Dare to Explore!

Say yes to outdoor adventure and getting gutsy. Seeking nature improves your mental and physical health; throw in some adventure and you’ll soar to new heights of wellbeing.

But adventure doesn’t have to mean high-adrenaline skydiving or bungee jumping – “turns out, birdwatching or walking in a park offers all the benefits of adventure,” says author and thrill-seeker Caroline Paul.

Adventure is in the eye of the beholder: For Caroline, 60, it’s surfing and piloting experimental gyrocopters – see her fly on her Instagram. For the women she writes about in her new book Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking – How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age, adventuring is everything from flying, swimming and birdwatching to biking, walking, scuba diving, boogie boarding and more.

Caroline tells stories about “super fun, kind of badass women” who are playing outdoors well into their 80s and beyond. There’s 54-year-old base jumper Shawn Brokemond, 74-year-old BMX racer Miss Kittle, 71-year-old wing walker Cynthia Hicks, and 80-year-old scuba diver Louise Wholey.

They’re living proof that embracing outdoor challenges boosts our well-being especially as we age. Caroline’s research and experiences show that it radically improves our lives by profoundly affecting a person’s spirit, body, brain, and heart and makes us happier and more resilient. Midlife is actually a really powerful time, and perfect for exploration and exhilaration, believes Caroline.

“I once had a very high-octane definition of adventure – I regularly paraglided off cliffs, rafted down unexplored rivers and bike-packed through foreign countries. But through the writing of Tough Broad, I realized that adventure doesn’t have to feature high risk and intense fear!” If you are feeling excitement, exploration and physical vitality, maybe pushing your comfort zones, sometimes experiencing awe, and often learning something new, you’re on an adventure.

And outdoor fun doesn’t have to cost a lot: A pair of sneakers allows you to train for a 5km or amble on a day hike. Maybe downhill skiing is still expensive, but snowshoeing is not. Sailing a boat costs, but a used sea kayak or stand-up paddle board is a one-time expense, and then all the lakes are open to you for free.

Caroline adventured with many of the marvellous females in her book: “I was blown away by everyone. I scuba-dived with Louise Wholey, 80… I boogie boarded on waves with a group of 60-, 70-, and 80-year-olds who call themselves the Wave Catchers.” She was vitalized, not just by the bracing Pacific Ocean, but by the way these women joyfully engaged in play, which is so rare past childhood and not part of the aging narrative. She went birdwatching with Virginia Rose, founder of Birdability, and marvelled at the way she gets outside despite the limitations her wheelchair may impose.

She was “gobsmacked” by the outsized joy and vitality of everyone she met and interviewed, many of whom had no outdoor experience before finding the adventure in later life that changed them so profoundly, and which they now love and shared with her.

Caroline is on a mission to inspire women to adventure, not shrink from it. Society tells aging women to retreat and wither away, but the secret to a good life is to venture out in nature, set goals and try something new.

The crucial elements for a fulfilling life journey are all there: Community, health, novelty/challenge, purpose and a strong positive mindset. “An outdoor activity offers this to all of us in one fell swoop, in ways that, say, joining a book club or going to the gym do not.”

Research shows that adventurous people have stronger feelings of satisfaction about how they’re living their lives – they have a sense of flourishing. And their bodies flourish too: A brand new Cornell study reports that positive, mindful nature experiences have profound biological benefits, including reducing inflammation levels.

So tap into your inner thrill-seeker. “It’s worth pointing out that outdoor activities are often cheaper than pharmaceuticals, are better for you, more effective, and have less side effects.”