Eight Holistic Benefits of Running Outside in Nature
By Tim Kelly
Posted on June 6, 2025
By Tim Kelly | Source My mom has this thing where, when she sees a cardinal flying by or perched in a tree, she says it’s a family member that has passed away, checking in on us. Every now and then, when I’m running outside on a trail, one will swoop down in front of me and no matter how tired I am, it invigorates me and makes me smile. Sometimes I even run a little more because of it.
There are countless other times I have these little moments when running outside. So, what is it about running in nature that feels so good?
There are many well-known facts about why running is good for you. From heart health to muscle tone, these benefits are easily found in abundance in magazines and blog posts. Chances are, you’re already aware of them. My goal in this article is to cover some of the lesser-known, yet really cool benefits of running in nature.
In my opinion, the physiological benefits of running outside are often the most overlooked but interesting aspect of hitting your local trails. Let’s explore!
Physiological benefits of running outside
1. Manage stress
While it often has a bad reputation for obvious reasons, stress actually plays a vital role in helping us grow and evolve as humans and also helps us to accomplish the goals and responsibilities we set for ourselves, as long as we don’t, metaphorically speaking, overflow the cup. Chronic stress, or too much stress, is bad for us, but voluntary, manageable stress has actually been found to have quick and lasting effects, both mentally and physically.
According to research from UC Berkeley, “Manageable stress increases alertness and performance. And by encouraging the growth of stem cells that become brain cells, stress improves memory. The increase in stem cells and neuron generation makes sense from an adaptive point of view.”
So, what does this have to do with running outside? First, running, in general, is voluntary stress for both the mind and body. The more we get out for our runs, the more we work to increase our strength, stamina, discipline, and stress response. Running outside gives us added variability and keeps us mentally strong and adaptable to our environment. Ever trained for a race in the spring and then come race day it’s 80 degrees and humid? It’s not fun for anyone, and rarely will you hear of someone running their personal best in such conditions. Choosing to run in weather that is less than ideal keeps us mentally and physically limber to these changes in the environment. Next time it’s 45 degrees and raining, or on the other hand, 80-plus degrees and sunny, tap your motivation muscle and get out the door. (Just remember to gear up appropriately and stay hydrated!)
I can personally attest to this as the winter, more so than the heat of the summer, is when I find it most difficult to lace up and get out the door. I can say with certainty, though, that 100% of the time I get my run in, I’m glad I did it. I feel better, and I’m better for it.
2. Enjoy moments of awe
Much like the sighting of a cardinal, there are many things we experience when running outside that make us feel good. Flowers blooming along a trail, a misty waterfall (if you’re lucky enough to live in an area with waterfalls!), a beautiful bird swooping down, a big buck standing up ahead on the trail.
This idea can be referred to as awe. Awe is often reserved for big moments like seeing a huge double rainbow across the sky or looking at the Grand Canyon for the first time. Awe can also be experienced through what I’ll refer to as “micro-moments,” and there are many opportunities for these moments while out on a run in nature. These moments are also scientifically beneficial to humans.
“Even brief experiences of awe yield a host of benefits including an expanded sense of time and enhanced feelings of generosity, well-being, and humility,” according to a study from UC San Francisco. Additional research from UC Berkeley found that regularly experiencing awe can likely help with inflammation levels (something many of us runners can benefit from).
Physical health benefits of running outside
3. Soak up some vitamin D
Vitamin D is one of our body’s most critical nutrient needs, helping us in a multitude of ways from bone density to immune health. Despite this fact, roughly 35% of Americans are vitamin D deficient, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
One of the best ways to get your vitamin D levels up is direct sunlight absorbed through your skin. What better way to do so than on a run on your local trails while breathing in the fresh air? Next time you’re out running and the sun is shining, just think of nature giving you a metaphorical IV drip of a life-sustaining nutrient. Pretty cool, huh?
4. Enhance your overall fitness
In almost any system on earth, whether the human body, society, or your backyard garden, diversity creates more resilience and strength. Running outside offers more diversity of terrain and stimulus from jumping over cracks and puddles, turning the corner, running up and down hills or stairs, avoiding roots in the trail, and more. In turn, more is demanded from your body relative to running on a treadmill, paved road, or a track.
For example, your core is more engaged when you’re turning a corner or a trail switchback, your quads are more engaged when you’re running downhill, and your calves are more engaged when jumping over a curb or running uphill. Running on a treadmill (while still a great physical workout) limits the number of muscles you engage relative to running outside. The stronger your entire body is, the more resilient and more efficient it becomes. In addition, the more you bound down the trail avoiding roots or rocks, the more you develop a better sense of balance.
