SPEAKER_01 0:00

He says, look at the birds of the air. He uses birds as an example. He's literally telling us to become bird watchers.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Worried, watch a bird. Okay, Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Hey team. Welcome to Team Not Tired. I'm Shereen Crawford. And I'm Ashley Erwood. And I am excited about the topic you're going to be bringing today because I love to be at home. I am a homebody because I work so much out of the home. So when I'm home, I like I like to just be home and or like be in my backyard. And so I'm really curious how you're going to like kind of bring us into this space for today's episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Well, we're talking today about getting outside. And we're talking about the importance of being out in nature, how it benefits us. I'm going to talk about a lot of scientific statistics that's going to make producer Blake very happy. And we're going to talk about how God has really designed us to spend time in his creation. Okay. And so it might be of stretch for you as a homebody. I know you don't like camping.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

I absolutely do not like camping. I don't. Like that does that brings up strong emotions for me of like, you want me to sleep on the floor?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

But here's the good news. Here's the good news, friend. You can be in nature and not have to camp.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Perfect. Tell me.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yes. It doesn't. This this topic today does not require you to sleep overnight on the ground in a tent. Okay. But you may decide after today that you want to. Highly maybe we'll make a camper out of you yet. Perhaps. Yes. I'll meet you halfway. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. I was laughing because, you know, it here while we're recording this today, and we're just finding ourselves in the central valley of Northern California. It is springtime. Yes. And it is the perfect time to be outside. Our weather is amazing. Everything is in bloom. We live in an area where there's a lot of agriculture. And so you've got cherry blossoms and the vines are popping on all the vineyards. You know, you drive around town, all the roses are in bloom. Like everywhere I go, I smell jasmine and honeysuckle. It's just like the best time of year. And so I was reminded, you know, thinking even about our episode about joy and finding fun. Like it just brings me so much joy right now to be outside and to be in his creation. And I was laughing because last summer we took our kids to the Northeast. We wanted to expose them to an area of the country where we had lived when they were little, where Paul grew up, my husband. And so we spent time taking them to Washington, D.C., okay, Philadelphia. And then we spent time going into New York City one day. And my Cali kids hated the city. Like they did not like our day in New York. And like I grew up loving New York City. I like I have so many great memories of that. But they hated the smell of this concrete. That is the redwoods and the ocean and just all this like natural beauty. There's no mountains out there, yeah. Like they could not get over just the overcrowding and the noise, and just the, you know, they were like, ugh, we're done.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

We're overstimulated.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Yes, very much over-stimulated. And my husband jokes all the time because he's the backpacker, he likes to camp, he's the outdoorsman, and he always jokes and he always says, He's like, There's a reason God put us in a garden. And I just I'm reminded so often of the amount of times that I've encountered God in my life. Nine times out of ten, they've been outside, not in an altar. Yes. And we think about encountering God at church, in you know, the middle of a worship service, in in prayer, at at the altar. And the fact of the matter is, is I find the Lord so much more often speaks so much clearly, so much more clearly to me when I'm outside in his creation, because everything screams God to me. Yeah. And it reminds me of Psalm 19. I I read this so often because it just it just reminds me of how small we are. In Psalm 19, the psalmist writes, The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day, they continue to speak. Like the skies speak of their creator. Night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word, their voice is never heard, and yet their message has gone throughout the earth and their words to all the world. And it's just amazing to me how much when we will put ourselves in nature, in green spaces, in blue spaces, we will we will be forced to encounter our creator. And so much of that experience, just getting outside, helps us remember our place. It helps us remember his power and creativity. It helps us remember our smallness and our humanity. Because every time I go outside, I'm reminded of the seasons, the seasonality of life. And his I'm reminded of his love and his care, the fact that I can go out and smell the roses right now. I'm reminded of the fact that he made me with these senses, right? And the the fact that he makes these little things to bring us joy.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

You know, to bring him joy and pleasure. He nature makes us think about our hope for eternity. I'm constantly reminded of just eternity when I sit and look at the creation that we're in now. Yeah and the fact that there's something better than this waiting for us. Oh, like it's unbelievable. It's incredible. And the amount of quiet that I get to access when I go outside is again unmatched. Not to say that there isn't sounds that you hear, but my mind is quieted when I get outside. When I get off my phone, when I go sit at a lake, when I go on a walk, right? Like when we go camping as a family, there's just an element of quieting the mental noise, like we've talked about, the mental load that gets our focus fixed on him instead. And so I'm gonna bore you for a second.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

