to public lands to reduce crowds, and want staff and visitors to wear masks.
With online learning, children are staring at computer screens for more hours each day.
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With online learning and social distancing, kids are spending more time staring at screens and less time outdoors. That can put them at higher risk of myopia and serious eye problems in the future.
Wind-animated sunlight shining through a glass roof pond at the ‘Mansion of Water,’ designed by Toshihito Yokouchi, in Himeji, Japan.
Kevin Nute
Beyond buying a fish tank or house plants, there are a number of creative ways to bring nature’s calming effects into your home.
It’s possible to lower the risks in adventure tourism to make it safer but legislators are grappling with the question of how to regulate the experience without killing the excitement.
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Summer camps – long the stuff of American lore – can teach kids important life lessons as they have some fun along the way. Two experts on summer camp offer insight into what those lessons are.
Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland National Park, UK.
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Approximately 50% of the UK’s poorest people live over 15 miles from a national park and most people require transport to get to them.
Getting enough physical activity can be challenging for women and girls, because they have to negotiate complex gender roles, stereotypes and cultural narratives about the body.
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On Black Friday, November 24, outdoor retailer REI will close its stores and urge customers to #OptOutside. But a historian calls this popular campaign light green environmentalism at best.