It’s a beautiful June evening in the Cotswolds, the fire pit is crackling, marshmallows are toasting and fairy lights twinkle on the tipi. I’m at the Ordnance Survey Champs Fest enjoying wonderful conversations after a day hiking in the sunshine and facing my fears on the climbing wall.
I am struck by how women of different ages and backgrounds speak about the positive benefits of being outdoors for their physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I think, if we could share their stories and advice with a wider audience so they too could feel the benefits?
A simple request on our What’s App group leads to an inbox of moving and inspiring stories of all ages – from 6 year old Tilda to Shilpa in her 60s – showing how the outdoors is there for us in every decade.
Whilst each is unique there are themes below that weave between them as the outdoors links us across generations. Words like joy, calm, peace, inspiration, strength, capable, community, purpose, reset, feeling proud and friendship run through everyone’s stories. Oh and fun of course too!
I’m so proud to share them with you here.
The Outdoors Helps Us Be Truly Ourselves:
So many spoke about how the outdoors creates space to be truly themselves and explore what matters to them. As Elizabeth Asad, 43, from Wrexham, North Wales says the outdoors has taught her that she is ‘not just a mum, partner, caregiver or employee’. Swimming and hiking are things that she chooses to do totally for herself and the outdoors has taught her that she is more capable than she ever thought possible.
Lisa Wells, 56, also from North Wales echoes this saying it has shown her who she is at her core: ‘calm, capable, caring and connected’. The outdoors is a place of strength, joy and inspiration, allowing her to recover (after a serious accident in 2019), reflect and rebuild with a purposefully slower, more mindful life. With her children grown up she splits her time between a base in North Wales and travelling in her campervan with her dog Billy. She talks about giving back to the community below.
Feeling the Health Benefits At Every Age:
Jenn Phillips, 39, from Kent has had to deal with significant health challenges, including endometriosis, PCOS with crippling pain and being put into medical menopause in her 20s. With no support or after care, this affected and indeed controlled, all aspects of her life. After an ectopic pregnancy she and her dog Link spent a lot of time in the outdoors, building up her health and fitness from sitting in the woodlands to going on to ultra distances. Finding a way to deal with her health led to her building a life in the outdoors and now creating opportunities for other women who need a space for themselves and to escape life for a while. She now runs a Kent based hiking group, is a freelance walk leader, event medic and gives talks about the menopause to community groups.
Fi Darby, 57, from Torquay is a freelance outdoor writer and instructor, is just coming out of the other side of the menopause and has arthritis. She finds the older the she gets the more she needs move and getting outside keeps her joints mobile and manage her weight. It’s a great way to be sociable and improve her mental health.
For her 60th birthday Yvonne Witter from Sheffield vowed to create a plan for more adventures, challenging herself to do new things, support others and connect with nature and people beyond South Yorkshire and the Peak District. Having taken a gamble with a career move, she now walks or cycles (she learned to cycle in her 40s) to work most days, embracing a healthier and less stressful working life. It is the first job where she has never been off sick in more than a year. As a result, she has now introduced a weekly health walk for her patients in her role as a Care Coordinator with the NHS. Connecting with nature has also helped her connect with places that reminded her of her home in Jamaica. She is now a Community Champion, Walk Leader and works in Community Engagement helping more people find the benefits of the outdoors for their health and wellbeing.
We Can Do Hard Things: We Are So Much More Capable Than We Think:
Gee Jackson, 31, who lives in the Scottish Highlands, shared that the outdoors has probably saved her life on more than one occasion and so she has built her life around it, moving to the Highlands to be closer to the places she loves. Gee has completed everything from 100km trail races to bikepacking 500km guided entirely by social media votes, paddleboarding, running and cycling coast to coast in England and Scotland. These adventures have taught her lessons in love, empathy, grit and as she says that she can do hard things.
Philippa Cherryson, 55, from Abergavenny realised that after spinal surgery, several joint problems and an auto immune condition, keeping moving is the best thing she can do for herself as she ages. Sitting too long she is left in pain. Last year Philippa completed a 22 mile walking challenge with 5000 ft of ascent and descent, coming in as eighth woman and feeling in awe of what her body can achieve. It changed her thinking about herself. After ‘getting lost in her own life’ Philippa has made a career pivot starting a new career as a senior digital editor for a national magazine, rebuilding a new personal life after a 25 year relationship ended and caring for her mum who has Alzheimer’s. ‘I gained the strength to change my life through getting outdoors’ she says. The outdoors has taught her that she is stronger than she thought and can look after herself and others in wilderness areas. ‘It’s very empowering.’
