I had a really fantastic weekend, which allowed me to reconsider the benefits of sleeping in a tent. The plan was to have no plan. So, we just got in the car and drove to the North coast. We had passed through several good places for camping when we finally saw the perfect spot: a secluded clearing in an elm grove, enough for a tent and the hammocks, perched on a terrace overlooking an empty beach.
- Have astonishing view
If you find a great place to put your tent you will be able to enjoy stunning views in the morning. Imagine if the first thing you see when you opens your eyes is the sunrise over the sea.
- Trigger the relaxation mode
Having no internet connection is detaching you from a lot of things that do not matter much – like checking facebook or other social media. Also of you are a workaholic having limited amount of battery on your phone and no internet helps you really to focus on the current moment and to relax. Researches show that the beeping of your phone (even if it is just a facebook message from a friend) increases the level of cortisol in your blood and triggers stress.
At one point you lose the sense of time and enter relaxation mode.
- Reset your body clock
This is my favourite one! Very often I feel so tired in the morning even after 7 hours of sleep. I can barely open my eyes and usually do not have enough time in the morning to get all things done before going to work. When you expose yourself only to natural light, you reset your body clock and adapt to the sun. You wake up naturally with the sunrise and fall asleep shortly after sunset.
I was going to sleep shortly after 21:30 and was waking up around 5:30 from the natural sun light. What was impressive is that I didn’t feel tired at all and even went on the beach to do some yoga and meditation for a good start of the day.
- Improve the quality of your sleep
Another important point is that natural sounds improve you sleep. Listening to the sea or the sounds of the forest: birds singing, crickets chirping is relaxing and helps you sleep deeper. Therefore, I prefer to choose distant areas for camping in the wild where there are not a lot of other people or distracting noise.
- Be happier
There are so many health benefits of spending time outdoors. There is a strong correlation between your mood and the time you spend in nature.
Vitamin D
Most of the people have deficit of vitamin D due to the fact that we spend the whole day in the office and less under the sun. Vitamin D is crucial for your bone health and recent studies show that low level of vitamin D is linked to depression.
Endorphins
Exercising outdoors has a mood-boosting effect. Even when doing a short yoga practise or jogging on the sand your body releases endorphins and as we know – endorphins are the hormones that make us happy.
- Enjoy your food
Often you have to bring all the food with you and you have to be creative how to preserve and cook it. Simple dishes can be so much more delicious after you’ve been active the whole day. If you don’t know how to cook over a camping stove this is a great chance to learn something new and to enjoy new recipes that you probably won’t try at home.
- See the milky way
Light pollution in cities makes it hard to see the beauty of the night sky. Spending the night outside in the wilderness without any distracting lights makes it possible to have a true star gazing experience.
- Find yourself
Spending time in nature from morning till evening, listening to nature sounds and meditating could help you to rethink a lot of your concerns, find inner peace or a solution to a complex problem.
- Be yourself
You can completely be yourself. The way you are dressed is of no importance to no one else but you. You can leave all self-consciousness behind and even dance in the middle of the beach like no one is watching (quite likely no one will be watching anyway).
- Live in the present moment and have fun
You know what I mean 🙂
the wellness canvas 