Just this past week outdoor retailer REI announced that it would be closed on the day after Thanksgiving, known to most as Black Friday. This is a bombshell in the world of retailing, as Black Friday is considered to be the biggest shopping day of the year. In my local paper, REI took out a full page ad announcing their Black Friday closure, and suggested that instead of shopping, their employees and shoppers alike spend the day outdoors.
I love this move by REI on so many levels! First, they have stepped out of the Black Friday consumer frenzy. Even more, however, I applaud REI for their suggestion that people go outside and…uh play. As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, being outdoors is a good thing for a number of reasons. Among them:
-The Daoist philosophy on which much of Chinese medicine is built is about patterns in nature. Essentially, things that happen in the natural world also happen in your body. For example, the balance between heat and cold keeps you healthy, but when it’s out of whack symptoms such as migraines, hot flashes, metabolic disorders, and digestive problems can arise. Furthermore, when you are sick, it’s like a case of bad weather in your body. You can have heat (fever, inflammation), cold (chills), damp (phlegm or water retention), and even wind (dizziness).
-Going outdoors puts you in touch with Mother Nature, the Divine, or whatever you want to call the wonder of our universe. From looking at the night sky to watching a tulip bloom in the spring, the awe that nature inspires is only apparent if you go outside.
-Being outdoors puts you in touch with what your body needs as the seasons change. In the spring the days are longer, the temperature is warmer, and we humans want to celebrate that expansiveness by playing outside and soaking up the sun. Summer days are also active but we are compelled to take it easy during the heat of the day and eat cooling foods. Fall is all about the harvest, nourishment, and getting ready to hunker down for the winter. If your existence is entirely indoors, you miss the nuances of each season.
-Spending time in natural settings, especially the woods is flat-out good for your health. There are many studies documenting that simply walking in the woods can decrease your stress, lower your blood pressure, decrease the production of the stress hormone cortisol, and increase your immunity.
-Our planet is changing, and subtle (and not so subtle) effects of climate change can be seen everywhere. As a kid, I considered it a gift to see a box turtle lumbering across my back yard, or to catch fireflies after dark on warm summer nights. Those kinds of joys are long gone, casualties of habitat loss, a toxic environment, and changing climate. To go outside is to put you in touch with nature’s gifts that still exist, but also to understand what we have lost.
-Finally, spending time in untouched natural places is beautiful, awesome, and breathtaking. And who doesn’t need a little more of that?
So thank you, REI. I will commit to heading outside on Black Friday.