5. Improve your knee and back health
This one, I know, can be difficult to believe. Many of us runners have likely been told, “Your knees are going to be shot by the time you’re 50!” Yet a study from The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery comparing 675 runners concluded that the arthritis rate of marathon runners was well below that of the average American. When running on trails outside, the softer surface is more gentle on your knees, hips, and back than concrete or a treadmill.
6. Increase your lifespan
A 2018 meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that running participation is associated with 27%, 30%, and 23% lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality, respectively, compared with no running. That’s quite a big difference and a seriously good reason to get outside every week.
Mental health benefits of running outside
7. Decrease depression
Simply put, running helps combat depression. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most, as I think any runner reading this would agree that running helps to keep your stress and anxiety balanced and ward off depression. Running outside adds another layer of mental health to the equation. When running outside, you’re breathing in fresh air, running as the sun is rising or setting, maybe feeling the wind at your back or the chill of an early morning.
We, as humans, have evolved over a long time in a symbiotic relationship with nature. It likely just feels, well, “natural” and refreshing to most. Running outside allows you to explore new areas and new trails and see, hear, smell, and feel new things. You’re likely passing by people and locking eyes, maybe even smiling. That moment with other people, especially while in nature, has much deeper-reaching mental and physical benefits than one likely realizes.
8. Take a break from technostress
Last, but certainly not least, we all need a break from work, social media, and screen time. More and more studies are coming out that prove the negative mental, physical, and emotional health effects of too much screen time. In one study, spending too much time staring at your phone or computer was found to have a multitude of negative health impacts, including ADHD, depression, lack of sleep, and anxiety. If setting your phone down for an hour and breathing in fresh air isn’t quite enough, lacing up your favorite trail shoes, moving your body through the woods in nature, and working up a sweat can certainly help melt away the stress of the day.
Reconnect with nature
I might be biased, but I can confidently say that almost anyone will enjoy running outside. Generally speaking, we as humans do not get nearly enough time outside as we used to. From time spent at work, commuting in a car, sleeping indoors, or watching Netflix, we’re not as connected with nature as we were not so long ago. Lacing up and getting out the door to feel the sun on your skin, to seek out those moments of awe, to feel a sense of accomplishment from doing a full trail loop around the lake, to simply breathe in some fresh air — there’s nothing quite like it.
Our writer’s advice is intended for informational or general educational purposes only. We always encourage you to speak with your physician or healthcare provider before making any adjustments to your running, nutrition, or fitness routines.
Life can be a treadmill of mundane details or it can be an inspiring adventure of uplifting experiences. Through the regular, daily practice of meditation, you can start each day by raising your frequency of consciousness above the mundane, work-a-day level into the spiritual realms of consciousness.
Here are seven facets of spiritual awareness which unfold as a result of daily meditation. Any technique will work. The Ultimate Meditation technique is particularly effective.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number One – Flow
A sense of flow attracts synchronicity into your life’s events. This almost magical sense enables you to always be in the appropriate place at the appropriate time in order to gain the most out of the experiences that the complete you, your inner self, planned for this life.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number Two – Unconditional Love
You develop a sense of unconditional love for the inner, spiritual essence of all the people that you connect with in your life. Even the difficult people, as they are often holding up a mirror for you to understand an aspect of past habits which, deep down, you would like to examine at this time.
Your sense of unconditional love naturally includes full acceptance of yourself, just as you are, with the personality that you adopted for this lifetime of experience. You can catch those old thought patterns of self-criticism and remember that you live in a universe which is naturally full of love and unconditional acceptance.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number Three – Abundance
Accept abundance as the natural flow of the universe. Forget those opinions about there being something wrong with money. It’s a form of energy and the universe is filled with energy. Life gets a lot more convenient when you are abundant. It gets really inconvenient when you are not.
