Summer has here, and it’s a fantastic time to start thinking about your next camping trip to one of Auckland Council’s 44 campsites.
Camping is a terrific opportunity to go outside and spend quality time with friends, family, or on your own, whether you’re a die-hard camping enthusiast, searching for a low-cost getaway, or revisiting childhood memories.
Exploring the great outdoors and reconnecting with nature also has some significant health benefits:
Quiet and peace
Unplug and appreciate nature’s simplicity. Instead of charging your cellphones, tablets, and game consoles, recharge your own batteries. Your body and mind will appreciate you, and you will return to work energised and rejuvenated. Switch off the internet, emails, and even the news. All you need is one charged phone that is kept switched off and stored away for emergencies.
More Physical Activity
Camping requires additional physical activity in order to acquire, cook, and store food, navigate a campground, and successfully maintain your shelter. Add fishing, swimming, walking, or biking to the mix to boost cardiovascular benefits and calorie burn even more.
Stress Reduction
One of the most significant health advantages of camping is that it decreases stress by replacing everyday stressors such as job pressure, traffic, and the rush of city life with the relaxing impact of bird singing, the sound of waves breaking on the beach, and the wind in the trees. The genuine thing is much more healing than anything on your MP3.
Improved connections
Do you ever feel like you never speak to your family and that everyone around you is on some kind of device? Being near to loved ones or excellent friends without the distraction of modern technology such as cellphones and tablets allows you to interact more directly and provide and receive eye contact. Having to rely on one other to make meals and care after your campground fosters camaraderie, a feeling of community, and a sense of shared purpose, all of which contribute to your overall well-being.
Memory enhancement
When you go camping and are surrounded by trees and fresh air, your body produces more serotonin, a naturally occurring neurotransmitter that helps regulate your mood, appetite, and sleep. Serotonin also helps with cognitive processes including memory and learning.
improved sleep
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that regulates your sleep and waking cycles. When you’re locked in an office for lengthy periods of time, working in artificial light, blue light from artificial sources like incandescent lights might decrease your melatonin levels. Camping outdoors exposes you to melatonin-friendly yellow light, which might help you achieve a more natural sleep-wake cycle alignment with dawn and sunset.
Vitamin D supplementation
When you’re outdoors, your body absorbs a lot of sunshine. The sun gives the skin a healthy outdoor shine, and the body utilises it internally to synthesise Vitamin D, which aids in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, two nutrients necessary for strong bones and teeth.
