"...'people underestimate the happiness effect' of being outdoors."

Need a New Year’s resolution? How about spending more time outside than in a car.

by Ari Phillips

“If you can have the experience of being in the moment for two or three days, it seems to produce a difference in qualitative thinking,” he said.

In the same article, Lisa Nisbet, a psychology professor at Canada’s Trent University, said that “people underestimate the happiness effect” of being outdoors.

“We don’t think of it as a way to increase happiness,” she said. “We think other things will, like shopping or TV. We evolved in nature. It’s strange we’d be so disconnected.”