I'm AJ Hoge, the author of Effortless English.
Learn to speak English like a native.
That means speak effortlessly.
Effortlessly, where does the word Effortless English come from?
It means that speaking English feels effortless.
The words come out.
You're just communicating.
You're just focusing on the ideas, you're focusing on communication, you're not thinking about grammar rules, you're not thinking about vocabulary.
It's all very effortless, relaxed and natural.
Fluent, which is true fluency, true fluency, that's what effortless English gives you.
And you're doing a good thing by listening to this podcast. because this natural English input listening to English like this again and again and again as much as you can every day is the foundation okay this is what you missed in school most likely because in school you may have listened to the describing the grammar, describing the sentence structures, describing patterns, but you probably didn't listen to a lot of just natural English, talking, chatting, conversations, audiobooks, you know, videos, etcetera.
But that's what you need.
That is the foundation.
There are some other things that can also be helpful.
And that's why I have my mini story lessons, my point of view story lessons, which teach you grammar, but grammar in a natural way and intuitive way.
So you don't have to think about the grammar. The grammar's automatic.
You use correct grammar automatically.
This is what you need for that effortless English that fluent, natural speaking and understanding too.
That instant, effortless understanding.
Now, that's not actually today's topic.
The topic I want to talk about today is outdoors.
a bit connected to the topic about, you know, people who are going through a very hard tough time.
I mentioned that terrible story about the girl who killed herself, live streamed her suicide horrible.
There are just a lot of people, you know, that suffer depression and whatever name, what other names you want to give it.
Lots and lots and lots and lots of people suffering and going through tough times.
Now sometimes, you know, there are certain things that are so extreme, you know, it's hard for me to give you advice.
I mean, if you're living in the middle of a war zone, I don't know to tell you, you know, that's obviously extreme and it's beyond your control.
If you can get out, get out.
But the vast majority of people in the world who, you know, who either commit suicide or just fall into deep depression or just get stuck year after year after year after year you're being very unhappy and unsatisfied.
And most of all we're just the feeling of having no purpose, no meaning in your life.
There are people who have gone through tremendous difficulty and suffering.
but if they if they had a Strong feeling that the suffering was for a purpose that it had meaning they got through it They could get through it and you'll you can read about this, you know, we can read their stories They many people who go through terrible things write books and you'll see this is a common a common thing that they will talk about They had something that gave and that suffering or just gave their life in general meaning and purpose.
Today I'd like to give you something very, very, very simple.
If you're in a dark time and very depressed, or you know, if you're just like a nothing so extreme.
It could just be where you just feel kind of low energy.
You just feel like, oh yeah, maybe the last few months.
Maybe if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, it's been winter, and just kinda, you feel kinda, bluh, low energy, or maybe a little down, a little unmotivated.
That's common, we all go through times like that.
And the simplest magic remedy, magic solution I can give you the simplest of all there's nothing simpler I can think of okay and that is this get outside for many hours every day several hours as many hours as you can every single day outdoors not in your not in your house, not in an office, not inside a restaurant, not inside a shop or a mall, outside, in the air, under the Sun, whatever the weather.
This is a magical, super healing - I don't know what you want to call it - magic bullet.
It's a one thing that, one simple thing that completely solves a problem.
I won't say it completely will solve your problems if you have real deep problems in life, but this will change your mood and it will usually lift you out of depression and bring up your mental, physical, emotional and even spiritual energy.
Spend several hours every day outdoors.
The more the better.
The more you can spend outside, the better you're going to feel.
And that's it. It is some kind of amazing superpower.
Now, you know, I've read various opinions and, you know, so called, you know, scientific, uh, you know, ideas or theories about all the different reasons why being outdoors does, uh, you know, heal depression, heal low energy, uh, energize you, motivate you, improves your all of these things, you know one thing is natural light that the Artificial lights that did various light bulbs the kinds of light we have indoors.
They're not natural and in fact our brains Need that natural sunlight and that our bodies and our brains and our Kim.
They're our biology physical chemistry in our body reacts to natural sunlight in very positive ways And There's really kind of two specific kinds of natural or two times I should say for natural sunlight that seem to be powerful according to you know, the various studies and research Are they true or not?
I don't know I do I don't know about the research but I can just tell you from experience It's powerful and it will help you number one is sunrise and sunset that kind of orange, red kind of light that you get in the early morning or in the evening as the sun's going down, tends to have a relaxing, a positive, relaxing effect on us, especially when you do it every day.
