The Benefits of Being an Outdoors Woman

The benefits of outdoors adventures are exponential, to say the least. As you explore and grow into your endeavors the more advantages you will discover.

Many of you already know about some of these health benefits…

Fresh air and natural plant life provide a calming and relaxing effect on the human psyche. The environment has been shown to improve energy levels, reduce strain on the eyes, boost vitamin levels (especially Vitamin D), and mitigate the risks of SAD (Seasonal Affect Disorder). Many people feel it is easier to exercise when they are outdoors. There are even more people who get their exercise in without even realizing they are exercising.

For more resources if you’re interested in the health benefits of the outdoors
Mental Floss
Time

The outdoors will bring you ample opportunities for Personal Growth

Women, today, are concerned about their personal safety and their ability to complete tasks on their own. Especially through social media, I come across countless discussions between women concerned that they can’t go fishing, hunting, or boating without their husbands or boyfriends taking them. I often hear about how a woman feels she will have to give up hunting because her boyfriend left her and she’s not sure she’ll ever find another boyfriend willing to take her with him. The fear of that first step often causes women to stop their outdoors quest altogether. I am here to say, and show you, that you do not have to have a man lead you into the outdoors.

The truth, though, is that this doesn’t have to be so oppressive.

Yes, you should always ensure your safety. Granted, not all activities are safe to do alone. This, however, goes for women and men. If you are camping in the Alaskan backcountry for a week hunting a trophy caribou it wouldn’t be safe for anyone to be out there alone.

Do some people do it? Yes. Is it safe? No.

But this is not what I am referring to. What I am talking about is the woman who has friends, online contacts, or family members that are also interested in learning about outdoors adventures. Learning the skills that the ex had, putting those skills to use, and teaching them to another newbie can give you a sense of accomplishment and confidence that only comes from taking that difficult and scary step. There’s an old saying that explains the three steps to learning a skill. See it done, to get an idea. Do it to develop the technique. Then teach it to ensure you have engrained that skill set.

Say you are in love with crappie fishing.

You don’t need a boyfriend to take you out to the center of a lake to fish his secret brush piles. As a woman of the outdoors you can study fishing reports. You can watch YouTube videos. Reading technique and fishing style articles and books can help tremendously. Once you’ve got a few resources under your belt, go out to the local creek and fish for crappie yourself. Knowing the basics of safe and legal fishing then experimenting with options and styles for yourself can teach you to think outside the box, develop your skills of thinking on your feet, and (when you catch that first crappie you found all on your own) a sense of accomplishment no leader can possibly instill in you.

If you’re interested in getting into fishing or you have suddenly found yourself on your own to learn, check out “The Three Rules for Becoming a Successful Angler” to find your starting point and build a solid foundation for your fishing adventures.

Or, maybe you discovered the excitement of whitetail hunting

While there are several women who do hunt alone, just like there are men who hunt alone, I would never advocate for such activities. After years of emergency medicine and hunting, I have seen more gun-related accidents than what can allow me to promote true solitary hunting activities. That being said, the definition of hunting alone is much more complex than you may be thinking.

You do not have to be sitting in a tree stand with another hunter to have that safety net of help should something go wrong. Alternatively, you do not have to have a husband or boyfriend in the tree stand 50 yards off to be able to hunt.

Only you can define how much and how close others need to be for you to not feel you’re “going it alone” or to achieve that solitary feel you will need to develop your independence. For the women who are in need of a mentor, an adventure companion, or resources for the rules and regulations you will need to know; the information is readily available.

There are literally hundreds of social media groups that focus on the women who are pursuing outdoors adventures. Many of these even refine the membership to local areas that can provide you with a hunting or fishing companion should you need and/or want.

You can get your feet wet in the social media world by joining The Outdoors Quest Group on Facebook or MeWe to get to know other women like you learning the ropes.

There are reference and educational sites abundant throughout the world wide web that can lead you to the answers to even some of the most off-the-wall questions.

There are even all-female guide services for hunting and fishing should you need or want to learn from a woman who was possibly in your shoes or similar shoes not so long ago. Check out these sites to get an idea as to the amount of resources out there for you.

The quest for the outdoors provides skills for the Homesteader/Prepper in you…

There are aspects of the outdoors quest that even I had never considered until recently. The 2021 year, here in Texas, started off with a bit of a “catastrophe” that most of the world seems to have watched unfold. Despite ample warning and predictions, we were hit with a rather harsh winter storm.

Now, being Texas, we’re not immune to disasters. We’ve had our share of hurricanes and tornados over the years. Other environmental dangers have reared their ugly heads from time to time, but this was a problem of a different sort. Having lived on the west coast for a large portion of our lives, AJ and I were familiar with the idea of having emergency supplies on hand. Flashlights, a first aid kit, a travel pack in case the area has to be evacuated (earthquakes and fires are rather heavily evacuation prone), and other odds and ends have always been common for each of us to keep on hand.

The difference for us was the advantage of now being outdoors focused

Spending so much of our time outdoors, we are prone to having different items on hand. Being as independent and self-sufficient as we can, we had a few very special resources available to us. Your outdoors adventures require activity specific supplies, but who’s to say those supplies have to be used as intended?

When we lost power for several days during the coldest part of the storm we discovered a few missteps. One of the big glitches we discovered was that the cost of a generator probably should not have been a determining factor in our planning. Our skills that we have developed through our outdoors quests, however, lead us to make some rather unorthodox discoveries. We realized that our trolling motor batteries could be used as a backup energy source even in the house. Electrical wiring and switches that I have used for our Jon boat build became re-sourced for converting that energy to a useable supply inside the house.

To conserve the use of our AA batteries, we decided to use a fishing light we thought might work for the room we were sheltering in. To our surprise, we discovered a heat source by using that light. Now, granted, this experimenting required a bit of ingenuity and a great deal of focus on safety. If it weren’t for our knack to think on our feet and to adapt to our environment we never would have found the resources we needed to get through the power-outage we endured. These were skills we learned through massive trial and error style adventures outdoors.

Why do I discuss the things we did during that dangerous and miserable week?

We want to give you an idea, a foundation from which you can build on. You are not always going to be prepared for the events you encounter. And you’re definitely not always going to have the resources you need to get through a crisis. Learning from the outdoors and developing your skills for being outdoors will give you the resources you need to adapt and overcome these obstacles…Even if that skill is to ask for help when you are out of your depth.

We’ve talked about this need to adapt and find solutions to unforeseen problems quite a bit on this site. Check out “The Golden Rule of Fishing” and “Disabled not Unable” to get an even broader grasp on the skills you can develop through becoming more fluid with your outdoors skills and thinking. The more flexible you can be in the quest to find your place in the outdoors the more successful you’ll be in all your adventures (outdoors or otherwise)!