When you follow your innermost joy, you find yourself doing work that you love and find absorbing. When you find your work absorbing, you become very good at it, without feeling that it took a lot of effort to become that highly skilled. When you are good at your work, employers and customers alike hear about you by word-of-mouth recommendation and they seek you out. The more in-demand your services become, the more they are worth. Following your inner joy is the secret to finding and developing an occupation which brings natural abundance.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number Four – Intuitive Insight
Both men and women find that, with regular spiritual practices, their sense of intuition develops smoothly and naturally. Soon, your insights grow to become very valuable in dealing with the challenges of life.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number Five – Creativity
A growing sense of creativity becomes apparent when spiritual practices become your daily routine. You discover new ways to achieve results because you see situations from a broader perspective.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number Six – Wisdom
Advances in spiritual wisdom and understanding come with deep meditation. In meditation, it is important to let distracting, surface thoughts dissipate so that deeper realizations may surface at the time that they are needed.
Spiritual Awareness Facet Number Seven – Raising World Consciousness
When you detach from worldly concerns and express a higher frequency of consciousness, the conflicts of the lower frequencies of consciousness become automatically healed. When you let go of any form of conflict within yourself, you are able to rise to a higher frequency of consciousness in a state of harmony and balance.
Higher frequencies of consciousness hold a higher power. Not just a slightly higher power. The power ratio of spiritual consciousness to conflict-oriented consciousness is many thousands to one. If you allow balance to enter your life through a spiritual state of consciousness, it will manifest immediately and very powerfully in your daily life. You will also be helping to raise the global consciousness in a very powerful and constructive manner.
There will be a time when you will yearn for the activity and turmoil that occupy your world right now.
This may sound ridiculous, yet there is no more stimulating or consequential time to be a physical Earth human than at this moment now. For many of you, this is a gift. It is the culmination of numerous lifetimes taken as participants in the slavery here. Much of that was done with the promise of participation in the ending.
We speak here of soul essence and its plan for evolution. The potential for growth now is exponential. From the point of view of your eternal self, this is a delicious and invigorating time.
Many of us feel a bit “long in the tooth” from all this learning and would very much like to get to the good stuff asap. It feels more exhausting than delicious at times.
It’s all “good stuff”! Yet your remark is honest and comes from your personality self. This journey plays out the way it does because so many of you are responsible for its creation.
An important “lesson” to “get” while physical is the concept of blame and fault. Humans very much enjoy pointing fingers at this group or that color, at this race or that party, at this stranger or that neighbor. This finger-pointing allows you to focus your energy and in this way create an abundance of it. The more you focus, the longer and more deeply felt the experience.
What is abundantly clear is that volume and repetition of the story keep it alive. In this way, more participants are created, expanding the emotion and perpetuating the desired result. * Humans like to be surrounded by other humans who share their opinions. In this way, they feel validated and “right”.
Know that intensity and great numbers are not necessary for a thing to be true. Truth stands on its own.
Once sovereignty is embodied, the need for approval or massive numbers of people in agreement dissipates.
You will discover and are discovering the power you hold. The Awakening of the race occurs gradually.
Realize that you all voluntarily took on different roles. Some of you are more like lightning rods, directing the energy to a common point. Those who choose that role are highly visible by necessity and with purpose. Their focal point will eventually disappear. This occurs once the population determines a direction.
Inner strength can be camouflaged here. Physical life can feel overwhelming; personalities adjust according to their weaknesses. This is a reference to addictions, which manifest in habits, activities, things, or substances.
The term “delicious” again applies. Each of these is “delicious” and can be abused. The sensations they provide only create a desire for more, and thus are never satisfied.
An Earth life is taken for the experience and also with a purpose. Without remembering (once incarnated), lives are lived, and plans are made.
Note that the fulfillment of your soul’s plan will feel quite different from the satisfaction of feeding an addiction. In it, there will be a sense of fulfillment and, as well, wisdom (while transcribing, I saw “vision” here, so perhaps it is all three). These are not as flashy and voluminous as ego addictions, yet they are valid indications.
Addictions are only sated.
Purposes are fulfilled.
What may help you now is an awareness of energy, specifically yours. There is value in deliberately intending your days, your relationships, and your “work.” So much of creation happens beneath the veil of your physical sight.
It’s all energy, and it is fueled by passion and realized in engagement.
Count on your intentions manifesting in “real” time. Know they exist. For you are all creators. The current frequency supports this, and this is one of the reasons you are here now.
You are way showers. Remember.
That is all.
Thank you.
*Here, what came through but wasn’t expressly stated was politicians. Also, there was something about power mixed in here. It was the notion that power is something to be gained by mass followings of people all agreeing with you, by something here on Earth. It was that this was a misunderstanding of true power. Real power is internal. It only needs to be accessed and utilized.
Greetings in the Light and Love of our Infinite Creator.
