15 Unexpected Ways To Get Out There (And Do Something Great)
Invest in active clothing -- not necessarily workout clothing, but something you can move in. Get a water bottle, a backpack, sneakers and a first aide kit. Pack up and go adventure.
1. Meditate outside. While you’re walking, in a park, during a hike, at your desk for a few minutes, wherever it wouldn’t immediately strike you to do so. Getting “out there” usually starts with channeling your energy “in here,” so learn to do that (and become aware) of when you’re disconnected but don’t realize it.
2. Pack a picnic instead of making plans to meet at a restaurant.
3. Make and leave art around the city you live in/are visiting. Put Post-Its on café tables, write messages in chalk on the sidewalk, make legal street art if you can.
4. The next time you have an outing planned, leave your phone at home. Force yourself to pay attention to your surroundings, to be completely present, to not have a distraction to turn to or a social life jacket in the form of technology to rest on.
5. Sign up for a race away from your hometown (even a marathon in a different country). It’s a goal and a vacation all in one.
6. Rather than a vacation, plan a service trip somewhere. It doesn’t have to be international, but choose to spend your “down time” serving someone else and see how much it refuels you.
7. Choose hiking as opposed to the beach for your next getaway. Anything you can do that forces you to actively engage rather than passively experience is good for your body and mind.
8. Take someone you don’t spend enough time with on said trip.
9. Build a “community salad garden” outside your home/on the sidewalk by a tree of a willing neighbor. Plant vegetables and leave a sign that says it’s for everybody (as long as they cut the plant and don’t pull it out, so it can regrow for another person to use.)
10. Invest in active clothing — not necessarily workout clothing, but something you can move in. Get a water bottle, a backpack, sneakers and a first aid kit. Pack up and go adventure.
11. Keep a food-mood journal. Track what you eat and do during the day and then write down how you feel. Try different things, and then observe the results objectively. It’s a solid way to figure out what works for you.
12. Sign up for an outdoor yoga class.
13. Move to another country for a few months. Get a job. Learn the language. It’s not as impossible as it seems, it’s only a matter of effort in finding the best deals and a realistic way to transfer your life to another location.
14. Make plans to explore beyond the main areas and tourist-hot-spots of a city or country you visit. See what it means to live like someone else on the other side of the world or on the other side of your town, it will give you major perspective.
15. Make (and keep) friends from around the world. Keep in touch with real-life, stamp-and-paper pen pals. Join a class in another town, strike up conversation with someone you meet during your commute. Everything’s happening around you, you just have to choose to engage in it. 