It actually lowers your stress, the stress levels in your body, the stress hormones like cortisol in your body when you watch the sunrise and the sunset and you know i noticed this effect when we were living in Hawaii because when we were in Hawaii we would almost every evening we would go to the beach and watch the sunset that's kind of a thing people do in Hawaii it's uh easy entertainment i guess but It's really nice, right?
So you go to the beach, and Hawaii always has perfect weather, and you know, you're getting, you know, you're getting negative ions from the ocean breeze, that's another benefit.
Take your shoes off, you're connected to the ground, right?
That has various positive effects to just being barefoot on the ground.
And then, watching that sunset, you know, so just watching it go down, and the light kinda turning to orange, and then more and more and more red and then going down and you know often very beautiful colors and you know always felt so relaxed and peaceful low stress doing that.
So I try to do it here.
We try to do it. We don't do it all the time.
We get busy with the kids, but we try to go out and watch the sunset at least a few times a week You can do some things inside your house where you want to get a Little bit more most artificial lights especially those tube lights those fluorescent lights They're really unhealthy for us that kind of light is so unnatural like the kind that you'll see in offices and hospitals schools that it can some people get it can cause them headaches, just the frequency and the kind of light from those industrial artificial lights is actually unhealthy and can contribute to You know being in a bad mood Feeling
low -energy and feeling stressed and some people are more sensitive than others Some people can be quite sensitive to this So this is one of the reasons one of the many reasons that being outdoors you know a lot each day getting that natural sunlight because the second kind of sunlight that is good for you is that bright bright Sun that you get during the middle of the day because and that is the light that stimulates your brain to wake up and be active and be energized but in a positive way not with that not with stress but just that that kind of calm but energized feeling and When you get a lot
of that in your eyes You don't just don't look at the Sun directly, but it's gonna get in your eyes and just outdoors a lot This also it, you know it triggers all kinds of and causes all kinds of changes in your brain chemistry positive changes And the effect is you feel happier you feel less stressed You feel less depressed, more calm, more relaxed, more happy, more energized.
There also of course positive effects from just breathing in, you know, the higher levels of oxygen.
One problem we can have when we're indoors a lot, and Especially if in the winter time, you know, the doors are closed up windows can be closed up We're sitting, you know, it doesn't matter if it's an office or your home You know the oxygen level in the house actually goes down We're breathing the oxygen but are but the room where the building is so sealed up that The air is not moving through enough So we're not getting enough fresh air and this can also put us into that low energy feeling.
I know if I'm indoors most most of the day you know because occasionally there'll be days where I'll just be indoors a lot especially in the winter I Just I can just feel I just feel less energetic right And of course we tend to be sitting on our butts a lot too when we're inside.
There's another issue It can be another problem but but I think the air quality is is a big issue, too And so just being outdoors even in your inner city, and maybe it's a little bit polluted But there's still a higher level of oxygen when you're outdoors in the open air That is also energizing and Leads to a better mood The ultimate Version of this for me where I experienced this the most powerfully two times were when I did two pilgrimages.
One was the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage, which is a Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan.
It's about, it's a little over, over a month of walking every day.
And you walk on the Island of Shikoku.
It's one of the Japanese islands, one of the big ones, one of the four main ones.
And you start at temple number one, and there are 88 temples.
That's why it's called Shikoku 88.
You start a temple one and then you you basically walk around the it's a big big island you but you walk around Shikoku Clockwise and you each the temples are numbered and you go from temple one and then when you're at the you know 40 days later or however long it takes you you finally reach temple number 88 And then the other walking pilgrimage I've done was the Camino de Santiago which many of you probably know about and I mean really the the Camino de Santiago can start in many different places but the most popular one is called the Camino Francis, Francis meaning French and starts just over
the border just at on the border inside France in a little town called Saint -Jean -de -Pierre I it is period and and then you walk up and over the Pyrenees mountains and you cross into Spain on the first day and then the rest of the time you're walking across in northern Spain to the town of Santiago this is a very old pilgrimage both of these are quite old the Chicago 88 I can't remember the date but it's very very old you know centuries and centuries and centuries and so is the Camino de Santiago.
And everyone I've known, every single person I met, personally, who did either of those pilgrimages have said that it healed them mentally, emotionally, oftentimes physically and even spiritually.
that they may have started off maybe with some serious problems or not feeling very good or maybe you know quite depressed but by the end of it a month later nobody's depressed the only reason they're depressed they're just sad because it's over and they don't they don't want it to end so it has this the these pilgrimages have these reputations, deserved reputations for healing, for healing people.
