Five Ways to Bring the Outdoors Inside This Winter
We love the outdoors. It’s in our name. But we also live in Canada, which means for a good chunk of the year, the "outdoors" gives us frostbite.
When the days get short and the temperatures drop, it’s easy to feel disconnected from nature. We spend our days in boxes—houses, cars, offices—under artificial lights. This disconnection can leave us feeling heavy, lethargic, and a little bit "off."
If you can’t get to the forest, you have to bring the forest to you. Here are five simple ways to keep your inner Outsider alive while staying warm:
1. Green Up Your Space It’s the oldest trick in the book because it works. Houseplants aren't just decor; they are living, breathing companions. Watching a new leaf unfurl on a pothos plant in January is a tiny reminder that growth is still happening, even in the dead of winter.
2. Follow the Light We are solar-powered creatures. Move your desk near a window if you can. If it’s gloomy, light a beeswax candle. The warm, living flicker of a flame feels much more natural to our primal brains than the blue light of a screen.
3. Change the Soundtrack Silence can be deafening, but TV chatter is distracting. Try a nature soundscape. The sound of rain on a roof, a crackling fire, or wind through pine trees can subconsciously lower your heart rate and make your living room feel a lot bigger.
4. Scents of the Wild Ditch the "Fresh Linen" sprays and go for the real stuff. Essential oils like cedarwood, pine, spruce, or eucalyptus trigger the olfactory system and transport you straight to the trail. It’s forest bathing without the frostbite.
5. Taste the Earth This is our favorite method (obviously). When you drink an herbal tea, you are literally internalizing nature. You are tasting the roots, the leaves, the flowers, and the mushrooms that grew in the wild.
Brewing a cup of Calming Tea with tulsi and spices is a sensory connection to the earth that warms you from the inside out.
Stay warm, stay wild, and keep the kettle on.