The Benefits of Nature for our Mental Health:
Kate MacRae, 58, from South West Wales says that despite major traumas in her life including her mother dying when she was pregnant with her first daughter to a traumatic marriage break up, her mental health has been very good and she attributes it to having spent time in nature. Walking in a woodland surrounded by trees and birds calms her mind and vanishes invasive negative thoughts. It is where she feels most at peace.
Sophie Davies, 33, from Milton Keynes says that life today looks very different compared to a few years ago as she used to suffer with anxiety and PTSD. She found leaving the house difficult, let alone hiking mountains. Her physical and mental health struggles were a big nudge to get outside more, giving her something to ground and give her purpose and nature gave her that. It has helped her through huge life chapters, when she felt isolated, lost or overwhelmed. She has now been able to build a career around something she truly cares about, Outdoor Adventure Girls, helping other women connect with the outdoors too.
The Power of Community and Purpose:
Giving back and lifting others was a very strong theme amongst many of the stories as Sophie and Jenn have already shared and Emily does below. Lisa Wells, 56, from North Wales works as a freelance Mountain Leader combining her love of the outdoors with supporting others, creating a safe, supportive space for women to connect, build confidence and enjoy the outdoors together. She is also an Ambassador for the Eyri National Park, a volunteer on the Caru Eyri scheme, trustee for the Snowdonia Slate Trail and works on an ad hoc basis for the NHS. Her new lifestyle gives her the variety she likes and a sense of giving back to the community.
Fi Darby, 57, also speaks of the joy she feels when people tell her she has inspired them to try something having been helping other people to enjoy an outdoor lifestyle for a long time.
The Ripple Effect of Building Confidence:
For Kate MacRae, 58, from South West Wales the confidence gained outdoors helped her decide to follow her dreams. Having raised her two children as a single Mum, whilst also teaching and running her own business, she sold her home in Lichfield and moved, alone, to South West Wales to a property with three acres and is building her own nature reserve. Life’s too short to hang around or keeping putting things off she says. She spends her days – from the crack of dawn until dark most days – working on the project – where she also watches, photographs and films wildlife for her community online so they too can experience the joy.
Grace Kelly, 34, from Strafford Upon Avon began her journey into the outdoors in her mid twenties after a relationship ended and she was feeling very lost and lonely. After climbing her first mountain, she felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, as she pushed herself out of her comfort zone. She has now made adventuring and content creation her full time career, travelling and living happily alone, whilst everyone around her has settled down with children and family life. Adventures showed her that she doesn’t need to wait for someone to join her, she can create her own happiness and livelihood exactly as she wants. ‘I am brave and unstoppable’, she adds.
You’re Not Too Young Nor Too Old!
It’s clear from the campfire at OS Champs Fest and the messages I received that the outdoors can be a joy for all ages. Our youngest contributor Tilda Way, aged six, told me how much she loved riding bikes especially going downhill, as well as walking and playing at the seaside. It helps her feel really happy and calm and adventures can be really fun. She adds that sometimes playing in the garden can be quite an adventure in itself. By comparison, Shilpa Rasaiah, in her early 60s, came to appreciate the outdoors quite late in life and loves to paddleboard, camp, walk and cycle. It helps her to destress and as she moves into outdoor spaces she feels all the cares and worries life and she can breathe.
Shilpa also explained that she is hard of hearing and in enclosed spaces finds it very difficult to hear conversations. In the outdoors she has found a refuge and her sanctuary. I wrote about Shilpa’s Grand Union Canal SUP Challenge in my book Adventures on the Water – The Power of Paddleboarding to Change Lives, a journey of 170 miles and one which continues to inspire many others to believe in themselves and know they are truly not too old to embark upon something too.
The Outdoors Meets Us Where We Are:
Life and our wellbeing are never as linear as we might hope, but nature is there for us along the journey. Megan Collington, 31, a Civil Servant who works from home, shared her health journey with me and the health conditions that impact her life – Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Until a few years ago she was exercise intolerant and ran her first 5k when she was nearly 30 after starting heart medication. This opened up a whole new way of exploring and she started climbing and hiking big mountains as well as wild swimming, camping and bikepacking, redefining how she saw herself and what she is capable of. Thanks to the medication she felt fitter than she had in years. Now, however, despite increasing her medication, Meg’s health means she needs to slow off her adventures. ‘But nature will always be there for you, every day’ she adds, reminding us that getting outside doesn’t need to mean big hills, being the fastest or fittest. Simply going for a local walk just to stare at whatever birds and plants you can find will change your day and spotting the small stuff can change your pace of life and the way you view the world and your place in it.
