Session 1: Call of the Wild

In this series, we make the case for men to get regular time out in nature. Data tells us that the average modern man spends 93% of his time indoors. That is to his detriment. It's time to change that. It's time to listen to the call of the wild.

How many hours per week do you get outdoors and into nature? If you are like most modern men, the answer is less than three hours per week or 156 hours per year. In other words, just 1.8% of your time will be spent in the wild. 98.2% of your day is spent indoors, 7.5 hours in front of a screen, and over nine hours sat down. Let's be brutally honest, this is to the detriment of men.

The benefits of getting out into the wild are now well-established. It reduces stress, improves mood, facilitates more positive emotions, decreases anxiety levels, stops us from ruminating too much (replaying negative memories), helps tackle depression, lowers blood-pressure, improves cognitive function, increases creativity levels and it has been linked to improving immunity and even faster recovery from surgery/injury. It's no wonder that God called His creation of the sun, moon, sky, land, seas, plants and animals, "good".

Men come alive in the wild. Yet, as time passes, we are removing ourselves from it. Studies tracking time-use surveys from the 1970s to the 2010s reveal a measurable 14% drop in average outdoor time for adults, with people aged 16-30 experiencing a 20% reduction. People across the UK also made 855 million fewer outdoor recreation visits in 2022 than they did during 2020 (yes, we were in a pandemic but we spent 30% of that year in lockdown).

We are not better for it. One in five men in the UK die before the age of 65. The average number of years a man can expect to live in good health, is down two years since 2012 to 60.7. Men are reporting lower levels of life satisfaction than women, according to the government's national wellbeing survey. Rates of depression and anxiety are increasing, as are suicides (men account for 75% of them). The decline in the number of hours outdoors is not the whole reason for this, but it is certainly a contributor.

We need to reverse the trends and get back out into nature. We need to respond to the call of the wild.

Session 1 activity

First - click here and read these scriptures:

• Genesis 1

Then - answer these questions:

1 - Calculate how many hours you spend in nature per week. How does it compare to the averages?

2 - How does being outdoors in the wild make you feel?

3 - What is your favourite wild place to visit?

4 - Genesis 1 walks us through what God created. He said it was all good. What does that mean to you in context

with getting outdoors?