And, our monthly Nature Club outing is this Saturday, Jan 11, 2025. Head on out, wherever you are! If you’re local, join us over in Marcellus, NY at Pavlus Pond

Reconnecting With Nature

Back in November, Horaios Wellness (yours truly) and SimplifyMD partnered up to begin hosting local, in person Nature Clubs, once a month. Our mission is simple: to get as many people as possible to get back outside and embrace analog, “disconnected” living, in the company of others of the same mind and purpose. You can check out our November ‘24 post to learn more about the origins and impetus behind this initiative.

The movement that started all of this for me years ago is still going strong today: 1000 HOURS OUTSIDE.

I joined this challenge to reclaim childhood for our kiddos - it involved logging 1000 hours outside over the course of a year. We already were pretty outdoorsy. I thought it’d be a piece of cake. A walk in the park. A done deal. Boy was I mistaken! It took some doing to shift indoor lifestyle habits already en route to getting deeply ingrained. Not easy. At all. But we did it. Sort of. Then entropy took over.

entropy: noun

1. Physics

   a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system."the second law of thermodynamics says that entropy always increases with time"

2. lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder."a marketplace where entropy reigns supreme"

Reversing our natural tendency towards entropy requires energy. And support from a community. In the body, reversal of entropy requires healthy mitochondria (our battery and engines) so that the cells and organs can work properly in community with each other. In our daily lives as humans on this earth, reversal of entropy requires energy and motivation from each one of us so that others around us are infused and encouraged to do the same, so we can function properly as a whole.

We’re committed to reversing this society-level entropy that is threatening our general health and wellbeing. While the 1000 Hours Outside movement started out as an incredible global platform to reclaim childhood and reconnect families, it is a great jumping-off point for reclaiming our health and reconnecting with Nature. Regardless of age or circumstance. Let’s piggy back on Ginny Yurich’s amazing accomplishment and broaden its reach! Thanks for inspiring us, Ginny! I hope to meet you one of these days.

Why Is Getting Back Outside So Important?

Put simply: because Nature heals. In getting back outside we’re giving our bodies the inputs that it craves and needs for proper functioning and full health. Namely: FULL SPECTRUM LIGHT.

We’ve managed to craft for ourselves an indoor existence that has systematically, over the last 100 years or so, eliminated specific light frequencies from our day-to-day (in particular, infrared and ultraviolet frequencies), in exchange for an overabundance of highly-processed blue light ONLY from screens, LED bulbs and triple and quadruple-paned glass windows that block out all other natural light frequencies from the home. This, coupled with our overexposure to massive amounts of radiation in the form of wifi and cell phone microwave emissions, has left us, as a whole, severely lacking in the most essential nutrient of them all: infrared light.

We evolved under all of the light of the sun. We have mechanisms within us that require light to function. Not food. Straight up light. From the sun.

• Our brain clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN, requires blue light signals to know what time it is, and what season it is, in order to tell our very own apothecary, the pituitary gland, when to open for business and make the necessary hormones for us to function. 

• Cortisol, the main stress hormone, is essential for life! We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for it. However, when cortisol keeps getting churned out, day in and day out, we run into all kinds of issues that drain our energy and land us square in the adrenal fatigue or wired-but tired deep hole of despair. The signal to activate cortisol is blue light! Blue light from the sun is always balanced by reds and infrareds and ultraviolets. This blue light input has its own shut off signal when we encounter darkness regularly, at night. Blue light from indoor living (devices, artificial lights, screens) is unbalanced, devoid of the anti-inflammatory effects of infrareds; its only off-switch is us stepping away and turning it off. But, because of its addicting power over us, we can’t step away and turn it off.

• Our steroid hormone system is dependent on light to function! Cholesterol, the starting hormone for cortisol and all the sex hormones, needs ultraviolet or UV light in order to begin its transformation into pregnenolone and the steroid sex hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone.