The perimenopause and menopause can also be a chapter in life which is not easy for many women and where the outdoors can be hugely beneficial as Fi Darby has shared above. Sarah Round, 50, spoke candidly about being part of the ‘Perimenopause Funfair’ – questioning everything she thought she knew about herself, her emotions ‘’running the House of Horrors and her body ‘becoming a sideshow attraction.’ As a lifelong cyclist Sarah has always used her bike to navigate life’s twists and turns. It is her safe space and comfort zone. It puts her back in control and reminds her of what she is capable – in spite of all the challenges that the perimenopause is throwing at her. Her upgrade to an e-bike has helped her get outside even on the days she struggles the most. Having spent time at the Perimenopause Funfair myself in my 50s I can relate so much to Sarah’s story and found being active outdoors so helpful.
Solace For Troubled Times:
One of the most moving elements of this research is reading how the outdoors has helped offer comfort and healing through difficult times. Zoe Homes, 44, from Gloucestershire, spoke so bravely about having to relearn how to move through the day, to carry what’s heavy and simply how to be in this new version of her life through huge grief. She is leaning harder than ever on the things that have always held her and time outside is one of them. For more than a decade she has spoken and written about the benefits of One Hour Outside, this time now feels less like a choice and more like a lifeline. Nature doesn’t fix things, she says, but it holds space, reminding her she can feel joy alongside sorrow and trust her own rhythm even when everything feels uncertain.
Emily Taylor, 38, from Glossop had grown up in an outdoorsy family but it wasn’t until she lost her Dad to suicide in 2009 that she really felt the mental benefits. Ten years later she experienced a breakdown when delayed grief hit her. Whilst on the waiting list for therapy she went on a solo hike which led her to a trig point in the Peak District. The mental boost it gave her was unreal and ‘trig bagging’ gave her purpose during a difficult time. The outdoors she says saved and changed her life. She is now a qualified Hill and Moorland Leader and Mountain Leader and runs her own business planning and leading hikes and courses for women. She runs midweek events between school runs for other mums like her.
As well as sharing their experience, I asked for the OS Champs top tips and motivation for anyone now inspired to start their journey into the outdoors.
Advice:
- Start small: simply sticking your head out of the window to feel the sun or rain on your face
- Know that the first step is the hardest – be proud of yourself for doing that
- Be kind to yourself and know that every step builds confidence
- Believe you can and you will. Do it for yourself and your journey
- Don’t wait for the right time – now is the right time. You never know what is around the corner and life is too short to hang around or keep putting things off
- Don’t wait for others – you may discover you enjoy solo adventures and your own company. If you want to join a community or group event, don’t wait for someone to join with you – you’ll meet lovely people there
- Reach out to a supportive group – maybe a hiking or a wildlife group. Being part of a group is uplifting, helps put life into perspective and lets you enjoy their support
- If you find joining a group daunting, message the leader ahead of the event for support
- Trying something new can be less scary if you are trying it with someone else and share experiences are what makes the world go round
- Give yourself permission to be curious without judgement
- Notice new things and tiny joys every time you go out
- Know that if you don’t enjoy it, you can simply try something else
- You don’t have to have it all figured out! Don’t expect perfection but look at mistakes as an opportunity to learn
- Continue to be a student of the outdoors
- Enjoy every moment – you don’t have to get to the top of the hill the fastest or go the furthest, take time to smell the bluebells or the song of the skylarks and know that getting to the top is the best reward
- On a practical level – Downland your route for offline use, take a powerbank and share your location with someone close to you so you feel safe
Finally, I love these words from Zoe who summed up so many of the stories and wisdom:
‘If you’re feeling low, overwhelmed, or unsure where to begin – know that you’re not alone. I’ve been there. I’m there now. But I promise a walk, a swim, time sitting on a hill taking in the view really will help. You deserve that time. You are welcome. Come and join us.’
Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful stories and tips, I am so honoured to share them.
Jo Moseley @jomoseley www.jomoseley.com
Jo Moseley, 60, is a single Mum who lives with and looks after her 92 year old father in an old fisherman’s cottage by the sea. She is a best selling award winning author of three books, including two gorgeous guidebooks about beautiful places to paddleboard Stand Up Paddleboarding in Great Britain and Stand Up Paddleboarding in the Lake District. In her third book Adventures on the Water – the Power of Paddleboarding to Change Lives she has curated 25 personal essays from inspiring paddleboarders who share how it has helped them physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. She loves spending time in her van Summer, swimming in the sea, hiking along the cliffs and does a 2 minute beach clean every day.