And I believe, of course there are spiritual elements to this too, but I believe the number one thing, because people do these for all different reasons.
Some people walk, for example, the Camino de Santiago because they are devout Catholics and they are doing it for purely religious reasons, to visit the churches along the way, and to get to Santiago, which has the relics of Saint James.
And it's a very, very, very specifically religious experience.
But that is, I'd say, the minority nowadays.
Of course, that used to be, that was in the past, the reason almost everybody did it.
But nowadays, you know, the people I met when we did it, I would say, most were not doing it for that reason.
Most were not Catholic.
Many, many, many, not even Christian.
Certainly not devout Christians.
So people did it for all kinds of different reasons, but there was always an element, I think, of healing or rejuvenation.
Maybe they're just struggling with things in their life and they just want the time to think about their life.
I don't know, it's different for everybody.
But I think just being outdoors, because the thing these two pilgrimages share is that You are outdoors, walking outdoors, all day, every day, for over a month.
You know, the average day is probably, it was hard to say, some people go slower, some people faster, but almost everyone I met did at least 6 hours a day of walking.
At least six and so six hours of walking and then another Maybe after that maybe another you know hour two of breaks in between so Six plus you know very common to do eight hours a day walking each day during These pilgrimages So you know you get up early and put on your backpack and then you're outdoors you're outside and it does not matter what the weather is if it's raining well you get an umbrella or get your put on your rain gear and you walk in the rain and you're outdoors in the rain.
If it's cold well you you dress more warmly if it's hot well you do your best to deal with the heat but you're outdoors in the fresh air under the Sun most of the day and many times especially the Camino especially for the Camino the one in France I mean in the one in Spain they have a lot of little cafes that you can stop at for for lunch or for snacks and And they have outdoor seating so even when you're stopping to to get lunch or to grab a coffee or a little snack or something There's often There are often tables You know on the sidewalk or outdoors so even when you're eating you're out you're
sitting outside so you're spending most of the day most of the sunlight daylight part of the day outdoors and this just has I know for me it did it's the thing I love the most there are many other things I love about these pilgrimages they're great social things about it because you meet a lot of interesting people and then they're also sharing this experience with you and so it's quite it's both these pilgrimages are quite enjoyable socially my friend Joe that I did the Camino de Santiago with he loved that.
He's such a social guy.
He loved loved loved that part of it Especially I liked it too, but uh he particularly loved the social parts.
There's a spiritual element.
They're both religious So if you have any kind of spiritual or religious life or beliefs then You know often you'll find spiritual benefits to doing these kinds of pilgrimages, so lots of benefits.
But I think the most basic one, the one that I felt just had such a strong effect on me and the one I miss the most is just walking outdoors all day every day.
I mean it's wonderful.
Wonderful. It's almost impossible to be depressed doing that.
It's very difficult.
I guess if you walk, some people walked a little too fast, or they carried, their backpacks were too heavy, and then, you know, I mean they got blisters, you know, so if they're physically suffering, I guess some people struggled with those kind of issues.
But as long as they slowed down and took care of their feet, You know, everyone I know, talked about how they love that.
And one of the most depressing things is then to go back to finish it and then to go back to being indoors, especially people who have like, you know, like office jobs.
I've always, always, always despised, hated, with a passion, office jobs.
Hate them. I As it has a has a very young man like you know 19 years old I had an office job as an intern during the summer at IBM the computer company.
Oh my god it's One of the jobs I hate the most that I have the worst memories And it's just being stuck in that office with those fluorescent lights Just you know no windows shows like a prison cell.
I hated it There is such great power being outdoors.
Now of course, if you can get in a natural environment outdoors, if you live out in the countryside with lots of trees and wildlife and animals and it's beautiful.
That's great. That's awesome.
But even if you're in the city, it can still be very therapeutic.
Therapeutic, meaning like healing.
like if you're it will boost your mood and if you combine it with walking walking is such a great great exercise that it nearly anybody can do even if you have a wheelchair you can you can just you can wheel around in your wheelchair so I guess there are a few people who can't do this but a lot most people can walk and so you combine walking with outdoors and you get this tremendous benefit and especially the more you do it and this is a this is where you know you want to do ours ideally especially if you're if you're struggling if you're having a hard time in your life for some reason not or if you're
not feeling that good if you're a little bit sick physically if you're just mentally not feeling great emotionally not feeling great if you're going through a break -up or some crisis in your life.