We enjoy the moments we share with all of you. Thank you for this Transmission
Vitality, health, abundance, and healing are dynamic energies that are expanding and evolving in your life as you embark on this transformative journey. However, it is crucial to recognize that you cannot simply sit back and wait for these positive changes to manifest on their own. Instead, you must take an active role in this process. In these pivotal moments, you find yourself in a blossoming stage of your awareness, where your consciousness is expanding, allowing you to observe the world around you without immediate reaction or judgment. This newfound perspective enables you to see situations and experiences from a higher vantage point, fostering clarity and understanding that may have previously eluded you. It is an invitation to step boldly into the New You, fully embracing and embodying your inherent divinity and potential.
As you navigate this transformative phase, be prepared for many things to emerge into your reality. This includes New Disclosures and New evidence that will pave the way for New Beginnings. These revelations may challenge your current understanding and beliefs, but they are essential for your growth and evolution. It is important to recognize that this phase of your ascension is at an Urgent stage; the transition from the old paradigms to the new is not just a distant possibility–it is actively unfolding. The end of the old ways of being and the beginning of new opportunities and experiences are well on their way to manifesting in your life. Wholeness occurs when you can embrace and say yes to both the endings and the beginnings, allowing yourself to fully experience the richness of this transformative journey.
Now is the time to take control of your own journey, to steer your ship through the seas of change with intention and purpose. Reflect deeply on who you are, the essence of your being, and where you find yourself on this intricate journey of inner-discovery and growth. It is essential to stabilize yourself within the Higher frequencies of Love and Light vibrations.
These frequencies are powerful forces that can elevate your state of awareness, enhance your well-being, and align you with your highest potential. By grounding yourself in these elevated vibrations, you create a solid foundation from which to navigate the changes and challenges that lie ahead, ensuring that you remain centered and resilient as you embrace the unfolding of your new reality. There are many things about to emerge into your reality, within and without. Observe them and keep only what empowers you forward.
With eternal Love and deep respect. We Witness you, We Celebrate you, and we Honor you. In the Love and Light of our Infinite Creator. We are the Andromeda Intergalactic Council, Here to Serve the Divine.
We are here for you. We are The Creators. We are a twelfth-dimensional collective of nonphysical beings, and we are here to help.
We notice you in your times of crisis, and we are aware of you in your times of joy. We know what you feel like to us when you are experiencing freedom, abundance, and unconditional love. And we want you to know that all of those experiences of yours inform us as to what it is you are working on, what it is you are currently need there on Earth. We invite you to do the same with yourselves and each other. In other words, when you are having an experience perhaps that you would not like to be having, ask yourself what you need. And when you are having an experience that you do want to have, ask yourself how you can have more of these types of experiences.
You are ready to gift yourselves and each other what you need, and we are here to help. We are here to help by starting that process of giving. We give, and then those of you who are able to receive benefit from what we give. And you can pass it along to others. You can help others in ways that they never knew they could be helped, and you can help yourselves to live the lives that you want to be living, and it all starts by paying more attention to your state of being. This is the most important aspect of who you are there on Earth. In the larger sense of who you are, it is your Source Energy Essence that is most important.
But while you are there, having your human experiences on the Earth plane, your state of being matters. It is of the utmost importance, and when you make it more important to you, you then will become a student of yourselves and of your states of being. You can bring yourself into a state of ecstasy with focus, but you have to be focused on purpose. Even when something is happening in the now moment that could put you into a state of ecstasy, you still have to put your attention on that thing, or that person, or that event.
You see, you are always being directed back to yourselves, and we are here to help you with that. We are here to help you by pointing it out to you and by guiding you vibrationally to the best of your states of being. You tend to focus on what you are doing or accomplishing, and you tend to focus on what you have done or accomplished, thinking that those are the most important aspects of your lives, but they are not.
You can change everything by changing your state of being, your state of consciousness. You can change everything by putting your awareness on where it needs to go in order to get you to that next level of your spiritual evolution. And this is what we and others like us are seeking to guide you towards, always. We are always here for you to remind you of these truths, and to center you in your being-ness with our vibrational offerings, and we will continue to do so for as long as you need us to.
The Green Monster Ariseth … What Time is it? – Part 1
By Steve Beckow
Posted on April 4, 2025
I feel like a green monster
First, I’d like to add my sincere gratitude to Suzi’s, to everyone who contributed – love or money – to have us continue. What a knife edge we walk every thirty days and you’ve helped steady and support us the whole way. I am grateful.
