When low-energy or other health challenges keep you from going outside
*Note: This is a “Substack Restack.” This post originally appeared in my Substack newsletter on February 2, 2025. This post also contains an affiliate link. If you visit from my link and decide to make a purchase, I may receive a commission. This is at no extra charge to you as the customer.
As typical for where I live, the weather has been up, down, and all around the town in terms of temperatures since my last post. And while there will certainly be many more bad weather days this winter and beyond where I live, I want to focus today’s list a little differently.
It is not always the weather outside that leads to gray days. Sometimes our health can make going outside difficult if not downright impossible. It is these days that can weigh on us the most. The goal of today’s list is to offer suggestions as someone who faces some of these days herself and recognizes that our ability to face the day may vary from one day to the next. For this reason, I am organizing the suggestions into two categories: no energy days and low energy days.
Two tips for “no energy” days when even getting out of bed is an achievement:
Watch a show, movie or documentary about nature.
Relax wherever you are comfortable and give yourself the day to binge on Netflix or another favorite on-demand service. Marvel at the beauty of nature and the diverse landscapes of the world from the comfort of your home, snuggled in your coziest pair of pajamas.
One show my husband and I enjoyed watching not too long ago was Christian Cooper’s National Geographic show “Extraordinary Birder.” While it looks like you may need to pay a small fee for the 6-episode season or a single episode option, we found Cooper’s series inspiring and enjoyable. A lifelong fan of birds since the age of 10, Cooper clearly loves his avian friends, and his enthusiasm is catching!
I enjoyed Cooper’s voice and the stories of his experiences so much that I also listened to his audiobook shortly after we finished the show. “Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World” focuses more on his own background and story while also exploring how birds and birding played a large part in his self-acceptance as a gay, Black man and taught him about life in general.
Read about your favorite nature-related hobby or a classic text about nature and simple living.
In addition to referencing Cooper’s book, as a former English teacher, I feel like I would be letting myself down if I did not explicitly suggest reading as a great option for a day spent in simple pleasures. Audiobooks count too, of course, and I sometimes find them easiest when I am having a day where chronic pain is particularly bothersome or I just can’t concentrate as well as I might at another time.
Besides the fact that I love many of our classic American authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, recommending them also has the bonus feature that you can find their full texts and usually plentiful audiobook versions of their works easily and for free online.
These texts can be dense, but even reading just a bit of them can leave you with a wealth of strong images and content to think about.
The beginning of Emerson’s “Nature” is quite well-known, and I still love reading it time and time again for its wisdom and imagery.
The start of Thoreau’s “Walden” gets a little bogged down when he begins detailing the number of nails and costs of materials when he built his cabin in the woods, but if you hop around to some of the most famous excerpts — of which there are many — I hope you will find it rewarding and thought-provoking as well.
Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” was revolutionary in its day, and due to its poetic structure, it may perhaps be a little easier for a more leisurely approach of finding pieces that resonate with you.
If after reading a bit of them you find that you’d like to continue reading, I have included a link to each of them on Bookshop.org.
Embrace your creative side.
The ability to enjoy some of our favorite artistic pastimes can vary depending on pain and energy levels. Some may require dragging out materials and consequently feel too big or burdensome on “gray days,” while others may require finger and hand movements that are just not manageable when pain from a chronic condition or injury flares.
If you are able to enjoy your favorite creative outlet, a day stuck inside can be a gift — or maybe even an excuse provided by the universe — to indulge and consequently lift your spirits. You do not need to be a professional or award-winning artist to find deep personal fulfillment in a creative pursuit. Drawing or painting, felting or knitting, woodworking or beading, scrapbooking or journaling, singing or dancing, and many more pursuits than I have named here can all provide a brain boost and trigger the release of feel-good chemicals. These activities and the chemical processes they cause can boost our mood, increase our energy, and even lower our pain levels.
Best of all, even if we do not consider ourselves artists, we can easily enjoy creative pursuits we may often overlook. If you have children, you may even have all the tools you need on hand. But you certainly do not need to have children to enjoy them. I am talking about three childhood favorites: coloring, modeling clay, and construction bricks. You may more readily recognize those last two from their brand names: Play-Doh and Lego.
With the exception of Lego, these materials can be obtained without much expense. A pack of four basic colors of Play-Doh can even be found at grocery stores for less than $3, and dollar stores carry coloring books and crayons as well.
Just sit outside or near an open window.
Yes, I realize this is cheating a good bit when the title focuses on what to do when you can’t go outside, but I hope you’ll hear me out. As I mentioned in the first part of this series, I realized fairly recently that I don’t just like going outside: I NEED to go outside. I need the fresh air, the sound of birds (even if I hear the busy street as well), and if it is out, that warm sunshine on my skin most of all.
I enjoy walking, but I need time outdoors. If I can’t have both, I have often been inclined to skip it altogether.
And I’ve finally realized that’s short-sighted.
I have been pushing myself — yes, probably sometimes too much — to get out and walk whenever I’m able. Even if it is slow, and I don’t go far, and I can’t take my camera because my hands and my wrists just can’t bear the weight and my fingers hurt to even push the buttons, I try to go.
My young dog helps with this a lot, and admittedly he is a big motivator because he *does* need the walk. But some days I just can’t. And lately, on those days, I’ve just lingered in the backyard after feeding the birds and letting the dog out. He gets to run around a bit, and I get the air I need. I am lucky to have not only a backyard, but also a set of old wooden deck steps where I sometimes plop for just a few minutes to listen to the birds, feel the breeze, and breathe in the air.
I encourage anyone who is able to go outside, even just for a minute or two. If that is too hard, I hope you will try just opening the curtains and the window if you are able. Stand there or sit nearby for a few minutes. It’s superior to doing nothing, and you may even be surprised at the difference it makes.
Perhaps it will be just enough to get you through those gray days and raise your spirits as you anticipate brighter days ahead.