If you need, you know, if it's hard not to worry about it, if it's hard not to think about it, well, at least go outside and walk and think about it.
Don't sit in your house and your little, with your doors and windows closed, and thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about the terrible situation.
Cause that's gonna make you feel horrible.
Go outdoors, go outside, and go for long, long, long, long walks for several hours.
And you know, go ahead if you, it's hard not to if you got, if you're worrying about something, if you're thinking about something, if you're sad about something.
Go ahead, be sad about it.
Think about it. Worry about it.
But do it outside, do it outside while you're walking.
and in this way you will find, try it...
I think you'll find that it's healing.
It will help you heal, it will help you get through the crisis with less stress or get past it and heal and move on much more easily.
As I said, so many people do these pilgrimages, the Kamino or Shikoku or something like that, for that exact reason, as a way of healing.
And people too with physical problems have been healed from quite serious physical problems, even in some cases, and diseases and things.
And just that process of being outdoors all day, and of course walking is great, because you get more oxygen in your body, your blood's moving.
It's great for your body.
It's a great, gentle, but powerful form of exercise.
So you combine the two, and now you got a superpower.
And of course, learning English, this is why I always say, Get outside go for a walk and then put on your headphones and listen to effortless English It will improve your learning you'll learn faster.
You'll improve faster you'll Get more benefit and faster benefit from my lessons from my courses when you do them in this way You can't fall asleep when you're walking outdoors, right?
I know some people they try to sit at a desk Sit at a table, sit at a couch, and then listen to the English lessons, and then, oh, I get tired, I get sleepy.
Well, yeah, you're sitting on your butt inside.
Of course you will.
Put the lessons on your iPod or phone or whatever, put on some headphones, and then Get outdoors, go outside and walk for a very long walk.
And while you're walking, listen to my lessons.
And then you can do two hours a day, three hours a day of listening to English and also be walking and also be outdoors, you're stimulating your brain, you're energizing your body.
It's fantastic. And you can do this in a city.
I used to do this in a city.
So even if you're not doing the Camino de Santiago, Chicago.
You can do it in a city.
I lived in Bangkok when I lived in Bangkok.
I used to go for long, long, long, long walks just exploring the city and I would not take a taxi, sometimes.
I would just walk from where I was living.
There was an area called Tumbri, which is across the big river.
I'd walk across the bridge and I'd walk all the way into downtown which would take me, you know, hour, hour and a half, two hours sometimes.
And then if I was tired, maybe I would take a bus or a taxi back home, or sometimes I would walk all the way back and I would do this in Osaka too.
When we were living in Osaka, we lived on the kind of more outer edge of Osaka and I would walk into downtown an hour or more.
and then walk back.
It once felt great.
And then you know, it's actually, cities are very nice for doing this because you can just walk for hours and hours and explore a city.
It's quite fun, quite enjoyable.
Explore your city. And then, if you get tired or get hungry, you can always stop at a coffee shop, stop at a grocery or convenience store, stop off at a park, Take a break.
So get outside. Get outdoors, get outdoors.
Don't spend most of your time indoors.
And especially if you have a job.
If you have a job that where you have to work inside, then when you come home, don't just sit inside again.
Oh my God. So you sit indoors all day, eight, nine hours a day, and then come home and then just sit inside your house ah you're not getting any natural sunlight you're not getting any air you're like a you're getting it's a feeling almost of claustrophobia if you get used to it maybe maybe you don't notice it but I promise start getting yourself outdoors outside every day every day for a long time you know several hours and you'll find that your find ways to to do it.
Even sitting in a chair in your backyard if you have to if you have a backyard or a little balcony or something that's still better than being indoors all the time.
You know ideally I know it's hard depends on your life and but ideally ideally we should be outdoors more than we're indoors and I'm not counting sleep time.
But when We're awake Ideally for me I try to do this I try to spend more time outside than inside and I don't always do it But I noticed a difference like today.
I was outdoors Most of the day today, and I just feel better I feel happier My moods better.
I had a you know a much better mood today my energy level was better everything.
