Art of Manliness - Latest Comments in 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Admirer — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 12:52:18 -0000

Brilliant article AoM. Can someone tell me where this John Muir writing is from?

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Austin — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:28:59 -0000

@ Frank
I am not sure if I really understand what the purpose of your comment was. The meaning of unreasonable authority is that it exceeds a reasonable level of power. How is it in any way manly to ignore that and choke down your urge to stop that. If the authority is truly unreasonable, I think it is a man's duty to put a stop to it.
If I have completely missed the point of your comment, please respond.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Sheri — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:32:20 -0000

I take my grandpa who has dementia, my son, and my sister out to feed the ducks at a nature park. We love the energy of the park and it makes us feel alive, rejuvenated, and all those positive feelings. Get out there in nature! It is natural medicine for your health and well being!

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Alex — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 01:49:38 -0000

It isn't even outdoors really. Some of the best time I spent in my life was at the real big quad races, like Loretta Lynn's, or Ironman. We'd all pile into Jason's crewcab pickup, setup a campsite, party all night, and hike through the woods watching quads in the daytime. It was muddy, the races were hard, and it was fun as all hell.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Terry — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:03:00 -0000

As a therapist, and a veteran, I can tell that finding positive activities to engage yourself in is crucial in keeping depression at bay. I remember when I got into counseling asking my grandfather if he noticed people having depression when he grew up. He said that they were too busy putting food on the table and wood in the stove to be depressed. He said they worked six days a week and often a half day on Sunday's. He also told me that everyone was poor so you never knew you were poor or wished that had what your neighbor had. Sadly it seems that a society with more leisure seems to generate more depression as that leisure time is spent on unfulfilling things. Men, find something worth doing and do it!

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

J. James — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:41:12 -0000

At least once a week I take a long trip to the woods. My family's home where I grew up backed up against a park and I spent just about every waking moment outside while I was growing up. I think it's definitely stuck with me into my mid/late 20's. Whenever I want to take a break, I head to a local park which happens to encompass a couple hundred acres of paths for jogging, hiking or whatever. I always come back refreshed and ready to take on the world again.

I also highly recommend mountain biking, which is different than dirtbiking, yes.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Ilya — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:28:36 -0000

What a perfectly timed article! It finally stopped raining and being miserable outside in NJ and i am just itching to get outside. Sadly for most of today i am stuck inside working on a term paper, but at least the windows let me see outside.
I'll definitely be eating lunch outside today.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Ib — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:10:42 -0000

So true. When I need to get back to my manliness, I like to take a camping trip.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

mydiabetesnotes — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:03:23 -0000

thank you for sharing useful information, good advice

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Paddy — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:11:47 -0000

You guys rock my world! Keep up the awesome work, I love being a subscriber to the Manliest webzine out there.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Dale Muscle — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:59:40 -0000

Ummm...I can almost smell the fresh air coming out of this web page.

What better way to chill out than to get outside away from the TV and PC and just wonder at the beauty of nature.

Like a famous poet once said...

What is life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare.

Message to me. Get off the PC more.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Frank — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:11:31 -0000

Go into the wilderness, but not because it is an escape from pressure and drudgery, but because it will take you away from too much civilization – from becoming too thinking, too feeling, too tolerant of weakness, too much against the need to do as life demands.

That a-hole in the next cubicle is not to be ignored; choking back the urge to contest unreasonable authority is what makes a man. It is the one who stands up to such treatment who ultimately becomes sissified; he is paving the way to a world where nothing ever gets done.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

iamsofaking — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:42:24 -0000

@linuxpunk
Be careful not to focus too much on 'this is my kind of thing and that is not', as you may risk turning into a caricature of yourself and missing out on a lot of opportunities to grow as a person. You really should try to get over yourself now and then and try something a little outside of your comfort zone. Some things you will regret, but overall you will come out ahead; I promise.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Gary Slaughter — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:42:35 -0000

I love my creature comforts, but in the past few years I've been teaching myself to do without them when possible. One great fear I have is being stranded in wilderness (plane goes down, cruise ship sinks, weather washes out the road) and not having gadgets to help me. It's another reason I carry a pocket knife (see other column).

I think as a whole our American culture has gotten soft and flabby. I went on a weekend backpacking trip some years ago and hated it, but later I realized I'd grown too dependent on technology and the notion of just coasting through life without challenging myself. Now that I'm a bit wiser about it I think I'd enjoy it more. Maybe I'll see if I can hook up with the guys I went with before.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Timothy Siew — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:37:30 -0000

Another good thing about the outdoors: man can pass on their skills to their children as they bring them along, or just experience something together.

There can be outdoor nerds as well. The guy who looks into every detail concerning plant life. Knowing every type of wildlife in the area, and knowing how to evade dangerous ones. How to capture certain kinds of prey. How to set up a campsite properly and safely in the best possible location at the best altitude and wind conditions. Knowing which is the best camping gear to use etc.

All these are useful skills, just that with modern luxuries all good skills are either put to waste or used too much in a gadget-like purpose. I'm sure MacGyver can survive both a technical problem and a nature problem.

I seem to be going off a tangent. Just one last thought. If all the technology in the world fails due to war or some J2K-esque epidemic, knowing his way around nature keeps a man alive.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

cory huff — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:10:48 -0000

I just discovered your blog via Alltop.com. As someone who also writes about manliness - albeit from the perspective of how to be a better husband - I am really excited about your blog.

I'm also surprised at the reactions of those who are reading. I like the outdoors. I don't spend much time there, but I always find it refreshing, even though I am also one of the indoor types (I spend a great deal of time inside dark theatres since I'm an actor).