I'm I'm fascinated with scientific facts because I I think we so easily gloss over it of like, oh, that can't be real, but but it is there's reason why research is so important and viable to what we are doing in our in our life, and we can take that and apply it to our lives because like you can't be in the red woods with your phone and Wi-Fi and scrolling through TikTok. Exactly. Like, what what are you doing? What are you doing? Get out because if I was out there, right, I'd be like, ma'am, sir, put it down.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yes, put it down, absolutely so bore away. Yes. Well, I just think it's incredible that we we look at scripture, we look at creation, and you know, we even see people that were uh worship creation, right? You hear the people that like, oh, I love Mother Nature, and you kind of see the stereotypical, like maybe crunchy person that's that's really embraced just this worship of creation rather than our creator, and knowing that like he got it right from the beginning. Big difference. And so, why should we think that we can be in communion with creator and not spend time in his creation? So, this is my plug for you to get outside. Get this time in nature has incredible benefits, not only for our mental health, but for our physical health. Because most of the time, if you're gonna be outside, you're gonna be moving your body, right? Right. So checkbox on physical health right there. Move your body, double whammy. Yes, but actual time in nature, and that could be anywhere from sitting in your backyard to taking a walk in your neighborhood to going to a local park to actually getting into what I've I've heard now is wild nature space, meaning like it's not a park surrounded by oh, you know, cars or neighborhoods or something like that. You're actually getting into a place where you feel like you're out in nature. There's not a reminder of man-made buildings and things like that. Right. So time in nature is gonna lower our stress hormones in our body, like cortisol, just being outside. It reduces our blood pressure and improves our heart health. Time in nature boosts our serotonin and our vitamin D. Time in nature enhances our immune function and our cognitive function, especially for kids. Kids that spend time outside have better attention spans and better memory.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

It wasn't just an excuse for my mom to kick me out. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

She was like, This is for your own science kids.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Time in nature improves our sleep quality, especially if we find ourselves getting in natural light in the morning, like first thing in the morning. Yeah. And just 20 minutes outside a day can improve your focus and your mood. Like that in and of itself is enough. Yes. Right? We're just talking 20 minutes a day means you can be in a better mood.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

I think everyone.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Which is why when I get yes, exactly, which is when I get stressed and when I get overwhelmed, or I can sense that I'm in a bad mood, I go outside and take a walk. Like I don't go sit in my room and scroll. I don't just like unleash on my family. This is why I go outside and I walk so much. I think a lot of us discovered this during lockdown and in COVID season, was we were going crazy because we were inside and that's not what we were made, that's not where we were made to be. Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

We're dip yeah, I think it's it's a really beautiful thing to have open spaces and and walk and be or sit and receive the beautiful gift of of what the outside can bring. And you know, although I you know, I'm not a camper, I I would love to like go out on more hikes and and those types of things. And we are very active as a family with outside activities of rollerblading and riding bikes, and and I love the encouragement of not only just like get outside, but there's so many benefits. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

It's and it's easy and it's free. That's what I always come back to. I'm like, people go and spend thousands of dollars on these vacations to sit in these crowded spaces or in lines at Disney World, and you know, no shade to to people that love to go to Disney, but I'm just in a season of life where I want to be outside as much as humanly possible. Yes, because I I can already sense the mental benefits, the physical benefits, and it's where I see God. And I want more of that in my life. So in Matthew 6, there's this famous passage where Jesus is talking and it's all about why we shouldn't worry. And I want us to see today, before we go, the connection between nature and anxiety and how being outside can actually lower our levels of anxiety and worry because a lot of us live there these days.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, some of us are camped out in camp anxiety. It's true though. It's just like I I have anxiety over X, Y, and Z, and it's and it's like, oh, I I just know there are some people that just camp out there, and you you can camp in God's garden of beauty and splendor and wonder.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

There's there's this passage where he's talking and he's telling people, don't worry about your life. And many times we read this passage and we think about provision. But I want us to actually think about the choices that Jesus has made in these illustrations. So he talks and he starts and he says, I uh don't worry about your life, what you're gonna eat or your drink, what your body, what you're gonna wear. He says, look at the birds of the air. He uses birds as an example. He's literally telling us to become bird watchers.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Worried, watch a bird.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Okay, Jesus. He says, look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or stow away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And then he goes to close. Again, we read this in terms of provision. And he says, See how the lilies of the field grow. Again, he's telling us to go look at the flowers.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Get outside.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Get outside, look at birds, look at flowers. They don't labor or spin. I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, He will He not much more clothe you. So Jesus in this illustration is telling us when we're feeling worried, when we're feeling anxious, when we have fear of the future, go look at the birds and go look at the flowers. And I think it's so, again, I'm gonna geek out here, but just go with me. Because I was meditating on this the last time I went camping with my family, and I was sitting there, and my husband and I were sitting and we were just looking at the trees and listening to the birds. And he said to me, he said, Oh, the birds are singing. That means there's no predators around. And I was like, What? And he goes, Yeah, we're really safe right now. And I was like, Cool. First of all, who thinks like that? I don't think like that. I was like, added to the case. If you brought me here, we better be safe. But but to his point, I was like, I had never thought about that. And he said, Yeah, he said, birds don't sing if there are predators around. He said, That's a signal for safety. I was like, oh my goodness.