I just feel better I just felt like I had a good day Like it and I was outdoor outside in the doing stuff in the garden And I was outside playing with the kids and I was outside just walking around a little bit And I didn't spend too much time inside and I'm outside right now talking to you Doing this little walk -and -talk And I feel great now the other day what was it yesterday or day before I was in I kind of spent most of the day indoors it was a little chilly and just, I don't know, I ended up getting stuck in and was inside.
And when I'm inside, that's when it's easier to, you know, to get on your phone and check social media, or for me, I'll check business website stuff, or just, you know, even just being stuck inside no matter what, it just, I know it's just like, I feel my energy level is lower when I'm indoors most of the day.
And therefore my concentration's lower and my mood's not quite as good.
I'm not in a bad mood every time I'm inside, but still I'm in a better mood when I'm outdoors more.
And I think this is true for most people because it's just powerful.
And we live such artificial lives now, you know, so much of our lives are unnatural, disconnected, not connected to nature in any way.
And you know, it's so easy now to, you know, of course we sleep inside closed up and then to be indoors all morning and then, you know, get inside a car or a bus or a train.
Once again inside an artificial unnatural environment and then go work inside a building and then come home in a car, bus or train or whatever and then sit inside our house for the rest of the evening and then go to bed and Spend only like a few minutes outside.
Maybe we're going from the house to the car or the Station the train station to the office, right?
It's almost nothing Of course, if you can try to get, get a job where you can work outdoors even if you could like, as I've said too, I like all sometimes you know, I work on the computer a lot, but I'll try to do it outdoors.
I'll get a chair that's got like a plastic chair and I'll just take it outside and if The weather's not too bad.
I'll just sit out on the front of our cabin or house and just sit in the yard and work instead of being inside.
It makes a big difference.
So one of the reasons I like doing these walk and talks, you'll notice even now I'm doing my YouTube videos a lot of times I'll be outside.
It's a little tricky with the wind and the microphones and stuff.
Sometimes the weather's bad, but I try to do it as much as I can now.
Mostly for me, I just feel better.
I'm more energetic.
I think I do a better job when I'm outside compared to if I'm inside trying to record or inside trying to work.
So that's a long talk about a very simple topic but it is very powerful.
Well sometimes things that are so simple can really have a big, big effect, and we kind of don't think about it, right?
People maybe mention this, but I promise, uh, the nice thing about doing this is that it doesn't require you.
You're not, you don't need to try to change your thoughts.
You don't need to try to change any other habits or do anything.
It will just have a very positive effect on your mind and your emotions Without really trying to do anything else and sometimes in life when we're struggling and our energies low Her motivation might be low We're just having a tough time for whatever reason not feeling good We need things that Don't require a lot of willpower.
So if just getting outside that's easy to do because there's many ways you can do it Right, I mean if you're just gonna sit indoors and look at your phone Well, it's still it's better if you sit outside and look at your phone go to the nearest park and do it you're looking at your phone for a long time, still not great, but it's better if you do it outside, I promise you'll notice a difference, you'll notice.
And then you might actually, not wanna look at the phone as much. Because you might start feeling better, and you're now out in a nice environment, a nicer environment, a more interesting environment, and naturally your eyes are gonna start looking around more, you're gonna hear other sounds.
This is also true in cities even, Because you can people watch you can look at all the different people going by and right there's More things to see as well outside compared to inside And even for the extreme example someone who's almost suicidal like super super super depressed Do this be depressed, but do it outside Be depressed, but do it outside for lots of hours every day.
Be sad. Be depressed.
But not inside. That's the only change you gotta make.
That's the only little thing you gotta make yourself do, is, okay, I'm gonna feel fine.
I'm gonna feel bad.
You don't have to do anything else.
Don't have to change the way you eat.
Don't have to change anything else in your life.
Just you're just gonna to do it outside and this can shift you in a more positive direction.
Start to improve your mood a little bit.
Start to improve your energy a little bit and then when you get a little more energy in a little better mood then you're going to want to do other things too.
Then you might want to start walking more.
That's the next thing you could do.
Combine walking and outside and then you get those two things going and you're going to start feeling better, start feeling more energized and then you can start making other changes in your life whether it's letting go of something that happened or making some new decisions in your life and if you really want something that's big and powerful you could do something dramatic like go walk the Camino de Santiago.
I highly recommend it I recommend it to everybody even if you're not Christian or Catholic.
I think that it's because I'm not and I had a wonderful time and got great benefits from the Camino de Santiago so I think it's a wonderful experience.
So if you can do it that's a great one and if you've really been going through a a hard time maybe for a year or two or more and you feel like ah, I need something big, I need something that's gonna make a significant change in my life.
