Make Life Less Stale With More Fresh Air

Stale Air, Stale Life

The quickest way to calm a crying baby or relax a restless toddler? Get them outside. 

Sandy screaming because he pulled dining table chair on top of him? Strap him to my chest while I take out the recycling.

Waaa! Waaa… Wimper. Sniffle. Silence.

Zac throwing a hissy fit because Kim cut his sandwich wrong? Haul him onto the patio. 

Waaa! Waaa… Whimper. Sniffle. Silence.

It’s like some sort of psychological pressure builds up indoors, then WHOOSH! it releases the moment you step outside. I can even see my kids’ spirit exhale with an “Aaahh.”

But here’s what I’ve realized: This doesn’t change as we get older. What changes is our sensitivity. 

The Sensitivity Shift

As we grow from newborn to adult, we become increasingly desensitized to the intrinsic stuff that naturally boosts well-being—touch, connection, sleep, nature, and play. In their place, we get hypersensitive to extrinsic elements that contribute to discontent—status, sexiness, money, what smells bad. 

This shift explains why babies and toddlers respond so dramatically to fresh air, while we adults often overlook its benefits. Over time, we get sucked deeper and deeper down a self-reinforcing cycle that keeps us indoors and disconnects us from the rejuvenating power of fresh air.

The Vicious Cycle of Stale Air

We get trapped in a cycle:

• More time indoors = more sensitive (a.k.a. wimpy) to heat, cold, rain, wind, pollen, flies, etcetera. 
• More wimpy = more indoor time.
• Less outdoor time = less sensitive to its benefits.
• Less sensitive = less motivated to go outside.

Eventually, we reach the tipping point where our perceived discomfort outweighs our reward from the outdoors. 

We become indoor cats, circulating from our houses to garages to car to offices to gyms to shops to home again. Our spirit hardly gets a chance to exhale. And, like any addict, we find comfort in the indoors even though it makes us more miserable than we ought to be. 

But here’s the good news: we can reclaim that sensitivity.

Experience has taught me that you can turn things back around—numb yourself to extrinsic rewards and re-establish a strong feeling for intrinsic rewards. Doing so makes huge improvements to your day-to-day well-being. 

My Re-Outdoor-ification

If I could time-travel to force Younger Chris to read this, he’d say, “What?! Of all things, this is what you brought me?!” Then, once he calmed down, he’d add, “Nonsense. My life’s not miserable.”

Twenty-something Chris was an indoor cat: office, gyms, bars, TV. 

But two things saved me:

1. First, being too cheap for a car, forcing me to bike everywhere, even in winter, in Canada, France, and Switzerland. 
2. Second, subsequently getting transferred to Panama. 

The sun’s Vitamin D and year-round tropical breeze seduced me. I started:

• Leaving the office for lunch breaks under palm trees
• Doing calisthenics workouts at Parque Omar. 
• Fleeing the city on weekends to stay in open-air hostels.
• Walking rather than driving to get groceries. 
• Balcony meals and poolside work sessions at home. 

After pretiring from “real work” and returning to Vancouver, the outdoor bug stuck. Winter made me stir-crazy, though. So, in November 2017, Kim and I migrated to Medellin, the City of Eternal Spring. 

The rest is history and we designed a life prioritizing fresh air:

• Swapping between Cape Town and Vancouver to avoid winter. 
• Only renting places with outdoor spaces and in walking distance to parks, shops, beaches, and outdoor gyms. 
• Picnicking or eating on our patios as often as possible. 
• Outdoor workouts, computer work, and walk-and-talk calls

I’m an outdoor cat now, and life is so much less stale. My kids agree.

The No-Ceiling Challenge

Ready to resensitize yourself to fresh air’s magic? Here’s my “No-Ceiling” challenge to you:

Get outside for at least three hours every day for the next week. 

• Walk. 10,000 steps takes about 100 minutes. (Get your 10,000 mental steps in while you’re at it.)
• Eat. Picnics, patios, palm trees. 
• Exercise. Ditch the gym. Get some ideas from my outdoor workout guide.
• Work. Find a shady spot for laptop time. Walk and talk for calls.
• Relax. Nap, meditate, smell flowers, wave at babies.  
• Play. Sports, chess, fetch, tag. Act like a kid again.
• Socialize. Do any of the above with friends and family. 

I bet you the cost of your subscription to this newsletter that you’ll feel so fresh afterward that you’ll crave more.

Or don’t take the challenge. I get it. Change is tough, and the comfortable indoors can be seductive. It’s easy to stick with the status quo and keep living a ceiling-ed life.

As always, whichever door you choose—to go through or to keep comfortably closed—is up to you. But if you do step outside, you might just find a less-stale, more vibrant version of yourself.