Great work Brett. Looking forward to reading more.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Aidan — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:49:54 -0000

@Elizabeth: good point, and I agree that off highway recreation vehicles get a very bad rap due to many people who abuse their vehicles and the surroundings that they ride them in. However, as a dirt biker I want to take a stab at representing the better side of the OHV community. There are many riders who are active environmentalists and seek to preserve and protect the lands they ride on. These are the people who gladly pay their yearly sticker fees to have the privilege of riding in state parks, and carefully tune their bikes and ATVs to fall below the specified decibel range. Then there are the people you commonly see, making noise, tearing up roads that aren't designated riding areas, littering and acting like hicks. This is not to say that you are wrong because you are not - I am just trying to let the world know that there are some good riders still out there. Done right, an afternoon taken with the guys to rev up our motorcycles, rip up hills that are too steep, take a sharp turn without any idea what lies ahead, and invariably kiss dirt is incredible. It sort of turns down the volume on the rest of our lives so that our problems seem manageable again.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

crowmagnumman — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:26:09 -0000

Maybe it's just that most of my experiences in nature have been negative. I think you are definitely headed in the right direction with the article, though. Man is barricading himself from nature too much. But we can't ignore the dark side of nature. The houses we have built to protect us are a good thing. But staying in those houses all the time is, of course, a bad idea.

I just have a very cynical view of nature I guess. I go into nature hoping it will give me a clean perspective, but nearly freezing to death in the wilderness seems to only exacerbate any problems I'm facing in life.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Brett McKay — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:17:42 -0000

@Kells-

You put the problem at hand very eloquently. Those are my thoughts exactly. Kids today are way overscheduled and are missing out on some of the best life has to offer. I wish you luck with keeping your camp alive; it sounds fantastic and boys need programs like yours.

@Crow-

Yes obviously nature is harsh-tornadoes, floods, bears, and the like are part of nature too. But I'm not talking about nature in general, simply about outdoor recreation-camping and hiking in nature. All the the things I have listed here are things I have actually experienced. Whenever I spend time in nature I feel rejuvenated, peaceful, inspired, and invigorated. If it sends romantic, that's because it is.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

crowmagnumman — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:59:37 -0000

Getting outdoors is important, but you guys have an overly rosy view of nature. It's not going to make all your problems go away. In fact, sometimes being in nature just makes your problems worse. The wilderness is as beautiful as it is dangerous. I believe that man has cut himself off from the wild too much, but we can't expect to solve our problems and commune with nature whenever we go hiking. You guys are romanticizing something that is inherently harsh and unforgiving. Mankind has gone way too far in separating ourselves from the real world and has destroyed far too much of it. But nature is not as glorious and wonderful as you're making it out to be. There is beauty in nature, and it is healthy to get fresh air and be in nature, but I just can't stand this over-romanticizing of nature.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Kells Hogan — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:27:31 -0000

I started DEEP WOODS CAMP FOR BOYS in 1970. Back in those dark ages before electronic gadgets captured the hearts and minds of the young, it was easy to attract young boys to a summer of hiking and backpacking, whitewater canoeing and rafting, mountain biking and rock climbing. This program continues today, heading for our 39th summer, but we are in no danger of losing our claim to being the smallest camp in the known universe. All camps across the country are experiencing declining enrollment - all, that is, except the "fat camps". Young people are drawn now to the indoors, to gadgets that plug in or devour batteries. Lessons learned in the outdoors are no longer part of growing up. These have been replaced, by and large, by what has become known as "the professionalization of childhood". A child's early years are now spent learning how to be a successful (read: wealthy) adult. No time for the outdoors. What free time that might be squeezed into a tightly scheduled day is spent with the iPod in the ear, the cell phone in the other ear, the keyboard at hand, the video game in progress, and the monitor as the only window into the real world. In fact there is very little interest in developing or restoring "manly vigor." We in the outdoors are hoping there might be a return to sanity. But we are not holding our collective breath.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

linuxpunk81 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:51:41 -0000

I enjoyed reading your article but I disagree with just about all of it. Of course this is just because of my personal preferences. Most men like the outdoors getting dirty fishing making things etc which is cool for some but would bore me to tears. I'd rather be inside in the A/C with various computer parts laying around, my laptop on some random tech site and my other computer compiling code all while a battlestar galatica marathon is running in the background on my 50in tv. I'm the part of the other set of men, the nerds, the geeks, the pale. We find the outdoos confusing wide open and buggy. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be "a man's man" but the world needs nerds to keep the word running while you're out shooting bambi.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Eric — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:56:11 -0000

When I think of getting out of doors and relaxing, recharging and renewing myself I don't think of the Bill Bryson-type great outdoor experience. If I remember "A Walk In The Woods" correctly he ended up driving most of the AT.
Anyway, thanks for a great article that reminds me that now that it's spring I need to get my ass outside again...

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

iamsofaking — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:41:56 -0000

I recently got into dirtbiking and it is a great way to get yourself out in nature. I am not so much 'roughing it' most of the time, but it feels good to get some dirt on me and sleep someplace where I can see the stars. I've gotten to see a lot of bits of forest and desert that I otherwise wouldn't and I have had to think and to grunt my way out of some pretty sketchy breakdown situations.
It probably isn't the Bill Bryson-type great outdoors that you had in mind, but I highly recommend it.

Re: 4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Brett — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:19:54 -0000

@ bestbillabong um, this is a site focused on men, so we write about how it can help men...