After graduating from college and exploring the US, Canada, Central and South Americas, I came to understand how regular communion with nature is essential. No matter where I am, whenever I go out for a hike or bike ride, I feel my emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health enhanced. Always, every time improved.

Author Richard Louv, in his book Last Child in the Woods (2005) presents a condition called Nature-deficit disorder to describe the problems people face as a result of being disconnected with nature.

“By its broadest interpretation, nature-deficit disorder is an atrophied awareness, a diminished ability to find meaning in the life that surrounds us.”

In his June 2011 article in Outside titled “Get Your Mind Dirty,” Louv further discussed how much of an effect the disconnect with nature has on all of us, children and adults alike.

“When we think of the nature deficit, we usually think of kids spending too much time indoors plugged into an outlet or computer screen. But after the book’s publication, I heard adults speak with heartfelt emotion, even anger, about their own sense of loss.”

This is extremely important and I’ll just let the article speak for itself. Read the Outside Mag article.