unknown 17:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

So when we sort of fall out there, yeah. So when we sit and we look at the birds, we listen to the birds, we're again reminded of God's sovereignty. We again, I I deep dove on this because I just geeked out, but it was so cool. You think about like when you go to the spa and you hear bird song on the on the radio, you know, you hear the ghost sounds and the the running water. And it's like, of course, every sound machine has nature sounds. Yeah, because literally listening to birds reduces our cortisol. Yeah, it calms our nervous system. Listening to bird song restores cognition, it boosts our mood and our mental health, and it reminds us to be mindful. It literally listening to birds breaks cycles of rumination and anxiety. Wow. That's incredible. So next time you're stressed in your office, yeah, just pull up bird song on YouTube. I literally did it the other day, and I immediately just like felt myself take a breath. You're gonna have to share your playlist with this. Check the show notes for a bird song playlist coming. Just kidding. We're not doing that. Team Not Tired Bird Song, bird song. But I just thought, whoa, I've never thought literally just about the science of what nature does and the reality of what Jesus is instructing us to do.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

And then I thought about his instruction to look at flowers, which I'm like, of course, every girl likes to have fresh flowers in the house. We always we can't always afford it, but we do. And there's this study from Rutgers and from Harvard. I told you I deep dove on this that said when you receive flowers, you feel less anxious, genuinely happier, you have less negative emotions, more positive energy. And having flowers in your visual line of sight helps stimulate dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which are the feel-good hormones. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

I will say that is one thing that I kind of implemented during COVID is having flowers in the house. And my husband is incredibly generous of buying flowers. He knows I'm a flower girly. I would love to. This is just my romanticized mind of owning a flower farm. Oh. I know. It's like if I was a lady the lady of leisure, perhaps I might that, but I I think having flowers and it was it was not expensive. Like this morning I cut jasmine out from my bush, and I literally put it in a vase. And so it doesn't have to be spending a lot of money or just like it just cul cultivating flowers that you can even have in your backyard.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

And you it comes back to well, first of all, this sounds like a great hobby for you. I yes, in my beautiful garden dresses with all of my flowers in your tennis outfit, gardening. But but again, great, great excuse to cultivate joy. Yes. You know, with all these topics that we've been talking about in recent episodes. Getting outside can be a hobby, it can bring you joy, it can bring you closer to the Lord. And I think it's a a great reminder as well. Like being outside typically forces us to slow down. Yes. And so that's that's where I would leave us today. I feel like I've built a strong case biblically and scientifically today, yes, for you to get outside. But I would say for somebody who doesn't like being outside or just hasn't really maybe you don't live in an area of the country where you can necessarily. There are seasons, there are, you know, just limitations on where you live. So I would encourage you to start small, but to make it a point to get outside more. Like 20 minutes a day, you can do that. Yeah. Whether that's a short walk on your lunch break, whether that's looking around your town and identifying a couple locations, you know, maybe a park or a lake, just somewhere that you can go and sit and look at anything other than a screen.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Um, you know, explore, like use it as an excuse to explore your community. Maybe it's an investment in some patio furniture or an outdoor space. Maybe you have a front porch or a back patio or a backyard, and it's not a place that you want to be, but you can create it to be a place that you enjoy spending time. Like remove the excuses and get outside. I went on a walk in the rain the other night because I hadn't been outside all day. And my kids thought I was crazy, but I was like, I have to get outside and the rain is not gonna stop me. And so I just go rem remove the excuses, see the benefits with me. And last would be, you know, it's even better if you can develop an outdoor hobby. So whether that's gardening, whether that's a sport, you know, whether that's some kind of physical activity, maybe it's bird watching, taking notes, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Let's just be ladies that get outside. Yeah, I I think one of some of my most fondest memories of like our friendship is when we're on hikes. And some of the hikes were harder than others.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

The the one that I got us lost shall remain nameless. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

But but even then, I I find that those are some of my most fondest memories of just like being out in nature, being on a hike, and and doing it with a with a friend is is an added benefit. And I think that's something that we want to just showcase to our team of Team Not Tired of like there's so many beautiful options for you if you would just get outside, especially if you want to take a long walk or a short walk with us, listening to this podcast and sharing it with a friend. And if this has blessed you in any kind of way, please leave us a review. That is how some ladies and gents, I will say, will listen to our podcast and find us. And so we so appreciate that. And we hope that you get outside and you can see the splendor of God's glory. Till next time, friends.