This article is brought to you as part of the ASCAP Member Wellness Program.

 

Maintaining your focus and creative edge can start to feel like a real challenge if you spend a lot of time indoors. But there are some major benefits, both physical and mental, to be gained from the occasional stroll outside—even if it’s just a walk around the block. 

 

In fact, for creators in particular, nothing beats a little face time with Mother Nature when it comes to reestablishing balance and even jumpstarting a few extra synapses between your ears.  

 

“I’ve worked with many clients who have been transformed simply by spending more time outside,” says Jason Antin, a Colorado-based performance coach.

 

Antin has made a career out of harnessing the outdoors to help people achieve not only their health and fitness goals but even simple work-life balance. He’s also the main brain behind Beat Monday, a web series dedicated to cramming the maximum amount of nature inside a 64-hour span.

 

So, naturally, we turned to him for some guidance on how creators can benefit from spending some extra time outdoors. As it turns out, there’s a mountain of compounding research confirming just how powerful a mere moment or two outside can be. Read on for a few of the research-backed ways you can reap the creative and health benefits of peeping your head outside every now and then.

 

 

Going outside can improve creativity, focus, and overall brain function

 

Study after study has demonstrated the many cognitive benefits of simply stepping outside, which include improved memory, greater creativity, and better control over where our focus goes and how long we’re able to keep it there.

 

After a busy morning of swatting emails and attending to other tedious tasks, you might still have an afternoon ahead consisting of (and probably not limited to) writing, editing, and playing or mixing. The research shows us that taking a short break of virtually any duration to catch some rays outside can help snap your brain back into focus and enable you to return to a task with a fresh perspective.

 

Taking a walk through the neighborhood will get your blood pumping, sure, but it can also have a universally positive effect on your brain in ways science is just starting to understand.

 

According to one 2018 study, exposure to nature can improve your ability to problem-solve. Another study found that subjects exposed to natural environments demonstrated increases in their ability to successfully complete mental tasks that require particularly steady focus. If you live near a park, that’s the move. And if not, research shows that even hints of nature can spark some of the aforementioned benefits. 

 

Going outside can help keep your eyes sharp

 

One inevitability of being a creator these days? Balancing screen time properly.

 

Between the smartphone in your pocket, TV on your wall, and laptop on your desk, it’s easy to spend hours on end staring at pixels. And have you ever noticed that your vision has deteriorated slightly by the end of a screen-intensive day? Well, it’s not your imagination; too much screen time can put undue strain on your eyes.

 

That’s why it’s a good idea to stop and smell the roses every now and then, literally.

 

Research shows us that getting outside can not only relieve some of the strain on your eyes, but actually help improve your eyesight. Myopia, otherwise known as nearsightedness, affects roughly one third of the US population; but in a recent Canadian study, researchers found a significant drop in myopia (roughly 14 percent) with just one additional hour per week of time spent outdoors!

 

Going outside can help you keep depression at bay

 

Do you feel more melancholic when it's cold outside? According to Mental Health America, seasonal affective disorder (also known as SAD) is more common than you might think—roughly five percent of the US population gets the “winter blues” during any given year—and it can cause mood swings along with similar symptoms to depression.

 

While it isn’t a silver bullet, vitamin D is well established as a helping hand to lift our mood, and getting out under the sun boosts our natural production of it.

 

According to recent research, a vitamin D deficiency opens the door to an increased risk of depression, not to mention osteoporosis and other potential health problems from the neck down. 

 

Want to really maximize the health benefits of some extra exposure to our home star? Put on your running shoes. A 2011 study published in Environmental Science and Technology revealed that exercising outdoors is associated with increased energy, improved feelings of revitalization, and decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and depression when compared with indoor exercise.

 

And while any time of day is a good time for some fresh air, getting your daily dose of Vitamin D first thing in the morning is ideal for maintaining consistent energy levels and sleep quality, according to Dr. Andrew Huberman, leading neuroscientist and professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

 

Going outside can shape sounder sleeping habits

 

After a long day of writing, updating your socials, rehearsing, responding to emails, and taking a break in between to get some fresh air (not to mention your morning jaunt around the block to grab some of that free vitamin D), you’ll likely be ready to turn in a bit earlier than if you’d slept in and spent the entire day inside.

 

To boot, spending time outdoors and encountering natural scenery of any kind can trigger the release of feel-good endorphins, in addition to the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Factor in any extra exertion or physical exercise and your body and brain will be ready to sink right into your mattress at the end of the day.

 

+The Benefits of Quality Sleep for Creators (And How to Get More of It)

 

You might consider yourself a night owl, as many creatives do, but that could also just be a side effect of your habits during the day. Need an extra nudge? Dr. Kenneth Wright, professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado, has found ample evidence that those with “late” internal clocks (i.e. night owls) are at a higher risk for obesity, diabetes, depression, and daytime fatigue. In a 2017 study led by Wright, the results showed a clear correlation between the artificial light of modern environments and the disruption of circadian rhythms for study participants.

 

To bring it all full circle, the study authors concluded that spending more time outdoors can help shift your biological clock for the better.

 

So what are you waiting for? Get out there.