I need a break from what I'm dealing with every day.
Do it. Cause the great thing about doing something like that, like doing the Camino, is that you'll start to get the benefits before you even go because if you're smart, if you're smart, if you're gonna do the Camino and you're smart You'll train for it You'll actually practice for it because you know what if you're not used to walking six hours a day Seven hours a day eight hours a day with a backpack with weight Well, you're probably going to need to get used to that.
You're gonna You'll probably need three four or five six months at least to train and practice and get your body used to Walking that much and you so you'll be doing lots of walking in your hometown.
That's what I did I was living in Kyoto at the time before I did the Kamino and I, actually I started doing running.
I trained, I did a lot of running for my training for the Kamino, but I did long, long runs, like longer than a marathon several times.
So I would go on long runs and long walks all over Kyoto, really got to know Kyoto well and I got a great benefit, I probably got just as much benefit during the six months of training, because it just got me outdoors, outdoors, even in the winter.
A lot of times in the winter, I, you know, I, you kinda want to hide inside, but because I was trying to get ready for the Camino, we did the Camino in the spring, like, oh, well, I gotta, I gotta keep training in the winter, I can't do nothing.
So I went on, I remember a couple long runs, like three hour runs, something like that, that I did in Kyoto in the snow and Actually really great experiences Like I just so beautiful the snow coming down and then once I would I got to like downtown Kyoto area You could see the mountains to the north so I get this saw this snow's coming down I'm kind of running through the snow of it and I'm next to the river the Kamo River and then You know the the mountains like started peering up to the north of me and I was you know, I ran all the way to the north of the city and then turned around and came
back again and really just beautiful wonderful experience of It's a very beautiful city and then running in the snow was kind of made it extra magical So the training for the event Was also great because it got me outdoors a lot even in the winter And, you know, if you don't wanna do the Camino de Santiago or the Chacoco 88, you know, you could even do something like decide to do a half marathon or some hike.
You know, maybe there's some trail or something you could do that's closer to you that you could do that would still require you to do some training because the training forces you to get outside, get outside.
There's so many of them.
You know, I know all through Europe there's a lot of them There's one I'd like to do called the I think it's called the coast to coast England coast to coast. It's in the Northern England, like the lake country and you go across England to be west to east I think is what most people do.
I don't think it's only like one week of hiking a Week, maybe a little more But we're again in a very beautiful area So something like that would be great if and especially if you live in Europe where it would be fairly easy to get to You could do that.
I know Italy has a bunch of trails.
I think Switzerland does.
Yeah, I'm sure Austria all these to all through Europe.
I'm United States. We have a lot of more wilderness trails Where you might need to do some camping, but there's some great ones and there's a few gigantic epic Epic.
I don't know if I'll ever do them.
I kind of always had it in my mind I wanted to do one of these trails there's the Appalachian Trail, and there's the Pacific Coast Trail And then there's one called the Continental Divide Trail, and these are three trails that go south to north or north to south Basically across the entire United States so these are big major hikes so I Think the Appalachian Trail is the one that's the most popular probably the easiest, still not easy, but it's the one that's the oldest, the most well known.
You start in Georgia and you go all the way up to Maine, which is next to Canada.
And it takes people, depending how fast they are, four, five, six months to do that.
And they're, you know, camping in tents the whole way.
You gotta carry everything.
You can carry your food, carry your water, everything.
And it's through the Appalachian Mountains, which is why it's called the Appalachian Trail.
And of course there are a lot.
You can do a little section of the Appalachian Trail.
I have. When I used to live in Georgia, I would hike little pieces of the Appalachian Trail.
So maybe just three, four or five days.
So you could find things like this, and same in Japan, you know, there are smaller trails and all over.
Know in Nepal if you want if you want to do some really amazing hiking you can hike in the Himalayas either in the foothills You know the beginnings of the Himalayas or you can get up there really high You can do something crazy like hike all the way to the base of Mount Everest or something So the point being when you choose an event like this some kind of special thing number one that event gets you outdoors gets you walking and gives you a lot of great benefits but number two just getting ready for the event will also give you tremendous benefits there's the physical benefits of physically
training you gotta beat you'll be outdoors walking a lot just to get ready for the event and there's also a kind of an excitement that builds up this is also good for your mood Especially if you're struggling and having a hard time and you know depressed or sad or getting over some You know tough thing that happened to you It's kind of nice to have something positive to look forward to ah okay?
