When winter weather rolls in it's easy to get depressed with the lack of sunlight, curl up on the couch and not leave the house. Whether it's just for a weekend or 100+ days during the season, snowboarding is an incredible sport to boost your mood and get you outdoors in the presence of beautiful Mother Nature during the winter months.

#GetOutside With Your Snowboard

Looking at a vast landscape from the chairlift or the top of a run has the power to give perspective on life and induce calm. It allows you to reset the brain, get present and fully appreciate the body as you fly down a mountainside with a piece of wood strapped to your feet. As you get outdoors the clean air and vitamin D you receive from the sun does the body wonders.

Urban areas often contain polluted air, which is damaging to the skin and lungs. When you are active in nature, the experience can soothe a wealth of mental and physical problems. It is one of the most potent medicines on the planet. Hopefully, we will see the day when doctors start to prescribe spending time in the gorgeous outdoors!

As technology has advanced, our lives in the western world have dramatically changed. Children in the US are now thought to spend less than 30 minutes playing outdoors. The average adult can sometimes go weeks or months without dwelling or exercising in nature. Large numbers of people are losing their connection to nature and spending increasing amounts of time in front of the television, computer screen or mobile phone.

9 Benefits Of Snowboarding In Nature

Snowboarding is one of the best ways to get outdoors, use your body and appreciate nature!

• Nature is amazing for the health of YOUR heart & lungs 

Studies have found that in urban areas with few trees, death rates are higher from respiratory and heart disease. 

• Nature helps reduce stress & stress hormones

The stress hormone cortisol is lower in people who live in rural areas with vast quantities of green space. People who live in these areas experience the power of nature regularly and report feeling less stress in their day-to-day lives. They also view their daily tasks and work as more manageable than those who live in heavy urban areas with little or no ability to connect with nature.

• Nature will boost your creativity

Time in nature and disconnecting from electronic equipment links to a 50% increase in creativity scores.  Research highlighting this boost in creativity is an amazing way to show that you should be interacting with Mother Nature consistently.  Staring at a computer screen or being cooped up indoors can often cause brain drain and feelings of anxiety/frustration. However, these effects can be total offset by simply taking a walk or exercising in the great outdoors.

• Nature can be as good as therapy

Time outdoors in green space dramatically affects your mood. Doing activities in the great outdoors has also proved to reduce frustration, anxiety, and stress. Nature can raise focus and arousal levels, while also encouraging engagement in relationships and conversation. It has an incredible ability to give you perspective and allow you to detach from your own thoughts without becoming emotionally invested in them.

Peace, Quiet & Clarity Riding In Nature

• Optimize your sleep cycle and fall asleep quicker

Doing activities outdoors positively affects sleep. Having fresh air and using your body in the great outdoors helps tire out the body and mind. If we spend all day in an office, at school or looking at a computer our mind becomes tired but our bodies do not. This tends to lead to an over-active mind and results in problems like insomnia and poor sleep. Getting our doors and being active is the perfect cure.

• Deal with pressure and manage stress more effectively

Surround yourself with a clean and green environment loaded with plants and trees. It reduces stress and raises your ability to deal with and manage it.

• Boosts your brain

Being out in nature can change our brain waves and patterns. It actually lowers brain fatigue and is a more pleasant environment for the brains to process. While walking through busy urban areas, results show people's brains are more attentive yet frustrated. When compared to being in a green environment, the brain enters a more meditative state and peaceful state.

Relax, Refresh, Rejuvenate

• Nature elevates your mood

Nature allows your brain to relax and your body’s cells to change. Studies have found that results greatly differ between walking in a forest in comparison to walking in an urban area. Walking in nature helped decrease cortisol levels by over 12%, sympathetic nerve activity by over 6% while also lowering blood pressure and heart rate. Participants in the study describe being outdoors reduced their anxiety and boosted their mood.

• Helps your body fight diseases

Getting outdoors raises our body’s level of natural killer cells (NK cells). These NK cells are a type of cytotoxic lymphocyte essential to the functioning of our immune systems. Research has shown that those who went on a morning and afternoon/evening hike in nature had a dramatic increase in NK cells. Their blood tests showed a boost of 40% in NK cells. After a month the NK cell level was still 15% greater than when they began the study. This result stands out due to the fact walking in urban areas did not affect NK cell levels at all.

See if you can disconnect from technology and embrace Mother Nature with your snowboard. It might just save your life! Our lifestyles have been changing for the worst and most notably, in winter people have started to retreat indoors surrounded by concrete. This is not the environment to help your evolution. Break free, grab your snowboard, get outside and use your body to quieten the mind and induce inner stillness.