• Specific amino acids like phenylalanine and tryptophan and histidine require ultraviolet A (UVA) inputs from our environment in order to know when to shapeshift into essential hormones and brain chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, melatonin, histamine, melanin and urocanic acid, adrenaline and thyroid hormone. I’m sure you’ve heard of these. I’m sure you’re aware of their importance for overall health and wellness. 

In proposing we re-embrace the great outdoors, I’m proposing engaging in a massive paradigm shift: 

• mental health issues? Forget the drugs. What’s your light diet?

• thyroid issues? Forget the synthetics and surgical approaches. What’s your light diet?

• weight management issues? Forget the restrictive, one-size-fits-all diets and calorie-counting madness. What’s your light diet?

• gut issues? Forget the nasty cleanses and food-elimination “treatment” approaches. What’s your light diet?

• chronic pain, anyone? Forget the over-the-counter NSAIDS or even the prescription meds. What’s your light diet?

You are welcome to dive deeper into the science of light by checking out some of our previous posts as well as the following resources:

What’s in Your Light Diet?

The CRD Challenge

The Science of Light and all things John Ott

Photobiology with Alexander Wunch, MD

Back to the question in the section title: Why is getting back outside so important? Well, because it is the simplest, cheapest way to reverse the epidemic of chronic disease that is taking over our 21st century existence.  No amount of food diets, organic eating, medicines, therapies, etc. will cure what’s at the root of our ailments: the severe light malnutrition that is so all-encompassing. We simply must correct the light inputs.

How to go about “fixing” this

Well, the solution to our light malnutrition is simple: GET OUTSIDE! Often. Many times throughout the day. This simple solution, however, is not easy for most of us. Why? Well, because of the aforementioned indoor existence we’ve so “cleverly” crafted for ourselves. 

When you get right to it, it’s deeply ingrained in how we do life in this 21st century. Therefore, it requires a massive paradigm shift: trails instead of chairs, sunlight instead of fake light, fresh air instead of stale air, movement instead of the couch or office chair, the woods instead of the classroom or office, etc.

And so, as part of our mission to “provide accessible health and wellness information by fostering community and empowering people to take charge of their own health”, I invite you to join us and the teams here at Horaios Wellness and over at simplifyMD, as we commit to putting our money where our mouth is and lead by example: This coming year, 2025, let’s get outside! Regularly. Daily. Many times throughout the day. Rain, Snow or Shine.

Here’s the Plan:

1. get your checklist to cross off time outside by the hour here. Every minute outside counts! It’s like wearing a fit bit to track your steps. But analog! To track your time outside. Pen and paper trackers are back!

2. pull out your 2025 planner and block off the 10:30am-12pm time block every 2nd Saturday of each month. That’s our Nature Club day. Twelve (12) nature club outings for 2025. One each month. Second Saturday of the month. Join us! A different spot each month. Go here and scroll down a bit for a bird’s eye view of our proposed locations for the next 6 months. New locations will be added asap.

3. IMPORTANT NOTE ON JOINING OUR NATURE CLUB OUTINGS -

   1. If you're local to the Greater Syracuse, NY Area, check out our Upcoming Events calendar for dates and locations, and be sure to RSVP online and to add the dates to your personal calendar. Block off the time. Plan for it and you’ll be more likely to stick to it.

   2. Not local? No problem! Join us wherever you are each month, scout out your own local nature spots and trails, gather your own local community and use our Nature Club schedule as a framework for your monthly outings. We’re all quantum entangled anyway!!!!

This is an open invitation to hit the trails and reconnect with what really matters—wellness, calm, and community. This isn’t just a local movement - it’s a call to ALL OF US to put the screens down and step into the world around us. Whether you gather friends for a hike, stroll through a park with your family, or wander solo, you’re part of this movement. It’s not about where you are but the intention to pause and ground yourself.

OK, That’s it for this week!

To blooming and reconnecting with what really matters! And remember, like my grandma used to say:

Soak up that sunlight!

Amanda