I also want to acknowledge that I thought for sure the Reval or G/NESARA or both would be announced April 2. I thought that was part of our liberation. I was proven wrong (again) and I apologize if I got you worked up. … However it is expected soon. (Don’t throw that tomato!)
Have to say this one thing: Make sure to take some cash out from the bank in small denominations before the EBS (emergency broadcasts). Nobody will have the cash then to break a $50 or $100 bill and ATMs may be closed for the ten days. I have a cache of $5 bills set aside at home.
***
As to my check-in, the allergy is slowly lifting. The affected area has gone from wickedly-dark brown to magenta in a few places and red in others. So it’s still shocking to all who see it, but we’re moving in the right direction.
As I said a ways back, it sounds like everyone has something going on with them at this time. It may be partly because of increased lovelight energies that are knocking us out or it may be every last bit of unfinished business coming up (the sponge is being squeezed dry).
I saw at Xenia that I was pure and innocent at essence (1) so the journey through the heightening vibrations feels to me more like going down a waterslide than anything fearful. I know what Shankara means when he says:
“Once we become conscious, even dimly, of the Atman [the Self], the Reality within us, the world takes on a very different aspect. It is no longer a court of justice but a kind of gymnasium.” (2)
That fits my experience entirely. Once you know where you’re headed and how wonderful the journey and destination will be, we relax (or I did) on the direction of life. Even if I had to depart, I wouldn’t mourn because I know the destination will be splendid.
***
Meanwhile I want to see what happens to the body as it ages so I’m approaching everything that happens with curiosity. I know all the time that my co-creative partners on the other side are watching over me. And I now have an Andromedan healing team attending to me as well (thank you to them). (3)
This body needs to last, by agreement. (4) I find that I only go so far into a medical condition before it lifts. Or my recovery is super quick.
Or they just shake the living daylights out of me and my condition is gone, as they did with the heart attack i think I experienced in my sleep. (5)
Imagine fainting and falling forward and your forward motion is suddenly halted and you simply hang there in space. That happened to me when I fainted on walking to the bathroom. I fainted and a quarter of the way down I stopped in mid-air, so to speak. When my senses returned so that I wouldn’t faint, my frozen posture gradually eased.
If you can imagine it, intervention in the aftermath of a possible heart attack is pretty convincing evidence that one is being protected (as are all lightworkers, except what are called “sacrifice souls”). (6)
It felt similar to stopping the world and then walking through a gallery of static forms. Michael just stopped my world so that I wouldn’t lose my teeth in a fall.
What was it the Psalmist said??
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (7)
Here is purity and innocence: Kathleen’s granddaughter, Amelia, at 1 and a half. Dressed for those rugged Northern winters (not):
(2) Shankara in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher lsherwood, Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1975; c1947, 24. The Self is not only light and love. It’s also the divine qualities like purity and innocence.
(3) They’re also working to connect me directly with Michael. Now that is a dream come true. Just think of all the questions I could ask him!!!
(4) I’ve agreed to be here till the end. That soul contract is called a “pillar.” Cf. Michael:
AAM: I remind you that you are a pillar, that you [are] not [to] venture too far ahead of where people are, both individually in terms of your smaller circle but also in terms of the collective. … A very large quotient, shall we say, of you is living … in the higher-dimensional realm.
Then there is a part of you that is in the morass of the chaos and the lower-dimensional realm because that’s where the work is. (Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Jan. 18, 2020.) (Hereafter, AAM.)
AAM: You are in form. There is only so much that, as human being, any human being can manage. Yes, there will be a different kind of busyness in future years, but not if you are lying on the ground dead. (AAM, Feb. 5, 2016.)
(5) As Michael did with my arthritis. He shook the living daylights out of me following what I thought was a minor heart attack in my sleep. After he did, my arthritis was gone and a slipped-disc went back into place. Neither has ever returned. See “No One Else Needs to be Awe-struck, But I Am,” March 4, 2024, in An Ascension Ethnography – Part 2, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/An-Ascension-Ethnography-V2-R5.pdf, pp 28-32. I regard this healing as miraculous.
“Sacrifice souls” are those who volunteer to suffer in order to open society’s eyes. A good example is John F. Kennedy and his body double. We now discover that JFK did not die on Nov. 22, 1963; his body double died. He went into the witness protection program apparently. But he still sacrificed his way of life, peace, and safety. Other good examples would be Mohandas Gandhi and Joan of Arc.