I'm still yeah I'm not so happy right now, but hey you know in six months.
I'm gonna go hike in Nepal and six months I'm gonna do this trail in England in six months.
Whatever it is whatever it is.
It could be just in your in your country And That gives you something to look forward to right something positive like he can read about it.
You can get excited about it Gets you outside gives you a reason to get outside another reason another positive reason You know what it's one of the one of the fun positive things to do it builds up.
It's called anticipation in English anticipation is that Thinking about something good in the future Right?
And feeling that feeling of excitement and happiness about something that's coming in the future.
Anticipation. Kids have this before Christmas.
They anticipate, right?
They're thinking, they're excited, they're thinking about, you know, getting presents, they're thinking about Christmas Day.
And right? So there's all anticipation and that can be a great you know remedy a great solution to depression or grief or low motivation as Well Right, I mean again using the extreme example of suicide.
I When you really think about why do people commit suicide?
Of course, they're suffering greatly in the moment But I think what what you hear again and again and again from them Well in their letters or if they survive when they talk about it afterwards Is that the feeling that it would never end, right?
There's no anticipation for anything better, that quite the opposite, no hope.
And so, that anticipation for something positive, looking forward to something positive, it doesn't have to be something huge and giant and spiritual, that's great.
But even something small like, oh, I've got this cool trip coming in six months.
Then I'm gonna go, you know, walk the Camino de Santiago, or I'm gonna go do whatever it is, whatever it is, you know, that little bit of positive anticipation can keep you going through very dark times, and start the process, start lifting you out of it, moving you towards the light again right and if you're not in deep depression if you're struggling a little bit we're just kind of maybe you're just bored you know kind of low -energy whatever then something like that as can be a very very very positive so I highly recommend as well in addition to just get outside get outside get outside every
day walk when you can listen to effortless Why you're walking outdoors every day.
Do it for 2 hours, 3 hours, or more.
If you can do it. If you have the time.
Even just sit outdoors a lot.
In addition to that, plan some cool outdoor trip.
It doesn't have to be tough physically, ok?
It can be something that's physically fairly easy.
You can just find some, find an easy trail that's kind of flat.
It doesn't have to be anything.
It doesn't have to be like a marathon, ok?
But the key point is that it should be something outdoors, outdoors, outdoors.
And something that for you is exciting, that would gives you that anticipation.
And if you're doing great and you're already doing all of this stuff, maybe you already do all this stuff yourself, but maybe you know somebody else in your life who's having a hard time.
And sometimes like, we don't know what to do to help somebody.
And it's like, what do you, I don't know what to say, I tried.
Like, this is one way you can help them, is just, and of course you could just give them advice and say, oh, get outdoors more, get outdoors more.
But that's just something you could do for them.
Hey, come with me, I'm gonna go for a walk.
Let's go for a walk.
Just get them out of their house.
Get them out of their house.
If you know somebody who's depressed, who's struggling, just get them outdoors, okay?
Just take them out somewhere.
Take them to a park.
But, take them to a restaurant where you can sit outside and eat.
Not inside. Outside.
Or if you really think they need help, get them to agree to go on a trip with you.
Say, Let's do the Camino de Santiago.
Let's do England coast to coast. Let's do it.
I found this cool trip.
Let's do it. I mean, that's how I did the Camino. My friend Joe just was talking to him on the phone.
I wasn't depressed, but he just said hey, let's do the Camino Cuz he was he just he'd you know researched about it, and I and I just ameo said yeah, all right Let's do it.
I'm in let's do it boom instant decision.
Let's do it. When do you want to go?
Okay so If I think it's a great thing you could do for somebody who's depressed and struggling Instead of trying to give them therapy, and you know, sometimes people aren't open to any of that.
But if you could just get them outside as much as possible, that can be helpful in the short term.
And then maybe you do plan like a cool trip with them.
Like that. Give them something exciting or you know a little bit of positive anticipation.
All right. So outdoors, outdoors, outdoors.
It really is healing the Sun lights healing the air is healing the stimulation of all the things to see Nature is healing but even cities can be healing as long as you're outside more so get outdoors help other people get outdoors and Listen to my lessons outdoors whenever you can walk and listen to my lessons It's so much better than sitting it on your butt inside.
Listen to power English outside Listen to my VIP program outside.
Lots of love to you, I wish you great happiness, and I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.
